zachhealey

I'm sorry to the Brits if this is rude, but I only hear bad things about British food. I am going to stay with family for the holiday season, and I am so worried about what food will be served up. I remember seeing the beef trifle in Friends, and I hear about mince beef dessert pies and Toad-pudding and pea-pudding, and I am really scared that I might not be able to eat any of their food.

Can anyone help me feel better about the English cuisine?

nukesafe

Many years ago I was afflicted of a British wife, and every bad thing they had to say about British food was correct, from vegetables cooked to the consistency of mush, limp greasy french fries, and Marmite.

That may still be true in the home, but restaurant fare has improved enormously, so that most of what is served is quite edible, IME

nytraveler

There is still some terrible food out there but certainly the quality in most places has improved a lot. (I was once served lasagne made with cheddar cheese, instead of mozzarella, ricotta and parmesan, in an Italian restaurant in which the staff actually spoke Italian.)

If unsure you can order defensively - something simple like roast chicken that it's hard to ruin.

Have no clue if you are eating in people's homes - that's a risk in any country since there are bad cooks everywhere.

Hint: look out for lard - and if in doubt ask (I believe it is still used many places)

zachhealey

What is lard?? It doesn't sound like something good. I am ok with eating out, but it's the fact I'm staying with family, and what they might serve up.

Macross

Don't they use lard when making Yorkshire pudding? They put it in the muffin tins and get it very hot then add the pudding mix.
I find things to eat in pubs ok. My UK friends are very modern cooks, nothing strange. You can keep the mushy peas.

zachhealey

Mushy peas are another thing that fill me with dread.

Cathinjoetown

Really, Zach, are you that precious? British food has been on the upswing for many years and not just in restaurants.

I know many British home cooks and bakers who would put most of us to shame. They tend to do much more scratch cooking than we do and excel at puddings (desserts).

I've never been served mushy peas except with fish and chips and that was in a restaurant. It's just a usually small side dish which you can easily ignore.

The traditional Christmas dinner is much like in the States, roast turkey, roast rather than mashed potatoes and dressing/stuffing (that honestly can be dire) and lots of veg no longer boiled into submission.

So relax and have a good time.

socaltraveler

Maybe you should get in touch with your family, and ask them to send you pictures of the food that they eat. I think you are worrying for nothing, unless you are that precious.

Fra_Diavolo

Such BS.

newtome

I say troll

cafegoddess

Honestly, I have had a lot of great food in England, can't remember a bad meal.
Ok, I was not impressed with the sushi from Harrods,

Take it easy.

janisj

Definitely a troll

Do you really get your info from a sitcom?

If you get bad food it is on you.

(BTW - there are almost certainly more michelin stars in London and the UK then wherever you are from.)

greg

How is it possible to help you? Restaurant and home cooking at someone else's have nothing to do with the family you are staying with.

WoinParis

I love your answer nuke.
Politically incorrect on sexism misogynism and anti British yet so true at the second or third degree.
You are an inspiration to me

I don't think OP is a troll - what he describes was true 30-50 years ago.
But if he is no troll she is not bright ...

Now you find good restaurants but still must pay attention and ... pay.

My best restaurant in London was a Japanes with an Italian cook at the tepanyaki and cost me an arm.

My best restaurant in York when invited by s local (got a confession to make - I love English people and make friend of nearly every guy I meet there - they are so rude and at the same time nice - works for me) wAs an Indian restaurant.
A real one : burns your lips makes a hole in your stomach and makes you dread the toilet next morning. Delicious.

30 plus years ago when in a family to learn English I would join my fellow students and we would compare what we had been given by our local families to eat for lunch.
Then we'd drop all of it and go to a Wimpy. Cost me a fortune not to die of hunger.

KayF

It's really hard to say what the food will be like at your family's home as everyone is different. They may be great cooks or eat nothing but 'ready-meals'. When we lived in the UK we were taken aback at how much of the supermarkets shelves were filled with ready meals (buy them, take home and microwave - barely edible and bland).

If you know them well enough you could email now and start a conversation about what you will all eat together for Christmas, suggest you could help cook something for them of your choice, or say you will take them out and pay for a meal and choose somewhere you'd like to eat.

Good luck - you might need it
Kay

PatrickLondon

I'm not falling for it, folks.

I too remember the "beef trifle" in Friends - and if the OP does, he will also remember it happened because (as anyone might imagine) Rachel got the pages in the recipe book stuck together. Likewise, the other things he references obviously derive from jokes, and a serious enquirer could - and would - easily google the realities they derive from.

traveller1959

Pictures say more than words.

If you want to see what authentic British food is like, look here

http://uknet.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=13448

and click on "view slideshow".

It may be a good idea to take a Dramamine before you look at the pictures.

ribeirasacra

learn from YT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frVNc-3jpss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wceR7Qr5bYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prr_peXeFzE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71knaU8cIuw
You can find loads more of this sort of crap to help make your own judgement.

Hooameye

" I hear about mince beef dessert pies and Toad-pudding and pea-pudding,"

All these foods are easy to Google.....If you get the names right.

1. Mince pies (they are sweet), are dried fruit NOT beef.
2. Toad in the Hole, is sausages in a Yorkshire Pudding batter.
3. Mushy peas, processed peas mashed up (usually served with fish and chips).

I suspect that you also believe all the other things that you've probably heard about us, bad teeth, unfriendly, drink tea ALL the time, every man in London wears a pin stripe suit and a bowler hat and we all go for "High Tea" (another incorrect name) every day.
I really do have a problem (like others) with the fact that you are really worried about what you'll be given to eat, if you don't want to try different foods when you travel....Then stay at home.

hetismij2

Imagine how the host family must be feeling, having to cater for such a person. They have my sympathies, not the OP.