Author Topic: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be  (Read 9981 times)

Torslanda

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Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #50 on: 06 January, 2018, 10:48:49 am »
The Crispy Pancakes of my youth were molished by Findus.  They probably contained minced horse.  Hear that?  That's the sound of me not caring.

Corned beef is teh aces, especially in a hash.  Nom.  Tinned ham, however, is the Jbex of Stan, coated with horrible gloop.  No, no, a thousand times no!  But you've never lived until you've eaten the sausage, tinned, HM Armed Forces for the feeding of.  Half a dozen or so in a can, the rest of which being filled with Lard, to stop the sausages from rattling and giving away your position to the Enemy.  They made horriblemarket own-brand bargain basement bangers seem like artisanal organic hand-crafted poncery in sausage form :sick:

I'm wondering, given Mr L's extensive road trips in Leftpondia & Canuckistan, if he has experinced 'authentic' corned beef at a roadside diner. I have a hankering for a similar kind of holiday, mostly inspired by this Guy*. Potential downsides are endless travelling on boring interstate highways and possible needing two seats on the aeroplane home . . .


*I really like the show but imagine some of the portions served would be sufficient for an entire family. I hate wasting food, probably the reason I resemble a house end instead of a racing snake.
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

CrinklyLion

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Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #51 on: 06 January, 2018, 12:07:41 pm »
I always wanted to boil a pig's head for an entire day but never found the opportunity.

I did, once.  Over 20 years ago, in the south of France.  The pig's head in question being a particularly impressively hairy and toothed one, one of the accidental cross-breeds that resulted from the local hunters releasing a reproductively entire male sanglier into the woods where the farm that I worked on kept their noirs de Gascon sows in electric-fenced enclosures.  There was reason to believe they planned this...

The pan wasn't quite deep enough resulting in piggy wiggy's snout slightly protruding and bubbling gently, as if it were still breathing.  I turned it into pâté de tête and soupe à la tête de cochon.  The rest of the piggy wiggy got butchered (not by me) mostly for the freezer, but the relevant bits got made into jambon sec, and I learnt how to make boudin noir (which from memory got cooked by dangling it off a wooden spoon into the broth in the boiling pig's head pan) and sossidges.  Key point for the latter two - remember BEFORE filling to add the seasoning because it's very dull to have to empty it all out and start again.

Slightly disconcerting for the 22 year old me, with my (at the time) 15 years of vegetarianism... 

Mr Larrington

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Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #52 on: 06 January, 2018, 12:57:25 pm »
I am utterly unadventurous when it comes to nosh in Leftpondia, though this may have to change if the plan to do the Alaska Highway this year comes to fruition.  I expect moose may be involved.
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ian

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #53 on: 08 January, 2018, 09:28:23 am »
Yes, the first time I got corned beef in the US I was so shocked I had to shoot everyone responsible. It's what they would have wanted. It wasn't what I wanted, however. Admittedly, it's worth it for when Americans order corned beef in the UK (admittedly not a common phenomenon). On a similar theme, my ex- once asked for sour cream to go with a jacket potato so they – neither understanding her or likely having any sour cream – slopped a big dollop of salad cream on top. Oh the look on her face when she tasted that.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #54 on: 08 January, 2018, 10:50:42 am »
US corned beef was a really nice surprise.  Not that I don't like UK corned beef when I can get it, but the US stuff was an order of magnitude better. We even made our own at home for a while after I came back.  Rueben sandwiches, nom.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #55 on: 08 January, 2018, 11:31:15 am »
It is nice, but it's just not our corned beef. I think it's more of a shock the other way around, when you're expecting something that looks like actual meat.

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #56 on: 10 January, 2018, 09:44:49 am »
No one have cabbage and ribs as a child?
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ian

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #57 on: 10 January, 2018, 10:27:43 am »
No.

Though I did live in perennial fear of liver.

I liked kidneys until someone told me that they left all the wee inside them.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #58 on: 10 January, 2018, 10:43:49 pm »
Reading Ian's posts has reminded me that when i was a small I used to eat haslet and vinegar sandwiches.
 ??? :sick:
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #59 on: 11 January, 2018, 08:20:28 am »
Reading Ian's posts has reminded me that when i was a small I used to eat haslet and vinegar sandwiches.
 ??? :sick:

Wiki: "from the Old French hastilles meaning entrails".

I did not know that. Rhymes with pastille and Bastille, too, which could come in handy.

I wonder if that's what they put in hasty pudding...
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #60 on: 11 January, 2018, 08:23:07 am »
I used to like haslet* (not sure about the vinegar, I used to put that on crisps, which is good and right). Not had it for years. After my discovery about tongue being, well, a tongue I'm a bit wary.

Liver though. Horrid texture and taste anyway, but when my mum had been let at it, she'd cook it until it was basically a piece of leather, you needed jaws that could gnaw through a shoe. And the veins and arteries and stuff. They'd get stuck between your teeth and were basically unchewable. My sister had one caught once and frantically trying to extricate herself from a lump of attached liver pinged it right into her eye and had to be taken to the doctor.

That was 70s/80s UK food summarized.

*I think British haslet is just a kind of pork stuffing.

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #61 on: 11 January, 2018, 09:10:35 am »
British food isn't rubbish anymore because it's no longer British. At least if you go out to a restaurant or try to find a cafe that serves anything other than food from the continent or from Asia. not to mention the bloody burgers.

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #62 on: 11 January, 2018, 09:47:53 am »
British food isn't rubbish anymore because it's no longer British.

Only 442 days to go though!

Maybe we can still have some food from the colonies. For a bit of variety.

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #63 on: 11 January, 2018, 10:16:15 am »
British food isn't rubbish anymore because it's no longer British. At least if you go out to a restaurant or try to find a cafe that serves anything other than food from the continent or from Asia. not to mention the bloody burgers.
Not true though. There is a resurgence in interest in food that is 'locally sourced' and 'local traditional' etc.

Last 'posh' meal I had was mostly local ingredients (the samphire coming from Norfolk rather than Yorkshire, the sea bass coming from the sea) and most of the food traditional yorkshire recipes.
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Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #64 on: 11 February, 2018, 03:31:02 pm »
During a cookery shelf tidy in my library, I located The Penguin Cookery Book reprinted 1971 which includes a real classic curry.  To avoid legal issues with their copoyright on such inspiration , I'll just giev you the ingrediant list:
  • 2lb Beef or lamb or 1 rabbit
  • dripping
  • flour
  • stock
  • curry powder
  • onions
  • lemon
  • salt, sugar
  • 1/2 clove garlic
  • apples
  • raisins or sultanas
  • desiccated coconut
  • tomato

Method is basically fry in dripping then cook for 2-3 hours with the stock.
Add gravy browning if a darker colour curry is preferred.
Serve with boiled rice and chutney (types unspecified).

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #65 on: 12 February, 2018, 01:47:41 pm »
A whole 1/2 clove of garlic. Daring!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ian

Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #66 on: 12 February, 2018, 01:59:07 pm »
I never saw a clove of garlic until I was well into my twenties.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: At least British food isn't as rubbish as it used to be
« Reply #67 on: 12 February, 2018, 02:42:00 pm »
But when did you see them uncloved?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.