Good Food in Britain for a Change

Old Jul 24th, 2006, 06:04 AM
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Good Food in Britain for a Change

There is a rather ill-natured thread about bad food experiences in Britain.

Let's play nicely.
Just for a change, perhaps we could talk about really good meals in the UK.

Recently, I have experienced really good food at the Old Mill Highland Lodge in Scotland
http://www.theoldmillhighlandlodge.co.uk/

They only have six rooms, so the chef is basically cooking for a dinner party.

Another place where I've enjoyed really good cooking is the Bell in Saxmundham in Suffolk.
There is a review at http://tinyurl.com/eh7rk

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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 06:15 AM
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I am absolutely certain that you have the best of intentions. I've had some very good meals in the UK.

Unfortunately, as you found out on that ill-natured other thread we have BOTH contibuted to, not playing nicely is so much more fun but topping this anyway.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 06:24 AM
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I won't play on that other silly thread. I'm a Californian (LOTS of good food choices out here), lived in the UK for 5 years, and go back all the time. I can very honestly say I've had more bad meals in the States than ever in the UK. The "British food is rubbish" story is sooooooo out of date. I've had exactly TWO truly bad (inedible) meals in the UK out of thousands.

My list of good/great places to eat would run to three single spaced pages.

The majority of "bad meal" stories aren't because the food was bad but because it was different than the person expected. Ordering Chicken salad, and getting some chicken and a salad instead of "chicken salad". Or picking the wrong Jacket potato - Americans are generally used to a baked potato w maybe butter/sour cream/chives - and jacket potato fillings in the UK are sometimes weird and wonderful.

Or ordering mexican food and getting something different than the TexMex back home.

People often use beans on toast to illustrate how awful BritFood is (not that I'd ever order beans on toast in a restaurant or for breakfast) -- but why is that so horrible. Just about every American has had Pork 'n Beans, but for some reason seeing the beans on a piece of toast freaks them out.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 06:27 AM
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My favorite meals in the UK have usually been ethnic.

A Persian Lamb Casserole at the Rat and Parrot Pub in Chiswick - cinnamon and tomato and spices, yum!!!

Taz is an Anatolian restaurant chain, and we had a fantastic meal there as well. The desserts were fabulous, too!

The best pie I had was the Steak and Guinness pie in Carlisle, at a pub called (I think) the Coach and Horses. It was succulent and spicy.

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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 06:35 AM
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Recent really good food in London:
Good Earth - hooked on their char siu.

The Thai restaurant across from Bibendum

A South American (oddly enough) menu at Hattod's Georgian room.

Also at Harrod's Punch Cafe, their spinach salad with Stilton dressing & York ham sandwich is one of my favorite lunches.

Fabulous seasfood at Bibendum.

Sloppy Giuseppe pizza at Pizza Express.

My mind went blank but there's an excellent Indian restaurant north of Brompton Road, right by Bonham's auction house. Been there forever & just wonderful.

I had a fabulous lunch at the Savoy last year & it was fun to have a young man whose only job was to refill my water glass (luckily I wasn't paying for this.)

One of my most memorable meals was several years ago at the Stafford Hotel which I've mentioned before. Perfect Dover sole, Stilton celery soup & a dessert cart that was heavenly.

There are lots more. . .
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 06:53 AM
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Just back from St Mawes in Cornwall - what a gem - where we had very enjoyable meals at three different establishments: Hotel Tresanton, the Rising Sun and the Idle Rocks Hotel.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 08:13 AM
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We had a wonderful meal on one of the Thames boat rides.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 08:33 AM
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In Scotland they have whisky sauce with filet steak. It's fab... we ordered extra so we could dunk our fries in it. Yum!
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 08:34 AM
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We have had very few meals in the UK that were not good. One of my favorite meals was an eggplant dish with Stilton on the top at a simple but cozy little pub in Wells--very near the cathedral. Wish I could duplicate this at home.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 09:54 AM
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My favorite meal was taken at the Nobody Inn in Doddiscombsleigh:

Selection of artisan cheeses
Summer tomatoes with gorgonzola & walnuts
Blackberry cobbler with clotted cream
Selection of single malt whiskies

Heaven.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 11:49 AM
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Never mind teh rest of the thread MissPrism thanks for the recommendation.
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Old Jul 24th, 2006, 11:54 AM
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Glad you enjoyed the food in St. Mawes. Cornwall is really having a food revival at the moment - loads of good restaurants serving locally sourced dishes. The prices can be a bit steep though!
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 09:40 AM
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Best meal in the U.K. - the absolutely most delicious steak sandwich on ciabatta bread at the Royal Hotel pub in Comrie, Scotland. The rest of the meals during my trip were great, with the exception of fish & chips in one hotel pub near Inchmahome Priory. The fish had NO flavor no matter what I put on it. Other than that, I thought the food in the U.K. was very tasty!
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 09:48 AM
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twina49: Please say it wasn't the Lake Hotel. It used to have really good pub meals (and a nice restaurant too) but I had heard it recently changed hands . . . . .
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 10:23 AM
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Janis-I have to answer this: people freak out over pork and beans on toast because it is an innately unnatural combination, besides offending the aesthetic sense-there's nothing at all wrong with pork and beans (absent the pork-for me-and dressed up nicely as baked beans) AT ALL-they're quite good, even nutritious-but it is a BEAN dish that is intended to be served SEPARATELY from other foods!

The beans on toast is almost as incomprehensible as the baked potato served with a pizza that I have been subjected to too many times at UK pizza chains-why would they not pair a not untasty pizza (albeit strewn with corn) with a salad, something that makes sense-a starch-veggie combination? You could get a salad, but you would have to pay EXTRA-the baked potato is what came with it-the potato/pizza combo!

Some of the food pairings in the UK are almost as inscrutably mysterious as Stonehenge....
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 10:27 AM
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Uh - sort of like pineapple and ham on pizza that is popular in many parts of the States????

EVERY country has food combinations that may seem odd - doesn't make them tase bad . . . . .
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 10:33 AM
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Janis-you're mixing two different issues: regional differences as to what goes on a pizza are common-the examples you cited are Hawaiian style, CPK restaurants, as I'm sure you know, offer Thai, Indian, what-have-you-toppings for their many pizzas-that's not the point at all. I'm talking incomprehensible food pairings that absolutely make no sense from a nutritional or taste perspective, let alone aesthetically!
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 10:43 AM
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Hey, Gypsygirl.. you know what a Glaswegian calls salad?







Chips.
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 10:45 AM
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speaking of weird food combos...Brits think PB&J is ridiculous.
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Old Jul 25th, 2006, 10:47 AM
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Yes, Sheila, I think I recall only too well... the Saracen Head comes to mind here, for some reason-those lovely memories! (don't make me laugh anymore than I have already!)
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