this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
1246 points (95.5% liked)

Memes

45246 readers
3329 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 93 points 6 months ago (17 children)

The meme is funny :)

That being said, the only UK foods I've had were made by expats here in the states. None of it was bland, with the exception of breakfast beans, "because they're meant to be mild to start your day" as I was told by a lovely liverpudlian.

She would do fish and chips, and the batter was well seasoned. Not heavily seasoned, but some pepper, a little paprika, and a bit of onion powder to give it some aromatic kick. Well balanced, and imo, as good as any of the southern fried fish recipes I've had.

The chips were obviously just salted and vinegar used per person.

But when we did pot luck at work, she would bring in what she called "good english food", which included some curry a few times.

But her shepherd's pie? Holy hell, that was some great stuff. She said it was really cottage pie because it was beef usually. But it had the usual pepper, onion, garlic, and herbs.

And the other expats I ate with were similar. Maybe different amounts of a given herb or spice, but it was in there.

I think the UK food thing is a meme in itself, and likely arose the way things usually do, with the majority of cooks just being bad cooks, rather than representative of a cuisine or the way things are done properly in that country.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The reputation comes from the US military being stationed in the UK during the height of WW2 rationing when there was an extremely limited list of ingredients to cook with. They were unable to associate a country under an attempted siege from U-boats with a reduced supply of food.

We do have a love of beige food at times, but it's essentially our version of chicken tendies.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (10 children)

Ahhh, that makes sense. Kinda rough that the rep hasn't gone away yet, though.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Boomers made that bland war time food linger. They were children during and just after WW2 so it was part of their childhood nostalgia and they fed it to their own kids. Also we've had Indian/ Chinese restaurants in the UK for a while but they were mostly just in major cities at first so the average person still had little exposure to foreign or exotic food until the late 1970s/ early 1980s.

[–] jaybone 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Literally by definition boomers would have been born after WW2.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Dasnap 14 points 6 months ago

We also had rationing for a good while longer than other countries after the wars (right into the mid-50s), so we have a whole generation who were pretty much raised with limited food options. That kind of national trauma sticks around and took a while to shake off.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] yeah 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't think I'd recommend chilli peppers with your user name.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Case proven, all the good cooks left.

load more comments (15 replies)
[–] Mr_Blott 61 points 6 months ago (101 children)

Meanwhile yanks with their two spices - butter and sugar

"Our food is the tastiest in the wuuuurld"

Aye but yous can't afford that coronary eh mate 😂

[–] [email protected] 59 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Is this where we pretend that Brits don't consume obscene amounts of sugar and butter?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (100 replies)
[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Chicken Curry is the most popular British dish as of about 10 years ago and It's only gotten better since then.

It's like a US state dish but given the size and population that's fair. Even more important it's good.

It's also been developing for about 100 years. It's the British/Indian equivalent of Pizza. And It's beautiful.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Leviathan 29 points 6 months ago

Clearly you've never had rich friends, they're notorious for having everything and never using it.

"Oh man, I didn't know you play guitar. That's a beautiful Orange double stack and Thunderverb."

"I bought that when I tried to learn guitar, haven't used it since."

[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago (19 children)

Most popular dish in the UK is Tikka Massala.

But:

Fat, carbs and protein do not come purer than fish and chips.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

And vinegar so vinegary that it blows the taste buds of your descendants for 500 years

load more comments (18 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Money can't buy you taste 😉

[–] flubba86 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Well, the whole spice trade was literally wealthy people buying taste.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Hey, they also needed more people to play cricket with.

[–] saltesc 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I like the little flag. Classic move claiming fish fingers for the empire.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BreadOven 18 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Tell me you haven't had proper British food without actually telling me.

Don't blindly believe everything you hear.

Beans on toast can be done well also.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago

Embrace; Expand; Extinguish

[–] yeah 17 points 6 months ago

We use a lot of herbs, garlic and mustard traditionally.

[–] Nacktmull 17 points 6 months ago (10 children)

Chicken Tikka Masala entered the chat.

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (15 children)

i was told by a brit that american biscuits were "salty scones"

and i have never wanted to complain more in my life. Especially given the american propensity to make shit sweet as fuck.

load more comments (15 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I heard once that when spices became so cheap that even the commoners could afford it, the upper class in Britain started to claim that really good food doesn't need any spices to taste good and that bland food is the best. This supposedly made the British cuisine way blander.

[–] robocall 12 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I thought it was cuz they lost a bunch of ships during wwii and then they had the rationing of foods, and hadn't recovered their flavor palate since then.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

A lot of the "bland" food is just food that was made during the world wars that has evolved over time after the fact.

But to say British food has no spices completely disregards the whole curry scene over here. It's not just curry from India. A lot of "Indian" dishes were invented in the UK.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Aye like a lot of time that people are making fun of English cuisine they’re usually just making fun of meals that poorer families would make or that no one regularly makes in their right mind.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I mean it's usually just cheap, lazy food. I like a good beans on toast every once and a while. Sometimes you just want a no effort meal.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] johannesvanderwhales 15 points 6 months ago (13 children)

Ain't nothing wrong with fish and chips

load more comments (13 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (3 children)

British women and British cuisine... The birth of a seafarer nation.

[–] FrankTheHealer 10 points 6 months ago

The Brits took to the seas. The Irish took to the bottle.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Hobbes_Dent 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Don’t get high on your own supply.

Guv.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (21 children)

What do you think tea is made of?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (20 replies)
[–] dejected_warp_core 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I look at it the other way around. The food was so horrible, England sent entire fleets of ships just to get takeout from India. It didn't matter that it took months on end and people lost their lives along the way, it was still worth it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ninjabard 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And then purposefully mispronounce almost every foreign food.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›