Good food in England?

Old May 5th, 2006, 02:39 AM
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Things we like about UK food:

Grassfed beef fillet from Wiltshire.
Lamb's lettuce (which originally came from the forests outside Nantes, France).
Sushi and Japanese food. Some places are up to the standards we took for granted in the Pacific NW. Now if only they weren't three times as expensive...
Austrian style pastries at the Wolseley
Good coffee
Strawberries in season. I like the way M & S let you know what farm (and region) the berries come from.
Ditto for the medium sized vine ripened tomatoes available in late summer
Ultimate mash potatoes from M&S
Potted crab (as long as it's really good crab)
Organic free range eggs from rare chicken breeds

So far, most Indian and Pakistani restaurants have been disappointing, esp. the much overhyped Cinnamon Club. Yawn. We did like Tiger Garden in Marlow, although it's not a "must" on our dining out list. But a Pakistani couple had us over for dinner a while ago and THAT was fabulous.

Fish and chips are hit and miss. We regularly went to a great fish and chips spot in Cannon Beach, OR, so we got spoiled.

British chocolate takes a back seat to Belgian and Swiss chocolate.

We don't care for pasties or shepherd's pie.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 04:38 AM
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Hmmm... sticky toffee pudding... with hot butter rum sauce...mmmmm....

Other favorites:

Bacon baps (sandwiches)

Good, fresh, flaky fish & chips

Lamb in so many forms

Steak and Guinness pie

Cadbury chocolate DEFINITELY better than in the US (Hershey's makes the stuff here, with skim cream yuk)

Cider, sweet cider, oh how I love my pint!

More Sticky toffee pudding!

Pret a Manger -- fab sandwiches!

Wagamama is great, I loved their noodles

There is an Anatolian (Turkish) restaurant (chain?) called Taz. Go there. The food is incredibly good!

Did I mention sticky toffee pudding?

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Old May 5th, 2006, 04:58 AM
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We have a wide range of fantastic cheeses. Get yourself a packet of crackers from a supermarket and a selection of 3 or 4 of our regional cheeses:

I particularly like:

proper 'farmhouse' strong cheddar - tangy, makes your lips tingle, great texture.

Wensleydale: made famous by Wallis & Gromit. A very crumbly cheese that melts in your mouth with a creamy flavour. One of my favourites.

Double Gloucester with onion and chives, available all over the place. Sweet but full flavour.

Cornish Yarg. Made on one farm, wrapped in nettle leaves, good flavour and I just love the name. Sounds like it should be eaten by pirates!

British Camembert - smelly but delicious.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 05:01 AM
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Oh come on, nona. France for cheese, I have to say. But England for pickles.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 05:22 AM
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Steak sauce in Kansas City? Whatever for?
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Old May 5th, 2006, 05:23 AM
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Remind me never to get into a debate about food with rickmay. That person must keep SERIOUS notes!
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Old May 5th, 2006, 05:34 AM
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English food, like the Italian equivalent is as good as its ingredients.
If you can find a restaurant where they use french local produce then it is second to none.
England produces wonderful fruit and yes, excellent cheeses.
If you are ever in Chester, check out the Cheese Shop, not far from the Town Hall Square.
It stocks over 100 British cheeses including a buffalo cheese from Wales.
It also has great pickles and a selection of English wines.
Again, don't curl the lip, some English wines have done very well in blind tastings in France.
Personally, I'd only have fish and chips from a real chippy and the best ones are up North.
You can get dreadful food in England but unfortunately it tends to be found in tourist areas.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 05:40 AM
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Whoops, I meant fresh, not french.
A lot of stuff is great when it's authentic, but nasty when mass produced.
A real Cornish pasty, preferably bought in Cornwall is wonderful, the mass produced equivalent is nasty.
I think that English bacon is much superior to the American type and American supermarket cheese is really horrible.
Again, we seem to have a much better choice of yogurt.
Certainly, in America you can find good fresh food, but you have to look for it.
What is offered in tourist areas is as bad or worse than the English equivalent.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:11 AM
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MissPrism, you make a blanket generalization about the U.S. that doesn't hold up.
In the Pacific NW, you'd have to look hard NOT to find good food. The fresh food widely available there is about as good as you'll find anywhere. Yes, that includes yogurts and cheese.
And in Philly, I had no trouble getting top quality food--including cheese--at the Reading Terminal Market or the smaller farmer's markets found in several neighborhoods. And the UK has a way to go before the best of its supermarkets can even hope to match the quality and variety of a full size Wegman's.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:26 AM
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We certainly had some noteworthy food while traveling through the Cotswolds, Somerset and Devon areas last year.

Our meal at Ridley's in Teignmouth, Devon was especially memorable. The pubs had fresh ingredients and showed alot of creativity in many of their dishes. Deborah
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:30 AM
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You're right Mucky. I think if I ever stopped all the walking we do in England I'd never get back on the plane.

And yes, j999, I do keep notes - is that a sign of a food addict? Oh dear.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:32 AM
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Meat pies, usually beef - they're great, and nothing like the frozen pot pies we have in the U.S.
Also baked (jacket) potatoes with baked beans on top - they made such a tasty, filling and inexpensive lunch.
Marks & Spencer has wonderful cookies (biscuits) in their food hall.
Scones! I love scones, could eat them three times a day. Some American bakeries sell things they call scones, but they are just tasteless lumps of dough. Only the British can make real scones it seems. I'll take 'em with jam, cream or butter.
And, lucky me, I'm heading back to London a week from tomorrow so I'll get to taste these delights again! And Cadbury chocolate!
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:36 AM
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On the other hand in Missouri you do have to look hard and drive many many miles to find good food. Most towns between KC and St Louis have had the family run food stores closed down as people head to the strip malls. These places have had the life sucked out of them by giant Wal-Marts offering aisles of cheap crap. Similarly the restaurants are all chains with little to offer that cannot be bought anywhere else. So for me it's a 100 mile round trip to Whole Foods to get the good stuff.
For good food, it used to be a 3 minute walk across the Banbury Road to M&S when I lived in Oxford.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:54 AM
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HI Honey-I did not read the above but I want to tell you that we had really good food in almost every pub we ate at, both in London and "provincial" locations. Also, as vegetarianism is quite prominent there, and we were traveiling w/one, I can tell you that every eating establishment features a veg option. The one really mediocre--and outrageously expensive--meal we had was at an Italian restaurant, which we went to before an evening at the theater.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 07:31 AM
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RickMav... WOW...

May I join you for dinner??
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Old May 5th, 2006, 07:39 AM
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MissPrism, you make a blanket generalization about the U.S. that doesn't hold up.

Hmm, doesn't that remind you about what people on this forum have said about English food.
I rest my case ;-)
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Old May 5th, 2006, 08:04 AM
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Some people may have, but I wasn't one of them. What purpose does it serve to sink to that level?
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Old May 5th, 2006, 08:09 AM
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MissPrism----maybe it is perhaps because I live in a major metropolitan city, but I have every type of food I could possibly imagine all within walking distance or a short car ride.

As for fresh---I have a fish purveyor that I go to for fresh salmon that I eat raw as sashimi....doesn't get much fresher than that!!!
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