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.

My Pakistani sister-in-law makes a wonderful 'English Dinner' of roast chicken, spuds, veg and gravy.

Well, I made ginger biscuits last night, that had ginger, nutmeg and mixed spice (containing mace, coriander, cloves, allspice and cinnamon).

I also cooked a piece of ham with cloves in.

Spice doesn't have to mean hot.

I once heard someone state that you are lucky in life if you have a Scottish granny. Well, I was "lucky" twice, and their baking was exceptional. I do not know if this is true, but I heard that the reason Scottish baking is so good is the heavy French influence in the sixteenth century (not just French queens, but all the French soldiers stated there).

I honestly think British food IS very nice, although part of it comes from the so many foreign influences, especially from immigrants from the subcontinent, Jews, etc.

I think people often just eat what fits in with their lives. If you have a relatively sedentary life, you don’t need all those carbs. I think British dinnertime is getting later too - instead of 5pm, many people are eating dinner at 7-8pm+ now, and don’t want stodge before bed.

Wanging a stir-fry together or chucking some pasta on is quick, easy, very customisable to tastes, and you get your veg in. Similar with curries, you can even make a day/s in advance.

We can get ingredients now we couldn’t before, we’re aware of cooking styles now that we weren’t before - so why wouldn’t we take the best bits, that fit in best with our lives?

I don’t think it’s a new thing, but then my dear old mum used to cook us all sorts, some really bizarre things, including fish curry so hot it made you sweat, lasagne pie, and chilli served with baguette.

If you don’t eat meat and aren’t a big fan of potatoes, the range of traditional British meals is pretty restrictive. Same for some of Central and Eastern Europe - meat, spuds, root vegetables and brassicas feature heavily.

Cheeses, though - my god, our cheeses are marvellous.

You can find a lot of Bison meat up north (there are about 10 local butchers within 15 miles of me 🙂) It’s very lean and quite tasty as a burger.

Dart is right. It's only not nice if you are a crap cook. You can get plenty of flavour into a pie and into mash.

Jealous

British food is nice, but it's not geared towards hot days.

The rest of Europe has similar things but wonderful gravies/sauces whatever. I've been to both Prague and Brussels recently for work. The menu was not just 'sausages and mash' it was a specific TYPE, and you could clearly taste the difference in the seasonings. Not just onion gravy and 'well that's it'.

Isn't that exactly the same as everywhere in the UK? Where exactly are you shopping and eating if there's a generic 'British sausage' on sale? Surely you select the type of sausage according to the dish you're making and they all have distinct seasoning.

Growing up my mum only made Pakistani dinners. Occasionally we would have fish n chips from the chippy or jacket potatoes. Pizza would be from a takeaway. As she spent more time in England she started cooking pasta, roast dinners, shepherds pie, lasagna. I still remember the first time I had a Yorkshire pudding! I know pasta and lasagna isn’t ‘English’ but it may aswell be.

I make a mix now but even my non Pakistani dinners will have a Pakistani twist to them in terms of spice and flavour.

Aagain, on availability. Where does an average person buy pheasant, boar and rabbit from?

I get rabbit, maybe once a year, from a local butcher's, if I'm lucky and they have any. Raw duck and turkey can be hard to come by, let alone more wild meats. Pidgeon pie? Traditional, but almost impossible to get hold of ingredients.

And fish? We're an island, yet fish is so restricted and even when available it's prohibitively expensive. I don't look for cod, bass, haddock, salmon, tuna or whitebait, but that's all that I see in shops. Not even mentioning anything other than mussles and cockles in the shelled, non-prawn variety.

Such a stupid comment. You've a poor palate if all you can taste is spice!

Good quality independent suppliers....in abundance.

😍As British as Tikka Masala. Love it. And in many ways, true

"Good quality independent suppliers....in abundance."

And your average working person gets this...how?

I like food and cooking, but if I can't get it during my weekly shop or the weekly market visit, I won't get it. Most people won't. So then the majority won't cook it.

I'm not in the UK (but close by) and can get all of that, and more. Not in Tesco, for all of it (the duck and turkey is easily available anywhere) can, but I could source anything mentioned without any real difficulty.

The way she calls it 'English Dinner' is endearing.

It was a comment about British food in an international context.

Do you understand my point now? Let me know if you need any further explanation.

Raw duck and turkey can be hard to come by, let alone more wild meats. Pidgeon pie? Traditional, but almost impossible to get hold of ingredients

Pigeon is often in freezer in our international shop. I was quite surprised at that. Mallard is hard to find, but normal duck is everywhere.
Some online butchers sell even squirrels 😁

i need to move in with you. Bison lodger

There isn't much in the way of vegetarian food in British cuisine is there?

I stopped eating meat a whole back and most of the foods I cook at home have international origins. Just a thought.

Are there many traditional British meals that are meat-free?

See, I can't. I tried. 3 independent butchers in my large town centre and I am lucky if I can get my hands on rabbit at Easter. No meat other than your average chicken, lamb, pork and beef products, with the very occasional bit of duck or turkey, maybe once a month if you get there early enough.

If I request chickens' hearts I get looked at like an idiot (they're used in traditional food I cook) and the rest I just get told a flat "we don't sell that".

Your average townie, like most of the people around me, won't look further than that. So why bother?

@Skethylita you need to go to some halal butchers. All the hearts, brains and lamb balls (not meatballs 😁) one can desire. Also bones for soup! Which are pitato get elsewhere

Whatever the opinion of the food, people were far more active in the past and food was only available at 'meal times', even in restaurants. Most people ate what they were given, there was no tolerance of fussiness then.
When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s my mother cooked three meals a day (obviously could only do that as she was a SAHM) but we were all slim as portions were small and we only had snacks once a week and never ate out. Even when I started dating or going out in the evening with friends we'd always have our tea first, then go out drinking
Food (especially junk food) is available 24/7 now and its so tempting to overeat -I'm 5 stone heavier than I was as a teen -and driving everywhere doesn't help of course.