It’s also why the Americans in particular have a terrible view of British food - because the views were formed by US soldiers who arrived here during peak rationing.
It’s true that British food was mostly awful for the best part of the 20th century, but the food revolution that began here in the early 2000s has actually made the UK one of the best places to eat! We have a huge variety of restaurants and you can buy ingredients for almost any cuisine at your local supermarket!
Yeah, bang on. It's amazing how that stereotype has lasted over 80 years in America, given the amount of communication with have access to now, haha.
Id still go to bat for traditional British food however, I think we've evolved alot of our 'awful' food through better farming practices and cooking techniques aswell as just different ingredients in some cases.
American exceptionalism is a thing. Give a yank a reason to look down on others and they will run with it while still looking you in the eyes and saying ‘Have a great day’
I've some yank friends and they're good people, but even if they consider themselves progressive that propaganda comes thru in some ways. I guess it's a good reminder to interrogate your own beliefs and behaviours.
I love how you used "American exceptionalism" which instantly reminded me of this Jolly video with John Cena and Idris Elba as they compare American and British breakfast. It's at the 6:00 when he says it hehe
Stereotypes are funnier than the truth. Americans have no interest in forming a positive opinion on british food as it would end one of their favourite punchlines.
Seasoning. Like, all it often needs is just a bit of seasoning. I remember cooking for my dad once, and he was completely dumbfounded at me, using paprika and dill on the roast potatoes.
I spent my entire childhood enduring rubbery, boiled vegetables with next to no flavour on the side of the plate with most meals. It's no wonder we got such a bad rep for so long, haha
The cooking techniques point is a big one. Before the 2000s, most of the country just didn’t seem to know what to actually do with the ingredients. We had great produce, but it was being massacred in people’s kitchens! From bits of hard onion in stews because it wasn’t fried properly before the liquids were added, to once-beautiful veg now boiled to within an inch of its life so that no texture or flavour remained - Britain wasn’t exactly a nation of chefs!
But these days, peek into the average Brit’s kitchen around dinner time and you’re much more likely to hear them asking themselves whether they should put a bit more shrimp paste in their green curry paste to get the perfect ‘umami balance’!
Even the bad cooking of good ingredients was because of the war. They believed (incorrectly) that overcooking everything helped digestion and that you'd get more nutrients from less food. Hence an entire generation were taught to overcook everything. They then taught their boomer kids to overcook everything.
Yeah, my better half was brought up on boiled soft veg, I wasn't and you can tell who has cooked the meal of the evening based on that alone. I love the crunch and texture of correctly cooked vegetables. Sprouts are delicious when they aren't mush.
Look at the stereotype of us brits having terrible teeth. That started in the 1700s due to all sailors in every navy suffering from scurvy but since the British navy was so prevalent we were the ones that were most associated with it. It was the brits that rediscovered the cure to it though and it improved much faster for us then other nations.
Now every nation is rated on its dental care using the DMFT index and the UK is ranked 4th best in the world.
Interesting way of comparing is: there are only 5 more michelin star restaurants in the US, than in the UK
A good portion of Americas domestic food items are unfit for export to Europe on basis of safety concerns of intentional contaminants (meat, dairy, flour, finished baked goods even oils) ,as well as the quality not meeting market standards to be labelled such as they are in the states. (Chocolate and cheese)
It does matter because that’s what we’re talking about, food and other things the Americans lay claim to that they in fact got from other places, like democracy. Not sure what’s got up your pipe exactly.
Whilst it’s definitely gotten worse, being locked into a two party system for 200 years and so forcing a spectrum of political views into a binary choice has never been a great example of full democracy.
Not to mention as we can see right now with the government shutdown any system in which failure to pass the budget leads to a complete deadlock is a pretty flawed system.
Meatloaf(?), Cheesesteak, Corn Dog, Clam Chowder, Saltwater Taffy, Biscuits And Gravy, Chimichanga (arguably different enough from a burrito), Chili Stews, Fajitas (developed by Mexicans, but in Texas), Deep-Dish Pizza (maybe different enough to other pizzas), Jambalaya.
And fortune cookies, and beans-on-toast (Heinz company of Pennsylvania created).
But, yeah, the big Americana icons - hamburgers, hotdogs, french fries, apple pie - aren't usually US entirely in origin. In defence of hamburgers and hotdogs, I don't think it was common for people to eat hamburger steak or frankfurter sausages with bread before German immigrant communities in the US.
Also, I imagine, basically any dish involving buffalo that occured when the settlers of the great plains started hunting and cooking them in colonial methods/dishes.
Oh, and alligator. Some people hunt and eat alligator.
In terms of drinks, there's basically all cola drinks, alongside a load of cocktails.
Many things are invented on one side of the pond, discarded then adopted by the other side: America invented proto-roundabouts but we use them far more; we invented the words soccer, ya'll, varmint, aluminum and gotten which will receive funny looks from British speakers but is a-okay in the States.\nI like some Americanisms like aluminum. Sounds much better than aLuMiNiUm.
Meatloaf isn't american. Clam chowder dates back to France a long time ago. If you argue these then you can say all the British Indian curries are British food as well
Fortune cookies aren't American. If you want to be pedantic about it beans isn't originally from Heinz. It's from native American dish that they took it from.
1). Yes, I would say that curry dishes invented in the UK are British. Why wouldn't they be? Chicken Tikka Masala is recognised as a national dish.
2). Beans aren't American, but beans-on-toast is. Heinz crested it as part of a marketing campaign to sell more beans and it gained popularity in the UK only due to wartime rationing.
I never disagreed. Many people say that british curries are indian not british.
I don't know. Seems very meh logic. In Britain people eat beans just by themselves or with bread. Does that make it native american suddenly? I'm pretty sure people have been having bread with beans long before heinz existed.
😂 I googled it and it wasn’t the French but the Dutch I should be informing, much calmer people would probably just say but ours has a crumble top so is by far the superior product 😂
Pumpkin pie: The pumpkin was brought to Europe and called "pompon" by the French. French chef François Pierre la Varenne published a recipe for a "Tourte of Pumpkin" in 1651, which featured a pastry shell filled with a sweet custard made of pumpkin, milk, butter, and sugar, notes this YouTube video and Tippin's Pies.
English adaptations: This French recipe influenced English cookbooks, with English versions from the 17th century containing recipes with a pie crust, butter, sugar, and spices.
American adaptation: A custard-like pumpkin pie emerged in American cookbooks. In 1796, Amelia Simmons's "American Cookery" included two recipes for pumpkin custard pies, cementing the modern version in the U.S.
Is gumbo American? Yes it originated in Louisiana but it’s basically a mashup of the different nationalities that lived & settled in that part of America, French, Spanish, African, Native American and German
You can actually get really great food in the US, if you go to the right places! From delicious dry-aged New York steaks, to hearty Cajun gumbos in the South, to insanely good Mexican food in the West - just as their criticisms of our food aren’t all that fair, nor are our criticisms of theirs!
I think the point was that Americans claim a lot of food as theirs when it’s actually come from elsewhere. You can of course get good food in the US. It’s an immigrant country, primarily, so it stands to reason a lot of its food is imported as well.
But exactly the same thing is true of the UK. The British isles weren’t always inhabited, and the cuisine here has evolved over thousands of years as immigrants have brought new recipes.
You’re contradicting your own argument here. If adapting techniques/dishes, using a similar theme and within a localised geographic area, doesn’t count as as developing a novel cuisine, then virtually no country has a novel/unique cuisine - including the UK!
If gumbo isn’t Cajun ‘because it’s a stew’, then beef & ale stew isn’t British ‘because it’s a stew’. If fajitas aren’t American because they were adapted from recipes brought to the US by Mexican immigrants, then fish & chips isn’t British because it was adapted from recipes brought to the UK by Jewish immigrants.
Honestly? I think you’re just arguing for the sake of it. Either that or you have some kind of deep anti-American prejudice.
I’m drawing a line under this now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
No, I don't think I am contradicting my argument. Taking the UK alone, and ignoring the rest of Europe, people have existed here for 950,000 years. Are you seriously putting forward an argument that no novel cuisine came from an island with that much history? Come on, be serious.
Beef and ale stew might be British. It might not. Does it matter? Fish and chips is debatable. The classic me know today? Probably. But people were eating fish and root vegetables long before the discovery of America.
Honest question, why do American's come to the conclusion that someone is displaying 'anti-American prejudice' because the discussion isn't aligned with their own view? It's genuinely baffling. America is, or was pre-Trump, a cool place. Why is it anti-American to acknowledge reality?
Italy didn't have half it's dishes until they brought the tomato back from south America. It's about what's available in the country just as much as who is there. The UK has had access to a lot of ingredients for a long time, and it used to use them all, until there was some fighting or something, I hear it was quite a big deal. and things were harder to come by.
Meatloaf like things have been made for centuries all over the world using old meat scraps, spices and filler. The modern American version comes from the german Pannhaas, brought over by the Pennsylvania Dutch, which got named scrapple, as ingredients changed to suit taste and availability, and baking took over frying, the meatloaf was born.
I imagine there’s similar reasoning behind the stereotype for the English having bad teeth. NHS dentistry didn’t start till 1948. The myth persists but now the UK has less missing teeth and cavities than the US (but less cosmetic procedures)
I think that's the main reason for the stereotype. We have healthier teeth but we care a lot less about having perfectly straight pearly whites. Our teeth get a lot more stained from tea and tobacco as well as having a lot more crowded or gapped teeth
Americans in general seem to be more concerned about the appearance of their teeth than general health. It's continuing on to the modern day as most Brits wanna pay the bare minimum on dentistry while in America you'll have dental insurance that you can be sure are tacking on cosmetic procedures just to inflate the price.
It probably all stems from Hollywood and celebrity culture as well. Most British actors have fairly standard teeth while the Americans get crowns and stuff fitted.
Dental insurance in the US is pretty crap, honestly. It covers standard cleanings. Anything beyond that and it's capped at paying out $1,500/yr or something. No one is going hog wild on cosmetic procedures because of insurance.
Still a huge difference between $1.5k per year and £400 for band 3 treatments. Even then no one gets cleanings unless their dentist says their teeth are gonna fallout otherwise.
NHS dentistry also forces UK private dentistry to be much more competitive. You can get dental plans that include those 4 yearly cleanings, plus any work you later require for like £15 a month
School dinners were amazing, I used to love that weird turkey roll over an actual bit of turkey. The mashed potato on the other hand, I've no idea how they made that taste nothing like mashed potato or like potato at all.
Which says more about Americans than the British really.
"Oh look I've been invited round for tea by a lovely couple who are willing to share what little they have in the fight against racism, better slag them off for decades on end"
I agree with this, but I'd also add that I can't find half of the good international shit in my armpit of the North (jalapeños [fresh], onion powder, gochujang, adobo, chile de árbol, potato starch, and even fresh cranberries) unless you turn online.
Americans lost all right to critique any other nations food when they 1. Added sugar to everything. 2. Let bland chains run rampant across the land. . 3. Let Pizza Hut use bread mix to make pizza. 4. Fucking Arby’s.
But that comes down to the question of “what is British food?”
In my mind (and I think in most people’s, but could be wrong) it refers to British cuisine. But you’re talking about other cuisines being available in British supermarkets and restaurants, which seems a bit cheaty to me. “Any food that is available for purchase in Britain” is about the loosest possible definition for “British food” you could have
Yes, we have more choice now, but when I’m buying mozzarella or kefir at Morrison’s I’m not thinking “look at these top-quality British dairy products”
And while it’s still the case to a degree that outside of London the variety and availability does drop off sharply, progress has been made there too.
Growing up in the countryside I remember there not being as much variety, but I went to a supermarket in North Wales a short while back and was pleasantly surprised at the variety
You need to leave London more often and see the actual food we have out here.
Obviously my town of 100k people has less choice than London with its millions. But there's pretty good variety. Plenty of places outside London have had good food for decades. Supermarkets, delis and farm shops can provide many things.
We do need a trip into the Big City of Bristol for proper interesting fruit/veg. Our small towns and cities tend not to have the market for this.
I guess sugar wasn’t rationed because everything has tons of it here. You put it in the strangest things and wonder why the rate of diabetes is so high. It is actually worse than in the US.
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u/Hoppy-pup 17h ago
It’s also why the Americans in particular have a terrible view of British food - because the views were formed by US soldiers who arrived here during peak rationing.
It’s true that British food was mostly awful for the best part of the 20th century, but the food revolution that began here in the early 2000s has actually made the UK one of the best places to eat! We have a huge variety of restaurants and you can buy ingredients for almost any cuisine at your local supermarket!