London - Bubble and Squeek
 

I was reading some restaurant descriptions in preparation for my upcoming trip and I came across the term bubble and squeek. I'm sure that many on this board know what this is - could you please enlighten me? Thanks.

hmmmm...

Could it be "Bubble and Squeak"?

Maybe the restaurant has individual bath tubs. While you are taking a bubble bath with squeaky plastic ducks, they serve you dinner? ;)

Kidding aside, from Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Main Entry: bubble and squeak
Function: noun
: a British dish consisting of usually leftover potatoes, greens (as cabbage), and sometimes meat fried together

Oh, Meant to add:

a British dish consisting of usually leftover potatoes, greens (as cabbage), and sometimes meat fried together :-&

hi tom,

The version I learned is sausage and cabbage sauteed together with a lid. The liquid from the cabbage bubbles and the escaping steam squeaks.

If you look it up www.google.com, you will find a number of recipes.

Ira:

You obviously have rich friends.

There's no such thing as an authentic recipe for anything. But bubble and squeak without potatoes (as well as some kind of green) just isn't bubble and squeak.

If you're feeling rich you can add stuff (and actually both caviar and that lumpfish roe stuff that looks a bit like caviar work jolly well).

But it must have spuds.

Cabbage in bubble & sqeek???? Never! That must be the Irish version :)

I was raised on it. My granny made it with ground sausage, sliced potatoes, fried up in a huge pan of grease!!

In fact, when my grandfather died, my Uncle Terry said at his wake, "It was the bubble $ sqeek and your grandmother's pasties that done him in."

I thought the Irish version was called colcannon.

It would appear that there are as many versions of bubble and squeak as there are grandmothers.

Colcannon is cabbage and mashed potatoes , drizzled with lots of butter..YUM...but not fried..B&S is fried!

Bubble & Squeak is mashed up potatoes mixed with cabbage and fried in a pan. You can make little rounds first then fry it if you like.

Colcannon is potatoes and cabbage mashed together with butter - not even a hint of a frying pan.

Hey kids - colcannon is actually mashed spuds, lots of butter and cream, and kale (cabbage has a different taste).

It's much nicer than B&S . . . which is leftover, greasy, and something I've never seen in any restaurant (even the ones serving retro fishfinger sandwiches & calling it bar food) . . .

: )

one of my favorite dishes all over London. thingorgous, your grandmother may not have liked cabbage and left it out, but I've never seen a version without cabbage. any grandmother who wears pasties probably doesn't know much about cooking anyway.

"In fact, when my grandfather died, my Uncle Terry said at his wake, "It was the bubble $ sqeek and your grandmother's pasties that done him in."

I sincerely hope it was the pasties and not the pastries! [Sorry about that, I just couldn't pass it up!]

This is the definition from epicurious.com:

An English dish of equal parts mashed potatoes and chopped cooked cabbage mixed together and fried until well browned. Originally, the dish included chopped boiled beef. The name is said to come from the sounds the potato-cabbage mixture makes as it cooks (some say it's from the sounds one's stomach makes after eating bubble and squeak).

weber, Pasties are food not breast adornments. You've been paying too much attention to Janet Jackson.

Borough Market is the place to go.
The Borough Cafe was the place to get bubble and squeak.
Londoners will be able to tell me, but I think the cafe closed and the daughter of the owners has opened her own place called Maria's Market Café.
This is from last October:

"Maria Moruzzi, who previously worked for her parents at the Borough Café, is now back at the Market, running Maria's Market Café on Stoney Street. The premises are a temporary stop-gap until she moves into the Market next year (taking the Sillfield Farm slot when it moves to the Floral Hall) but Maria is delighted to return to the Borough: "I'm so happy to be back amongst friends. The response from traders and customers is so warm and welcoming that I feel like I have come home."

Here's another version, compliments of www.effingpot.com -

Bubble & squeak - No, this isn't what happens to you when you drink too much. Bubble & squeak is an old English breakfast dish made from frying up left over greens and potato.

Sounds awful.

When you are young you will eat anything greasy. I couldn't stomach bubble & squeek today. In fact, my mother would never allow it in her house because of the smell. But, god, how I miss my granny's Cornish pasties.

I don't think my granny had an aversion to cabbage. She made ham and cabbage all the time.