top 93 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 47 points 4 months ago (20 children)

British food is thoroughly underrated. Who could say no to even a small part of a full english breakfast?

  • source
  • hideshow 20 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

    I'd always say no to the black pudding >///<

    the rest is quite OK

    Fish and Chips are pretty nice (especially with a good sauce tatare)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    Sauce tartare....

    Your clearly not from round here mate!

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    I mean, if I was British and said something nice about the British cuisine wouldn't that be the Obama awading himself a medal meme?

    Just wanted to make the case that it isn't completely hopeless, even if the sauce tatare is a bit of cheating I admit xP

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

    Vegans?

    Accepting in advance the downvotes from people who get fucking weird pavlovian style when they see that word in order to give you a straight and obvious answer to your question.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    They can have the beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast though. Doesn't sound too awful to me.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] -3 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    Animals were brutalized to make half of it, the texture of the tomato is weird, and marmelade is too monotonically bitter for what is available to be combined with.

    Beans on toast are honestly the best part.

    But the real shame is that for an extra 10% of the price it could be so much better by adding spices. A full English isn't depressing because of its materials but because of its potential.

    It's fine food, sure, but it is on the low end of dishes that include its ingredients.

    (For the record, I'm Dutch, our "traditional" (read: late 19th century puritan) slop involves doing extra work to be actively hostile to flavor, making a full english seem indulgent).

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    The animals are the best bit. As for spices, I add curry powder to the beans, tarragon and thyme to the mushrooms, basil and black pepper to the tomato, and then dust the entire dish with chilli flakes. Serve it with homemade Carolina reaper sauce. The Scottish version is objectively better than the English one as it includes haggis and tattie scones. You can also serve it with deep fried cigarettes and buckfast tonic wine.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    You can do a very nice vegetarian full English. Veggie sausages and black pudding (I make my own black pudding with black beans which works really well); halloumi is a better bacon imo, and the rest is all vegetarian

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    You can do that. But I'm Scottish, and vegetarian haggis is just really sad.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Fair enough. You’d be surprised how good/close some of this stuff can be if you make it yourself when it’s stuff like sausages, black pudding, haggis.

    The hard ones for me are things like lamb shank — can’t replicate the texture or fat marbling in something like a tagine.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Look I try to eat vegan and if I find a good replacement I thoroughly enjoy and promote it (there's some extremely good vegan foie), but sadly all the replacements of black pudding or morcilla I've tried have been a disappointment.

    Also, blood is usually a byproduct of the meat industry so the animal didn't die for that specific ingredient, which in my logic makes it one of the least "evil" non vegetarian products.

    Anyway, please do share your bean based replacement if you want, it's probably delicious.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I broadly did this one: https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/vegan-recipes/vegan-black-pudding/,

    But I cut a few corners — because it didn’t need to be a sausage as I was eating it at home, I cooked stuff a bit longer to reduce the moisture content, made it into a dough-type thing, and fried it up in rounds.

    I don’t disagree — I think offal and blood products are certainly at the better end of things, and if I were to eat meat I’d definitely practice nose-to-tail.

    Also I’ve made this and it was excellent: https://veganbellyful.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/pate-de-campagne/

    I added some redcurrant jelly as it was lacking depth and I felt a bit of sweetness would help, plus I associate it with chicken from childhood.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    My favourite variant is the Welsh, which comes with cockles.

    Not really convinced about adding random spices to the parts, as it’s already plenty salty and quite well balanced. A cafe near me started adding herbs to their mushrooms and that kind of ruined them, as they were really nice just in butter. The chili sauce thing is just depraved though and makes me suspect you may soon start rubbing it on your eyeballs just to feel something.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Icelandic people: “Enjoy the rotten shark lass!”

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    French: Enjoy rotten milk with rotten grape juice?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Comparing the Nordic rotten fish stuff with cheese and wine is certainly a choice.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (10 children)

    what even is the norwegian one? boiled cabbage and meat? it's like you guys have never heard of lutefisk

  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Ahh yes lutefisk, or how l like to call it slimy ghost fish goop :S

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    If its slimy, you're cooking it wrong. Heavily salt it and bake it in the oven to draw the liquid out. It should only smell like dick cheese (kukost) before cooking. Afterwards it should smell and taste like slightly caustic fish and be barely palatable if you have it with mashed potato, bacon bits, and mushy peas and wash it down with strong astringent alcoholic drink. It's pretty rank but by no means the worst Nordic dish. A dubious honour that probably goes to Greenland's kiviak.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    You are not selling it to me at all, I'll pass and continue not appreciating norwegian kitchen

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, people like to shit all over British food, but the truth of the matter is that Nordic food is either just as bland as people say British food is, or it's just plain grim.

    Norwegian food

    Danes eating Swedish food

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    if by "british food" and "nordic food" you mean the stuff people ate in the winter because it's all they had, then yeah sure it's grim

    but a much more accurate summary of all germanic food is "potatoes, meat, and gravy" which is sufficiently enjoyable that it's an international staple at IKEA.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 79 points 4 months ago (33 children)

    Bean on toast isn't even bad. It should be jellied eels or a toad-in-the-hole.

  • source
  • hideshow 33 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    WTF toad in the hole is amazing! What do you even think it is?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    It means something different in America.

    The British one (sausage baked into Yorkshire pudding) is fantastic.

    The American one (a piece of fried bread with an egg in the middle) is pretty sad.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 45 points 4 months ago* (20 children)

    Brits made those up so the colonies would give them the spices willingly, out of sheer pity.

    They did fuck all with the spices, but that's not the point.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 20 child comments
  • [–] 22 points 4 months ago

    Traditional British food actually uses a lot of spices, just not usually chilli. British food is full of coriander seed, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, aniseed, mace, rosemary, parsley, black pepper, mustard etc. They were originally used because people believed they would preserve meat and extend the shelf life. So recipes from before refrigeration use a lot of it, but also things like Christmas food and desserts use a lot (especially cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cloves). There's a blend of spices sold in British shops specifically for sweet things called mixed spice similar to pumpkin spice in the states.

    But even if you take spice to mean only hot capsicim Peppers, the hottest curries (phall) are a British recipe. Tabasco is one of the few non British companies to receive The Royal Warrant of Appointment (permission to use the Royal cost of arms on their products) because the Royal Family love Tabasco so much.

    Also Britts drink a lot of ginger. Both alcoholic and non alcoholic ginger beer and ginger wine.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

    What spice is in every single British savoury recipe?

    Having got three wrong answers in a short space of time, the correct answer is pepper. Now guess where pepper grows...

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Salt. In at least 50% of their savoury dishes

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Close, but salt is not a spice.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

    They did fuck all with the spices

    The British national dish is curry.

    Bigotry always goes hand-in-hand with ignorance.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    The Brits are like the OG Big Daddies of spreading bigotry across the world, its ok to give it back, they are severely in bigotry debt.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Spectacularly missing the point of why bigotry is bad in the first place.

    Telling someone they’re in “bigotry debt” over something that someone they’ve never even met did 200 years ago, and therefore fair game for pig-ignorant abuse, is as close to textbook racism as you can get. You have absolutely zero moral high ground here.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I was about to say this same fact on another comment above, but then I read the wikipedia article again

    apparently it isn't like an 'official' national dish, I guess it comes from Foreign Secretary Robin Cook referring to it as "a true british national dish" in a speech

    Chicken Tikka Massala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Chicken Tikka is an Indian dish. The Massala sauce was added to satisfy the desire of British people to have their meat served in gravy. (full speech) (wikipedia)

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    You know toad in the hole doesn't have actual toads in?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 24 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Beans on toast is amazing. With cheese 🤌

    I am a Brit though

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    Can't say I've eaten much English beans on toast, but I've recently started putting refried beans on toast (With a Mexican-inspired spice mix in the beans, sometimes salt on top) and it's pretty good.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago*

    For baked beans on toast, I recommend adding the following to your beans:

    • paprika (1/4 - 1/2 tbsp)
    • a small amount of ground pepper
    • sriracha sauce (optional, amount depends on your tolerance/preference, I like to use roughly 2-3 tbsp)
    • garlic powder (1/4 - 1/2 tbsp)
    • soy sauce (0 - 2 tbsp)
    • depending on your baked beans and if/how much soy sauce you used, add salt to taste

    Feel free to experiment with the amounts and adding some other stuff, would love to hear your thoughts if you ever give it a try :)

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 48 points 4 months ago* (13 children)

    This is what Japanese people eat for breakfast, it’s basically their version of beans on toast called Natto:

  • source
  • hideshow 13 child comments
  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    It has the texture of chunky snot. Most of y'all ain't ready for nattou.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    It's not a very fun meal due to the smell and mess it can make if you're not careful. The taste isn't awful but it's not something I'd go out of my way to eat again.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    I personally love it. Add some soy sauce and mustard, stir until foamy, enjoy.

    I get that some people won't get over the texture, but people like okra as well so…

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›