Share your bad food experience in the UK
Jul 23rd, 2006, 06:40 AM
#81
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<I love the Brits; stop perpetuating the teeth stereotype. BUT I do have a serious question: what's with beans on toast? I can understand fixing it in your own home (I LOVE syrup on my sausage and bacon, Josser). But when I am in Ireland and they have the full breakfast (the sausage IS different) or cereals or whatnot, why do most of the Brits order beans on toast? No disrespect here, I'm just wondering, because anytime I can get a full breakfast out of someone, I take it.>
Have we got a reputation for bad teeth then? I never knew that!
Ahh, the reason for my reply is that I am a beans on toast person. Personally when I'm in a place that offers a full English or beans on toast (sounds like a B & B) I would always go for the beans on toast because it's healthier and a full English cooked badly (swimming with grease and slimy eggs) is disgusting! Not much wrong someone can do to a slice of bread and tin of beans.
Have we got a reputation for bad teeth then? I never knew that!
Ahh, the reason for my reply is that I am a beans on toast person. Personally when I'm in a place that offers a full English or beans on toast (sounds like a B & B) I would always go for the beans on toast because it's healthier and a full English cooked badly (swimming with grease and slimy eggs) is disgusting! Not much wrong someone can do to a slice of bread and tin of beans.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 08:08 AM
#82
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The bad food/teeth gibes are a version of what our Australian friends call "cultural cringe".
Americans can hardly say that we are more uncouth, fatter, or stupider than they are, so they have to fall back on the old cliches.
They feel even more culturally cringeworthy in relation to the French, so we get the old rude/cowardly bit.
I notice that the Britons in this forum respond with michael extraction.
The French (God bless them) just respond with a smile and a shrug.
Americans can hardly say that we are more uncouth, fatter, or stupider than they are, so they have to fall back on the old cliches.
They feel even more culturally cringeworthy in relation to the French, so we get the old rude/cowardly bit.
I notice that the Britons in this forum respond with michael extraction.
The French (God bless them) just respond with a smile and a shrug.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 11:30 AM
#83
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Although I have lived in California all my life I love a can of beans on toast. I never knew for ages that it was an English breakfast dish and I don't remember when I got the idea as it certainly wasn't served in my house while I was growing up.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 11:53 AM
#84
Not bad food, just a bad restaurant.
We wanted to order a cream tea with scones in an expensive restaurant. The scones were 6.50 as opposed to 4.50 in other restaurants. They found out we were going to share the scones and wanted to charge us 25% more. We refused to pay so the owner cancelled our order and we left the restaurant. Where? The Wharfe in Shaftsbury. DON'T GO THERE. The female owner is as mad as a hatter.
We wanted to order a cream tea with scones in an expensive restaurant. The scones were 6.50 as opposed to 4.50 in other restaurants. They found out we were going to share the scones and wanted to charge us 25% more. We refused to pay so the owner cancelled our order and we left the restaurant. Where? The Wharfe in Shaftsbury. DON'T GO THERE. The female owner is as mad as a hatter.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 12:18 PM
#85
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Beans for breakfast are relatively new.
The first time I met them I asked the waitress why she was serving them.
She replied that people were asking for them because the F Plan diet was very popular.
Do you remember the F Plan diet?
It was one of the more sensible ones.
I can understand charging a bit extra for tea if two people are sharing it.
If you have a chair each, you should have a tea each.
The first time I met them I asked the waitress why she was serving them.
She replied that people were asking for them because the F Plan diet was very popular.
Do you remember the F Plan diet?
It was one of the more sensible ones.
I can understand charging a bit extra for tea if two people are sharing it.
If you have a chair each, you should have a tea each.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 12:21 PM
#86
Going to London soon and I had almost forgotten the food. It is true that unless you pay an awful lot it is difficult to get a decent meal. I do like shopping at Tesco's and Sainbury's though and cooking for my daughter and the cream and cheeses are wonderful. I do recall going to a restaurant and being served a very tiny portion of very grey fish. When I politely pointed it out to the waiter he replied that there is always some part of fish that is not to be eaten - LOL!
Jul 23rd, 2006, 12:31 PM
#88
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I don't know where you guys eat but in London I always eat well. I generally avoid traditional English food, especially in touristy areas. There's more to London/England than English cliches! So I eat what everyone else seems to- a lot of curries, kebabs, ackee, pierogies, even the pho in emerging East End neighborhoods. I've had some good "traditional" food at Borough Market and also high tea but that's it. No touristy areas for me.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 01:02 PM
#90
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Hello Miss Prism. No, I have never heard of the F Plan Diet. I have been thinking about the beans over toast and the only thing I can think of is perhaps one morning I didn't have much to eat in the house but I had bread and a can of beans and so I tried it. I really don't know, but I know I first had this back in the mid 1960's as I remember the kitchen table that I sat at when I ate it. No one else here that I know of ever eats this dish. Do have a good week.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 02:23 PM
#91
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I worked at a rather posh boarding school in the UK last year. We were required to eat with the students. EVERY afternoon, my stomach made the worst noised, grumbled and rumbled. At the weekends it was fine. I started eating plain rice or plain tuna fish and it was still problematic.
The only thing that really made me gack was tuna/mayo & sweetcorn.
The only thing that really made me gack was tuna/mayo & sweetcorn.
Jul 24th, 2006, 03:35 AM
#96
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Tourists and especially Americans eat badly in London and Britain because they continually make the same stupid mistakes.
Firstly, "Don't step off the path" is good advice when leaving the Slaughtered Lamb on the night of a full moon. However it is the worst possible advice for eating in Britain. Food outlets near tourist destinations know they will only be seeing you once in your whole life. So they have no real incentive other than to feed you mass-produced slop. Even if the y produced really tope quality nosh, you wouldn't be going back (and the US guidebooks that I have seen all have the same clichéd recommendations that don't appear to have been updated in years).
Ask yourselves - do New Yorkers eat at the Statue of Liberty? Parisians at the Eiffel Tower? No they don't. For the same reason.
If you went where we went you would find that things were somewhat different.
Secondly they don't go to the right place for the right things. The easiest way to spot a tourist in a London pub is that they will be the ones eating fish and chips. We eat fish and chips from a fish and chip shop, curries from an Indian restaurant and roast beef at our mum's. There's method in this behaviour you know.
Thirdly Americans won't pay the going rate for decent food. They always fall for the "Two meals for a fiver" type deals. Then they wonder that the food isn't much kop. It's not really going to be is it? You get what you pay for. Hardly a new concept.
So in short - get off the tourist trap ( a few minutes walk is enough in most of London). Get yourselves a guidebook aimed at the natives (The good pub guide or Hardens are good) and be prepared to pay a decent amount for decent nosebag and you'll find life a lot better. And never ever ever go to the West End to eat (or for much else really)
P.s Beans on toast is the staple food of single men and students the length and breadth of Britain.
Firstly, "Don't step off the path" is good advice when leaving the Slaughtered Lamb on the night of a full moon. However it is the worst possible advice for eating in Britain. Food outlets near tourist destinations know they will only be seeing you once in your whole life. So they have no real incentive other than to feed you mass-produced slop. Even if the y produced really tope quality nosh, you wouldn't be going back (and the US guidebooks that I have seen all have the same clichéd recommendations that don't appear to have been updated in years).
Ask yourselves - do New Yorkers eat at the Statue of Liberty? Parisians at the Eiffel Tower? No they don't. For the same reason.
If you went where we went you would find that things were somewhat different.
Secondly they don't go to the right place for the right things. The easiest way to spot a tourist in a London pub is that they will be the ones eating fish and chips. We eat fish and chips from a fish and chip shop, curries from an Indian restaurant and roast beef at our mum's. There's method in this behaviour you know.
Thirdly Americans won't pay the going rate for decent food. They always fall for the "Two meals for a fiver" type deals. Then they wonder that the food isn't much kop. It's not really going to be is it? You get what you pay for. Hardly a new concept.
So in short - get off the tourist trap ( a few minutes walk is enough in most of London). Get yourselves a guidebook aimed at the natives (The good pub guide or Hardens are good) and be prepared to pay a decent amount for decent nosebag and you'll find life a lot better. And never ever ever go to the West End to eat (or for much else really)
P.s Beans on toast is the staple food of single men and students the length and breadth of Britain.
Jul 24th, 2006, 03:57 AM
#97
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Wow, a lenghty and informative post from a new Fodorite! Although given that the new poster's name is the motto of the Tottenham HotSpurs, I suspect we have an oldtime Fodorite who left (in anger, perhaps?) and has now returned under a new name. Welcome back.
A couple of weeks ago, a locals hangout in Maidenhead served me the worst meal since we moved to the UK. A piece of totally dry, virtually inedible chicken and chips that were obviously the cheapest brand of frozen chips the place could find at ASDA. As I've said before, just because the locals go there is no guarantee of good food. You can always find locals with bad taste.
You can eat well in the touristy areas if you keep an eye out for lunch specials. One of my favorite places to lunch in Mayfair is Kiku, a Japanese restaurant. Four course lunches for £14--good value and good, authentic food in a place very popular with staff from the nearby Japanese embassy (the family that owns Kiku also owns a ryokan in Kinosaki, Japan).
www.kikurestaurant.co.uk
A couple of weeks ago, a locals hangout in Maidenhead served me the worst meal since we moved to the UK. A piece of totally dry, virtually inedible chicken and chips that were obviously the cheapest brand of frozen chips the place could find at ASDA. As I've said before, just because the locals go there is no guarantee of good food. You can always find locals with bad taste.
You can eat well in the touristy areas if you keep an eye out for lunch specials. One of my favorite places to lunch in Mayfair is Kiku, a Japanese restaurant. Four course lunches for £14--good value and good, authentic food in a place very popular with staff from the nearby Japanese embassy (the family that owns Kiku also owns a ryokan in Kinosaki, Japan).
www.kikurestaurant.co.uk
