What would you cook for foreign visitors to impress?

[carriewintermeadow]

We have a (14 year old) visitor from Germany coming next week for 6 days. His family have in the past commented that they're not keen on British food. He's quite picky too.

I'm not a fantastic cook, but I get by. I'm planning to fetch fish and chips one night, I'll make a lasagne one night, do a roast chicken with all the trimmings another night.

What would you consider to be good British food?

Roast beef with Yorkshire puddings.
Meat pie
Cottage/shepherd's pie

It's weird but I think in Germany British food gets the worst rep of anywhere else I've been. My dad has visited the UK three times since the 70s and still goes on about it all the time.

Your suggestions are good. Cottage pie, fish pie also good.

Thanks I've never cooked today beef and wouldn't be sure of getting a nice piece or cooking it right. Cottage pie is a good idea though, maybe fish pie too.

It's odd, because German food isn't amazing, it's ok, but not fantastic, can be stodgy, and yet when I lived there I was constantly told how bad British food is.

A German criticising British food is on very shaky ground. You have to go a long way to match the execrable 'Currywurst'...

I'd serve what you normally cook

stew and dumplings?

I love german dumplings, similar to ours but with meat in the middle. Maybe he would like ours too.

Sausage and mash! Grill some good sausages, make a big pot of creamy mash and serve with carrots and peas with ketchup, possibly mustard as he's German.

Roast pork with crackling or lamb shanks or bake a steak & kidney pie.

Damn I'm hungry now.

From talking to my various au pairs Fish and chips is what the continentals fear most so I would give that a miss.

Hmm maybe you're right, maybe I should give fish and chips a miss.

Roast pork sounds good, sausages and mash and stew and dumplings too

I would ask the kid. What is good British food depends on where the person is from.

Though tbh I thought German food uninspiring. But I have only been to Germany for a week.

Because actually the suggestions given would be all dire for my parents. They would prefer butter chicken and chicken tikka masala for example.

Toad in the hole
Yorkshire puddings
Gooseberry pie
White sai e bread sauce on broad beans etc

All always gone down well with continental visitors!!

He is on dodgy ground as lots of German food is grim.

I'd suggest roast beef plus Yorkshires.

Make a curry! Almost all of Madhur Jaffreys recipes are easy and delicious, just google her.

He might be a hungry teenager that eats anything or he might be picky.

If picky make everything stuff he recognizes. I had a german girl who wouldn't eat anything she didn't recognize so no gravy or stuffing - her meals were very dry as I'd assumed gravy would be ok!!

Chips are probably a def yes, fried chicken, sausages, find out if he likes tomato ketchup or other sauces, I think they eat a lot of mayonnaise. Get some nice bread in and fruit so he can fill up on that if all else fails.

I have lived in Germany for a long time and as a Brit, I get no end of flack about the food in the UK and my assumed cooking skills. It's the one thing that riles me!

Be aware that, whatever you cook, you probably won't win! Even so, German food is very similar to British food. There is usually just a local twist. Roast Pork with Dumplings here is sacred, but may never be compared to a British Roast Pork with roast potatoes! German food tends to survive on carbs and meat (pork & sausage being especially important). Watch out for too much spice because the Germans really aren't used to it!

Bread is also a controversial topic. There is a lot more variety here and the white bread which looks like the sliced white we are used to (but dry and artificial tasting!) is usually only toasted. Expect some funny looks when you eat a sandwich with white sliced bread without toasting it first ;-) However, my husband hankers after Tiger loaves when he comes with us to visit my parents...

So, to cut a long story short... I'd just cook what you usually would, in bowls /pots on the table to serve yourself. Then your visitor can take what they want to try themselves!

Thanks I gather he's not a big eater and a bit picky.

I'm waiting for some sourdough starter to arrive, as I want to bake my own rye bread, which hopefully he will like.

My draft meal plan so far includes roast chicken, lasagne, beef stew with dumplings, roast pork, possibly an Indian take away and I'm still thinking about the last meal ..

You could also do Nigel Slater's 'simple cake', from 'Appetite' for pudding. I've baked it lots of times, including once for a load of Austrians who were aghast and agog that an English woman could make something so delicious. It's understated and very good. When it's still warm you turn it out onto baking paper covered in sugar, then back the right way up, and you get a lovely looking top to it.

I also find the Austrians impressed by a proper brownie. And they (so I assume the Germans too) can't make proper muffins, they're all dry and cakey.

Pasta bake/ All english breakfast / corned beef hash / apple crumble and custard

Thanks.

Could you make/take him for a really good Full English breakfast with all the trimmings? Doesn't have to be at breakfast time

I don't blame some foreign visitors "fearing fish and chips most" . Sadly you have to really hunt for excellent fish and chip shops. Maybe if you're good at deep fat frying make your own !

curry
my german guests love it.
we do loads of different ready meals, naan bread, poppadums, chutney, big pot of rice, bajis, samosas.

and yes to shepherds pie/cottage pie.

my guests absulutely hate: mint sauce, apple sausages , marmite and mass produced white bread. bakery bloomer seems ok though. or bagels.

We do have an excellent award winning shop nearby, so not worried about soggy fish and chips!

Dh will gladly cook curry. Full English not a problem either, I wasn't sure how a teenager would feel about that.