OT: British teens try Southern comfort food

Hey joe - welcome to the board. Tell us about your interest in the Gators.

 

Thanks for chiming in Limey. I've only been to Scotland and am no expert on U.K. cuisine. From your perspective, how does British food compare in quality and variety with other world cuisines? Is it diff than Scottish/Irish?

I'm of Swedish heritage and live in a part of the U.S. where the majority of the population is Scandinavian. Their idea of food, for lack of a better description, is awful. Norwegian breakfast would be an exception. Otherwise, the Swedes and Fins have no idea about good cuisine. From my experience in the U.S. and moderate amount of global travel, I'd say my favorites are:

1. Japanese - awesome variety and so many healthy options
2. Cuban - along with the coffee, just great food
3. Taiwanese - see #1. My wife is Taiwanese and I want to rank it #1, but am trying to be hones. Freshest food offerings I've had and a great micro-culture
4. Korean - BBQ and fish cakes. Not the healthiest, but darn good
5. Italian - haven't traveled there, so my rating should be taken with a . . . ahem . . . grain of salt
6. Mexican - can get some healthy options with authentic Mex, but I'm a sucker for American Mex
7. Brazilian - Too much meat, but so good. Best breakfast I've ever had. Interestingly, a lot of German and Italian influence
8. Szechuan Chinese - It's spicy, but yummy.
9. Jamaican - I'm craving this, but gonna have to wait a bit as there is zero Jamaican culture up here.

Worst food from my experience: Swedish, Chilean, Irish . . .

 

Strong list. Especially the Cuban/coffee angle.

 

I am.

....That's why I said: "watching".

 

Actually a "public school" in England is a private school

Public school (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia

 

Yes, it's odd. We call them State and Independent schools. It's based on the way they are funded- independent fund themselves through fee paying and state are Gov't funded.
These boys certainly sound like they could be from an independent school, but it's not that straight forward. Regardless, they are not typically representative. I mean, I wish they were, but that's besides the point...

It's pretty pants, really. I can't even tell you what is in our identity. We just tend to pinch things from around the world... I mean, if it's worked for us for 500-600 years, why change the habit of a nation?

The quintessentially "British" meals I think of are Roast Beef (a personal favourite) and, of course, fish and chips. I mean, it's hardly Michelin star stuff... so 'quality' isn't a word that jumps into my head! Quirky, maybe...

A bit of an identity gap really.

 

I grew up on southern cooking but moved away from it living in SFla. Thought I really liked it until I spent some time in the deep south visiting family. I quickly realized everything seemed fried and/or heavily salted. Still like grits and a few other things, but weird how such a simple dish like grits gets screwed up. Guess I've just moved on.

 

When we were in London we were served baked beans everyday for breakfast. Certainly different to have beens and eggs for breakfast. Traditional?

 

I think traditional southern cooking has changed over the last 50 years or so
Growing up it was ham, fried chicken, pot roast at least three vegetables and corn bread . Homemade in the kitchen. Now it seems fried chicken comes from a fast food place all vegetables come from a an and the corn bread is a powdered mix…

 

No, that’s just fat lazy Americans eating junk food or prepared food. But even with prepared foods, it doesn’t have to be total crap. Obviously the big chain restaurants (esp fast food) are just about making it as cheap and fast as possible. No chance of legit food there. But you also don’t exactly need a 5* restaurant to at least use non canned ingredients. I think many casual dining and low end sit down restaurants (esp chains) use canned goods, but plenty of smaller restaurants of any style (including Southern style cooking) use 100% fresh. I feel like most places with very high yelp ratings and bragging about “farm to table” or where they are sourcing their ingredients are likely not using many processed ingredients. Whenever I’m traveling I love checking out hole in the wall the places and a little research on yelp rarely disappoints.

When I’m preparing vegetables i almost never used canned, frankly I have no idea why anyone would unless they are in a remote area or something and need storage for months. I look at canned stuff as like an emergency supply. Fast food and fast casual of course use pre-processed food so they can deliver fast on an assembly line and try to minimize contamination.

 

100% traditional, yep.