wombat7

JRH - have you ever eaten an Aussie meat pie? In my opinion they are superior to UK meat pies.

Josser

Who invented the pie? The greatest Briton ever who shall forever remain anonymous!

The Earl of Pie?

stfc

As ever, Google is our friend. The origin of the pie can be traced back to Egyptian times apparently.

NeoPatrick

Oh, we're talking food now?

Easy.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

RM67

Sticky toffee pud is great - as long as it doesn't have dates in. I think Delia is guilty of adding dates.

I probably shouldn't take part as I am British, but if I weren't, I'd have:-

Custard Tarts.

Sennen Cove/Whitesand Bay.

The Sunday Times.

Marmite.

Liberty's.

The League of Gentlemen.

Brighton.

Queueing up properly.

RM67

And Concorde

And The Creme Egg.

GreenDragon

Yes, I also love all the sandwiches! All sorts of great breads, fillings, available everywhere!

And pies are fabulous, my DH even started learning how to make them. He makes a mean steak-n-Guinness pie!

And JR, you just aren't speaking to the right girls. I always love a British accent, from cockney to Orkney

PalenQ

But NOT Christmas Pud - friends have told me to STOP bringing this back from my autumn trips.

The Fruit Cake of Britain i guess

though personally, heated up with hot custard slathered over it i rather like it!

wombat7

PalQ - Try it with brandy butter - much better than custard in my opinion.

GreenDragon

I had a bread-n-butter pudding with hot rum sauce on it at a pub in Chiswick once.... oooh, it was good! I can still remember the wonderful taste

I think the pub's name was the Rat & the Parrot. Had a fantastic lamb casserole, too - had cinnamon!

PalenQ

Wombat - no doubt preparation is a key and that's what my friends don't do well probably

but with a brandy or run sauce it sounds scrumptious

I wonder if they are still ubiquitous at Christmas for British families? Seems so by the racks i see in Tesco's, etc. in the fall

stfc

Christmas Pudding is disgusting but it is a tradition so we force ourselves to have it - once a year on Christmas Day. My mother made the best I ever had, and that was from a recipe that dated from the time of post-war rationing so was a lot lighter than the normal offering. Note that we don't have anything similar at any time else during the year.

Pub names like the 'Rat & Parrot' or the 'Slug & Lettuce' are pathetic attempts to be right on by large national corporations. They are not traditional.

Bread & Butter pudding well-made is the ambrosia of the gods. Repeated reference to Sticky Toffee Pudding is depressing. I'm glad to see that the Guardian has begun to disappear from people's lists, to be replaced by worthier organs.

PalenQ

Speaking of the Guardian, which i do read every morning at my B&B - fetching it from the South Asian run News Agent on the High Street, i noticed in today's NYTimes they called it the "Manchester Guardian" - i thought it properly was called now just "The Guardian"?

thanks

And one (nice) old bag who ran one of the eltham B&Bs i've stayed in, once said "My, you got to have a brain to read that" - with her Daily Mail on the table

stokebailey

JRH:

>>No longer the case <<

Perseverence, flowers, candy, AND a cute British accent.

wombat7

Adverts

I can still remember that Benson and Hedges advert with the helicopter and the iguana.

NeoPatrick

"Sticky toffee pud is great - as long as it doesn't have dates in"

What? Every sticky toffee pudding I've eaten and every single recipe I've seen or made of it has dates. In fact, any definition of Sticky Toffee Pudding seems to start with "a moist cake made from dates. . ." And I even thought the part of the name Sticky comes from "sticky dates" -- not sticky toffee.
How do you make sticky toffe pudding without dates?

irishface

RM67, thanks for the website. I enjoyed reading the comments especially the story about the fellow who separated the foil from the tissue liner. When I lived in Ireland, that was a great passtime of ours. We wanted to see who could make the separation without tearing the foil. I am crying to think that the clubs of old no longer are.

Judyrem

I have come late to this thread, but I am like GreenDragon and you PalenQ, an Anglophile. I am such an Anglophile, that I took my adult children on their first trip to London! Now that's LOVE! My dream is to buy a flat in London, best city in the World IMO. I have been to the Uk 10 times, and am still not finished...need to do Cotswolds next. Yes, to all the above. Also Brit Chic lit! And London theater, like Patrick! Ready, steady, cook....rules. Old Cheshire Cheese IS the best.

Mrs_Wilde

Lovely, thick cream on everything - "Would you like cream with that?" I was asked after my ice cream-filled crepe was delivered

Snowshill Manor - not the manor itself but the interesting little cottage where the gentleman collector lived - and the town itself

The earthy smell of the food shops and real butcher shops in the countryside

The sound of the Tube - there is an audio file at the London walks website where I get my fix

How much the British love their dogs

The National Trust touring pass - what a bargain!

Boats sitting on the sand when the tide has gone out

And most of all, the kindness of strangers such as our dear departed Mr. Haines - I have encountered many people who went out of their way to offer advice that enriched my travel experience beyond measure

Apres_Londee

Okay, here's a confession. For whatever reason, I'm an Anglo-ambivalent.

I've only been once so far, but there are some things I love about Britain, even if my list is short and somewhat London-centric:

Love British Cadbury chocolate. It's sweeter and richer and creamier than it is in Canada. And the bars themselves are enormous. And they come in more flavours, like Turkish Delight and caramel. And the shops are always selling them in 3's. Like big honking bricks of heroin to a girl with a cheap sweet-tooth like me.

Love love love the modern architecture in London, especially the gherkin. Looking forward to seeing the Docklands/Isle of Dogs when I go back to London this October.

Love Westminster Palace.

Love love love Banksy.

Love the literature, the history of the literature, and the British Library too for that matter.

Soft spot for Brian Haw.

Love tube stop names like Dolls Hills, Mudchute, and Tooting Broadway.

Silly comedy like Mighty Boosh or Father Ted (Irish I know)or dark like Nighty Night.

I like League of Gentlemen too but it honestly scares the pants off me, I already have a sort of a phobia of rural areas and suburbs and League of Gentlemen drives me over the edge- that scary guy who kidnaps women and is always saying "Hi Dave" and the couple who run a shop- "this is a local shop for local people"- they terrify me no end, I'm getting the shivers just thinking about it.