Off to England

[TheFifthElement]

Ok, babe, toss me a tart!

I guess just plain American fare is my choice.

The question is: what is plain old American fare?

I did hear it was expensive if one did eat well.

Yes it will be expensive compared to what you're used to in US. When I was in US I was astonished by the quantity of food in a standard serving. But the US is the land of plenty, whereas UK is a very small island with a big population. I don't think we're self-sufficient in food, so there's the cost of import plus all those EU subsidies we're forking out for, and all our farmers seem to be interested in growing is oilseed rape. But I can understand why your neighbours found it expensive. I think Heston Blumenthal's restaurant (the Fat Duck) is likely to be expensive, and interestingly he, unusually for a British chef, is not adverse to being liberal with the MSG. Probably why his restaurant rates so highly. That, and the snail ice cream. He's a bit odd (I bet you don't want to eat there now )

I will check out the link and that restaurant....hey, if people say Britian has such awful food, why is it one sees these period dramas with elaborate layouts of the dining table; they even have to measure the space for the plate and the silverware....the food always looks extraordinary and delicious. Is this just indicative in manions or estates?

Ah that's just for the aristocracy; us commoners have to rely on last weeks veggies and cheese, tripe & jellied eels

[prendrelemick]

Course there was a war on! Manichaean.

[MANICHAEAN]

Ah. You remember the whale steaks prendrelemick!
I had a feeling in my water that you were of that epoch.
That & your choice of songs in "Never Ending Story".

[kasie]

Enjoy your time in UK, PL. I'm really sorry some posters, ironic or otherwise, are trying to frighten you with the hoary old myths about British food - it's like the Little Girl with the Curl, when it's good, it's very, very good but when it's bad, it's horrid. As my grandma used to say - You get what you pay for - buy cheap, you get cheap, pay a bit more, you get a better deal for your money.

[Emil Miller]

No, if I remember correctly the average weekly menu in Fulham as a child was something like:
Sunday: Roast beef & Yorkshire Pudding,followed by Bread & Butter pudding.
Monday: Bubble & Squeak topped with HP Sauce.
Tuesday: Bangers & Mash with Colmans Mustard.
Wednesday: Liver & Bacon followed by Semolina.
Thursday: Toad in the Hole followed by Jam Roly Poly.
Friday: Fish & Chips.
Saturday:Welsh Rarebit or Stew.
And you know what Brian? Having just returned back from a trip to Brittany in Northern France where I indulged in such exotics as: Rabbit cooked in a wine sauce, Gigot a la Brettane, Pigeon & cabbage in a flaky pastry crust and a caramel dessert flambled in Grand Marnier, I still appreciate the above.
Presumably you know the story of how Sir Michael Caine requested Anton Mossman Head Chef of the Savoy to stop giving him all those "fancy" dishes and to try & make bread and butter pudding like his Mum used to make. Its so popular, its still on the menu today.
Petrarch. You started one hell of a thread. Sorry it diverted off onto a foodie tangent.All my fault.

As someone who lives off of very small and infrequent portions of food, I am always at a loss to understand how others can eat so much. My food bill at the local supermarket seldom tops more than £20 per week and I often find cooking an imposition. If, like so many others, I am overweight it must be put down solely to my alchohol intake that certainly exceeds the cost of my food. I could talk for hours about the delights of various wines, beers, spirits etc. but my knowlege of foodstuffs is neglible at best.

[Janine]

So you like, eh?

The question is: what is plain old American fare?

Fifth, after I wrote that I was thinking the same thing - our food is an amalgamation of all cultures, really. In fact, most dinners now are Greek and the diner we are going to tonight has a Turkish cook, I believe. More on that diner below....
Italian is big in the states, although I admit I don't eat very much Italian food; Chinese I can't have at all - MSG! Indian food is getting popular; sushi has been popular. Point is in the US you can find all kinds of foods. Maybe seafood is native to the US; such as Lobster in Maine and Salmon in Alaska. Maryland crabcakes must be purely American fare.

Yes it will be expensive compared to what you're used to in US. When I was in US I was astonished by the quantity of food in a standard serving. But the US is the land of plenty, whereas UK is a very small island with a big population. I don't think we're self-sufficient in food, so there's the cost of import plus all those EU subsidies we're forking out for, and all our farmers seem to be interested in growing is oilseed rape. But I can understand why your neighbours found it expensive. I think Heston Blumenthal's restaurant (the Fat Duck) is likely to be expensive, and interestingly he, unusually for a British chef, is not adverse to being liberal with the MSG. Probably why his restaurant rates so highly. That, and the snail ice cream. He's a bit odd (I bet you don't want to eat there now )

Yes, indeed about out portions. I can usually make two dinners out of my diner selection at this one diner we frequent. I am going there tonight, just with that thought in-mind, since I need a quick meal for tomorrow night, as well. Ah, yes, the cost of import would be a factor. I didn't think of that fact. Well, I won't be eating at Blumenthal's anytimes soon if I visit the island...eeek...that MSG kills me!

snail ice-cream? ....oh my!

Ah that's just for the aristocracy; us commoners have to rely on last weeks veggies and cheese, tripe & jellied eels

I sort of figured that. So do they eat royally? The food always looks so incredible in those films. I guess for the common man it's strictly meat and potatoes, or fish and chips.

So much for my trip to England. I would have to pack a picnic lunch to last the whole time I am there.

[TheFifthElement]

So you like, eh?

I was thinking ooer missus! In proper Carry On fashion!

our food is an amalgamation of all cultures, really.

See, we're not that different really

Maybe seafood is native to the US; such as Lobster in Maine and Salmon in Alaska. Maryland crabcakes must be purely American fare.

There's quite a lot of seafood in UK, being an island and all that. If you like salmon then you'd eat just fine here as Scotland is a pretty hefty salmon producer. So you needn't worry about this:

So much for my trip to England. I would have to pack a picnic lunch to last the whole time I am there.

if you ever decide to visit just ask Lit-net and we'll give you a list of the best fish, Greek and Turkish restaurants, all MSG free, and you'll be just fine Of course you'd have to have fish & chips, but like Neely said always best to have them at the seaside and they're best eaten out of paper (used to be newspaper but that doesn't meet health & safety laws anymore, sadly) and if you did venture north I'd be happy to pass you that tart

[Niamh]

PL, you should head in to covent garden and try some of the nice eataries there.
Make sure you go see the tower of london.

Oh and here is the Shakespeares globe website if you are interested in seeing something there. http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/

[Petrarch's Love]

Petrarch. You started one hell of a thread. Sorry it diverted off onto a foodie tangent.All my fault.

On the contrary, I find this British food debate fascinating. I already only drink tea and never coffee, have a taste for Guiness and other stouts, and have even been known to make Shepherd's pie from an old family recipe, but I am wondering if that will be enough to enable me to survive in this exotic gustatory world I am about to enter? Most of the dishes alluded to on this thread I have at least heard or read of, if not consumed, before--with the exception of "bubble and squeak" which has already been satisfactorily explained--but I am wondering: what is this "HP sauce" that all you Brits seem to be alluding to every other sentence, and will I find this mysterious condiment in plentiful amounts while dining in your demi-paradise?

I am now adding to my list of things to try, very strong cheddar as recommended by Neely (I'm quite fond of cheddar as a rule) and treacle tarts to ward off the damp as prescribed from FifthElement, that staunch defender of English cuisine. To my list of things to not try I am adding snail ice cream as alluded to by FifthElement. Can't help wondering if the latter is some unfortunate fall out from a culinary cold war between the French and the British? If those froggies can give the world cooked snails then England will best them with frozen ones!

"Better forget the impulsive embrace/double kiss greeting "
Dear heart, if we happen to meet while you are over here, then the impulsive embrace/double kiss greeting will be essential, I assure you.

At least if the snails are frozen, not all the people are. Right! Should I encounter you, Whifflingpin, on a busy thoroughfare, it shall be with open arms. To all other British citizens, only the stiff upper lip and a firm handshake.

Good luck with the trip Petrarch's Love, it sounds great, Oxford, London and Paris. It is good to see academics get a lucky break now and then too, well deserved.

I've always wanted to get to Oxford myself actually and have never quite got around to it, I'll get there next year though, and as for Paris, I think I'll quite die for it. I'm busy learning the language so I don't have to be a typical obnoxious Brit abroad when I finally visit the beautiful place, anyway, here is Wilde on Oxford, I thought you might appreciate it for some reason:

Thank you Neely, I do appreciate the Wilde quote. I like the line "the enchanted valley, holding in its flowerlet cup all the idealism of the Middle Ages." Apart from its commentary on Oxford, it's one of the nicest things I've ever seen expressed about the Middle Ages.

Away from food, I would also second the comment about trying to get down to Stratford upon Avon to see a play and also Shakespeare's house, which is a really weird experience. You are walking along a standard high street with the usual coffee shops, card shops etc, and then all of a sudden is this little Elizabethan house and rose garden just there bang in the middle of it all, it is a very strange sight. The first thing I did was to reach over and touch the house, like it was holy or something... By the same regards The Globe sounds great, though I have never been there myself as yet.

Yes, as many people on here have suggested, I am thinking of trying to get up to Stratford to visit the home of the Bard and take in a play. I'm thinking of trying to see the production of Julius Caesar up there that's ending its run the first weekend I'm in Oxford which, given that its an evening performance, might mean staying a night in Stratford after the performance. So, if anyone has recommendations for inexpensive Stratford accomodations I'm all ears. I already have tickets for As You Like It at the Globe, so I'm guaranteed to get at least some sort of Shakespeare fix while there

Well I don't know if she has been to Paris previously but it's certainly different now to the one I first visited in my own misspent youth. I don't think the French smoked anything other than Gauloise or Caporal back then. My hotel was in Montmartre in the Rue Fromentin and was called Hotel Mont Joli, which may have been named after the Mont du Martyr but given the number of ladies of the night in the Boulevarde de Clichy, who would stroll up, take you by the hand and whisper 'Viens avec moi Cherie', it may have had a more risque connotation.
The wine in the bars was mostly Algerian and I drank quite a lot of it during my stay but, luckily, I was able to smoke cigarettes that I had brought from England.
I don't think anyone forgets their first trip to Paris which, for my money, is the greatest city in he world. I hope Petrarch's Love has a great time there.

Thanks, Brian. I have had the enormous good fortune to have been to Paris twice before but, of course, no number of times could ever be enough. I'm looking forward to going again and staying in a lovely little hotel on the left bank. It should be fantastique! (Though I am glad that I am avoiding the Hotel Mont Joli, which hardly sounds like a jolly place for a lady to hang out).

Since people are recommending books to you Petrarch, here's one I think you would enjoy that I just finished. Credit goes to PrinceMyshkin for recommending it to me. It's called Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin and it takes up The Aeneid from the perspective of Aeneas' second wife Lavinia. It has nothing to do with England but I just know you will enjoy this. Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Lavinia-Ursula.../dp/0151014248.

Thanks for the book recommendation, Virg. I'll have to check it out.

[Virgil]

I'm green with envy that you will be able to see so many Shakespeare plays Petrarch.

[MANICHAEAN]

Dear Petrarch
The French have sauces: bearnaise, bechamel, hollandaise, remoulade, roux & veloute, just to mention the most well known ones.
The British have two:
1. Tomato Ketchup (if you count it as a sauce) &
2. HP Sauce. A brown sauce condiment produced now by Heinz with 71% of the UK market. Originally known as "Harry Palmers Famous Epsom Sauce" with a picture of The Houses of Parliament on the bottle. Later known in the 1960s & 70s as "Wilsons Gravy" after the wife of the Labour Prime Minister claimed that "if Harold has a fault, it is that he will drown everything in HP sauce".
Mind you in those days we Brits were a bit more stroppy. The first British Minister for the European Common Market when visiting his French counterpart used to take his own sandwiches with him!

[prendrelemick]

If you are going for the mature Chedder you will need Branston Pickle! Remember the name.

[MarkBastable]

If you are going for the mature Chedder you will need Branston Pickle! Remember the name.

Just to introduce a note of caution - and I speak here as a great fan of Cheddar - I would advise that you should not under any circumstances touch Branston Pickle. It is caramelised cat crap.

[MANICHAEAN]

Heresy !
What do you put on your cheddar sandwich?

[MarkBastable]

Heresy !
What do you put on your cheddar sandwich?

Piccalilli.