What is the best British food you've had?
11d 14h ago by lemmy.world/u/FinjaminPoach in asklemmy
A comment on this earlier AskLemmy post inspired me to ask this question. I think there's lots of delicious British food/it really depends on how you cook it, as with any cuisine.
Nothing beats a proper English breakfast
Also, beef wellington is pretty great if done right.
Nothing beats a proper English breakfast
English Breakfast is a brilliantly balanced meal and it helped me get comfortable with eating a wider range of things (mushrooms, ratatouille, tomatoes) when I was younger. Love it.
Also, beef wellington is pretty great if done right.
I've never actually had one - always been told it is more effort than it's worth. Looks good though - one day I'll have my prize
ratatouille
What madness is this?
It's good on buttered toast, but yeah not exactly an English dish.
Haha yeah, we just have it from the can because it goes on potatoes and things and means you've got half your vegetables sorted for the meal.
I buy it canned most of the time too.
The canned stuff is almost identical to the homemade version anyway as there's only like 8 ingredients in a ratatouille and 6 of them are always going to be the same vegetables in approximately the same ratios.
I've never actually had one - always been told it is more effort than it's worth.
Beef Wellington isn’t even English, it started as a French dish and was refined and popularized in the US. And yes it’s way too much work to cook.
Maybe the French disowned it then. "Too much pastry and too much meat, this meal is practically English!" They seem to like more fancy-shaped pastries in France.
OMG
Having a proper Full English at a farm-stay, on the way down to Cornwall, was a standout lifetime meal.
The same exact one cooked by the wife for the farmer, to last him all day out in the field. Glor-i-ous.
Frying the toast slices in the bacon oil was next level.
Had beef wellington for the first time recently, and it was way tastier and less gimmicky than I expected. The mushroom mixture does a lot more work than you would expect from pictures.
Fish n chips hands down 100% final answer lock it in.
To anyone whos been to both places can you get "proper" fish n chips the world over? I've asked a few americans on xbox a few times and they tell me that its "fish and steak fries" and its basically the same thing, but it doesnt sound like it will be the same.
Chippy chips are a very specific thing and its incredibly difficult to explain that to someone who hasn't experienced it and just understands.
In America, the best approximation we can get to chippy chips are our steak fries. It's the cut of potato that's most similar, but there is a whole spectrum of doneness that one is rolling the dice on when ordering steak fries.
And you're right. There ain't nothing like chippy chips. I'm over here chasing a dragon when I should just be buying a plane ticket.
Got to have mushy peas with it to complete a proper fish n chips.
I lived in the US for a while and never once had proper fish and chips. Even the 'English themed pubs' didn't do it right.
But there's some amazing American food and if you're just looking for British fish and chips while abroad you might as well go on a package holiday.
Its no good to me now, but my dream was to get a big van and go touring other countries selling proper fish n chips. Get a social media presence showcasing peoples reactions and announcing my next stops like a tour.
If everywhere else already has authentic chippies then its fairly dead already. I don't know if they do or don't without doing the traveling that that career was going to provide though.
It's weird, even americans who actually try hard don't do fish and chips as well as brits who look like they're barely trying.
Oddly enough, the fast food Greek place here (not a chain) gets the closest to what I had in England.
Midwest fish fry at a supper club?
You're right, US fish and steak fries are not in the same league as authentic UK fish and chips.
Fish and Chips
Is shepherd's pie British? Or is that Scottish/Irish? 🤔 I like that, too.
Scotland is British, just not English.
Fun fact: 'fish and chips' was introduced to England by a Jewish migrant, same as pastrami for the USA. And shepherd's pie is British, but it's unclear whether it was northern England or Scotland.
Something-something 'cottage pie' is usually what's referred to when people refer to 'shepard's pie.'
Let's start with:
Fish and chips
Chip butty
Yorkshire fishcake butty
Whitebait
Scottish smoked salmon
Cromer crabs
Potted shrimp
Scallops and Black Pudding
Sunday Roast (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, vegetarian)
Beef Wellington
Full English
Full Scottish
Full Welsh
Ultster Fry
Deviled kidneys
Mixed grill
Gammon, egg and chips
Steak and Ale pie
Steak and oyster pie
Meat and potato pie
Pork pie
Chicken and Mushroom pie
Scotch pie
Game pie
Fish pie
Shepherd's pie
Cottage pie
Steak and kidney pudding
Lancashire hotpot
Irish stew
Cornish pasty
Scotch egg
Sausage roll
Ploughman's lunch
Haggis
Afternooon / Cream / High Tea
And of course the full range of BIR curries: Chicken Tikka Masala; Madras; Jalfrezi; Vindaloo; Korma; Pathia; and Balti
And a bunch of puddings and sweet things, sticky toffee pudding, apple pie, mince pie, hot cross buns, etc., but I don’t have a sweet tooth
Depending on where you get said foodstuffs it can be everywhere from grim inedible sadness to glorious sublime perfection.
Also you forgot Toad in the Hole
I didn't forget it. I'm just not a massive fan of toad in the hole, tbh.
Oh :(
Same
Mmm Cornish pasty
British food
Irish stew
ಠ_ಠ
They make a mean Irish stew in Northern Ireland. So, yes, Irish stew.
Cooked by Protestants
Northern Ireland is more Catholic than Protestant tbh
Just to clarify / confuse but both Irelands (republic and north) are on an island in the British Isles… but, yeah, the Irish Irish certainly ain’t British; as we’re using it here.
Visited Scotland
Walked into a little mom-n-pop fast restaurant
Wondered wtf is a "deep fried pizza", ordered one.
Dude took a "frozen" pizza out of the fridge
Dude folded it in half and stuck it in an oil deep fry.
OMFG never tasted such sweet sin... crispy flakey crust on the outside, melty cheesy inside
Totally worth the 10 million calories and arterial hardening
I'm flabbergasted that I've never seen that dish in the US. Well done rando Scot!
Oh, this isn't 'rando'. Chippies in Scotland will deep fry any fucking thing. Pizza? Standard. Mars bar? Of course! In some chippies you can even take something you've bought somewhere else and ask if they'll batter and fry the fucker for you and they'll say yes.
Whenever I get home to Scotland, my personal supper of choice is the haggis supper - a sausage of haggis meat, battered and deep fried, and served with beautifully fried chips, of course. The second night I'm home (especially if the wife isn't with me) is a haddock supper. Fuckin' grand.
I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I'm told by those who do that the deep fried Bounty is just the wrong side of the acceptable line of deep fried sweet shit.
I used to do a star bar tempura as a dessert.
I'll never forget passing my local chippy when I lived in Edinburgh and seeing they'd handwritten "almost" on the "WE WILL DEEP FRY ANYTHING" sign.
Behind every sign there's a story.
What, did you think that was the one bit of Americana that didn't cross an ocean?
Nah, thought Scots like themselves enough to not eat like that.
This is somehow the second time Scottish self-loathing has come up on Lemmy. Here's the clip from Trainspotting.
I have no idea if that has anything to do with real life, or it's just a very famous movie, but they do eat a lot of weird fried stuff and have terrible health stats.
Steak and ale pie is delish!
Hm what is that? I know the words but I never heard them in this combination as a dish.
It's a pie with steak and ale in it
How does the ale stay in there? Or is it just a little bit?
The ale is cooked into the sauce, like a sauce made with red wine.
It's mixed in with gravy, I guess the gravy and pastry are thick enough that no liquid component seeps out.
It's alright if the pie splits a bit upon serving because the gravy is going to release onto your plate when you cut in anyway.
It's also usually alright if some leaks out during cutting because we often put them in tinfoil pie - cups. Example
Oh, mate, why would you cite Pukka pies as an example of good British food. They're the Kraft dinner macaroni cheese of British pies.
Lived in the uk for just over 10 years from 2000 to 2011. there were some great pub meals in both the north (around Yorkshire and Durham) and in the south west (Swindon / Bath).
I was very disappointed with Indian when I moved back to New Zealand so I guess that was good as well.
We cant get good Jamaican/Caribbean in small town NZ, and that was a good go to down south.
I guess I'm an uncultured savage but yorkshire puddings. By a county mile.
I love em, but I would specify what I have them with: Roast Parsnips, Roast Lamb, Roast potatoes and mint sauce and gravy, + Steamed Carrots and Kale. That's a full meal. Splendid.
With jam and whipped cream!
the british food being shit discussion is never dormant for long. maybe it is shit but for me, of all the dinners i've ever had, nothing beats good bangers and mash
Yes - If it's "slop," then fine, I like eating slop!
Bangers and mash isn't one of my favourites, just because it's very basic - but I do always enjoy eating it and the fact it has only a few components is one of it's strengths. Every cuisine needs some simpler fishers like that.
yeah, maybe i'm just shit at being english (i don't like tea or football either) but i am not compelled to defend the cuisine. if i could figure out exxactly why i like bangers and mash so much i might prepare a argument for it but 'i just really like it' suits me fine
Sausages feel very nutritious to eat, as does high-butter food like Mashed potatoes - whether they actually are good for modern people's health is irrelevant. I imagine when it was invented it was quite important for people to refuel on protein fat and carbs all at once.
Something I like about it is that it's sort of like an exercise in balance and self control, you dip your sausage (pardon the.. nvm) into mashed potatoes, balancing the very flavoursome meaty morsel with the potatoes. It's like a pacing yourself kind of meal? Wouldn't want to end up with too much potato left over, not finish it all before your sausages are eaten.
Got to eat them both at the exact same rate.
in a just world you would be rewarded for committing such thoughtful commentary on bangers and mash to the public domain
Toad in the hole is basically bangers & mash 2.0
Fish and chips, if done well, can be an absolute gournet experience 🙂
I go to the pub when I want a fancy one and to the chippy when I want to refuel for an almost-affordable price
Vindaloo.
Classic. Also a fun one to say to troll people who don't know much about british food.
Phall. If you know, you know.
When I lived in the states for a while, I'd often crave a curry. Me and another Brit would head out to an Indian restaurant and usually order a Vindaloo. The waiter would say "Are you sure, it is quite spicy hot." And we'd tell him we were British and he'd say "Oh, I understand." and give us what we'd asked for without further comment.
I'm from the EU, but I love making shepherd's pie. It's pretty easy and when done correctly, it is an absolutely fantastic dish.
Scones
Bubble and squeak
Grilled salmon from the Lune river served with roasted potatoes, honey glazed parsnips and grilled green beans.
Shepherd's Pie, though I confess I've never made it with mutton. If you use ground beef, it's called Cottage Pie.
I use hot Italian sausage. I don't think there's a name for doing that. At that point you're mixing up Cottage Pie with bangers and mash (mashed potatoes and sausage). And I'm okay with that. All those dishes are good. Mixing things up is what I do.
I watched a YouTube food historian Max Miller talk about shepherds pie and he mentioned that there is t really much of a correlation between what meat you use and whether it is “Shepard” or “Cottage” pie.
Shepherd's pie is lamb, Cottage pie is beef.
I mean, my point is that it isn’t how it has always been historically, but whatever you want to do is fine.
La shephardos pie, possibly.
Would you like a Jelly Baby?
You know what, They're one of those sweets that don't make me feel like crap to eat - not too much sugar, lovely texture. Great for adults and kids alike.
Jelly beans are the same, and are slightly better for the joy of different flavours but slightly worse for texture, so it balances out.
A culinary tour of the UK would definitely be remiss not to include confectionary like Jelly Babies and Jelly Beans.
Tom Baker is the living walking Soul of Britain
Two things definitely stand out for me:
- The fish and chips are Awesome - fillets are delicious, and 3x the size of what I get in the States. The fish and chips are hot, crispy outside, tender inside.
- Baked goods. Pies, cakes, napoleons, etc are universally fantastic, especially anything made with puff pastry. I got sausage rolls for a pound sixty from under the heat lamps at Tesco that were as good as entrees I've had in US restaurants.
Fish and Chips with vinegar in a newspaper, it's surprisingly good. I had it somewhere in a suburb of London in some traditional shop and the grandma who was in front of me put so much vinegar on hers that the whole counter and floor was soaked in it.
No traditional shop would ever give you vinegar. It was non-brewed condiment.
Ok that might be I have no idea, it was sour as far as I remember. That was over 20 years ago.
So nice and crispy, nothing beats it
There's something about a sunday dinner on a rainy day...the day after a night out.
Got to be either a full English breakfast or a Cornish pasty.
My grandmother was British, and she'd cook the most amazing roast potatoes I've ever had. Its just a shame she made them by sacrificing the roast beef...
I've had a lot of good food in Scotland, but one of the most memorable meals was in the Crinan Hotel's seafood bar - a big plate of langoustines that had been caught that morning, served with perfect chips and aoli. On the menu they were called Loch Crinan jumbo prawns.
That image is playing major perspective tricks on me, lol. They look giant
I'm a Brit, and personally, I think a lot of the staples we are weirdly defensive of are not that exciting. A Sunday roast? Sure, it's probably associated with family and comfort or whatever, but give me Thai, Mexican, Italian, Japanese food, etc., over it any day.
That said, the two I will defend to the grave are a decent fish and chip supper and an English/Scottish breakfast.
Indan takeout
...served with a cold beer. (chef's kiss)
Had a really good steak and ale pie in a pub somewhere. Also, fish and chips is wildly overrated.
Full Fry-up Breakfast
Full Fry-Up is the right term, it's the effort that you put into making it that makes it feel so good to eat. The culinary equivalent of a short mountain hike.
Mine too. She was from Canada.
Haggis and cock a leekie soup. Mince and tatties are a close second.
Tbh haggis was the one thing that disappointed me. But the quality varied hugely from place to place. I brought home a canned one the shopkeeper highly recommended as one of the better brands. Meh.
Since other people are posting haggis, then the fucking BANGER haggis pizza I had when I visited the U.K. More of a Scottish thing though, no?
More strictly then I suppose Fish'n Chips or a Cottage Pie. I has those too over there. Can't say it's noticeably different from the local Atlantic Canada themed joints all around me in a landlocked province 😅.
Haggis is totally a Scottish thing, but it depends on who you ask whether Scottish counts as British or not. Some people get surprisingly militant about it
Almost like many in Scotland want to be a sovereign country, and that is fair.
More of a Scottish thing though, no?
Scotland + Wales + England = Britain, you're clear.
Haggis pizza?! I need to try this.
Maybe I was just cold and wet and hungry and tired, but the best haggis I've had was on a baked potato with cheddar cheese at the Culloden battlefield visitor center cafe. Man that hit the spot.
It was nearby the hiking trail to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Possibly "La Favorita Pizzeria" looking up the area now but this was in 2015.
Toasted crumpets slathered in butter and marmite, or jam.
Marmalade on sourdough toast.
Ploughmans sandwiches with good bread. (This one is not as good since going vegan though, as vegan butter is almost identical but the cheeses not so much.)
Sticky toffee pudding
Christmas pudding
Roast potatoes
Elderflower cordial
Gin
Before going vegan I quite liked smoked makrel and various tinned fish on toast. Kedgeree was good too, but that's a Scottish take on an Indian dish.
Idk I don't really eat much 'British' food despite being born here, both my parents are immigrants from different countries.
Before going vegan I quite liked smoked makrel
Sitting down with a cooked fish, not battered, makes me feel very good about myself like I'm not defiling nature and somehow eating it in a more healthy way/wasting less.
Great list of stuff. I hope your veganism continues to go well!
Thanks! It's been a decade strong so far and I can't see myself ever eating animals again.
Liver and bacon with onion gravy, served with mash.
Dippy eggs with marmite on the soldiers
Haha, yeah, good joke.
Also, everyone (including me in my other post) is going savoury — how about sweet? Aero bar, in mint. Perfection. Bark candy mostly only comes in chocolate, or dark chocolate. Sometimes vanilla (white chocolate, which is not chocolate, it's vanilla and vanilla should own it because "white chocolate" is awesome, though it should really be called "Vanilla candy bark," but "bark candy" is really only known as... chocolate... hence "white chocolate"). Fun fact, I've had all kinds of bark candy. When I was a kid, I got it in orange and raspberry as well. Now it's only chocolate and... what I mentioned. Oh and mint chocolate, like Andes mints, but also those pastel-coloured mints that sometimes have the little white balls of hard sugar on them (I think those are just straight up mint bark though).
Again why TF don't we have bark candy in other flavours?
WTF is 'bark' candy?
Essentially it’s what a chocolate bar is.
I forgot; around the holidays you may see “peppermint bark.”
Honestly fish and chips in terms of a meal.
As part of a meal, Yorkshire pudding is unlike anything I’ve had in America, and nothing like what it evokes in the typical American.
More like popovers almost.
OMG IT'S A SPINOFF POST I LOVE YOU TOO
Yeah because boring old me was going to comment "well I've only been abroad once, but..." 😅
We're reviving AskLemmy with these spinoff posts 🔥
I've literally never traveled more than a few states away and I hated every second...
fr though traveling is sooooo stressful to me but people worldwide fascinate me. So different but so similar at the same time. Instructions unclear I now want strippers at my funeral.
Jaffa cakes
JAFFA KREE
A good balti.
Yep, already dreaming of my next one right now
Spotted Dick
I had a crack at assembling a pie barm after learning what it was. It was way better than it should have been.
What is it? A meat pie served on a bread roll (barm is a specific type I believe) with optional brown sauce (HP for example).
The roll is great for handling reasons and for when the arse falls out of the pie.
I had some very good sandwiches and salads during my visit to London; the rest was mixed (even the ethnic food, which I thought would be safe).
I love a bunch of things listed but I'm into low effort. My friend did a jacket potato with baked beans, cheese, coleslaw and it was awesome
Bake the potato, butter it after cutting an X, add cheese then cover with warmed baked beans (if you're American, find ones not baked with molasses or brown sugar. You want savory not sweet.) top with coleslaw and enjoy a meal in a dish
Super easy, delicious, the flavors and textures mixed well. Like baked potatoes you can add whatever you want but this was a new combination to me
Baked potato fast-food shops popped up all over the country recently. Haven't gone to one yet because I actually get enough baked potatoes in my diet. I love the combination of cheese, butter, baked beans and potatoes, though.
This one drew in visitors from other, non neighbouring English counties, when it opened. BBC News Article
People are stunned when I tell them our Christmas dinner is a British recipe. Although it is no classical British household recipe, but comes from Jamie Oliver.
I don’t have much to add to the actual question asked, I’m generally pro British food done right. I do want to mention that recently I found a British restaurant near my house in the US, and I’ve been watching too much GBBO so I had to get the apple pie, and it was the saddest thing I’ve ever eaten.
The apple pie was essentially an orb of wonder bread with a few slices of limp apple in the middle, and the whole thing was smothered in custard until soggy. Not one bit of sugar or anything resembling flavor to be found anywhere in the three ingredients. The apples were extremely gritty for some reason, it definitely wasn’t cinnamon.
I wanted to go full Karen and call the chef out to apologize for this food crime, but I’m not confident enough in my understanding of British food to say that isn’t authentic. If someone had made that on GBBO I’m sure they would have sent them home without even trying the rest of the food. I can imagine Paul going “Why is it so gritty?!”
I can't think of any dough that would end up like wonder bread, you should have gone full Karen. Granny smiths stewed with sugar (and optionally spices) in a short crust case is the right way to do it, though they did get the smothered in custard until soggy bit right.
Made with wrong kind of apples and kind of not enough thought into it is what i would say. But also i think you went in expecting american pie (xd) American Apple Pie, that is, which i guess holds togehter better than british apple pies.
BUT since it's a restaurant they maybe should have made it a bit better - i'm sure british patrons would also scoff at that because they could just buy one from a supermarket that is functionally the same.
Your analysis is totally correct, they could have used cinnammon for instance to make it nicer, and i'll repeat that they either used the wrong type of apples or cooked them wrong entirely.
More specifically, I went in hoping for the kind of pie I saw in Great British Bakeoff. Or, at least, a pastry of some sort. I think what I saw was less of an example of British cooking, and more of a chef who actively disdained humanity as a whole.
Altoids
Does a steamed pud from a container count? Those things actually do kind of slap.
Yes
huel
I've been to London twice .... and the best food I've ever eaten the whole time there was fish and chippy from a street vendor by tower hill.
Only the Brits would colonize half the world looking for spices and then refuse to use them in their food.
Only the Brits would colonize half the world looking for spices and then refuse to use them in their food.
Oh, do fuck off. It's such a tired cliché and wrong. Our traditional dishes predate conquering almost the entire fucking world. So, no, they don't tend to feature spices other than pepper and nutmeg because that was all we had 500 years ago.
But now our national dish is chicken tikka masala. We love our BIR curries, like Madras; Jalfrezi; Vindaloo; Korma; Pathia; and Balti. These were invented here, in the UK, for UK palates. So you can fuck off and shove whatever cuisine your country has up your fucking arse while you're at it.
TIL: I should have explored more when I was over there ... I just went to "pubs" and what I thought were British places ... never thought of venturing on that side of the culinary spectrum.
Sounds like I need another trip soon LOL
If you're going to go to the pubs for British food don't do it in London. Don't do it in a city at all, to be honest, all the really good ones are out in tiny villages or the middle of a moor.
I love spicy food, and once tried to order vindaloo at a family-run Indian place in Cornwall, but the owner convinced me to have Madras instead. Lucky thing, because the Madras was right at the perfect edge of my heat tolerance. I wouldn't have been able to eat the vindaloo lol.
Traditional spiceless dishes, like Christmas pudding?
I think you have it backwards. The UK conquered the world, in part for spices (although that was more a Spain and Portugal thing), and used them. Then, you stopped importing them for a few decades as government policy and switched to "grease as the primary flavour".
“We stole other countries foods and made them ours.”
Pop them in a museum and you’d complete the picture.
You know that those dishes are British because people of South Asian heritage moved to the UK, brought their food with them and then merged with the local palate? Do you think they're not British?