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.

Anyone wanting a traditional English / British ( not sure actually) restaurant should try Rules in Covent Garden. The oldest restaurant in London and with all manner of notable figures having eaten there like Charles Dickens and Nell Gwynn. I thing a lot of the meat is sourced on their estate in Scotland. If you order the Stilton a whole cheese is weeled in on a trolley and you dig in.

Food is as good as the person cooking it.

Same! I couldn't face either cooking or eating a roast in this weather, but on a cold rainy wintery day there is nothing better

I'm from the North West, and the people that actually cook (not survive on oven chips/ready meals), I think, don't have a sense of ' British' food?
E.g. pasta is 'clearly' italian. But like this
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/241398/honey-balsamic-chicken/

What is it?

Could be British, but also not what we think of as 'traditional British food'.

Brilliant, will give it a go!

Most authentic Italians don't serve spag bol. Even a local to me Italian takeaway don't have it on the menu.

Proper lasagne is a great deal of work. I made it for friends on Saturday: started the ragu in the morning, made bechamel just before they arrived and DS made and rolled fresh pasta... five minutes to assemble, and 45 minutes in the oven. Traditionally, says my mum, it was made for Sunday lunch in Italy because it used to have to go to the bakery as few home kitchens had ovens.

😮 sounds amazing

Yawn - I'd like to call out those trotting out the corny old stuff about British food being rubbish. Please tell us which particular dishes you are referring to. It's such a lazy, predictable (and often ignorant) remark.

I hadn't thought about this point, OP, but anecdotally I think you might be on to something. I think the UK is an open-minded culture which has embraced all kinds of cuisines and also generated fusion-type dishes due to the influence of other cultures and the legacy of empire (eg kedgeree which is a version of a dish from India). I'm not well-informed enough these days but can you get such a range of choices in say, Paris or Madrid, or in provincial European cities?

I feel like I’ve been possessed by Greg Davies here, but pie is not an ingredient. You could put literally anything - as spicy and flavourful as you like - into a pie, and it would still be a pie.

fair enough, you don’t like pie, but let’s be accurate - a pie can be spicy if it wants to be

I have German friends who eat from just about everywhere, and found it amusing when I expected them to eat the kind of food we associate with germanic countries.

I think the reason many of us don't cook traditional british dishes is that they're quite hard to get right. You can't just follow a recipe, but need some basic skills.

You do realise how much 'traditional' European food has been influenced by their own legacies of empire and influence of foreign cultures? These are unique to British food.

American also…I’ve never figured out what American food is besides hotdish/casserole, ranch dressing, corn dogs/pronto pups, club sandwiches, maybe?

Everything else I see commonly all over the world.

aren't

Beef casserole involves peeling and chopping veg, then simmering for hours.
Mash involves peeling (not necessarily I know) and an icky masher and saucepan to clean.
Boiled potatoes? Does anyone eat those? With the exception of Jersey Royals they are school dinner fodder IMO.

I like things that have some spice and can be made with one pan in 20 mins.

It's the effort preparing 7 dinners a week - thinking of the ingredients, shopping, cooking, washing up and the occasional turned up nose at my offerings. This is what has killed cooking for me. So I cook easy. Pasta and sauce, pizza as a treat etc.

I grew up with tasty British food so I know it's out there.

If you want good British food, I think you need to look at the regions. Proper Cornish pasties, cream teas, Cullen skink etc. And always have mustard and horseradish on hand that's strong enough to knock you out.

I think you're right. I teach international students and they all love their cuisine above all others. They do eat other food, especially now they are in the UK, but they are always surprised when I tell them that British people don't eat British food every day. They are also horrified at the quantity of prepared and processed food at supermarkets.

These are students from China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, the Ukraine, Turkey , to name the nationalities I've most frequently taught.

@Divebar2021 yes Rules in Covent Garden is fantastic. I’ve not been there in years. You’ve reminded me to go again. Thanks

I love British food but it's often a bit heavy in the summer and I like to mix it up as much as possible and cook all different cuisines. My partner is Italian and would literally live off pasta and pizza if I didn't cook for him - he had never even heard of fajitas until I made them for us 😂. He likes trying new things, he would just never think to cook them and Italians definitely stick to Italian recipes when they are cooking at home.

Beef Wellington
Steak and ale pie
Fish and chips
Scones
Trifle
Shepherd's pie
Welsh cakes
Full English
Crumpets
Summer pudding
Branston pickle
Oat cakes
Treacle pudding

All British foods my fellow Seeded go nuts for.

As @DogInATent says, I'm not sure why people think British cuisine is unique in assimilating foreign foods throughout history.

Tomatoes and potatoes, for example, are not indigenous to Europe. They are from South America and only came over in the last couple centuries thanks to imperialism. So any European cuisine that relies heavily on potatoes and/or tomatoes (which is most of them?) can claim to be 'international' in that respect.

• my fellow Swedes, sodding autocorrect.

Predictable.

What's wrong with British food?

😂 Wholeheartedly agree
Not wishing to offend British cuisine, there are only a handful of 'truly British' meals that I like (and aren't boring).

So where can I find non-ignorant British people?
It's not even me being ignorant as a foreigner, I want to cook my husband the food of his people. Sadly, he seems to have no idea what it is, and neither do the rest of his family!

I wonder whether people 'cooking' is also a thing though. So many just do frozen food/ready meals etc....