Am I the only person with the opinion that a lot of every day UK food is grossly underrated?

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VictoryOrKittens@reddit

Shhh, dont tell people on reddit. Americans have been fanatically convincing people for 80 years that British food is disgusting, and if you challenge that narrative at all, you'll start getting banned from subs and mass-downvoted.

Also, dont tell people that Britain has excellent dental care... that will only make it worse for you.

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combabulated@reddit

I stopped reading at margarine.

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jonnyshields87@reddit

You think the tomatoes are better here? My mate Scott has moved to Naples and says the tomatoes here taste like water compared to ones over there. He eats them like apples.

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Immorals1@reddit

The stereotype comes from when we had rationing around and after ww2, soldiers came and experienced very basic foods because of it, and that's what they took back with them.

Countries can develop their own negative habits independently of the USA, it's not all about that.

Ready meals have been a thing in the UK since at least the 70s, and from the 90s onwards I think they improved in quality/taste so people in families where all adults are working full time which is very common will often be tempted to use those as a shortcut I think.

But if those ready meals are tasty, quick and healthy then they are going to be expensive, and if they are cheap and quick then they probably won't be tasty and/or healthy.

I grew up as a young adult in the 90s and I think there was a bit of a cooking renaissance in that era and discovering a lot more global foods compared with the previous couple of decades.

The 70s and 80s view seemed to be that ready meals and microwaves no matter how bad freed mothers from the tyranny of cooking all day every day and being chained to the stove. By the 90s/00s many realised that while that goal may be good the means wasn't so great and many men like myself took more of an interest in home cooking compared with previous decades.

Really good the food scene in Liverpool. The fact it's a small city that's quite dense it's so easy to get around and travel between the different areas.

sayleanenlarge@reddit

That's not because of the indigenous British though, is it?

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Dry_rye_@reddit

Wtf is an "indigenous British"?

Indian in particular, do you know BIR is it's own style? British Indian Restaurant. It's not traditional Indian food. It's specific to Britain.

There's this weird notion that everyone was isolated and no food cultures were exchanged until 1957 but global trade has been happening for hundreds of years, and we're an island with a lot of ports. Incidentally India didn't have chili's before the Portuguese brought them in the 16th century

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Brad_Breath@reddit

I grew up thinking broccoli should squirt water and disintegrate when you try to pick it up with a fork.

Marketing has a lot to answer for.

Plus to be fair even before that Britain had relied on imports from the empire to feed it for well over a century before WWII which in those days meant a lot of canned fruit, corned beef, industrial bread, dried products etc etc rather than the fresh local specialties that were being developed all over France or Italy or Spain in that era. That reliance on imports is why a bankrupt Britain that didn't want to spend currency on any unnecessary imported luxuries kept rationing going fast longer than any of the continental European countries even the ones that were much more heavily affected by war destruction.

The British working classes were also shoved off the land into industrial cities very early compared with most other countries and they did so in an era before cars and television and even railways to an extent to keep them in contact with their rural, food producing roots. The diet of the Victorian working class urban Brits already had a lot more industrialised, processed food than the typical working class French, Italian or Spanish.

And then even before the industrial revolution the UK has a typical Northern European climate that can't grow the variety and quantity of tasty fruit and vegetables that the Southern European climates can. Look at all Northern European cuisines and they are universally more stodgy and beige than in Southern Europe even without the early industrial revolution and WWII rationing factors specific to Britain that came later.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

Yes! But having eaten your food over there 30 years ago, it still was really good.

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Lost_Eskatologist@reddit

Degraded our food expectations, most people who actually had decent cooking skills did amazingly well with very little. Just looking at some of the recipes they came up with to make quite elaborate foods with few of the correct ingredients is sometimes startling.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

I think the quality of your produce and meat is superb. And you are right about World War II, I think that it may have contributed to your produce from the encouragement of families to plant their own vegetables. Also, it doesn’t hurt that your country cares enough about your people to enforce, stricter guidelines and food safety.

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Immorals1@reddit

I work with food and when I've been over to USA I've been shocked at the (lack of) food safety standards. I also note that things tend to be either convenience or quantity (or both) over quality across the pond.

And for a nation that drinks so much coffee, why is it so bad?!

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Aletheia-Nyx@reddit

Because many people don't care about the taste, they need the caffeine to survive their slave labour work shifts. And cheap coffee is better for that than pricier stuff or energy drinks, since the same people working 16 hours straight are unlikely to be able to afford decent coffee without bankrupting themselves. Also, the popularity of coffee drinks like frappuccinos and such, which are like a shot of espresso and then mostly milk, ice and HFCS syrups, they can't taste the coffee. We have some shit working conditions, but on a general we have much more worker protection and much higher standards for human welfare. And it's still abysmal here, so I really pity the USA. I've got friends there working three jobs and still barely able to afford a studio flat you can barely breathe in.

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This is unfamiliar for me! Whole matrilinial line is from nearabouts Edi

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

Yes, you are right. The term for soda does vary here in the US. I could be wrong, but I think the majority of people here call it soda and then in the Midwest they refer to it as pop. I really like your word, “Fizzy” because it is in fact, fizzy, and it makes sense.

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Aletheia-Nyx@reddit

Yeah, it's fizzy juice!

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

🤣 I know, right? I completely agree, and I’m glad to see that others agree with me here.

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huntinwabbits@reddit

Yes, my grandads garden in East London became 100% dedicated to growing during the blitz, wasn't too big, but he never changed it back, when he died in the 90s it hadn't changed much at all.

My dad then learnt from him and passed on some tips to me and I now grow in my garden,cant beat that taste of homegrown!

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Rationed. Damn autocorrect...

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auto98@reddit

so we don't need to go bold with spices etc

Whenever I read someone talking about "British food is bland" I always think the real problem is that they can't taste anything very well and can't taste all the flavours in eg a roast dinner

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silentk772@reddit

British food absolutely is bland. The only people that disagree are those that haven't experienced other cuisine across the globe. UK has fantastic food, but most of that is cuisine from other cultures

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Kind_Dream_610@reddit

But talking of spices, there are a number of Indian dishes that exist because of the British palate and are enjoyed in other parts of the world.

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Optimal-Room-8586@reddit

Yeah. I think the stereotype may have been still slightly accurate as recently as the 80s but it's definitely outdated. Went to France quite recently and we were looking forward to amazing pastries and croissants. Tried a bunch of places but to be perfectly honest they're better at our local bakery. Have had similar experiences with other cuisines in other parts of Europe.

Caused me to reflect that 40 years ago the stereotype may have been fair, but nowadays, when every high street seems to have a few artisan bakeries, coffee roasters, etc it no longer applies.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

I think that if I were to go to the UK today, since I haven’t been in a long time, I would be very surprised based on the comments here. Has it really changed that much? I love all my memories of the visits I made to Scotland.

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chuckles5454@reddit

Scotland, where I live, has the highest quality mutton, beef, fish and game in the world but they're now so expensive ordinary people prefer processed, semi-prepared foods from supermarkets that are cheaper.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

Of the times I’ve been to the UK, most of my time was spent in Scotland versus England or Wales. Where do you think I got my food preferences from? 🤣 after having food in Scotland decades ago, I got spoiled. And then I had to come home….🥺. Yes, prices have gone up here too, and our food isn’t even as good as yours. I do like having an occasional ribeye steak, but those are now $30 at the store each.

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sayleanenlarge@reddit

Nah, that's not true. We basically hate Jamie Oliver because he banned Turkey Twizzlers from school and we rave about beige food, like greggs sausage rolls and chip butties.

We bring our own reputation down with this crap and lumpy custard.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

Omg 🥺😢 besides Haddock, I want, and miss very much, sausage rolls. Sausage rolls with . The sausage here sucks and you can’t make them here. I’ve looked into having them shipped from the UK frozen, but it costs a fortune. There are American recipes online that are horrible, trying to use Jimmy Dean sausage brand here in a puff pastry. Awful.

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sayleanenlarge@reddit

I didn't mean to talk sausage rolls down. Greggs sausage rolls are delicious. I don't know how I'd manage without them. They do veggie ones now that taste identical. If you can work out the recipe, and rip it off for American audiences, you'd be minted.

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2maa2@reddit

A lot of British people definitely prioritise cost and convenience over quality.

WWII might have contributed to degrading British cuisine but it’s pure cope to suggest our reputation is purely down to an American misunderstanding of rationing.

I still feel like the UK food scene is better than made out in some places online though.

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No-Dentist4689@reddit

Insane cope in that last sentence lol

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froggit0@reddit

There’s a couple of things to take account of though. Working class and upper class (think public school educated) tastes are weirdly convergent- Orwell in ‘..Wigan Pier’ describes cheap industrial food little different to what Eton and Harrow would serve to the future leaders. Clubland food was notably an echo of the nursery and boarding schools. Some of the upper class professed an indifference to food, that they took from their upbringing where luxury was felt to be effete and inimical to empire-building.

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guerrios45@reddit

Sorry I’ve been to plenty of restaurants outside London, always trying to compare and choose the ones with good reviews etc… When looking for a breakfast place for example, I end up a lot of time in places serving the shittiest sausages, black pudding, beans from can and industrial white toasts (no even toasted). And the worst is that every locals would give amazing reviews to those establishments. Never seen such lack of culinary culture than in the Uk.

Bang on. We need to reclaim/retain these weird little words, like guzzgogs.

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MayDuppname@reddit

Agreed. Never once heard my grandparents say "gooseberries". 😁

I remember loads from being a kid. Kay-lye for sherbet (which "mecks yer tabs laugh"). Corseh for pavement (that's a real owd 'un). Sucker for ice lolly. Duddoos fer sweets. Bobbos for osses. Bobbars for "don't touch that". Kaylied for drunk.

Gaffra@reddit (OP)

I hated brussels sprouts my entire life until my ex mother-in-law prepared them for me at her house in the winter time and I fell in love. I tried to duplicate in all seasons here with no luck. Yes! Omg you guys have such a huge variety of cheeses and they’re so good. We can find some nice cheese here in California, but it costs a fortune.

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HelixClipper@reddit

Waitrose Davidstow extra mature cheddar is insanely good on crackers, next time you visit be sure to pick some up

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-davidstow-cornish-extra-mature-cheddar-cheese-strength-6-large/818127-451910-451911

Another great one

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no-1-cornish-quartz-vintage-reserve-mature-cheddar-cheese-strength-7/657141-677410-677411

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Lower_Ad_1317@reddit

There is ye olde traditional food in Britain as with any other place. But there was a period in British history when a load of snobby rich well connected men decided to subjugate the rest of the world because subjugating one’s own citizens was not enough.

So they travelled and took lots of cuisine from all over the place. Then brought it back to Britain and it became British.

This is the unspoken fact that is often ignored.

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erinoco@reddit

But there was a period in British history when a load of snobby rich well connected men decided to subjugate the rest of the world because subjugating one’s own citizens was not enough.

I would disagree there. The aristocracy weren't the drivers behind imperialism or global British economic expansion. What happened was that the big winners of the struggle cashed out, then they and their descendants joined the landed classes, as all the winners in British economic history sought to do.

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Ulkreghz@reddit

"DAE actually really like food?"

Fuckin state of this sub smh

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Chaotic_MintJulep@reddit

I’m a Brit that lives in Northern California now. I miss UK food so much. Just regular groceries. Even the potatoes here are grown to taste sweet. It’s all gross.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

I feel for you. I’m a native Northern Californian, and I wish I had access to food from the UK. Can I ask you if you think there is a noticeable difference from northern California culture, and Southern California culture? I think there is, but I could be biased. 🤣

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Bubbly_Cauliflower40@reddit

I'm from southeast Tennessee so close enough to NC. Lived here in the UK for almost a decade and yes, there's definitely a culture difference. That being said, idk what everyone is banging on about produce being bad in the US 😆 it's more expensive, but there's still loads of variety - unless you're shopping at Walmart or some big box supermarket. I find the UK tends to only have great produce when said produce is in season. And some things here are not great, like melons, avocados, bananas, apples. Maybe due to the stricter growing conditions and climate... But MAN I really really miss properly massive fresh ripe watermelon that actually tastes like something other than water 😆😆😆 eh, but also the produce here isn't full of GMOs and crap and grown in a massive hothouse. Swings and roundabouts.

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TimeForHumanUK@reddit

Samonal produce is the way foreard. Be savvy.

Nitrogen stored produce from last season shipped or flown here wont be as giod as fresh seasonal produce.

Stricter laws about aminal welfare , vaccinations verses bleached fir example. No Clenbuterol and hormones, grass fed not soya feed etc

We arent in the mediteranian so much produce comes drom marocco or Chile etc so we have to go seasonal and learn to make the best of it.

Lots of diverse influncea too, as tou would expect...

We still have issues with industrial farming, like every other country. Still work to do there

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WordsMort47@reddit

Why would farmers give their animals Clembuterol? They want them leaner or something??

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TimeForHumanUK@reddit

Turns fat to muscle. Fatten them, turn fat to muscle. Save a few years. Happens in AUZ too.

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scoschooo@reddit

Serious question: why did you never buy good tomatoes in California? Just never knew about heirloom tomatoes - or try any variety that taste so good. Of course if you always buy the cheapest tasteless tomatoes from Safeway you can find better ones in the UK.

AhhGingerKids2@reddit

This is so interesting as I’m from the UK and I always think fruit and vegetables taste so much better in Europe. I could eat Italian tomatoes like an apple. I will say we don’t get enough credit for our seafood and cheese.

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HappyTrifle@reddit

Both are true. It’s true that our produce is generally worse than a lot of European countries. It’s also true that US produce is a lot worse than ours.

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I_Rarely_Downvote@reddit

Christ it must be dire in the US then.

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HappyTrifle@reddit

It’s hard to describe; you have to experience it for yourself. Vegetables are weirdly… sweet? Synthetic?

The bread just isn’t… bread. I have no idea why. Even a cheap Warburtons is like an artisanal sourdough in comparison.

If you think UK tomatoes are good try around the Med. Every time I go to Spain/italy/greece I’m always super impressed at their tomatoes, courgettes…etc etc.

Completely agree. American food is in general atrocious. Over-processed, full of additives, meat riddled with unsavoury growth hormones and medicines required for profit as well as to counteract the terrible animal husbandry in the factory farms, food safety hygiene lax and don't get me started on your "cheese".

No doubt your artisan high end stuff in expensive restaurants is decent!

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Undrcovrcloakndaggr@reddit

I can't picture a situation in which tomatoes that are bought in the UK are superior to literally anywhere else. Unless your preference is for tough-skinned, mushy fleshed, tasteless, watery shite... in which case we definitely have the gold star!

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Visible-Management63@reddit

You are correct apart from the tasteless part. They have a very strong taste to me, it's a sort of metallic, concentrated "unripeness." Very unpleasant.

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Undrcovrcloakndaggr@reddit

Yeh! You're right actually, it's not even as good as bland/tasteless is it! There's an actively unpleasant taste!

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SympathyKey8279@reddit

UK food is way better than US food.

But UK food is very poor compared to Southern European food.

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We got some beautiful seafood in uk

It's shame that most people don't seem to like it and it hard to find on menu where it not deep fried .

My mil live in Cornwall and they don't get why I rather have crab sandwich then fish and chips while I down there

But you can also get flavors from all over the world in London, including Michelin starred food selling British fine dining, which rivals any French gastronomy.

Tennants lager is an excellent lager. It’s a still a lager designed in the style of a mass produced lager than many people drink across all of Europe, but it’s an excellent example of one.

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deathmetalbestmetal@reddit

There’s a reason English pubs are full of Spanish and Italian beers. I’d definitely rank euro beers over US, but UK, I don’t think so.

The us scene is very good - but in terms of pints per capita, you've grossly underestimated what's out and about in the UK, thanks at least in part to the history of our pubs.

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HideousTits@reddit

I’m curious where abouts in the UK you are? I thought taprooms and bottle shops had spread across the entire country the last few years…

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TexasBrett@reddit

I’m in Suffolk. There’s a nice bottle shop in Bury St Edmunds but it’s mostly euro beers.

Try them again, maybe you hate how they prepared before? Plenty of people, myself included thought carrots were the boiled mushy things from school dinners and a tired mum!

Get the fancy skinny ones and look into roasting them in the oven, maybe a bit of honey and mustard or just olive oil salt a pepper.

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Immorals1@reddit

I work with food, I know how to prepare them, just not a fan sadly

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Visual-Economist5479@reddit

Ahhh fair enough mate, worth suggesting incase you hadnt

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Immorals1@reddit

I like to try everything I don't like at least once a year cos tastes change.

Grocery shopping in general tends to be fairly expensive in other countries.

Mine didn't, me and my wife don't.

Salt be good.

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AstroBlush8715@reddit

Yeah. It's an old stereotype which is hard to shake. It's not made better by the fact that some of our working class and younger people in particular have absolutely shocking diets due to poor parenting and lack of dietary education. But that's a rant for another day.

But generally if you buy nice ingredients and know how to cook, you can make high quality food whichever country you're in.

The quality of our food in terms of availability is generally on par with the rest of Europe, although we suffer with salad foods which are smaller and generally less flavoursome than their European counterparts, melon, tomatoes and onions are very good examples.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

Don’t forget, the mere fact that your food is more regulated, protecting the consumer. I’m sure I can speak for a lot of Americans by saying that we wish we had the same here.

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AstroBlush8715@reddit

I've had some odd conversations with Americans here about food.

Some of them militantly avoid microwaves and plastics because there's a vague suggestion that they might not be great for you.

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Bartoffel@reddit

Yeah, I saw an Italian guy talking about this on Reddit a while ago. He agrees the food here isn't actually that bad but most Brits lack the passion for cooking (obviously not everyone, but still) and my personal take is that Brits also seem to tend to cook mainly very safe things like fry-ups and consider that a huge achievement.

I also just checked in on the UKfood subreddit and the post I just saw sitting at the top was a "cottage pie sarnie". I thought there might have been some level of irony in the post, but there wasn't.

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Chlorophilia@reddit

Half the posts on /r/AskUK are people moaning about how the UK's food has an unfairly bad reputation so, no, you're clearly not the only one.

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Additional_Post_3602@reddit

Uk have bad reputation mostly because it lose in most 1st world food wars as it have objectively worse "food culture" than f.e. Italy or France, but it gain in whole world competition

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JavaRuby2000@reddit

most 1st world food wars

Italy and France are exceptions. Compare other European countries such as the Nordics, Netherlands, Germany, Iceland, Ireland and the UK comes out near or at the top. Its only the Mediterranean countries that have great food.

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

Thank you

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Stage_Party@reddit

My wife is from the US and has said the same, I've noticed the same. American food is often tasteless and bland in comparison and it's likely because of all the gm and chemicals used over there that are banned in most other countries.

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seladonrising@reddit

I’m also from the US and I agree UK food is underrated. I’m with you on the bread, although I disagree about the tomatoes, I haven’t noticed a difference here (except that there might be more choice of tomatoes at your average supermarket in the UK compared to the US).

Also cheese — so much variety of cheese here compared to the US.

The quality of mince pork sausage might be better but I miss the variety of sausage back home (in the US). I miss a lot of US foods to be honest but the selection here is fantastic, if different.

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reallycoolguylolhaha@reddit

A shame we don't match the USA in pizza ingredients. Can't find a stick of proper pepperoni to make thick cups to save my life and the only good pizza mozzarella is sold in Costco. Tomatoes are also barely any options here compared to America

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Barbz182@reddit

American bread really is a crime against humanity and nature.

I generally agree though our food isn't the greatest but it's certainly not bad. Every country's food fits it's climate, environment and culture as does ours. Nothing better than fish and chips at a British seaside town or some heatt pub food on a drizzly day with a pint.

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SirHyrumMcdaniels@reddit

Obviously not dude a bunch of us live here and we all eat the food.

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Adept_Sea_2847@reddit

Greggs sausage rolls are bomb the UK food might not be as good as mainland Europe but we got fookin Greggs!

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PureDeidBrilliant@reddit

The irony of Americans slating British food...no, let me rephrase that. White Americans slating British food is hilarious. They're the breed who create "casseroles" from soup, topped with frozen ready-made items, or make questionable slop in a bucket and call it a "Salad".

Now, Black American food? Yeah, they have ground to stand on and call our food bland and underseasoned. Ditto Latino cuisine. But the one thing I've seen for years? Put a bowl of hot apple crumble and home-made custard in front of them? Clean plates. Every time.

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Total nonsense, you dont know what yoire talking about. Standards are high in the UK and Ireland and there is plenty of high quality meat in the UK. Notably the lamb and beef because of the prime conditions for rearing outdoors on grass. Britain is renowned for its high quality cut mears, sausages and cheeses. Maybe the tomatoes are better across europe, because they are able to grow sweeter locally, but root vegetables, leeks, evesham vale asparagus, jersey potatoes are all far superior because conditions are ideal. Cuisine is not the same as produce, and to be honest, the UK cuisine is underated and not well known.

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mexican_next_door@reddit

I appreciate the patriotism but I can’t even take this seriously. “Standards are high” means nothing when Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s primarily sell water injected slop.

And to avoid the “Buy more expensive meat” nonsense: paying double for what should have been the baseline doesn’t allow you to pretend that overall quality is anything other than subpar.

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No_Shine_4707@reddit

Im not patriotic about food, that is ridiculous. Im just pointing out that a sweeping statement about produce in the UK being poor is total nonsense, especially the meats and cheeses. The poor quality meat is usually cheaper imports, and of course they have that in Europe as well. That is why they make a big deal of the Red Tractor 'produced in the UK' logo on food packaging. You pay for poor quality slop in Tesco, and that is what you get. But that tends to be chicken and pork, much of which is imported from Holland, eastern europe and brazil. The fresh beef and lamb in supermarkets is usually locally sourced and good quality. Outside the supermarkets, try a butcher or a local greengrocer. Full of high quality produce, and not particularly expensive. Making comparison judgements on a countries produce based on the cheapest budget line in a high volume supermarket is just stupid.

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mexican_next_door@reddit

If you think comparing premium products constitutes a fairer comparison instead of what the population primarily consumes you’re just stupid.

Honestly this is absurd, you are happy to overspending for what is literally the baseline in the mediterranean. I’d recommend you travel but I don’t have faith on your taste buds either

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No_Shine_4707@reddit

So British products are premium then? .... so not poor quality? I think we have ourselves a moron.

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mexican_next_door@reddit

That probably sounded better in your head. Can’t really blame you though, given the rubbish you consume.

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No_Shine_4707@reddit

Have to admire how quickly you can confirm a point.

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MathematicianOnly688@reddit

Meat?!

Phoenixian_Majesty@reddit

Wait can we talk about the tomatoes a sec because I always assumed the world must get better tomatoes than us, and I have heard how a lot of our veg is grown for show rather than taste.

Our cherry tomatoes are nice, mind you. Can't get enough of them.

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Then_Culture2600@reddit

I’m an American who moved to the UK and I love the food here! The bread is much better, the meat and fish are great, you can get amazing fruit and vegetables very easily.

The first time I had fresh local strawberries that I’d picked myself I about died from happiness. I used to hate all fish and thought it tasted disgusting, but before moving here I’d never had truly fresh fish before.

There are some things I miss from American cuisine (mostly Mexican food, actually) but on the whole the food here is incredible and I have no interest in living in the US again. I’m still struggling with my health here but I think it would be so much worse in the US.

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H16HP01N7@reddit

"Am I tHe OnLy OnE...."

Satanwearsflipflops@reddit

The greggs sausage roll and pasties are low key goated snack

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tamiresantana@reddit

I am from Brazil and live in the UK for 6 years. Every time I mention I love the food here, people look at me like I’m crazy. But yeah, I love English food

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pbmadman@reddit

I spent a week in England and was surprised by how not bad the food was. Everyone warned me that the food would be bland and the beer warm. Neither were true. I think the food is less salty and sugary than American food, but that just lets the flavor of the actual food come through. But the ingredients it was made with were great. The beer from a pub certainly wasn’t frosty cold, but never would I describe it as warm. It was, however, not as carbonated as I have come to expect. That ended up being a bit surprising.

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Now… I concede that we’re not that hot at putting our outstanding produce together in interesting ways.

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Foolish_ness@reddit

If you think the tomatoes here are good, I dread to think what they're like in the US. One of my favourite things about visiting continental Europe is that their tomatoes are so much better than ours.

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Sixforsilver7for@reddit

General quality of food in the UK vs the US is so much better (although im sure some reason manage some veg better). But the variety available has only really been good in the uk in the last couple of decades.

A lot of talk around UK food is outdated. Partly because the last time an huge amount of Americans were in the UK was during ww2 and no one likes to disrupt a solid meme. Theres also people who’ve been recently and experienced bad food were just bad at researching where to go and believe our online jokes about Tesco meal deal and spoons being good.

I also think the reverse is true though, there’s plenty of really good American food which isn’t 60% corn syrup and 30% onion powder but the easy things to get tend to be some of the worst.

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I'm getting on now (70) and I was brought up on quite plain food. My dad was born in 1920 and he could vividly remember going to bed hungry. He used to get up early as a child to go to Smithfield market to get the ends of ox tails from the bins to take home for his mum to make oxtail soup. Any food was good food to dad.

However, here's my menu to cook from scratch this week: Mon, fillet steak, fries and salad. Tues: chicken fajitas, brown rice, sour cream,guacamole . Today: mixed seafood paella. Thurs: steak and ale pie with mash and veg. Fri: Fish, chips, mushy peas and coleslaw. Sat: Spaghetti Bolognese Sun: either beef stroganoff or barbecued mexican chicken and roast veg kebabs - depending on the weather.

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OldEcho@reddit

Having moved from the US to the UK recently: US food is frozen garbage. Absolutely all of it. Things are frozen that it just makes absolutely zero sense to freeze. Then it's salted like it's crossing the Atlantic on a wooden fucking boat.

The reason UK food has a bad reputation is that Brits are allergic to seasoning. Also they steadfastly refuse to change and will inevitably say some nonsense about "tasting the ingredients." Often they literally don't season at all and when they do they put about a fifth of what they should. They will not try cooking with more seasoning and resent being asked to. This isn't traditional, I think they just forgot during WW2 rationing and are too stubborn to relearn because they'd have to admit everyone hates their food for a reason.

You see it in dishes like caramelised chicken: cooking chicken in fish sauce with brown sugar until it caramelises.

You will see the same thing in Japanese cooking. Soy sauce, MSG, fish sauce, miso, etc.

That contrast is really absent in everyday British cooking.

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badsheepy2@reddit

This is just an incredibly bad take. We have sweet. we have sour, we have umami. Worcestershire sauce by itself is incredibly complex (and has anchovies so technically fish sauce). You just know bad cooks.

What's the traditional sauce with lamb? with beef? sour and sweet right? caramelized carrots? buttery sweet peas?

it's easy to believe there's no complex flavours there if you don't bother to cook the whole meal and just pick half of it.

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OldEcho@reddit

I'll be honest when I last seriously travelled I was much younger and couldn't appreciate it. But even just SoCal Mexican food in terms of seasoning just blows British cooking completely out of the water.

I agree, flavors should be complex. Salt helps bring out the taste of a lot of things. Almost everything I make has at least a sprinkle of some herbs. Very rarely in my life have I thought "this is too seasoned." My advice to the average Brit is to try twice what you would normally and see if it's better.

It is ultimately all up to taste but honestly Brits are more stubborn than Americans. They won't even try adding more seasoning to see if it's better. It's ridiculous. It means all the best food here comes from other cultures which I frankly just find sort of embarassing.

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Gluecagone@reddit

We have great ingredients. It's just a lot of people don't know how to cook properly.

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HmNotToday1308@reddit

There are things that I legit hate in the UK

Baked Beans
Every fcking patry being ruined by either sultanas or orange zest
Fruit and Vegetables - now I know someone will argue that this or the other is great because of whatever but they're all kind of either extremely bland or bitter . I grew up in a remote farming community (mostly Amish and mennonite so I didn't have the mass produced shit most Americans think of)

Things that are significantly better

Meat - especially bacon
Dairy - obviously certain cheeses aren't native but overall dairy is here in general superior
Comfort stew type dishes
Sweets, chocolate all of that

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Gaffra@reddit (OP)

I was just responding to another person here in the thread about fish we had in Ca, and lost it while typing 🤣 I’m from California (now in Wa) and I do love and miss mahi-mahi burgers with peach mango salsa, and blue or “bleu” cheese slices on a bun. I also miss swordfish that we used to eat like steaks, with Soy Vay sauce, or having them on a bun like the mahi-mahi, burgers. These are the teriyaki sauces that I like here in the US that aren’t too expensive but many people love it.

The brand also has an “Island teriyaki” version.

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badsheepy2@reddit

I first had mahi as "dolphin" in the Florida keys. I figured it couldn't really be dolphin and then had to try it. It was a good decision as I'm pretty sure it's the most forgiving fish to cook that I've ever found.

One thing I found Washington state was amazing at is English style dry alcoholic apple cider. Climate is roughly the same for the growing period afaik, and it's the only place I've ever been that came close to the quality of the ciders from the west of England. Sadly I moved to Texas and it's illegal to buy alcohol over state lines there(?!).

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ElectronicSpend7426@reddit

It’s alright. I feel I have to really push the boat out to find good ingredients. I don’t really like the fruit and veg in certain places. Asda and Morrisons are a no from me on all fronts.

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mralistair@reddit

if you think uK tomatoes are better then i pity you.. you need to visit spain or italy

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Milam1996@reddit

I’ve never heard that the east coast is famous for its seafood outside of a Boston lobster.

Stuff we just don't have: Good barbeque (smoked brisket!) Mexican food Chillis, both dried and fresh (we have these, but to make mole you need to buy dried peppers by the pound, and that's just not happening in the UK) "chorizo" as mince not as sausage Many more S.E. Asian and Japanese products

There's more, but those are what come to mind right now. I'd agree that if there's a direct equivalent, the UK version is likely to be both higher quality and cheaper (somewhat just due to better regulation and no sales tax) But I never noticed a difference in the carrots as some other people are mentioning.

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Adept-Butterfly642@reddit

I think a reason why the UK has a bad reputation with food, particularly with Americans, is that the British will openly share abysmal meals on social media for the comedy factor - but maybe due to cultural reasons, Americans don’t seem to understand this and instead believe that it’s being shown off as something good.

As an example, there was a viral post on Twitter a few months ago that was cheese and chips from a football ground, but it was literally just some cheap cheese slices on top of a tray of chips. Looked absolutely ridiculous. The image was shared by Brits as a bit of a laugh, but the Americans sharing it instead took it as an example of what Brits like to eat. It’s like the idea of sharing a picture of food can only be because the user thinks it looks good, and not because they think it’s stupid.

Kay’s Cooking didn’t become a big YouTube channel because anyone thinks she’s a good cook, but rather because she’s abysmal. But unlike other bad YouTube chefs (like CookingWithJack), Americans seem to believe that Kay is representative of British cooking when she’s far from the case.

Without tooting my own horn, I’d like to say that our produce as a whole is of higher quality, without even touching dishes themselves.

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That's Sardinian, and it's been illegal for a while now because...yeah, come on.

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Liam_021996@reddit

It's only illegal for sale within the EU. They're allowed to eat it still just not export it

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BrightonTeacher@reddit

The French one is valid. Gross.

Also, currywurst? wtf is that.

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Annual_History_796@reddit

Currywurst is pretty great tbf, but no more valid as "German food" than British Indian food.

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Additional_Post_3602@reddit

Good tomatoes in UK are not from UK (sun is required to make good tomato), Brussels sprouts are indeed mostly UK grown.

Two, i would put most of british food in lower tier of european food with few exceptions where british food rocks(for me fish and brussels sprouts, others may say beans but im not a fan) especially bread, which on the continent is on completely different level. You like it so much because -nothing controversial- EU(and by trade relations also UK) have best food standards in the world, where in US you are eating slop pushed to you by corporations for over 100 years f.e. your bread in Europe cant be even called bread as it have too much sugar.

Im not sure if this will be helpful but you can find some "artisan bread" in US that will mail you ready to bake product as solution to bread cravings - its probably not as good as baguette from random shop in Paris but should do the trick.

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Impeachcordial@reddit

The tomatoes in the UK are better

I'm not so sure about this, California definitely has a better climate for growing them. Depends what you're buying I guess, supermarket tomatoes here (especially out of season) are bred to be very red, very tough, and not so much for taste. Heirloom tomatoes are a different story but you can only get them in season where I am.

I had some of the best food I've ever eaten in California, but I don't eat out every night when I'm at home, sadly

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Princ3Ch4rming@reddit

Haddock is better than cod any day of the week change my GODDAMN mind.

I can’t imagine worse margarine than actual margarine. How the hell does America make it worse??

My view is pretty similar, tbh. I’ve been to the US a few times and come back unimpressed with everything except some of the really nice beef cuts you have (beef is so fucking cheap there). An Outback Steakhouse ribeye blows the socks of a Miller and Carter one at a third of the price.

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WavyHairedGeek@reddit

You liked BRITISH bread? You NEED TO go to mainland Europe. France, Germany, Italy, they all wipe the floor with British bread. I feel like I'm eating cardboard every time I'm subjected to it.

The UK has a lot of great stuff, but the bread ain't it

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PROINSIAS62@reddit

In my experience American appreciate quantity over quality. Almost everything is laden with sugars. Drink colours tend to be luminous versions of what us Europeans are used to.

Your rashers (bacon) is crisped to death, frankfurters are the worst sausage known to man.

Oh my goodness it’s SO overrated and underrated!!!!

I live in Germany and I miss UK food, drinks and sweet treats all the time! Whenever I come over, I have to bring bags of stuff…

Colon the Caterpillars, Percy Pigs, crumpets, Fruit Pastilles and the Jelly Tots equivalent, J20 (preferably Spritz but I haven’t seen that since 2018 when I moved away),

Appletiser, Elderflower juice/cordial, Jammy Dodgers, Chocolate Bourbons, Custard Creams, Rich Tea biscuits, Hobnobs,

penguinmassive@reddit

The UK has some of the best fresh fish in the world, but most people in the UK don’t like fish so it gets largely exported.

I spent last year in canada working, and then 3 months travelling the States. I couldn't wait to get home, the food wasn't good, their chicken had a weird taste and the veggies just didn't taste of anything.

I go back in February and while I love North America, I'm not looking forward to the food.

And what's that? Tried Jersey potatoes... nope. Despite the exclusivity of growing. Sausages with crumbly bread are terrible; others are a little better. Butter and milk are fine, depending on price.

You are the only person

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