British Cuisine

Sometimes I get asked what exactly American cuisine is. The obvious answer seems to always be hamburgers, but I like to think as a nation we've developed more than one meal. I can't help but get the impression that what makes up American cuisine is not just food that is American, but it is more the collection of different types of food that are commonly consumed without being termed 'exotic', even though the foods did not originate within the US. So while any form of BBQ and most forms of sweet pie are American in both origin and frequency of consumption, at the same time Mexican, Italian and Chinese all form integral parts of what we as Americans consume. Hopefully that all makes sense, because now I'm going to flip that around and delve into what these crazy Brits eat.

First I will go over what I term to be, well, let's say English cuisine. They are a bit different in Scotland so I'm going to leave them out of it. When I think of English food I generally think of 'savoury' pies. A pastry crust filled with meat and potatoes, and maybe like, a carrot. The meats vary, of course, from things like beef and chicken to lamb (they are so much bigger on lamb than we are). And of course other meats. The main reason that I don't think my mother could survive on the locale cuisine is that bread is not like, ever, included in an English meal. Perhaps this is do to the high percentage of potatoes, but sometimes I'm like, why is there never any bread?? Other typical English meals include of course bangers and mash and perhaps the king of them all, the roast.

Roasts are typically consumed as big Sunday lunches, and are a common feature of a pub on a Sunday. I've had I think 4. The star of the roast is, well, the roasted meat, and you typically have options. Most common would be beef, lamb and pork. Said meat would come covered in gravy. The meat is accompanied by sometimes two forms of roast potatoes, and other steamed vegetables such as carrots or peas, and perhaps there will be a bit of 'cauliflower cheese' which is basically as it sounds. There might be a yorkshire pudding on top, which while bready is obviously not bread because you eat it with a knife and fork and you don't put butter on it.

Then there is the food that the English eat. Like with ourselves, Italian is popular, only pizza tends to more of the Italian style with a very thin crust. In the East Asian department, there is some Chinese and Thai and the occasional Japanese. So that's all basically the same. Tapas are a lot more common, you know, like Spanish food. This is probably because we are not as far from Spain. Now the key difference, in my mind at least, is that Mexican and Indian food as basically swapped in positions. Both are present in both countries, but here Mexican is more of a rare bit of exoticism while curry is a bit of a food staple, with chicken tikka sometimes called the national dish. I liken this swap not to different tastes, but simple demographics and major immigration patterns.

So that's what I have to say about that, while certainly not covering a lot of food, it sorts of sets up more talk on food as it in some ways shows what I'm dealing with here as far as tastes are concerned. I might also add that I feel I have been here long enough where I can make people go eat American and Mexican food as often as possible. Which really isn't very often. Sadly.