Dinners - are Brits only ones that make international food for dinner

[o9yhke89]

Was chatting with an Italian and Spanish friend about kids dinners - and mostly they just make whatever they grew up with i.e. Italian and Spanish food and really treasure their family recipes. Most of my English friends always try to have food from different cultures and this is seen as much more sophisticated and worldly. I've lived all over but was wondering whether the Brits just don't value their own cuisine especially when it comes to family meals.

I'd rather decode my shorthand so you can follow the recipe accurately and enjoy. Otherwise you might think I was misleading you. Watch this space!

Yes, I'm vegetarian, but otherwise I eat these things a lot.

Summer pudding I look forward to making each summer. At the moment, strawberries and cream, with scones and jam too. I just made a flan and a potato salad.

I make Welsh rarebit, panhaggety and vegetarian sausage and mash with Yorkshire puddings in winter. Parkin in late autumn.

A lot of fruit crumbles.

Vegetable soups.

And homity pie. Cauliflower cheese. Buttered marrow. Leek and potato gratin.

Yes, though surely that takes hours to prepare?! Sounds amazing though!

@Emptycrackedcup I would disagree that 'everyone' is convinced British food is bad, or even limited in ambition. We have an emerging food culture that is growing fast (subject to economic vagaries of course) and thousands of self-taught chefs who are bringing new ideas while they learn the classic technical skills. It really doesn't matter whether a chef is cooking (superb) pad thai in a pannier marklet in Plymouth for the local fishmonger or classic sushi in the University area of Plymouth... they both have queues to eat.

Actually fish and chips is great, I will say that. That's probably it though (and isn't that Scottish?). Sorry British food is crap, just own it.

Yes, but that's what I meant by fine dining which I agree is amazing but not something people make at home. Generally most stuff the neighbours cook for dinner really isn't that great, hence why other cuisines have been embraced (including importing spices hundreds of years ago!!)

@ecdysiast2 @AscensionToCheese As promised...

FIL's Iman Bayeldi

Ingredients:
Large aubergine
3 large onions
2 or 3 green peppers
2 or 3 garlic cloves
half-cup of sultanas
half-cup of pine nuts or salted almonds
quarter cup rice
2Tbsp decent olive oil (not your fanciest salad oil)
Lots of chopped mint and parsley (literally, a couple of handfuls)
Tomatoes, cut into horizontal slices/across the flesh.
Thinly sliced lemon
one-third cup of hot water/veg stock
Salt and pepper to taste (add to rice mix is easiest)

Slice the aubergine to 1cm thickness and cover with salted water while you do the chopping. About 30 minutes.

Chop/dice the onions, pepper, garlic, nuts and herbs. Add the sultanas and the rice to this and mix it thoroughly and stir in the oil.

Take a 4 pint/2.5 litre ovenproof casserole with a lid. (I use a hefty old Spanish earthenware dish or a flat light enamel one).

Drain and pat dry the aubergine slices and cover the base, then a thin layer of your rice mixture, continue layering the ingredients. You might get one or two layers depending on the width of your pan. Then a covering layer of tomato slices, finally a covering garnish of lemon slices. Pour the hot stock/water over the dish evenly, cover and put in the oven at 140C/gas 1-2 for about two hours. Cool/chill before serving; best stood for 24 hours so the rice absorbs the flavours fully. More chopped mint/parsley to finish and dress.

Serves 6 as a salad or side, but it's my summer standby in case there's a vegan. It's pretty substantial.

If you make it, I hope you enjoy it.

Actually fish and chips is great, I will say that. That's probably it though (and isn't that Scottish?). Sorry British food is crap, just own it.

Popular is Scotland but no not created in Scotland.

Bettered Fish - Jewish Spanish and Portuguese immigrants via Netherlands as early as 16th century.

Fried potatoes - well potatoes are new world export anyway but fried potatoes possible Belgium origin.

Fish and chips as a combination - harder to say but first shop was likely London and another Jewish immigrant.

Fish and chop shops were found all over Victorian Britain.
https://docksidehhi.com/the-history-of-fish-and-chips/

Ultimately earlier example of Chicken Tikka Masala and Balti created in some part of UK but heavily drawing on other cultures cooking and ingredients.

@EffortlessDesmond that recipe sounds gorgeous!

A Spanish friend wanted to know about a meal that his son had whilst on holiday here, which he loved.
He described it as a big lump of meat served with a thick brown sauce, and vegetables. It was of course Sunday dinner!
So our traditional food isn't that bad that foreigners hate it!

as if Australian or New Zealand food is any better 😂

Oh totally agree, its not! Although obvious why! 🤣 (The good thing is there's loads of ethnic varieties to choose from, rather than boiled potatoes! Thank God for the Silk Road aye!)

Lol. That is fair! Was thinking most of their famous dishes are variations on British stuff.

I’m personally quite grateful to live in an international world these days. amazing (and terrible) food examples exist all over the world, but at least most people can access it all these days (I’ll admit I do find the premise of this thread quite peculiar - plenty of countries eat mostly international these days!)

No, because contrary to your individual conclusion you’re objectively not right. You’re just indulging in some lazy stereotyping.

Foods that are popular in any particular county by default can’t be ‘crap’ otherwise they wouldn’t be popular. You and other individuals might not like it but that’s not the same thing.

I don’t like Surströmming but it’s just rude and lazy to try and paint all Swedish food as universally revolting when theres obviously a sizeable proportion of the county that think it’s great.

Thank you so much!
I assume aubergine doesn't freeze so well due to water content, I'm going to wait to make it as I have a family BBQ coming up soon and I'm going to make it for that 😋

I've never tried to freeze it, but my gut says it wouldn't freeze well. It's definitely a make ahead recipe though. Much better eaten after 24 hours.

I freeze aubergine but it has to drain salted and be cooked to about 3/4

I salt mine dry inn strainer then rinse and pat dry.

I love Indian food and spicy.

I didn’t realise by making Chinese or Indian food that I was ‘showing off’.

I remember growing up with an English breakfast but because my mother was born in Jamaica we always had fried plantains and seasoned baked beans.

I think your French and Italian friends come from countries with strong food heritages and who can be quite insular about other food insular. On a recent trip to Paris, the best food I ate wasn’t French it was Vietnamese.

I live in the Netherlands but in general I’m not a fan of Dutch food because It isn’t my preference.

Erm not my individual conclusion ... I have never heard anyone rave about British food, ever, in fact quite the opposite. I'm not talking about an individual dish, but the 'cuisine' as a whole. Your example is weird, it's like using balut as an example or 100 year old eggs. Also I don't think you judge how tasty food is by its own countries opinion, that's like marking your own exam 😬

@Emptycrackedcup of course you judge a countries cuisine by what’s popular amongst the population how else do you identify what qualifies as national cuisine?

your right, my example is like using balut or 100 year old egg. A countries ‘worst’ dish is still indicative of the national palate, you can not like an individual dish/es but acknowledge that just because it’s not for you doesn’t mean they have ‘nothing nice’ and are all shit cooks.

Sweeping statements like ‘all British food is shit and the whole world agrees’ is just laziness tinged with argumentative xenophobia repeating opinions that arose largely from Americans following WW2 whilst Britain was still in the midst of food shortages and rationing. in the spirit of your own advice - just own it.

Traditional British food doesn’t really have much difference from other Northern European countries. The main difference over a lot of mainland Europe is the variety of foods that Britain has embraced. You might not want toad in the hole with onion gravy, fine then you can easily access British Chinese (nothing like actual Chinese food) or Greek or Indian. You don’t like tomato’s from Tesco? Not a problem, go to a local farmers market and see what’s in season. You just don’t find toad in the hole spicy enough even if offered some English mustard, feel free to add any of the spices easily available. Access to all of that is not as easily available in mainland Europe mostly due to lack of demand amongst the population.

The required criteria for what counts as ‘British’ food is often heavily caveated and discounts other nations influences despite our population being diverse for generations and a lot of dishes becoming very anglicised and miles away from their original incarnation. That attitude is often rooted in not much more than meanness and tribalism.

I don't like most traditional British food. I hate meat!! So international influenced vegetarian food is my go to