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?

A proper English high tea! Huge plates of salmon and cucumber sandwiches on white bread, sausage rolls, pork pie, radishes, ham, tomatoes, lettuce, bread and butter; followed by Victoria sponge cake and scones with cream and jam and of course, a pot of steaming hot tea to accompany it all.

People calling British food stodgy - when badly cooked it can be. But so can most cuisines if people serve up too many carbs and not enough flavour. I've had biryanis with bland, mushy rice and bowls of soggy noodles served with a couple of limp carrots and a few emaciated shrimp and no discernible flavour but soy sauce and bowls of limp pasta served with a tomato based sauce so sweet you could serve it with ice cream.

Equally I've had fantastic roast dinners with crispy roast potatoes and a rainbow of vegetables. I've had light aromatic Pad Thai served with crunchy roast peanuts and last night I had the most fantastic vegetable biriani with dal and paneer. It cost £3 from a street vendor in Penang and it was a taste sensation.

If food from anywhere is bland or stodgy it's because it was badly cooked.

YANBU. It's not a great fit for vegetarians like me. Nearly all of the examples given by posters so far need meat or fish!

Another 'To think....' plopper. Will it never end?

I think it’s underrated really, everyone moans about crappy carveries and things that no ones had since 1980s school dinners. Aside from Italian, where is good for everyday food? There are lots of other places in Europe that go heavy on the meat and overcooked veg but no one disses them. And lots of the nice dishes from other cultures that have been mentioned on this thread are often things that you’d have on special occasions, for everyday eating a lot of things are more on the plain and simple side.

Absolutely! Nothing better. But, hush; don't tell everybody ... if you know, you know.

Totally agree! No one thinks British food is good and it’s a shame as there are some nice things. Sure I wouldn’t rate it as the best in the world but I don’t think it’s as bad as it’s made out to be.

Strong disagree.

I like food from all over, but british food has something of its own - BUT - it heavily leans on the quality of the cooking and the ingredients, because the seasonings are salt/pepper/mustard and some herbs - it's not drowned out by chilli or fish sauce (well, except cheese on toast with Worcestershire sauce of course, fair dollop of fish sauce flavour in that).

I often feel like other cuisines use spices to hide the flavour of the meat, rather than to elevate it.

Personally, I think the most overrated cuisine is Italian. Sure, it's generally tasty, and Cacio e pepe is beautiful in it's purity, but it's so heavily pasta with tomato and cheese, or veggies in oil - to my mind, that's stodge. Not decent fish and chips.

Of course we don't eat like the tudors. Swan and porpoise don't feature too highly on most meal planning lists.

Watch a documentary about the food they ate then. The reason the British were called rost bifs by the French is because the British excelled at roasting meat over a fire. Whereas the French at the time were stewing their meat.

But you're not on here criticising bourguignion or cassoulet, coq au vin or boeuf en daube. Despite them all being meat in a gravy type sauce.

Originally bolognaise contained no tomatoes and was just very slow cooked meat but you're not complaining Italian food is shite.

It's fucking stupid and tiresome to say an entire cuisine is rubbish. Any cuisine cooked badly is rubbish and British cuisine cooked well is just as good as any other. Pretending otherwise just makes you look as thick as the mince that you clearly don't know how to cook properly.

Also cauliflower cheese is the best vegetable side dish. Ever.

I agree. I love things like Thai food as feel it's balanced- different crunch and smooth textures, sweet, salty, sour, spicy, aromatic. Whereas British food just...isn't. I personally find it a bit bland and samey.

A wide range of truly fantastic cheeses (proper cheese, not supermarket blocks)
Kippers
An excellent proper pork pie
Ditto game pie
Trifle
Dressed crab
Black pudding
Jugged hare
potted shrimps
PIGS IN BLANKETS.

English food is a bit shit because most of it is simply a piece of meat - cooked. Some vegetables-cooked.
just cooked. Fried or boiled or roasted. There is little if any culinary skill. No clever blending of flavours. Little seasoning. Just raw food cooked in the most basic ways.

no English food cooked well is delicious.
perhaps you have never eaten good English food, or you have a poor palate.

Anyone else feeling hungry 😆

Staffordshire oatcakes are amazing

I think it’s underrated. I’m veggie so probably nothing I eat is particularly traditional but I love the veggie versions of shepherds pie (brown lentils) and roasts. Also love lots of other cuisines but good English cooking can be wonderful.

I don’t dislike traditional British food but I wouldn’t care if I never had it again and so many other countries cuisine is more interesting, flavoursome and exciting. (Prepares to be flamed)

Wow what sort of post is this @ThatJoyousCyanReader do I take it you're not British/English? If you're not I don't give a flying f about your opinion.

Us Brits are a live and let live lot, so you eat wtf you like and leave us to decide what we want to eat. Many gastro pubs serve British fayre and both are fabulous and do well out of it.

I can cook many cuisines, my dad was a chef, but I measure cuisine by my fussy dogs. They won't eat pasta, Mediterranean, Thai, Chinese, Mexican (without heavy spices obviously) etc. but by gosh they wolf English food.

Agree . As long as there are good ingredients any meal can be delicious if it’s cooked well and with someone that knows how to cook .

I think one problem here is the association of 'traditional English food' with working class fayre from a very limited budget combined with the impact of rationing.

That's not particularly reflective of what you can cook and how well it can be cooked. Especially with an abundance of good ingredients and knowing how to cook well rather than basic level skills.

Not everyone ate like this. The 1930s had a period of surprising middle class decadence in the UK.

Our climate and availability of ingredients are very much in play here - if you can get hold of certain seasonal things that are less commercial there are some real treats out there.

And we do deserts amazingly well. Give us credit for that.

Yes, find it very underwhelming and overrated by English people. Just a load of mash and variants of potato. Still, could be worse, could be Scandinavian cuisine, or even worse, the Netherlands.

Sorry to disagree but I think your wrong! I read a brilliant book recently that covered English food, it was about the switch to coal from wood as a source of heat in English homes. It happened in basically 1560 to 1620. Therefore, we had a more stable longer lasting heat source which meant we could roast and boil food for much longer. Hence all the steamed puds, roast joints of meat (we'd always roasted but via spits which needed effort, lost the fat and often charred the meat), toast became an easy snack.

The best of our cuisine:
English cheese.
Cornish pasties
Pork pies
Fish, chips and mushy peas
Chicken tikka masala (invented in Scotland)
Christmas pud
Roast spuds in goose grease
Bacon sarni.
Ham and mustard sarni
Faggots
Bakewell tart
Custard slice
Brookmans (small baker long closed) bread and butter

erm, I don't hear many people rate it highly? Certainly not by non UK people.

The sheer number of cheeses we have is really a delight.

The humble sausage roll when done well is amazing.

I like it.