Snapshots from the UK: The English Foodstuff Lexicon
Editor's note: Our intern Kerry Saretsky came back from a visit to England, where she'll be moving next year, with a lorryload of English-food blog posts. But before we continue with her Snapshots from the UK series, we thought a little English food glossary was in order. —Ed.
When I first moved to England, the dollar rang in at 2.1 to the pound, and every time I ordered at a restaurant, something entirely unrelated to what I had said to the waiter would emerge from the kitchen. Having purchased the equivalent 2.1 American meals, and eaten exactly none of it, I was both famished and frustrated. It seems that we, the English and the Americans, do not really speak the same language, at least not when it comes to food. Our pies are filled with cherries and topped with ice creams; theirs are filled with steak and topped with gravy. Our chips are paper-thin, deep fried discs of potato; theirs are long fried chunks of potato. Our jelly is a fruity preserve used to top toast; their jelly is a gelatin based substance, sometimes used to capture cooked eels. The list continues.
Needless to say, venturing into an English gastropub is dangerous business unless you are armed with the appropriate dictionary. Herewith, a preliminary lexicon to introduce you to the terms and traditions of English cuisine. They follow, after the jump.
Bakewell Tart
A scrumptious glazed pastry flavored like marzipan. Photograph by Flirty Kitty
Bangers and Mash
Mash is simple; mashed potatoes. Bangers are sausages. The sausages and mashed potatoes are traditionally served with gravy, peas, and braised cabbage.
Black Pudding
Sometimes served in a full English (see below), this sausage gets its eponymous coloring from blood.
Bubble and Squeak
The cockney rhyming term for Greek, this usually vegetarian side is made from frying up mashed potatoes with cabbage, or any other vegetables found lying around.
Butties and Baps
Several items on this list err on the raunchier side of the secondary meanings of culinary items. Take butties and baps. A bap is a kind of bread, like an airy white roll. Used in the plural, it is also slang for a woman’s northerly attractions. Buttie refers to a bap that has been buttered and stuffed with something.
Clotted Cream and Scones
A scone is something like a dense biscuit, and is traditionally served with Jam (see below), and clotted cream, a spreadable rendering of the fat skimmed from the top of a pan of simmering cream.
Cornish Pasties
While pasties, with a long "a," contribute to a stripper's paraphernalia, pasties with a short "a" is the term for a traditional dish from Cornwall in which puff pastry is filled with such items as cheese and onions, or beef, potato, and onion.
Cumberland Sausages
Toad in a Hole (see below) can be made with Cumberland Sausages, but more than likely you'll find these served independently. They are large pinwheel sausages in casings, pork flavored with herbs and pepper.
Fish 'n' Chips
Here is something most everyone knows. Fish 'n' Chips is beer battered fish, usually cod, deep fried and served with thick fried potatoes, peas, and tartar sauce.
Fries, Chips, & Crisps
This is where Anglo-American food terms begin to intersect, diverge, and generally wreak havoc. Fries are thin, what we would call, French fries, like matchsticks. Chips are what we would call fries. Crisps are what we would call chips. Take notes, or you're bound to be disappointed when your order arrives!
Full English
Short for "a full English breakfast," also known as a fry up. The first of the five "traditional" English meals of the day (Breakfast, Elevensies, Lunch, Tea, and Dinner), it hits the ground running with bacon (English bacon is back bacon, not as crisp as our version), sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, eggs, hash browns, and toast.
Haggis
A Scottish dish made by stuffing a sheep's stomach with chopped organs from the same animal, heavily spiced, and boiled for several hours. The casing is then split, and the steaming insides consumed.
Jellied Eels
Eels that have been boiled, and then chilled so their juices congeal. God save the Queen—from this!
Jelly, Jam, and Jell-O
And the verbal trinities continue. English Jelly is American Jell-O. English Jam is American Jelly.
Kippers
Kippers are simply smoked herring.
Macaroni Cheese
The English don’t put the 'n' in the Macaroni 'n' Cheese; they also put in less cheese, resulting in a looser, milkier dish.
Ploughman's Lunch, and Branston Pickle
Ploughman's lunch is the greatest relic of English cuisine. It consists of blocks, not slivers, of cheese (usually cheddar and stilton), served with apples, bread, butter, and pickle. Pickle, however, is not a brined cucumber. Branston pickle is a conglomeration of vegetables, including swede (see below), that form a sweet pickled relish.
Pork Pies
Lending their name to the style of men's hats, this dish is a cold pastry pie stuffed with pork and pork jelly.
Pudding
Just as the term "coke" refers to any soda in the South, so "pudding" refers to any dessert, not just creamy chocolate ones, in England.
Scampi
There are a series of American food terms that mean something entirely different in England. Scampi is one of them. It is not a garlicky Italian seafood dish, but is, what we would refer to as, fried shrimp, or popcorn shrimp. It is often served with the traditional accompaniments found with fish 'n' chips.
Scotch Eggs
Photograph by Unhindered by Talent
A brunchtime favorite sold prepackaged at Sainsbury's, these are hard boiled eggs, wrapped in ground sausage, then breaded and deep fried.
Squash
Yes, squash could mean a gourd in England, but they use the term pumpkin more freely. Instead, squash is a concentrated fruit beverage, like Ribena, that you can dilute as needed.
Spotted Dick
So the list of potentially sexual food names continues. This is a sponge pudding studded with dried fruits and served with custard.
Steak and Kidney Pie
Yet, it actually is what it says it is. A pie—full of steak, and kidneys.
Sultanas
The English word for golden raisins, popularized Stateside by Nigella Lawson, whose first name means black cumin seed.
Swede
Swede can refer to a blond Nordic person, or, more culinarily speaking, refers to what we know as a rutabaga.
Yorkshire Pudding, and Toad in the Hole
Toad in the Hole. Photograph by Annie Mole
I know I said pudding means dessert, but Yorkshire Pudding, like Black Pudding, is not dessert, but is more like a popover, formed of batter poured into special tins full of hot grease. It is served with meat and gravy, more specifically in Toad in the Hole, where sausages are baked into the pudding.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today's lesson, boys and girls. Consider yourself educated!
Do you have anything to add to this list?
Related
In Defence of British Food
Snapshots from the UK: Earl Grey Sorbet
Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat
Snapshots from the UK: Turkish Delight
Snapshots from the UK: Claridge's Hot Chocolate
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
70 Comments:
US cookies = UK biscuits
holdthemayo at 2:30PM on 12/09/08
I think you'd best change the title of this blog posting. "English Foodstuff" does not include haggis or scotch eggs. "British" would be appropriately inclusive, but there are a good number of people on both sides of the Caledonian border who would bristle at seeing Scottish cuisine under the heading of English food.
These, of course, are all finished products. More useful to a wandering foodie in Britain is how to navigate ingredients: mange-tout, aubergine, courgette, swede.
My personal favorite (favourite?) was the sheer profusion of meat-flavoured crisps ranging from prawn cocktail to slow-roasted lamb with mint.
shoneyjoe at 2:35PM on 12/09/08
off topic, but the lamb and mint crisps made me think of it - they have ham flavored potato chips in Spain :)
I love yorkshire pudding - you don't need special tins, you can use cupcake pans, too! Just heat the oil to the point of almost smoking before pouring in your batter.
Treacle is another good one.
csbrown at 2:46PM on 12/09/08
You forgot the distinction between American flapjacks=synonym for pancakes and UK flapjacks=a yummy, decadent caloric oatcake that I still have dreams of at night!
Also the synonym of 'tea' for dinner.
HeartofGlass at 2:50PM on 12/09/08
Come to Canada and you'll know all of this terminology, especially if you have been exposed to Coronation Street all of your life like I have. I need a poutine for lunch, chips/fries with cheese curds and gravy.
blackjackshellac at 2:59PM on 12/09/08
I was in England in April this year and we had a pub lunch which included flan for dessert. They brought us an apple tart sort of thing and not the custard dessert I was expecting. Additionally, we were offered "cream" on it, which turned out to be whipped cream from a can.
Sarah in LA at 3:28PM on 12/09/08
As a regular visitor to the UK, the one that surprised me once was the generic use of "pudding" to mean "dessert".
Other foodstuffs worth mentioning (although like the above poster, I'll pretend you used "British" instead of English):
- The Pasty, meat-filled pastry, although I had to explain to my Cornish hosts that pasties are encountered several places in the US. (London train station pasty pic here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaszeta/2652637506)
- Welsh Rarebit (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaszeta/331965689)
- And myself, I enjoy a good sticky toffee pudding.
I also did my own review of several "full English" breakfasts (http://offbeateats.blogspot.com/2008/07/full-english.html) and discussion of the US vs UK bacon issue (http://offbeateats.blogspot.com/2007/01/concerning-bacon.html)
Good luck on your trip to England. While novel to an American, I love much of the cuisine over there.
kaszeta at 3:41PM on 12/09/08
Just watch Jeeves and Wooster and you'll get a fine education on all things English!
LizSherman at 3:41PM on 12/09/08
...and don't forget the ubiquitous "biscuits" battle as well. American = savory, breakfast, gravy companion. British = any type of cookie.
My heart aches for HobNobs!
sheldel at 3:42PM on 12/09/08
I'd add "black" and "white" coffee. "Black" is the same as in the states, but "white" had me confused for some time! (It's with cream). Seems obvious is retrospect.
Mmmm... missing tomatoes at breakfast... While British cuisine may not be the most delicate, it's pure genius to start the day with tomatoes.
peachypear at 3:56PM on 12/09/08
Aren't pasties usually made with short pastry, not puff?
Another area of possible confusion- Mars bars.
UK Mars Bar == US Milky Way.
UK Milky Way == US 3 Musketeers.
Mars USA has been kind enough to simplify matters by renaming the US Mars Bar to Snickers Almond.
zamboni at 4:03PM on 12/09/08
Zamboni: yes, pasties (both US and UK) are made with short pastry. I love a good pasty.
kaszeta at 4:09PM on 12/09/08
But what do they call American style jam over in the UK? Does "jello" mean something completely different?
Aubergine is a good one that someone mentioned above. I got so confused reading Fuschia Dunlop's memoirs until I looked it up.
kathryn at 4:41PM on 12/09/08
i have a can of Spotted Dick on my desk my mother sent me as a bit of a joke. i can feel it staring at me late at night, calling my name.
Christina at 4:48PM on 12/09/08
And when you are finished dining, use your "Washing Up Liquid" to clean the dishes.
lambowner at 5:05PM on 12/09/08
@kathryn: jelly means either a gelatin-based dessert, or some form of gummy-based confection. All non-citrus fruit spreads are all called jam, whether they are made with bits of fruit (US jam) or just the juice (US jelly). Citrus spreads are generally marmalades. Hence, when I made what I called a peanut-butter and jelly, my friends thought I'd gone completely bonkers, imagining either peanut butter and gelatin or gummy bears.
Also, what's been described above as "scones with clotted cream and jam" is often just referred to as "cream tea" because it's often served with tea (with milk).
A few more fun ones: kebab = gyros; battenburg cake is delicious; and corn can mean any grain at all (or those weird stalks of wild grain one finds in fields), so one must order "sweetcorn". "Salad" on a sandwich (or kebab) means lettuce. An American tuna salad will be called a tuna mayonnaise; egg salad will be egg mayonnaise. Speaking of salad, rocket = arugula. Porridge = oatmeal. Thanks for mentioning the butty - two common fillings are chips and bacon.
Finally, my personal favorite: cheese toasty. Which is essentially an open-faced cheese sandwich with Worcestershire Sauce (pronounced both like the Massachusetts city, and without the "shire" on the end of it). Another in the grand English tradition of things on toast (see beans, bacon, etc.).
shoneyjoe at 5:54PM on 12/09/08
A couple more: "custard" in the UK means a custard sauce that you pour over desserts like Xmas pudding, not a firm custard like pumpkin pie. And "dumplings" are the kind that you get in chicken and dumplings, not the kind with stuff inside, like you get when you go for dim sum.
stillSTH at 6:43PM on 12/09/08
Oh you should add HP Sauce! Its so good, and you can actually find it in some supermarkets here now, I can't eat a fried egg without it anymore.
annabanannas at 8:08PM on 12/09/08
Nigella actually means black caraway seed, not black cumin seed...
film_score at 8:54PM on 12/09/08
you did explain chips & butties, but i think chip butty deserves a mention and perhaps a photo - it's a white-bread & thick-cut french fry sandwich (sounds crazy to me).
shoneyjoe listed a few vegetables that have different names in Britain (mangetout are sugarsnap peas right?). I always found the name rocket (=arugula) amusing.
oh, and HP and brown sauce are worth knowing about.
knowing that "grilled" means "broiled" is also useful.
emisara at 9:57PM on 12/09/08
@shoneyjoe: An interesting bit of crisp trivia: most meat-flavoured crisps are actually vegetarian. But cheese and onion crisps almost all contain rennet, and so are not. Crazy world, no?
The distinction between corn (any grain) and sweetcorn (maize) is also worth mentioning. And that we still haven't figured out what to do with sweetcorn yet...raw sweetcorn mixed with tuna and mayonnaise on a sandwich? Sweetcorn on pizza? Why?
NotAmerican at 11:47PM on 12/09/08
Also, a cheese toasty is most often a grilled cheese with very little butter. An open-faced cheese sandwich with worcester sauce (and usually mustard) is rarebit, or just 'cheese on toast'. We like to keep it simple.
NotAmerican at 1:44AM on 12/10/08
Ah yes, sweetcorn--I adored the food in England but when I bit into an eggroll and found it stuffed with sweetcorn, I knew it was best to stick with the Indian food.
@NotAmerican Ditto the abomination of sweetcorn on pizza.
British sandwiches in those plastic containers, especially the Boots Shapers line are like my favorite junk food in the world!
HeartofGlass at 6:30AM on 12/10/08
Rarebit is a cheese sauce that contains ale. You like your toasties closed; I like 'em open. Who's to say who's right?
shoneyjoe at 7:43AM on 12/10/08
UK lemonade = US citrus soft drink (e.g. Sprite, 7-up, etc.)
UK fairy cake = US cupcake
UK soft cheese = US cream cheese
@shoneyjoe - I am an American who has lived in the UK for the past 2 years. Imagine the confusion I caused when I walked into a grocery store and asked if they had any Jell-O pudding (didn't know that pudding was a synonym for dessert). They led me to the jelly (gelatin) and I had to explain that Jell-O pudding was more like instant custard (didn't know that custard was more like a sauce). Then they led me to the Birdseye custard section. I tried to explain that what I was looking for was thicker like -- pudding. I just got blank stares. That was when I started making homemade pudding.
@HeartofGlass - UK flapjack is one of my favorite indulgences. My minister's wife is famous for her spicy, sticky, gooey, sweet ginger flapjacks. She was kind enough to share her recipe with me. Would you like?
Esmeralda at 8:55AM on 12/10/08
@heartofglass: Pret is now offering boxed half sandwiches. Because sometimes half a BLT is all you really want.
NotAmerican at 9:11AM on 12/10/08
I spent 5 years living in the UK thinking they did not have arugula because they call it rocket! (roquette) I managed to figure out corgettes but rocket eluded me.
savscarlett at 11:34AM on 12/10/08
What about vegetable "marrows?" I feel certain they are some sort of squash type thing...
Elizabelle at 12:42PM on 12/10/08
And then there's the "pickles" question. Definitely not cucumbers in brine. In my experience, what constitutes "pickles" served alongside, say, a sandwich, varies from lettuce to chutney.
lemons at 12:44PM on 12/10/08
Wrong! Coke does not mean all sodas - just a ubiquitous term for all colas actually. And yes, cornish pasties are not made with puff pastry, but a sort of flakier version of short pastry.
And for a US-style 'pudding' try Angel Delight.
edo_ergo_sum at 5:39PM on 12/10/08
Yes, marrows are like big zucchini, but IMHO much more impressive in stature than flavor. Way watery!
Lots of different names for varieties of potatoes here, and don't forget that US cilantro = UK coriander.
Picklejuice at 5:53PM on 12/10/08
@Esmeralda....please DO share that recipe.....sounds good !!!
onepercent99 at 6:00PM on 12/10/08
MUSHY PEAS!!!
Egg mayonnaise is very appropriately named. That's all I'm sayin'. *gag*
Sugar at 6:18PM on 12/10/08
I know it can be misleading, but Scotch eggs aren't a Scottish dish. Don't ask me how the name was applied, but it is an English dish.
Mares at 7:47PM on 12/10/08
Oops, almost forgot, I've never found out what chipolatas were, any clue?
Mares at 7:47PM on 12/10/08
Jacket potatoes=baked potatoes, served in the UK with an incredible number of possible toppings.
@NotAmerican, the sweetcorn thing just freaks me out. Available on everything, everywhere. When my nieces were still sweet little things, they loved to go to Bob Evans for dinner while visiting the USA specifically because they could order sides of corn with their American pancakes!
Melinda at 8:35PM on 12/10/08
Oh, this brings back memories. LOVED Marrow, broad beans, gooseberries, black and red currants, blackberry and apple crumble with warm custard, strawberry jam tart again with warm custard. My fridge never lacks a jar of pickled onions and Branston pickle. Sausage rolls are made every holiday. Chipolatas are small bangers. My trifle is always a hit in summer, and when I tell my boss about spotted dick, cockaleekie soup, fin and haddie, bubble and squeak, toad in a hole, he thinks I'm making it up!!! Malt vinegar on fish and chips!!
lamora at 10:33PM on 12/10/08
@lemons: The pickle question still vexes me. Generally, I find them referred to as 'gherkins', but I know gherkins as small, sweet pickles, not the proper garlic and dill ones.
NotAmerican at 3:47AM on 12/11/08
Love a proper plate of fish and chips with a side of mushy peas and malt vinegar. I've grown accustomed to my friend's trifle which has a bit of jelly (Jell-O) in it. Never had trifle with jelly before and I kinda like it.
@onepercent: The flapjack recipe is very flexible. You can adjust the amount of sugar and syrup to taste and texture (more syrup=more sticky/gooey). It is a great canvas for add-ins: dried fruit, nuts, seeds, spices. My favorite combo is chopped dried apricots, finely chopped crystallized ginger, and slivered almonds.
Ginger Flapjacks (UK):
1 lb oats
1 tsp ground ginger
8 oz butter
4 oz demerara sugar (can sub light brown sugar)
1/4 cup golden syrup (Lyle's is the UK standard; heard you can sub 1/2 light corn syrup and 1/2 honey if you can't find golden syrup)
Preheat oven to 150C/300F
Combine dry ingredients. Melt butter, sugar, and syrup until sugar dissolves. Combine butter mixture with dry ingredients. Press into a parchment lined 12"X8" pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes (15 minutes for a softer flapjack/20 minutes for a firmer/crunchier flapjack). Cool in pan 10 minutes and score into bars/squares. Let cool completely before cutting all the way through (I learned the hard way and cut them while they were still warm. I ended up with a pan of crumbles. Made a delicious topping for ice cream, yogurt, and fruit crisps). Makes about 24 2-inch squares.
Esmeralda at 8:27AM on 12/11/08
@Esmeralda - in the UK we have cupcakes (I have a blog all about them!) and they are quite different to fairy cakes! Fairy cakes use royal icing (icing sugar with water) and cupcakes use frosting!
Can't wait to read more posts in this series! Very interesting for an American take on English/UK food!
Iheartcupcakes at 1:56PM on 12/11/08
sad picture of fish and chips, looks like an american chain restaurant version.
peekpoke at 2:29PM on 12/11/08
brown bread = wheat bread
I've also heard the term butty used to describe any kind of sandwich.
One of my fave treats is toffee waffles, which seem to be specifically Welsh. They're two wafer cookies/biscuits with a thick layer of toffee in the middle that you sit on top of a cup of tea. The steam melts the toffee and makes for a yummy snack.
unintendedbliss at 2:46PM on 12/11/08
@Iheartcupcakes - Oops, I stand corrected. I didn't know there was a difference. Since I've moved to UK, I've grown very fond of fairy cakes. I'll have to check out your cupcake blog.
Esmeralda at 2:50PM on 12/11/08
I was under the impression that fairy cakes were the ones where the top is cut off and then cut in half to make fairy wings....
Also, dont forget sausage rolls, which I think are called pigs in blankets in the us....
jennywenny at 8:58PM on 12/11/08
Also, wholemeal bread = wheat bread, too, which I found incredibly confusing for a while when I studied in Edinburgh.
No one's mentioned Victoria sponge, which is all kinds of awesome--sponge cake cut in half and layered with whipped cream and fruit. I've had it once, but I still have very fond memories of it. Haggis is also surprisingly not scary.
missmanders at 11:09PM on 12/11/08
Oh definately the Victoria sponge. That is my favorite, with raspberry jam and English cream. My mother still has the tin we used to make it in and won't give it up. Fairy cakes when I was growing up were sponge-type cupcakes with the top mound sliced off and in half with whipped cream and the halves were put back on as wings. Right now, I'm going to open that tin of Heinz Beans I acquired recently for some beans on toast. I make cornish pasties all the time with a short crust. A decadent indulgence.
lamora at 12:12AM on 12/12/08
Pigs in a Blanket are slightly different from sausage rolls. A good sausage roll is ground sausage and (often) potato in a savoury pastry.
Interestingly, pigs in a blanket in the UK are chipolatas (small, spicy sausages) wrapped in streaky bacon (US style bacon).
Which of course brings up the bacon question...thick, fatty UK bacon, or crisp, fatty US bacon. Canada and Ireland, stay out of this!
NotAmerican at 2:43AM on 12/12/08
@NotAmerican - Thick, fatty UK bacon with eggs but crisp, fatty US bacon in sandwiches. A BLT with UK bacon is just not the same.
Esmeralda at 3:44AM on 12/12/08
@Esmerelda - no worries at all! Hope you like the blog - its full of places, mainly in London, to buy cupcakes! There's an occasional mention of fairy cakes too.
@Jennywenny - those ones are called butterfly cakes!
@NotAmerican - never heard of a sausage roll with potato in it!
Scotland is the best place to go for baked goods such as pies - you can get everything from meat pies to my all time favourite macaroni cheese pie! Seriously this is my idea of ideal comfort food!
Iheartcupcakes at 8:59AM on 12/12/08
@Esmerelda--thank you for that flapjack recipe (with an American baking temp, which can be difficult to find with the recipes I've Googled before) --it sounds AMAZING! The only problem with making rather than buying flapjacks is not eating too many, though ;)
@NotAmerican--I loved Pret-a-Manger--I wish they had an equally nice 'go to' sandwich place in the states
The jacket potatoes from stands with Flora AND a topping (like cheddar or coleslaw), particularly from the one in Covent Garden I can still remember fondly....
HeartofGlass at 9:22AM on 12/12/08
UK Cornflour = US Cornstarch
UK Treacle = US Molasses
UK Pancakes = US Crepes
sxmscorpio at 8:42AM on 12/13/08
@NotAmerican, I've been CRAVING nice smoky rashers of British bacon ever since I left the green hills of England.
shoneyjoe at 1:49PM on 12/13/08
kebab vans!
as soon as twilight rolls in, most every busy intersection or well-traversed street becomes home to the kebab van, offering all sorts of unhealthy post-pub-or-club fare. kebab and kabob are two different things, as i learned. kabob is grilling skewers with meats and veggies stuck on, whereas kebab is carving off of large hanging cuts of meat and sticking it in a pita with fixings.
while studying in oxford, i gained a pound or two from frequent late-night cravings for chips and cheese with garlic sauce from the kebab vans. thick fries with real melted cheese, loads of ketchup and the garlicky mayonnaise--i've tried to replicate it here in the u.s., but the closest i've had since then was at some belgian fry stand one night in nyc.
sarahruth at 11:24AM on 12/14/08
saratruth: I'll forgive you for being an Oxon student to ask you this...did you ever have (what we upstanding, clever and damned good looking Cantabs) call 'dirty chips'? Tray of chips, kebab meat, cheese sauce, hot pepper sauce, garlic mayonnaise. Only edible while drunk.
NotAmerican at 2:00PM on 12/14/08
I will also add it's important not to confuse 'tea' and 'high tea'. In some of the country (mainly the south), 'tea' is a light meal consumed in place of supper. In the north, you'll find 'tea' refers to any evening meal.
'High tea' is an expensive mish-mash of hot beverages and baked goods consumed by tourists.
NotAmerican at 2:09PM on 12/14/08
I love cheese and pickle toasties!
And thank you for clarifying the pronunciation of the edible "pastie". The other day someone was trying to tell me that the food being referred to was pronounced with a long "a". You've given me vindication that I can...y'know...rub their face in!
Tonecat at 12:00AM on 12/15/08
As a Brit who has lived in US for the last 40 years although with much time out back home I think this article is more than a little dated.
Plus the photos show the most appalling cheap commercial products.
Bakewell tart ( and I speak as a native of Derbyshire) does not have a thick layer of icing/frosting and a cherry on top. It is just jam/preserves on the bottom and layer of frangipane over. Other items such as kippers are highly coloured and the scotch egg is very nasty looking.
So was the article making cheap shots or a point? if this is the best research you can do I suggest you look outside the supermarkets.
What differentiates tea and high tea is a main course. High tea is served in lieu of dinner. Afternoon tea is calorie laded snack served in addition to dinner. Of course there is an element of class distinction here too.
judithuk at 8:10AM on 12/15/08
Saratruth, which was your favourite kebab van? For a while, I'd go to Hussein's on St. Giles, but ultimately switched allegiances to Hassan's on Broad Street, where I became such a regular that the gentleman in the truck would start making my food for me when he saw me get in the queue. He also drove by me on his way to his corner one evening and honked at me - best night ever. It's a longer walk to Hassan's from Keble, but worth every step.
And NotAmerican? Learning that you're a Tab clears up a lot. ;)
shoneyjoe at 8:49AM on 12/15/08
I've always heard there was a polytechnic in Oxford besides Oxford Brookes...
NotAmerican at 11:13AM on 12/15/08
The first picture, of an individual Bakewell tart is pretty awful. It's a storebought tart (I'm guessing it's a Mr. K). She needs to eat a proper one, homemade. Those tarts are large (at least 9" in diameter) and far, far better than anything you could buy in a grocery store. I say that because my Mum makes super Bakewell tarts. Oh, I'm originally British but living in the US.
Foodie Penguin at 11:48AM on 12/15/08
Yes, please do the Scots next. I lived there for three months last year and learned a lot. Fish & chips always come with mushy peas. Don't ever ask for an appetizer at a restaurant, as you'll end up with Appletizer, a carbonated apple beverage. Don't EVER order a burger, as they are the size and texture (and probably taste) of a hockey puck.
In Scotland drink the water, it's from local sources pure as the driven snow. Drink the whisky. Eat Loch Etive mussels (Mussel Inn, Glasgow where you order mussels by weight and choose your sauce).
And if you really want bacon, as my husband did when I cooked breakfast every morning in our flat, try frying up two slices of pancetta from Tesco.
No, I didn't bring myself to try even a veggie haggis. But the pizza over there is fantastic. I won't say it gives Italy a run for its money else I'll not be allowed back to Florence!
tdl1501 at 11:52AM on 12/15/08
What I want to know is why isn't Clotted Cream more available in the states? I am an American living in the UK and am dreading moving back unless I can find a supplier of Clotted Cream.
twcaac at 12:36PM on 12/15/08
You can find clotted cream in the states, actually.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=clotted+cream+us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Get good scone mix and some proper jam, and eat till you burst or succumb to a sugar coma. The gospel of clotted cream cannot be pledged enough.
NotAmerican at 2:13PM on 12/15/08
sarahruth and shoneyjoe,
the best kebab van is mccoy's on st. aldates! chips, extra well done, with salt, cheese, and mayo. AMAZING. i ate it in my mcr pretty much every night first term (better than hall, obviously, and i could never get used to sainsbury's closing so early). sometimes i even had it on a pitta (that's another one i should put into the sequel...pita vs. pitta) for a kebab-style chip buttie. nothing soaked up my snakebites quite so well as that...
at least i'll be back soon.
Kerry Saretsky at 3:49PM on 12/15/08
Never liked McCoy's. But at least you didn't say Ahmed on the High. Ew... I developed a great relationship with the butchers in the covered market and ended up making a lot of fabulous dinners with food a lot of my MCR dorm-mates had never seen cooked before (mussels, duck, soba, risotto). But there's always that flip side: I can go high-end or I can go low-end, and nothing says low-end like chips and cheese with garlic, bbq, and chili sauces, topped with kebab meat.
I also liked kebab kid in Gloucester Green, as their kebabs on naan are ridiculous. The meat is much sweeter than at the vans, and it's a refreshing change of pace. I'm so jealous you're headed back.
shoneyjoe at 5:57PM on 12/15/08
Thanks NotAmerican for the link.
A few other foods that I really enjoy beside clotted cream is for one the
cheddar cheese, it's amazing. It's not dyed orange, it's pure white. I really love this cheddar cheese I found that is made with caramelized onions. I also like Banoffee pie (it's banana and toffee) and honeycomb ice cream. British food usually gets a bad wrap but it's really not all that bad.
The only thing I really miss from the US that I can't get in the UK is a really good Mexican restaurant with great Mexican food. Mexican food hasn't really caught on here. Don't get me wrong my grandmother is Mexican and has thought me how to cook mexican dishes but sometimes I don't feel like cooking. The avocados here are not Haas and don't taste as buttery as what I get back home.
Oh and Wagamama's chain need to open more locations in the US, they are all over London and the UK but there are on two in all of the US. That's one chain over here that would really do well in the states.
twcaac at 8:14PM on 12/15/08
I am enjoying this blog a lot - but, like others, am disappointed by the easy option of showing unappetising images of foods. Imagine, if someone went into a really dull supermarket in a backwater somewhere and took some photographs of food and then said "This is American food"? Wouldn't you be a bit piqued?
II have a website called http://www.whatamieating.com which I hope might help you with some of the confusions of the namings of foods in our respective countried. But I see a need now to write a definition of 'pickles' in English English, which I would say should be almost any food preserved in vinegar (herrings, vegetables and so on). I will do this soon.
'Fish and chips' is mentioned - and can, it is true, be anything from cheap old coaley, with soggy greasy chips, to stonkingly fresh line-caught fish of some kind. You'd expect the same in the US, wouldn't you? A burger, a dish many foreigners think of as archetypally American, is not the only dish you produce, and can be represented by everything from a flaccid, grey disc of cheap meat to something enticing and succulent. It's the same all over the world. And all of us are trying to get better at it I think.
At the recent British Cheese Awards, to which *bus-loads* of French come, there were nearly 400 varieties of artisan cheese - and many of these cheeses are readily available across the country. Sad that we are defined by 'Cheddar'. Thanks to twcaac for talking it up! A well-made artisinale Cheddar is a complex hard cheese with a good smell of the farmyard. But all over the world people think of Cheddar as that bendy, flexible, flavourless item wrapped in plastic and sweating gently. Wouldn't we all?!
And jellied eels in France are 'aspic d'anguille' and a great delicacy. But a rose is a rose by any other name.....
Foodlexi at 6:23AM on 12/16/08
Foodlexi, you're very much right. There's a bacon butty from motorway services, and then there's a bacon butty made from fresh-baked bread and Gloucester Old Spot apple-wood cured bacon. There's a pork pie from Ginsters, and there's a genuine Melton Mowbray pork pie with hand-rolled pastry. There's Sainsbury's Value Bangers and Mash, and there's hand-made grilled sausages on a heap of mashed potatoes with a ladle of proper gravy with real ale and onion...
Getting hungry now.
NotAmerican at 2:04PM on 12/16/08
I saw mention of a veggie haggis and had to say TRY IT! Its great! Although I grew up in Scotland I've never been able to stomach trying meat haggis due to the smell but I adore the veggie one and we have it with neeps and tatties every Burns Night without fail!
My husband recommends the meat one from Coburns in Dingwall (my home town...also suppliers of the haggis at Madonnas wedding to Guy) which he can only eat when I'm away for a couple of days with work or he has to put up with me retching throughout the house!
If you're going to Scotland to try food I also recommend butteries and macaroni pies! oh and macaroons and tablet if you're sweet toothed!
Iheartcupcakes at 6:15PM on 12/17/08
@cupcakes, if you're in Scotland and hungry, you must, must, must eat at Piemaster. The perfect evolution of pastry and fillings...the mushroom, spinach and feta pie is a personal favourite.
Scotland is also rich in Italian delis, with delicious results. I also had the best falafel of my life on South Bridge in Edinburgh.
NotAmerican at 9:00PM on 12/17/08