What UK food do you secretly defend even though you know it’s objectively bad?
Posted by JacobStanleyJacob@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 38 comments
Ok I’ll go first. Beans on toast. It’s literally poverty food with confidence, but I will argue it belongs in the national cuisine like it’s haute cuisine.
lexington_spurs@reddit
Remember once trying to explain salad cream to a French chap
ceehred@reddit
Hah! Then try explaining Alphabetti Spaghetti to an Italian. Or worse, serve them a tin of some :-)
lexington_spurs@reddit
Earlier today I ate seven tins of alphabetti spaghetti. My next trip to the toilet could spell disaster … etc
GenericBrowse@reddit
Birdseye Potato Waffles. Had a craving for them this week and caved in.
ceehred@reddit
Damn, now the jingle from the old advert is on repeat in my internal jukebox...
Never enjoyed them, myself :-D
lxxmng@reddit
Sausage rolls from Greggs are a national treasure. It is mostly pastry and hope but nothing else hits the spot when you are standing in the rain at a bus stop. I know better food exists but I refuse to hear a word against them
BeefyWaft@reddit
Caviar is literally poverty food with confidence. 🤷♂️
oldandinvisible@reddit
I mean oysters literally were poverty food only 100 years ago
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Because they can be foraged, so still are poverty food if you know where to go. The expense comes from how to get them from sea to plate. See also lobster, truffles and various other things.
oldandinvisible@reddit
In 19C Britain they were the main cheap source of protein for the urban working class . That was my point really. Niche foraging isn't what is normally associated with poverty food... because time.is a commodity too. But yes, free food 😊
j0nnnnn@reddit
Beans on toast isn't objectively bad, don't be stupid
terryjuicelawson@reddit
I get the idea tbh. I can see why a homemade daal or refried beans dish from across the world may be romanticised which are basically the same thing, but we get a mass produced one and dump it out of a can and serve it on plastic white toast.
SpatulaWholesale@reddit
I'm in my 50s. High tech. Successful career.
My wife and I love beans on toast. Nothing fancy. Heinz beans, toast with butter. That's all.
We actually view it as a treat.
PowerApp101@reddit
Probably Butterscotch Angel Delight!
Lost-Actuary-2395@reddit
Sausage rolls
Watchkeys@reddit
What does 'poverty food' mean lol
intangible-tangerine@reddit
It's so triggering when Americans try beans on toast with no butter, cheese, seasonings or condiments. Up there with making tea in the microwave.
Upset-Elderberry3723@reddit
That's the original (American) way, or the original Heinz way.
Beans-on-toast (which, oddly, sounds like a quaint parish), was invented by Pennsylvanian company Heinz in the 1910s to try and boost sales of baked beans. It gained popularity in the UK due to wartime rationing.
Kind_Ad5566@reddit
Interesting.
Google doesn't say that, so where did that come from?
Obvious_Compote1025@reddit
I don’t allow myself to be triggered by American content online
Advanced_Gate_3352@reddit
I try to do beans on toast/spuds once a week for a quick dinner when we've got to get out for cubs, or footie, or gym class and the like.
It's a great, quick tea. Filling, warm, tastes great with cheese. The kids demolish it. Minimal clearing up. A great leveller, always goes down well.
More than deserves its place in the Great British Recipe Book.
SorryNotSorryMatey@reddit
Fish finger sandwich
They’re actually pretty good if you get some good white bread, mayo and tomato and cook the fish fingers until they’re pretty crispy on the outside.
But yeah, it’s lazy emergency food, just like a pie sandwich.
Euphoric_Rough_5245@reddit
I do my fish finger sandwiches with white bread, lettuce, coleslaw and a sprinkle of grated cheese. Agree the fish fingers need to be crispy though. I like the big version of them not the little birdseye ones.
ActGrouchy5018@reddit
My preference - crispy fish fingers, white bread, ketchup, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce and thin slices of extra mature cheddar cheese 😋
SpatulaWholesale@reddit
Fish cake sandwich for me!
ReflexArch@reddit
I got laughed at for eating a fish fingers sandwich and asked if I was 5.
Solid lunch I thought 😂
Efficient_Chance7639@reddit
A good fish finger sandwich is truly delicious. Too many bad ones around though that give it a bad rep.
taltallytalia@reddit
Beans on toast is fantastic! Add a little Bisto to your beans as you're cooking them. Perfect.
DatGuy82772@reddit
Stew isn't great really but come on, we all enjoy it every now and then.
afulton1989@reddit
Oysters, moules frites, paella, even lobster is so called poverty food, food that used to be the “cheaper cuts” and became fashionable once folk were introduced to it being cooked well
ultimateberk@reddit
Beans on toast would be my death row meal i think. Its just simple perfection for me. Cook the beans down and soften up. Reduce the sauce. Black pepper, lashings of salted butter on the toast. Its just perfect simplicity at its best and i can eat it any time any day and be content. No cheese either for me. I love cheese on the beans if its a jacket spud but beans on toast no cheese. I grew up vegetarian so it was my go to as a young adolescent. Id sit in the cafe with a cup of tea and a cigarette with a newspaper. All my jobs it was a quick easy breakfast when the canteen only had a microwave and a toaster, its also a fast exit in the morning for me heading to work, grab 3 slices of bread, block of butter in the work fridge and a tin of beans out the cupboard. Probably a huge amount of nostalgia from it being in my life for so long but i love it
Ok_Dragonfly1124@reddit
Chicken Noodle Soup but British food wise it would have to be pop tarts
Tall_Stick5608@reddit
Many nostalgic foods that might be bad are actually will be defended by myself because the emotion trumps taste on many occasions.
For me it’s fish fingers and oven chips- often dry overcooked tasteless fish and soggy yet burnt oven chips however it brings me joy.
I’m one of those few people in the UK that despises baked beans though in any format. There are just so many more flavourful bean dishes even from a tin like Egyptian foul.
Eisenhorn_UK@reddit
I think there's a bit of nuance here. "Beans on toast" can indeed be objectively bad if you just slap crap beans on crap bread. But, tarted up just a little bit, it can be wonderful.
DescentNext@reddit
Almost all the best food is "Poverty" food (whatever that bigotry means).
Less-Firefighter2419@reddit
Beans on toast is pretty good tbf. Objectively bad would be something like jellied eel.
Jaded_Library_8540@reddit
Most good food is poverty food with confidence
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