French vs British Cuisine

[robjh]

I've given the situation due consideration and you've failed to mention andouillette, a French delicacy which smells and tastes of 5hit.

And another thing. The French don't make decent pies. Anything French en croute is poncy.

You'll love this then

 

[Globalti]

French wine is stuck in a chauvinist time-warp so I suspect French cuisine has the same problem.

 

[swee'pea99]

fried Mars bar was so wrong.

Wrong, apparently. Said so in The Guardian, so it must be true...

"Some things are so obvious that no description would be complete without them, and yet they must surely have been observed before: the problem with deep frying a Mars bar isn’t the fat or the salt or the sugar, but the colour. It looks like a turd in batter; so much so that there’s some kind of evolutionary wisdom urging you not to eat it.

But when you’ve gone all the way there and, at 41, are ready to experiment, you can ignore that wisdom for the first bite, and, it turns out, these are delicious; much better than a regular Mars bar, since the neutral, savoury flour breaks into the sugary flatness, the batter mixes up the texture and, of course, the salt and the caramel meet, in an elegant and self-contained precursor to this decade’s salted caramel obsession.

Look, you wouldn’t eat two in a row. You may not eat again that day. But it’s better than the chocolate puds I could name in 10 separate restaurants."

The Guardian!

 

[Over The Hill]

Baked Beans are just perfection.
Our bread is much better with the range we have. They then miss out on Toast with baguettes.
Then they have the range of cheeses but we beat them all with Cheddar.
Bacon is fantastic. Never found it out there like ours.
Similarly they cannot make a cup of tea.
And Marmalade. I ran out on holiday and got some out there in the Super U and it was horrid. They have ghastly apricot jam instead.

We have McVities Chocolate Digestives


They have -

 

[gavroche]

Well let me put my two pennies worth. As you all know, I am French and very proud of French cooking and many other things too. I have lived in Britain since 1970 and must say that food has improved a lot since then over here. When I go back home to my brothers, that's when I see the difference between British home cooking and French home cooking. The French one is so superior because the ingredients are fresh and of better quality. French housewives take time and are proud of their cooking. They don't drown everything with that watery brown sauce you call gravy over here. The don't cook out of packet. Please take note that I am talking about home cooking and not restaurants. But restaurants are also better overall as each restaurant will have its own speciality, not chain ones that offer the same menus all over the country. And then, the cakes.... So, to summarize, French food is definitely better and diversified but nowadays, it is also possible to eat well in the UK, which was hard to do back in 1970.
When I go home, I can't wait to visit my brothers for proper French food with all its delights. Some of you will disagree, but deep down , you know I am right, after all, France is the most visited country in the world.

 

[rich p]

Food over here has improved beyond recognition in the last 15 years.
French cuisine, outside of fine dining, has suffered from their hubris and complacency to such an extent that the general restaurant food is over-rated, over-cooked and you're damned lucky if you find a fresh vegetable on the plate.

 

[tyred]

[QUOTE 4055536, member: 259"]And you can't get cheese and onion crisps. Heathens![/QUOTE]

Cheese and onion Crisps were an Irish invention in 1954.

 

[robjh]

Well let me put my two pennies worth. As you all know, I am French and very proud of French cooking and many other things too. I have lived in Britain since 1970 and must say that food has improved a lot since then over here. When I go back home to my brothers, that's when I see the difference between British home cooking and French home cooking. The French one is so superior because the ingredients are fresh and of better quality. French housewives take time and are proud of their cooking. They don't drown everything with that watery brown sauce you call gravy over here. The don't cook out of packet. Please take note that I am talking about home cooking and not restaurants. But restaurants are also better overall as each restaurant will have its own speciality, not chain ones that offer the same menus all over the country. And then, the cakes.... So, to summarize, French food is definitely better and diversified but nowadays, it is also possible to eat well in the UK, which was hard to do back in 1970.
When I go home, I can't wait to visit my brothers for proper French food with all its delights. Some of you will disagree, but deep down , you know I am right, after all, France is the most visited country in the world.

While I agree strongly with the gist of what @gavroche says, there are counter-examples. It was in France many years back that I first encountered the horror of shops selling slices of pre-boiled carrots in shrink-wrap for the microwave, and a meal in the Hippopotamus chain can be as grisly as any chain restaurant in the UK.

 

[rich p]

[QUOTE 4055958, member: 259"]And even the hubris are few and far between.[/QUOTE]
They even deep fry them sometimes ,I'm told...

 

[vernon]

The welsh solicitor will be having it for supper tomorrow.

In his dreams!

 

[vernon]

[QUOTE 4055760, member: 45"]If you're going to say that in a balti restaurant I'd suggest that you do it after the Pakistani chef has cooked it for you.[/QUOTE]

Same continent.

So to amend my faux pas. Made by Pakistanis from Baltistan in Birmingham.

 

[vernon]

[QUOTE 4055983, member: 259"]I always eat kidneys on Bloomsday. The faint tang of urine always gets me. [/QUOTE]

Liver and onions

Kidneys thinly sliced, cooked in cream and seasoned with pepper and cinnamon and served on buttered toast.

Stuffed lambs heart

 

[robjh]

Nobody has mentioned the devil's vomit AKA Cassoulet

Shaun

Let me mention it.

Cassoulet

 

[PK99]

Let me mention it.

Cassoulet

I'm cooking cassoulet for 12 at New Year - complete with homemade confit duck and authentic toulouse sausage and lignot beans

 

[robjh]

I'm cooking cassoulet for 12 at New Year - complete with homemade confit duck and authentic toulouse sausage and lignot beans

I don't know if that's meant as an indirect invitation, but SW19 is a bit out of the way for me these days (though I did once live in Tooting).
But bon appetit for the festive meal.