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?

Climate too, if you wanted to eat seasonal and British then there are a good few months of turnips and potatoes and not much else!

Completely off the point, but when I read the post about macaroons I remembered my maternal grandmother telling me about two sisters who lived in our village: they could only afford one set of false teeth between them. There was a do on at the Methodist Chapel: sister 1 went first and came back a while later, handing the teeth over to sister 2. Sister did a rummage round them with her tongue and said "Mmmm - macaroons! I must hurry!

We have some fabulous desserts!

Had my first asparagus yesterday with hollandaise sauce. It was gorgeous

@KimberleyClark Just made this teisen lap and it is delicious.

Thank you for the recommendation.

@Purplebunnie DD made a simplified version of this about:blank Yotam Ottolenghi asparagus recipe the other day, and it was delicious.

I've googled their recipes and they look delicious and will certainly be trying them

Not sure why my link didn't work.

https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/asparagus-labneh-brown-butter-burnt-lemon

Teisen lap cake recipe | Visit Wales

Cawl is soup, not leek soup, but it's often used as an abbreviation for cawl cennin (leek soup), and that might be a stew with meat in it or regular leek and potato soup.

Just in case someone orders cawl and doesn't get the 'tourist board' version.
Bara brith (pron. barrah breeth) is another one where you might be disappointed - the real thing is delicious but any loaf shaped fruit cake might be served.

It's Welsh food not English food.

YABVVU
English cheeses (good Stilton, Shropshire blue, aged cheddar) are sublime.
Ploughman’s lunches with half a pint in the summer are one of life’s simple pleasures.
English pickles and chutneys.
Cream/ afternoon teas are amazing (a delicate egg and cress sandwich with good well made tea from a bone china cup would be my last meal).
Crumpets.
Also some of the puddings/ traditional cakes can’t be beaten, home made Victoria sandwich/ coffee cake, mince pies, hot cross buns, simnel cake, nowhere does them better.
I think you’ve not had a decent home cook make these things for you, that’s the problem.

This is about English food not Welsh.

True, but I was inspired by the teisen lap recipe and was not disappointed.

Egg and cress sandwich literally sums up English food.
Bland and boring. Not delicate or subtle. Just bland and boring. Cress ffs. What’s the point if that? It’s lower than parsley in the scale of pointless herbs

It isn't bland and boring if it is seasoned well.

But thank you for the reminder. I need to buy some cress.

OP I suggest buying 8-10 UK regional cookery books, rather than just trotting out the usual roast and shepherds pie. Also, a lot of the recipes relate to the local food available over 100yrs ago, so it is going to be bland to our international palette.
Slow cooked pork and apple casserole, anyone?

Can you explain this?

This post is simply more boring Brit bashing IMO.

Add to this the fact that in the past most people had less clothing, no central heating, cars or double glazing and did manual jobs. Therefore their calorific requirements were completely different. For me, this explains why much traditional English food may appear heavy/stogy for the modern appetite. That doesn't make it less appetising in itself, though, in the hands of a decent cook, as so many others have said.
I'm old enough to remember when it was completely normal for the average person to cook traditional desserts everyday. I guess younger people haven't even heard of many of them, like Sussex Pond Pudding. That was always a bit of a rarity, but people did cook and eat things like 'Spotted Dick' with custard every day.
Also I can recall only being able to buy Ready Salted or Salt and Vinegar Crisps. All the highly flavoured snacks have developed in recent times, possibly changing our taste buds and expectations.

Slightly off topic, but has anyone else noticed no jew potatoes or rhubarb in the shops?

Last week I bought gorgeous asparagus and a nice bit of salmon, but there were no Jersey Royals or any new potatoes.

I'm near the rhubarb triangle, so no shortage of rhubarb here. I haven't seen any new potatoes yet.

There is a theory that American troops arrived in their tens of thousands during WW2, and had to eat our food. Obviously because of rationing, food was awful during the war. But they failed to recognise that was the result of us living on an island with no supplies coming in, and so we were forced to live off potatoes for six years. They returned to the states in 1945 and the UK has been famous for having shit food ever since.

Loads of rhubarb in my garden right now - I cooked a kilo of it yesterday.

New potatoes and jersey royals in Waitrose but not in Tesco went I went on Thursday.

I don't have a Waitrose near me 🙁

WWI and II impacted British food availability through rationing, reduced imports, and increased reliance on domestic production. This led to a restricted diet and had long term effects on British food.

The North Sea was closed for fishing. Subs patrolling The Channel, North Sea, and Atlantic torpedoed ships supplying the UK – cheese (seventy percent of which is imported) almost vanished. Wheat, largely from the Americas, was scarce. Supplying anything by sea became impossible.

Rationing diminished things such as butter, sugar, eggs, jam, bacon, sausages, for example, and there was very little eating for pleasure. No baking a cake, no pastries, reliance on what you could grow at home or preserve or tin. People made do and then they got used to what they had, and our food still reflects how mundane food used to be.

I think a good roast is amazing. Also fish and chips.
Toad in the hole can be pretty good too. English breakfast is good if cooked well.

I can’t think of anything else English food wise. It’s all a bit of a dogs dinner.

People always say their cooking is amazing. But we all like our own cooking.

We grow the most amazing veg compared to most countries - where are the veg recipes?

if you look at one of Mrs Beatons books there are hundreds of recipes using every cut of meat, every type of fish etc
Possibly it was rationing that caused those recipes to be forgotten.
Also we are influenced by the USA since tv became available - theirs is very much money driven -whatever shortcuts, additives can make the supermarket or manufacturer most money.