French vs British Cuisine

[deptfordmarmoset]

Living in France taught me to appreciate French cooking but their ability to spend hour upon hour simply talking about it used to drive me out of my mind. I am a bit of an ''eat when hungry'' type, though.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

The best I can say for British food is that it's getting better.

All countries which actually care about food have better cooking than Britain, for me including France and Italy and my favourite of all, Japan.

I'm sorry I can't include India, @vernon - it's only because I've never been.

 

[John the Monkey]

http://theorwellprize.co.uk/george-orwell/by-orwell/essays-and-other-works/british-cookery/

 

[John the Monkey]

I think part of the joy of British cuisine is its willingness to absorb influences and styles from others (as well as the basics Orwell mentioned in the famous piece linked above). I remember being in Greece, and turning to the "English Dishes" section of the menu, where the diner was offered Chicken Tikka, Spaghetti Bolognese etc etc.

Equally, I quite like France's rigid insistence on the integrity of its cuisine. E.g. the tale people tell me of the Religeuse, which is always coffee or chocolate. You could make a vanilla version, but it would not be a Religeuse. I often wonder what they'd make of the shenanigans people get up to on "Bake Off".

 

[nickyboy]

Whilst traditional British food is quite homely and simple, we shouldn't understate our willingness to accept cuisine from different parts of the world.

Even in little old Glossop we have Indian, Sri Lankan, Italian, Spanish, Turkish

Contrast that with the culinary outlook of some nations; I'm in London today, a city with every conceivable cuisine available, with a group of Chinese businessmen. I know for a fact we will end up in Chinatown because they "only like Chinese food"

 

[mybike]

Even their motorway service areas are a lot better than ours.

That's hardly a difficult task. A while ago there was some endeavour to improve motorway services but that now seems to have gone by the board.

 

[Markymark]

I've yet to have a bad meal in France. Even their motorway service areas are a lot better than ours.

Except they have a habit of closing outside their strict lunchtime hours.

 

[TheDoctor]

True, but even the sarnies in the petrol station are OK.

 

[Fnaar]

From my experiences of France, Spain and Italy, countries in which I've enjoyed really great food, is that there is a lot less homogenisation... chains of restaurants, pubs which buy in and heat the food up, etc. You go to a bar or restaurant in most parts of Spain, for example, you know there's a chef in the back cooking up his own concoctions. Some may be a little unadventurous, but it's pretty much always good, in my experience. And then there's specialist restaurants... I used to frequent a restaurant in Spain which ONLY did octopus and squid. But it did them both in many different ways. it was always heaving with customers, it was cheap, and the food was delicious!!!!!!!

 

[slowmotion]

One of many guides to British cuisine and this one ranked as well.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/f...favourite-British-food-like-eat-revealed.html
TOP 40 BEST BRITISH FOODS
............
18. Cornish pasty...................

If Cornish pasties are one of the top British foods, the French are clear winners.

 

[User169]

Equally, I quite like France's rigid insistence on the integrity of its cuisine. E.g. the tale people tell me of the Religeuse, which is always coffee or chocolate. You could make a vanilla version, but it would not be a Religeuse. I often wonder what they'd make of the shenanigans people get up to on "Bake Off".

Reminds me of what became known as the "clafoutis incident". My housemate wanted to cook for someone he was trying to impress - she wanted to bring her French friend along, so I had to be present. He was exceptionally proud of his plum clafoutis, but when this made its appearance, said Frenchie was snootily insistent that it couldn't be a clafoutis since it didn't have cherries in it. Something of a froideur descended over the table and some 20 years later he still gets a bit twitchy if I remind him of it.

 

[Aperitif]

From my experiences of France, Spain and Italy, countries in which I've enjoyed really great food, is that there is a lot less homogenisation... chains of restaurants, pubs which buy in and heat the food up, etc. You go to a bar or restaurant in most parts of Spain, for example, you know there's a chef in the back cooking up his own concoctions. Some may be a little unadventurous, but it's pretty much always good, in my experience. And then there's specialist restaurants... I used to frequent a restaurant in Spain which ONLY did octopus and squid. But it did them both in many different ways. it was always heaving with customers, it was cheap, and the food was delicious!!!!!!!

A few squid. With a few fried pesetas...Spanish fish con chips.

 

[slowmotion]

True, but even the sarnies in the petrol station are OK.

Some are, most are not. "Deep Fill" seems to mean double the thickness of appalling bread, with any flavour frozen out by storage at ridiculously low temperatures.

EDIT: Sorry, I thought you were talking about British service stations, not French ones. They are excellent.

 

[User169]

I often wonder what they'd make of the shenanigans people get up to on "Bake Off".

Not a lot...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/27/the-great-british-bake-off-patisserie

I remember reading this article at the time and couldn't help feeling it misses the point.

 

[Fnaar]

Some are, most are not. "Deep Fill" seems to mean double the thickness of appalling bread, with any flavour frozen out by storage at ridiculously low temperatures.

Miss Goodbody is rather partial to a lunchtime deep fiil.