Harleyman Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Wait a mo - are you basing the whole of British cuisine on Lyons Corner Houses? And if you are - are you saying that MacDogburgers are better?? You really need to be more objective and face the fact that America are doing a great advertising job regarding the sale of all kinds of junk the world over - luring our kids into early graves. Even your leading soft drinks producers have just released their groundbreaking new sugar free drink. (I will NOT speak their name)! Though it's laden with a multitude of dodgy chemicals instead and is probably more detrimental to developing minds and bodies than the standard drink. You are happy, it seems, to buy into the myth that British food is bad (but then you would be wouldn't you)? British food, through the ages, has generally been simple, wholesome and filling. Appropriate to the climate maybe. Have you ever had a REAL Cornish Pasty the size of a house brick from Cornwall baked by one of the many small village bakeries - made to ancient recipes with lamb and turnip? Or Yorkshire Pud filled with chunks of medium rare beef and (properly - not overly) cooked vegetables? How about an Arbroath Smokey - cured in the flavoursome smoke of oak and eaten with an oven bottom bread cake? I could go on. It is a myth that we cook veg to a mush and meat to a blackened crisp. And that our food is boring. Have you been watching my hero - Gordon Ramsey - showing you yanks how to cook? What a man - wish I was gay! My O.H says he can batter HER cod anyday!!! But that's another story. Having said that - some of the staff of these yank restaurants are REAL humans. Warm and welcoming, unpretentious and witty. Others are complete tw+ts though - swaggering and aggressive, macho and uncompromising - and that's just the women!! But to get back to British fare - it takes more than soggy spuds and over-cooked meat to sustain a world conquering nation. When did the first McDs arrive in Britain? There were none when I left in 1965 so it must have happened sometime after that. There used to be a chain restaurant called Wimpys which sold a pice of meat about 3 inches in diameter between two halves of a plain white bun. That was the nearest I came to a hamburger in those days. I grew up on a diet of roast potatoes, Yorkshire pud, brussels sprouts and roast beef, although the roast beef was sparse in quantity and cut thin. I also ate Cornish pasties, pork pies, sausage rolls and of course the national favourite fish and chips but while it may have been wholesome it was hardly imaginative and a lot of it was fatty and high in cholesterol. Stodgy was what most visitors described it as. British food to be honest was a bit of a joke among other Europeans back then especially the French, Belgians, Italians and the Spanish. That's hardly the case now with the arrival of foreign foods from all over the globe. At least there is a wide choice which there wasn't before. As I mentioned previously the British population wanted far more choice. The matter of the food being healthy or not wasnt an issue. It took two brothers from San Bernardino, California to come up with the idea that fast, hot, tasty food served quickly, no waiting, was what the post war generations wanted first in the US and then later in Europe. They just happened to be American. It could just as easily been a Brit. While fast food may be the cause of obesity today the sedentary lifestyle of the young is also another factor. Were people healthier 60 years ago? No. They may have been thinner because of the lack of easy access to instantly prepared food but smoking was a national pastime and cheap strong beer was the cause of widespread public drunkeness and alcoholism. If I'm over in a place like London today I can eat Greek, Italian. French, Chinese, Indian, West Indian... you name it. So "British food" is definately good these days. I might even enjoy a good pub lunch or a fry up also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 This, unquestionably, has to be high on the list: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13924591 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Mod Note Posts removed for modifying the contents of a quote. Please note that if you quote someone you may trim the quote, split the quote into several smaller quotes or remove sections which you are not replying to, as long as you do not change the meaning of the original quote. You may not add to the quote even if, as in this case, the addition is made obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 first Mcdonald's in the UK opened in Woolwich, London in 1974. The Mcdonald's on Fargate, Sheffield ten years later. I was 16 at that time in Sheffield, and news of it opening caused quite a stir. In my sixth form, a bunch of us planned to go very soon after it opened, but I was distinctly less exited about it than the others. Having spent several years in the US as a kid and eaten in Mcdonald's, KFC's and Burger Kings etc loads of times, I knew the food was basically garbage compared to the much wider range of meat and fish and vegetables that was available in US supermarkets than the UK. I knew even then that American food was a lot more than places like Mcdonalds. Coming back from the US to the UK in 1977 after four years was like suddenly finding yourself in a communist country, where everything was in black and white, rather than colour and the food was distinctly unadventurous and dull by comparison. We did manage to find some American foods we'd learned to like in the UK, but it was hard going. Uncle Sam's on Ecclesall Road was a godsend to us, and we always went there on treats and birthdays where we'd remember when we ate that sort of food most days, and enjoy the iconic memorobilia on display, like the model of a US mail box or whatever, that we used to see, life size, every day. My dad had to send off to London by mail-order just to get a bottle of Maple Syrup to put on pancakes. Britain has changed a very great deal since then. Now you can get Maple Syrup in any supermarket. American food was much better then than Britain's and just had more range and more vitality, or at least that was the way it seemed to me. You'd go round to a school pal's house and it would be normal to get fed lasagne for dinner. There's no way that would have happened in the UK at that time. The range of ingredients and dishes that reflected the US melting pot meant that the choice was much more. Britain only started to stop being rather drab in comparison in the late 80s, and really it wasn't until the 1990s that UK cities started having the range of restaraunts (i.e. Italian, Chinese, Indian, etc) that had been the norm in the US for at least twenty years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 And now my asparagus comes from bloody Peru. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 It needn't. I nicked some off a field near Holbeach, Lincolnshire once. Nothing commercial, you understand - just enough for an appetizer for two. My getaway vehicle was a Muddy Fox bicycle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peas Maker Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Obama’s recent speech in the UK got me thinking about what America has actually contributed to the world. Helping Europe defeat Hitler seems to be about the only positive contribution of the United States that I can think of. The rest seem to be negative, Wiping out the Native Americans to create the USA, Importing slaves to build the country, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vietnam, American military bases across the world, The war crime better known as Israel, creation of the Taliban, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, Drone bombings in Pakistan, fast food obesity, pornography, gang violence. Don't get me wrong there are some great cities in America but to the poor of America and wider world can America really be considered as the outstanding example of freedom justice and equal rights Obama talks about? Is Obama living in cloud cuckoo land? Agreed since after ww2 the American government has been involved in nearly every major war , involved in clandestine actions against many many nations , coups , assignations , over 400 military outposts Yes imperial America Like all imperial powers they all fall sooner than later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Agreed since after ww2 the American government has been involved in nearly every major war , involved in clandestine actions against many many nations , coups , assignations , over 400 military outposts Yes imperial America Like all imperial powers they all fall sooner than later Wait until China takes over. When they get around to buying up everything in Sheffield you'll find yourself working in a noodle factory. No more gyros, clothing, rent benefits. Cushy number is up for good Being able bodied and unemployed is tanatmount to laziness in the Chinese culture. The Peoples Republic have a job for you and there's plenty of labour camps in Outer Mogolia for those who dont like the idea :hihi: Enjoy the new era ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 not too sure what makes you think they're so stable. Just watch and wait for the latest Chinese civil war. America's had one. China's had loads, but then they've had more time to get themselves into that sorry predicament on occasion. Eventually, they'll have another one. Things are flakier than they seem in China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peas Maker Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Wait until China takes over. When they get around to buying up everything in Sheffield you'll find yourself working in a noodle factory. No more gyros, clothing, rent benefits. Cushy number is up for good Being able bodied and unemployed is tanatmount to laziness in the Chinese culture. The Peoples Republic have a job for you and there's plenty of labour camps in Outer Mogolia for those who dont like the idea :hihi: Enjoy the new era ! Sure I can imagine the chinese and indians be a much more oppressive world powers America as a nation with world power is nearly over Buts it's the corporations and banks who keep hold of the power ! Many banks and co are moving east Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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