To think traditional English food is overrated?

[ThatJoyousCyanReader]

I’ve always heard people say English food is bland or uncreative, and to be honest, I kind of see their point. Apart from a good roast dinner or fish and chips, what actually stands out? AIBU to think that other cuisines just do it better?

Yeah that's my kind of food. Don't mind middle Eastern food also.

Yes, I can’t read Italian and it’s more authentic and accessible than our efforts certainly Debi Mazar over Jamie Oliver any day of the week. Our recipes are adapted for our tastes.

Give it three to four weeks and it will all be locally grown!

I am checking the asparagus bed almost daily in the hopes of shoots - I need to get the nematodes on as soon as the shoots appear to protect from slugs. Best seasonal crop of the year.

To all those insulting British food outright - I don’t like aniseed, lemongrass or coconut. Do I call Thai food crap? No, because it isn’t. It’s just generally not to my palate.

So is Italian American food. It isn’t the same thing as Italian. It’s also shaped by American tastes, culture and accessibility of ingredients. Likewise Tex-Mex which is quite different from real Mexican food. Every country alters other countries’ cuisines to their preferences And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’m more interested in what tastes good than what is authentic, but Italian-American food is no more (or less) authentic than British Italian cuisine.

And you can probably get genuine Italian recipe books which have been translated or at least written by Italians as opposed to Italian-Americans.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/18/what-do-real-italians-think-about-new-yorks-italian-food

Can't you cook? Don't you eat any vegetables?

Admittedly, we eat food from everywhere, but I can assure you that we very rarely eat beige stodge when I cook British food.

Jay Rayner writes about “authentic” food in his most recent book (and in a number of columns over the years)
He calls bullshit.

Truly “authentic” is the food of the poor, using every bit of the animal and padding it out with whatever is available to make it go as far as possible. There are no “authentic” recipes because every area - every family - has their own accepted Correct Version of a dish.

Adapting a recipe to available ingredients, tweaking it to a palate, elevating it by using nicer or more expensive or more sustainable ingredients is more important when it comes to food than “authenticity.”

I don’t want to kill a dozen songbirds to have on the paella, ta, however “authentic.”

comes from the days when there was what there was to eat. No chilli, garlic, lemongrass etc. But meat, suet, root veg was available. Some people think Italian is just pizza. Gary Eats on YT goes to some fantastic places. But what do some people consider 'British food'?

And no I wouldn’t turn to Jamie Oliver for authentic Italian food either but we have our own Italian/ Italian heritage chefs here too.

Personally I think that authenticity is overrated because Italy’s cuisine varies by region even by town/village and would have been influenced by what ingredients were in their cupboard. How one Nonna made something could be completely different from the way that another a mile away made the same dish. Italian cuisine has also been altered by foods like tomatoes and chillies that were introduced from the new world. So what really is authentic?

@BeaAndBen , there are inauthentic versions of food though.
I can think of foods that bear little resemblance to the real thing.

I agree entirely with Jay Rayner on that. I was just curious to know why that poster seemed to think that Italian-British food was altered to our tastes (Which it is) and that the same wasn’t also true of Italian-American cuisine.

And there’s nothing wrong with countries altering food to their own tastes. Imo it’s one of the most clever and exciting things that humans have done. Is it always great? No but it gives us such wonderful diversity of food, encourages experimentation and is much more freeing than deciding that you cannot possibly cook a version of carbonara for dinner because you can only have bacon in and not guanciale. Even though it’d still taste good.

Debi lives in Italy and is married to an Italian. They aren’t cooking Italian American food.Just making the point that English foreign recipes even translated ones are made for a British audience and will take out ingredients or substitute for other things that are easily available. Debi does deal with that and is authentic. You don’t have to believe me but our publishing industry does factor in how easy ingredients are to get hold of and will always have that in mind. I love American Italian food too. I cook a great unauthentic carbonara which is unmistakably American and delicious.

I know nothing about the author so I’m not commenting on her, but you said Italian-American recipe which I took to mean Italian-American food which is decidedly not the same thing as Italian. And which just like British-Italian food, has also been altered to American tastes and availability of ingredients, as shown by the article I linked to which demonstrates some of the differences. And again there’s nothing wrong with that. If you mean Italian recipes by an American of Italian heritage then my comments do not apply.

And thank you for introducing me to an author who is new to me. I’ll have to check her recipes out.

Truly “authentic” is the food of the poor, using every bit of the animal and padding it out with whatever is available to make it go as far as possible. There are no “authentic” recipes because every area - every family - has their own accepted Correct Version of a dish.

The food we ate at my Chinese friend's house was definitely authentic. She cooked tripe and wouldn't tell us what we were eating until after we had tasted it. I discovered that I don't like tripe.

Also, Brits use a lot more sauce on pasta than Italians do, and the Chinese eat a lot more rice and less of whatever they have cooked in the wok than we do if we ate at a chinese restaurant or had in a takeaway. So saying that only British food is stodgy is incorrect.

Beige, mushy, boiled food- no thanks.

No I was talking about Italian food not American Italian food. I just think what we call Italian food isn’t really what I have experienced in Italy. So am always on the look out for recipes.

I think we have some nice comfort food for a cold day but generally speaking it’s not that great as it can be a lot of beige stodge (trying to eat something British on the go proves that, it’s all stodgy pastry and beige).

Although we are not Asian most of our food at home (and eating out) is Asian.

If you eat like that, that's on you. There's nothing to stop you enjoying a whole world of cuisines.

Scandinavian food is amazing. Dill and fish. Last year me and my Dutch friend went to a fish restaurant in Copenhagen as her brother had bought her vouchers for it saying it was amazing. Turned out both of us were secretly dreading it as we are fish fans. But it was amazing. And yes I've had incredible meals in Stockholm before. Also see Iceland which isn't Scandinavian but was Danish controlled for many years. The fish and lamb there is out of this world. Both things that tend to be done terribly in the UK.

But with the exception of poffertjes and pancakes I'm with you with Dutch food (and my Dutch friend doesn't disagree!). Having said that the Dutch influence on Indonesia and vice versa is brilliant. You can get an amazing Indonesian which you can't in the UK in Indonesia.

I'm of the opinion that everywhere has amazing gems - you have to know what and where to go for it. The UK definitely isn't an exception. One of our strengths is our willingness and adoption of change and this manifests in fusion - the British are the best at fusion food. It's like culture - we steal so much and then claim it as ours! See the British curry - absolutely not Indian or Pakistani but definitely a part of British culture.

I have an American friend and my above mentioned Dutch friend who always want a British curry as they can't get anything similar in their own countries. And we are distinctly different to curries in India and Pakistan too because it's been developed for a British palate. The same goes for a Chinese. A British Chinese is mainly Hong Kong inspired but try and get anything similar in Hong Kong or China and you'll be hard pushed.

And as others have said - the humble potato certainly isn't a British thing. But we've made it our own. Fish and chips isn't British in origin. Nor are crisps. But there are definitely British crisps.

Same as British chocolate. Americans import it - because American chocolate is a special kind of hell.

And yes cheese.

Go live in Australia for a year and come back to me and talk to me about cheese. They don't cheese in the same way in part because cheese in a hot climate isn't a great mix. British cheese is incredible. We take it for granted.

And that's ultimately the crack. We take for granted what we can get and like a bad workman blame our own lack of skills for our 'poor cuisine'. It's bollocks we do world leading food in this country - that follows British traditions (that are ever changing).

Henry VIII would have a banquet with so many things we wouldn't recognise or would be disgusted by it wouldn't be able to source due to extinction. And this reflects the tradition of our country - to adapt to influences and changes in way that few other nations have because of our status as a naval island that's been outward looking and imported and that people have flicked to because it offered opportunities unavailable elsewhere.

Again. We take all this for granted. But it is our tradition. That has filtered to all levels of British society - fish and chips and a roast with potatoes are as working class as they are middle class....

If you can’t cook very well, just say that. There’s no need for English food to be bland and boring so you’re doing something wrong.

Where in Italy does the lasagne originate?

https://www.thepauperedchef.com/article/the-disputed-origins-of-lasagna#:~:text=In%20a%20feud%20finding%20its,be%20Italian%2C%20as%20their%20own.

Lasagne is British. Not Italian.

I don't think I have ever been served beige boring mush.

Can't you cook?
Have you never eaten at a gastro pub or anywhere that specialises in cooking with fresh local produce?

Are you a vegetable dodger?

Your blanket statement is so untrue that it just shows up how uneducated and unimaginative you are.

The climate has such an impact on what you desire. As does the type of labour you do.

Just reading this week about coal miners in Cumbria and how they had jam in sandwiches rather than cheese and meat because after a few hours it went rancid. And because the climate and work doesn't really lend itself to the work available. If you are labouring hard in cold weather, you don't want certain things. Equally out British love of cold food (other places laugh at cold lunches) reflect climate and time saving /labour /energy saving qualities (cold food is cheaper and easier than cooking from scratch).

If you've 'always' heard English food described as 'bland' and 'uncreative' and you agree with that assessment, then it isn't overrated is it? It's accurately rated.

Personally I find it to be rather underrated.

Just my experience of food from the UK and Ireland: I can cook, I just don’t cook food from those (my) cultures because nobody would eat it, as we’re used to Asian, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean flavours etc.

I have eaten homemade and homegrown food here, but I haven’t been into pubs, so not really. It’s not like it’s all bad, but food is not something I’d miss if I never went back home.

I love vegetables and flavourful salads too, and that’s part of my issue with local food- boiled and steamed, unseasoned carrots, potatoes, and the like aren’t for me.

Do you not have much experience with other cultures and their cuisine?
Are you a seasoning dodger?
Can you really not see that a lot folks from the UK still eat like there are rations in place despite being well off?