LoveItaly

The strangest dish I ever saw was up in the mountains in the Dolomites. My friends teenage son ordered Pizza Americano. I was curious what it was going to be. It was a pizza with french fries on top of the pizza. I could hardly keep a straight face but since than I have heard of this pizza being served in various areas of Italy. I still think it is a strange pizza!!

Neopolitan

It's also funny how artificially prejudiced we sometimes get about what is "proper" to eat.
My partner has a sweet tooth and often raises eyebrows having breakfast in a diner type place and simply ordering a piece of cherry or apple pie (sometimes with ice cream). Others will sometimes say "for breakfast?" Yet those same people wouldn't bat an eye if he ordered a cherry or apple Danish -- what's the difference -- or a big plate of French toast or pancakes with syrup?

PS. He loves beans on toast for breakfast.

AllyPally

Best food in London is in a pub in Hammersmith. I ate there last night and had rare topside of beef with potatoes au gratin. It was gorgeous (Antipodean chefs). The name is....

A secret!

natjgc

I think England has gotten a bad rap concerning the food. I was there 2 years a go and had wonderful food the whole time. Very good pasta, fish and
salads. The fish was esp. good and fresh- oh yes- great cheese and bread.
I'm pretty mch vegetarian when I travel and my husband and I have never had a problem anywhere we've gone in Europe.
Good food is recognized almost everywhere these days. natjgc

Carrybean

Neopolitan, my mother made fabulous pies & we used to have leftover slices for breakfast frequently so that's not weird to me.

One thing that has always struck me as strange is a poached looking egg on top of pizza which I used to see all the time in St. Martin in French pizza joints - but to each his own.

nona1

Beans on toast - beans plus bread is a good source of protein, an excellent source of fibre and contains a few vitamins. When I was a veggie it was one of the recommended protein source classics (bread contains amino acids, different ones to beans, so between them it makes a complete protein source).So it is a reasonably nutritious snack. It isnt 'just starch'.

nona1

Oh, and what else is a chicken salad apart from chicken plus salad?

Carrybean

Chicken salad in the US usually refers to chopped chicken meat mixed with chopped celery, sometimes minced onion, sometimes hard-cooked chopped egg mixed together with a little mayonnaise & put in a sandwich or maybe stuffed in a hollowed out tomato. Sometimes dill is added or other ingredients but that's the basic chicken salad.

semiramis

Personally I have found that the food has improved dramatically since I first went to the U.K. about 25 years ago. I always did like any dessert with clotted cream but lately I have found vegetables are less likely to be mushy and meat less likely to be seriously overcooked. The first time my husband and I went to the U.K. we ate mostly at ethnic restaurants because I had warned him about my youthful experiences with mushy peas and grey meat. The last time we went, we did not have a single yucky food experience and did not limit ourselves to ethnic cooking. However we did avoid the fried bread still frequently served at B&Bs. We had a couple of really nice meals at The Three Bells near Gatwick.

wasleys

<u>Girlspytravel</u>,

<i>Beans on toast: innately unnatural combination … offending the aesthetic sense …incomprehensible.</i>

Oh, come now. Just accept that different countries have different tastes, customs and habits, however strange or distasteful they may seem to you. Isn't that what travel's all about?


<u>Steviegene</u>,

What's the J in PB&amp;J?

susanteach

I guess I am easy to please, because I actually crave the mushy peas, fish and chips and a good ale from any pub!

seetheworld

J = Jelly

Neopolitan

When someone once made fun of our midwestern tradition of home made noodles ladled over mashed potatoes saying, &quot;a starch on top of a starch? You've got to be kidding,&quot; I simply replied, &quot;I guess you never put gravy over your mashed potatoes?&quot;

Beans on toast? I wonder what salmon on a bagel or biscuits and gravy would sound like to someone who never grew up with them?

janisj

Neopolitan - my ex is a Hoosier and when I went home to meet his folks for the first time - yep, chicken noodles! Made special just for me w/ home made noodles/chicken over mashed potatoes. Had never (ever) heard of such a thing. &quot;Chicken noodle&quot; is a children's soup where I come from.

And to think some people think beans on toast is weird . . . . .

flanneruk

Just one phrase demolishes all whinges from Americans with any complaints about anything eaten or served in Britain.,

Bacon with maple syrup.

If you tolerate that, you've got no grounds for criticising anyone else for anything, ever.

PatrickLondon

Oh go on, did you never have kippers with marmalade?

audere_est_facere

Marmalade isn't sweet, but it has no place near kipppers. But we do have turkey with cranberry sauce and lamb with mint sauce.

I ate a peanut butter and jam sandwich at the instigation of this site once. I am still receiving therapy for it. Trust me on this Brits, like Wee Jimmie Crankie, it's not big and it's not clever.

AllyPally

Flanner - bacon with maple syrup makes sense in Quebec, mon esti, the world's largest producer of maple syrup. A traditional dish loaded with energy to keep you warm in harsh winters of -30. Yum!

nona1

bacon with golden syrup is quite a classic in Norfolk but then you can't trust those weird fen-dwellers anyway.

RE the chicken salad, in the UK you need to ask for chicken mayonnaise to get something similar.

Gretchen

England has actually become a food mecca for good chefs. Don't know that it translates to the &quot;street&quot;.