Brits: Salt is a spice
Brits: Salt is a spice
307 comments
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The meme is funny :)
That being said, the only UK foods I've had were made by expats here in the states. None of it was bland, with the exception of breakfast beans, "because they're meant to be mild to start your day" as I was told by a lovely liverpudlian.
She would do fish and chips, and the batter was well seasoned. Not heavily seasoned, but some pepper, a little paprika, and a bit of onion powder to give it some aromatic kick. Well balanced, and imo, as good as any of the southern fried fish recipes I've had.
The chips were obviously just salted and vinegar used per person.
But when we did pot luck at work, she would bring in what she called "good english food", which included some curry a few times.
But her shepherd's pie? Holy hell, that was some great stuff. She said it was really cottage pie because it was beef usually. But it had the usual pepper, onion, garlic, and herbs.
And the other expats I ate with were similar. Maybe different amounts of a given herb or spice, but it was in there.
I think the UK food thing is a meme in itself, and likely arose the way things usually do, with the majority of cooks just being bad cooks, rather than representative of a cuisine or the way things are done properly in that country.
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The reputation comes from the US military being stationed in the UK during the height of WW2 rationing when there was an extremely limited list of ingredients to cook with. They were unable to associate a country under an attempted siege from U-boats with a reduced supply of food.
We do have a love of beige food at times, but it's essentially our version of chicken tendies.
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Case proven, all the good cooks left.
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My favourite "traditional" English meal is a good Steak and Kidney pie, made with an ale sauce. Seasoned with lots of pepper, Worcestershire sauce (anchovy sauce), onion and stock. Absolutely delicious.
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I think the issue is mostly in the visuals. When you look for traditional English food, it is usually a plate full of beige stuff, sometimes paired with really unappetizing boiled carrots and beans. The gravy being on the side instead of part of the dish doesn't do it any favors either.
Also I'd argue England has pretty low standards for what counts as "food". I've had to work in England for a month, and finding something fresh, healthy and tasty to eat was a real challenge. I've never been as fat as when I came home.
The epitome of the wasted potential of English cuisine is the fact that it's an island full of the best fishes in the world, yet the only fish you can find is battered cod. Why is it so hard to get a salmon fillet? You have Scottish salmon ffs!
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We do have a lot of very bland food over here, but a lot of us like that.
It's a lot more about the texture sometimes, some of us (not me) can do some amazing roast vegetables and everyone seems to have their own ancient tradition for how to make them
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Shepard's pie is Irish btw. Not a surprise a scouser would be able to make a good one when Liverpool has a large Irish community.
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Common myth, not true.
First recorded recipe for Shepherds Pie is from a Scottish cookbook from 1849. First recorded use of Cottage Pie is 1791 by an English clergyman.
Cottage Pie was used for both lamb and beef varieties until recently and was a way of eating leftover meats.
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I've heard that food in the US is generally bad, so maybe not the best comparison 😜 😂
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They clearly never had soul food or Gullah/Geechee food.
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Lmao!
A lot of people everywhere don't know how to cook. They don't even bother to try and learn, so they rely on corporate packaged foods and restaurants. That's a separate thing from the cuisine of a given place, or the cooking of people that do know how to.
That may seem like sophistry, but it is an important point to remember when talking about cooking when not joking around for fun. You can't really use people that aren't actually doing a thing, or have never learned how to do it as an representative example of what a country's core is. It's like athletics, you can't say that Ethiopians are bad ice skaters if the average person can't access time and equipment to ice skate in the first place. (Not picking on Ethiopia, it was just the first country that came to mind as not being very present in the world ice skating stage).
It's legit to say that the US has a major food education problem, as does the UK from what I've heard, but that is a different issue than the national cuisine.
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
heard that food in the US is generally bad,
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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Meanwhile yanks with their two spices - butter and sugar
"Our food is the tastiest in the wuuuurld"
Aye but yous can't afford that coronary eh mate 😂
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Is this where we pretend that Brits don't consume obscene amounts of sugar and butter?
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No, there's no point pretending they're not fat cunts as well
But we're pretending they don't consume vast amounts of spices too. They're fat smelly cunts tbh
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pretty sure you mean canola oil and hfcs
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I mean obviously you've never taken the time to explore the US. US food is utterly fantastic.
Our beer is better too.
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Been to the US a few times. Your food tastes extremely average and the only difference to anywhere else is that it has about 3 times the kcals and half the nutrition. I've had heartburn and constipation virtually every time I've visited.
And your beer is possibly the worst in the world. It's pisswater.
With opinions like that I'd be surprised if you've even left your own state, let alone the country.
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You are clearly making a poor joke, but... Butter is literally what the French are known for. Sugarcane is from the South Pacific and sugar itself originated in India.
Southern and Creole cuisine originated in America however, and that uses a ton of spices on par with native Indian cuisine.
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Industrial use of high fructose corn sirup is all American Capitalism, though.
... And southern france hardly uses butter btw.
sugar itself originated in India
Lol, what? Also: it's not about where the stuff came from but rather what the cuisine does with it. Italian or German cuisine doesn't become south american all of a sudden cause of tomatoes and potatoes.
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Jamaican curried goat is divine, and it must be Jamaican curry, and added water must be tricked very slowly down the side of very hot, cast iron Dutch oven and simmered quite a while. I was fortunate enough to have a Jamaican neighbor show me the trick. And to my American compatriots, sweet potatoes are not yams.
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Thank you Indians
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Clearly you've never had rich friends, they're notorious for having everything and never using it.
"Oh man, I didn't know you play guitar. That's a beautiful Orange double stack and Thunderverb."
"I bought that when I tried to learn guitar, haven't used it since."
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Most popular dish in the UK is Tikka Massala.
But:
Fat, carbs and protein do not come purer than fish and chips.
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And vinegar so vinegary that it blows the taste buds of your descendants for 500 years
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Exactly. Many people have an ignorant view of British cuisine, as though only foods grown in the British Isles are British. All kinds of foods and dishes from all over the world have been shipped, used, and adapted in Britain since at least the time of the Roman Empire. Heck, most of what a British, European or North American person would see on the menu of their local Indian restaurant is not traditional Indian food at all, but rather Anglo-Indian.
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Yes, there have been a few comments mentioning Tikka masala, but can you name another British dish with flavor? I don't think so.
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None with flavor, plenty with flavour
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pepper steak pie
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Yes, there have been a few comments mentioning Tikka masala, but can you name another British dish with flavor? I don’t think so.
Let's kick off with curries! We've been eating 'curry' since 1598, so longer than a lot of other countries have existed. As well as chicken tikka masalla, we've adapted or invented a few, such as:
- Madras curries
- Jalfrezi curries
- Balti curries
- Phall curries
For other British dishes with flavour, try (in no particular order):
- Any Sunday roast; beef with Yorkshires and horseradish sauce, pork with applesauce, lamb with mint sauce.
- Full English, full Scottish, Ulster Fry, Full Welsh
- Kedgeree
- Steak and kidney pudding
- Cream tea
- A proper ploughman's lunch
- Sausage, mash, onion gravy with English mustard
- Cullen skink
- Shepherd's pie / cottage pie
- Fish pie
- Irish stew
- Lancashire Hot Pot
- Marmite on toast
- Bacon sarnie
- Kippers
- Sheffield fishcake butty
- Welsh rarebit
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Money can't buy you taste 😉
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Well, the whole spice trade was literally wealthy people buying taste.
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...eh...profiting in a commodity trade doesn't mean you...Ever see any midwestern farmer actually eat chickpeas? They love the bushel price most years though.
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Hey, they also needed more people to play cricket with.
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Tell me you haven't had proper British food without actually telling me.
Don't blindly believe everything you hear.
Beans on toast can be done well also.
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my favorite is when they serve it hot! yum
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i do that all the time, but my own recipe, which is essentially hopped up chili beans on garlic toast. So i start with frying four pieces chopped up bacon in a bean pot, then add half an onion chopped n fry that soft, then a can of the heinz bbq chipotle beans, half a cup of E.D. Smith Baja Chipotle bbq sauce, half tbsp ancho powder, half tbsp jalapeno powder, quater tbsp white pepper, half tbsp garlic powder, simmer that all up and serve on and with thick cut buttered garlic toast. and to put the lie to any stereotypes bout regional cuisine, i'm doing this shit in western canada. I have a restaurant here, but this particular recipe is a bit too hot for most my customers.
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My father is British. My grandmother was British.
There is no way to make British-style beans on toast palatable to people outside of Great Britain. I'm sorry.
There are plenty of British foods I will absolutely defend as terrific. I will murder a wedge of caerphilly cheese and I sometimes import Rowntree's blackcurrant fruit pastilles, I love them so much... but beans on toast? I can't go with you down that road. Also, Daddies Sauce. What the fuck is wrong with you people? Including my father. How do you put that shit in your mouths?
And don't even get me started on Marmite.
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That bloke is gently handling those pies.
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I like the little flag. Classic move claiming fish fingers for the empire.
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Fish don't have fingers, dolt.
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Embrace; Expand; Extinguish
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i was told by a brit that american biscuits were "salty scones"
and i have never wanted to complain more in my life. Especially given the american propensity to make shit sweet as fuck.
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It's true, the "biscuits and gravy" biscuits are closer to scones than what a Brit would think of as a biscuit.
Also, biscuits and gravy, wtf
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do the brits not have bread?
That's pretty much what a biscuit is here. Also what do you mean wtf biscuits and gravy slaps.
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Also, biscuits and gravy, wtf
I may lose my Yank card for this, but I'm not a fan myself. That said, it's just scones and bechamel sauce. Hearty, meaty, salty and what you can do with the rendered fat from greasy breakfast sausage*. It's basically hangover food that caught on.
(* There's a subset of traditional American food that stems from doing a lot with very little, while having a complete disregard for cholesterol and calorie intake. Assuming that wheat and dairy are the cheapest things in your pantry, you get stuff like this. See "scrapple" for another example.)
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We use a lot of herbs, garlic and mustard traditionally.
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I heard once that when spices became so cheap that even the commoners could afford it, the upper class in Britain started to claim that really good food doesn't need any spices to taste good and that bland food is the best. This supposedly made the British cuisine way blander.
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I thought it was cuz they lost a bunch of ships during wwii and then they had the rationing of foods, and hadn't recovered their flavor palate since then.
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I don't think flavor palates degenerate that quickly. Especially with that many Indian residents.
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Ain't nothing wrong with fish and chips
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I actually went and had some last night and jesus christ my palate was offended. Even when swimming in malt vinegar and tartar sauce, I just couldn't stand it. I can fix this:
- Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, cumin, and cayenne in the dry dredge
- A dry stout in the wet dredge mix instead of a lager or a pale ale, anything with a body really
- Maybe a layer of panko breadcrumbs I toasted beforehand
- A far more flavorful fish than cod, i'm thinking salmon fingers
The sun never set on the British empire, and they never used the spices they stole.
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Don’t get high on your own supply.
Guv.
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Chicken Tikka Masala entered the chat.
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Indian food?
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Origin is Scotland I believe...Glasgow.
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I'm happy Great Britain was able to make one interesting dish 50 years ago, but the cuisine could use a couple more seasoned recipes.
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I will not argue against that.
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British women and British cuisine... The birth of a seafarer nation.
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The Brits took to the seas. The Irish took to the bottle.
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This is the funniest thing I've read today. It makes so much sense now. 🤣
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I'm sorry but star pie will in no way ever be a preference for me. I've never had it and do not wish to have it.
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I look at it the other way around. The food was so horrible, England sent entire fleets of ships just to get takeout from India. It didn't matter that it took months on end and people lost their lives along the way, it was still worth it.
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The taste of their food and the beauty of their women made the British the best sailors in the world.
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And then purposefully mispronounce almost every foreign food.
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After some trips to GB and eating there, I am happy to live in Spain
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Jeez bud. Ya think of this yourself?
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What British meals do you recommend?
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Disclaimer: All of the below comes with the obvious caveat that it has to be made by someone who knows what they're doing. Any country's cuisine is shit if you're eating at a shit restaurant. That's not about your choice of meal, that's your choice of venue.
- Pies. Britain has basically perfected the savory pie. Steak and kidney, steak and onion, scotch pie, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, fisherman's pie... British savory pies are an explosion of flavour. Pair with a good stout or porter; the kind of beer that still looks black even when you hold it up to a light.
- Good fish & chips is one of the most perfect meals ever created. Keep in mind that the condiments matter; you need the acidity and richness of a good malt vinegar to cut through that fattiness. Never get fish & chips in a pub or restaurant. Go to a proper chippy, preferably in a coastal town.
- Stews are a British classic. Try a real Lancashire hotpot sometime, with pickled red cabbage and mashed potatoes. Absolutely stunning.
- Get your ass down to a high quality carvery and try a roast dinner. Lamb or beef are the best bet, but chicken and pork are good too. The true test of a roast dinner is the quality of the gravy. It should be not too thick, and full of savory meaty flavour, not doughy or floury in taste. Also look for vegetables that have some colour on them, not just boiled. Roast lamb leg with a good mint sauce is a thing of beauty. Pair with red wine for lamb or beef, white for pork or chicken.
- Haggis is a flavour explosion. The real thing, no plastic wrapped forgeries, served with the traditional sides of tatties and neeps, and a glass of really good single malt whisky.
- Straight up, one of the best meals I've ever had was bangers and mash. I was at a high end London restaurant - I forget the name, but John Lennon used to eat there pretty regularly - and it was incredible. The potatoes were the perfect texture with just the right amount of salt and butter. The sausages were made in house, beautifully seasoned and cooked to perfection, and the gravy was stunning. It's a very simple meal, but simple done right isn't easy. In a simple meal there's nothing to hide behind. Every part has to be perfect.
- Desserts. British desserts are phenomenal. Eton mess, spotted dick, and the absolute king of desserts, sticky toffee pudding served with thick cream. Unbelievably decadent.
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Spotted dick
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!remind me to see any answer to this lol
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Britain conquered India, many other parts of Asia and much of the Americas and yet they still eat Marmite. Willingly.
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bovril too, huuurk
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Myself: douse the fries with chilli sauce. 🌶😋
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The fish recipes I have seen use Turmeric
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"Never dip into your own supply"
- brits, probably
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Meanwhile, both the tomatoes in the baked beans and the potatoes used to make the fries/chips originated in the Americas and the guy who cooked it once experienced the taste of paprika. So there!
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The only British person who actually knows how to use spices is Gordon Ramsey, and he gets a pass on not using them cause he actually knows how to cook good food.
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He can’t handle spice. His 2 appearances on Hot Ones are their top-watched episodes. They’re also the best. He’s so funny. He had so much fun during his first appearance, he came back for their Holiday episode. It was awesome.
I highly recommend the watch.
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Then he goes off and tells me to do something stupid like put cinnamon sticks in my chili, the Brits can't help themselves.
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Cinnamon, good. Chili, good. I can see where he's coming from.
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I may try that. Why not? Nutmeg is amazing in Alfredo, so I'm willing to try it. More toward fall, though. It's too hot in spring fur such heaviness
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I've never watched Ramsey, and I'm not British, but a hint of cinnamon in ground meats is great. Cinnamon in savory foods is underrated in general, imo
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… Americans and mayonnaise …
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Europeans and mayonnaise... like who wants to dip french fries in a big pile of mayo?
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Me. It's delicious.
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Dutchies smother their fries in it.
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Me! Chilli- and/or garlic-mayo is the best thing that can happen to fries, right after Tzatziki!
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I simply can't eat fries without mayonnaise... I do suspect that the mayonnaise we use for fries here is different from what you get in the states, though I've never been there so I can't say for sure.
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My sister would. She loved mayo since she was a kid
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It's not even that they don't use spices they just haven't even tried to evolve their cuisine. They still eat the same bland boring shit from 100 years ago. Meanwhile the rest of Europe thriving. It's like they opened the books once 50 years ago to let chicken Tikka in and then immediately closed the books again. They can always point to that one dish and be like see.
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Which parts of Europe is that?
Is it Germany where you can only buy shnitzel, sausage and cabbage in various different forms?
Or Italy, where they're so proud of their food it's basically illegal to serve anything that isn't Italian?
Or France where spice and chilli is outlawed, only garlic and herbs allowed?
It's true that a lot of traditional British food is bland, but there are way more Chinese, Indian, Thai, mexican, Italian restaurants in any town in England than you'll find anywhere in Europe.
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Sounds like a cope to me.
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307 comments