Fukui: "Curry is today theme battle, what are your thoughts on this, Hattori?"

The British is not even seen as a threat ^^;

GapTroll said:

Fukui: "Curry is today theme battle, what are your thoughts on this, Hattori?"

I'm more of an Alton Brown guy myself.

Also British food is fine if you cook it competently and don't pick the worst examples that were often food for the extremely poor (which as you might expect tends to be awful anywhere). Some of the older stuff is rather awful, but go look at some of the old French stuff and it tends to look gut churningly awful to a modern pallet too. Now I kind of want Kongo to win just because I'm really tired of this lame Stereotype. Technically I'm Irish, but we get the same shit (lol all you eat is boiled Potatoes right?!) so in this I'll stand with our godless protestant island brothers.

Fish and chips will always be god tier on my menu.

fish and chips with curry sauce?

Blame Hiei for this, Kongou. Blame your little sister's unique cooking skills.

Everyone's saying fish and chips here, but are there any other examples of fine/decent/great British dishes? I don't have a lot of exposure to various cuisines, so I'm pretty curious here.

Nakano-kun said:

Blame Hiei for this, Kongou. Blame your little sister's unique cooking skills.

Everyone's saying fish and chips here, but are there any other examples of fine/decent/great British dishes? I don't have a lot of exposure to various cuisines, so I'm pretty curious here.

I liked eating meat pie with a cider in England. It was really good, the gravy, the meat, potatoes, peas and carrots made a godly combination. I still remember how tasty it was.

Nakano-kun said:

Blame Hiei for this, Kongou. Blame your little sister's unique cooking skills.

Everyone's saying fish and chips here, but are there any other examples of fine/decent/great British dishes? I don't have a lot of exposure to various cuisines, so I'm pretty curious here.

As was said in the last couple post's comments, English curry is great, and certainly better than Japanese curry. (I still prefer some of the actual Indian or Pakistani curry varieties to the English ones, but English curry is still top-tier.)

English curry is much more similar to Indian curry than Japanese curry is, although they tend to make it less spicy and just throw on chutney as a side, which is why it's probably the best "English" food in my book.

Other than that, you should probably go for something like chicken pot pie (chicken, carrots, and peas in gravy) or shepherd's pie (similar, but with beef or other meats and mashed potatoes on the bottom). If you don't mind your foods all mixed together, those are pretty good. British food otherwise tends to be a bit bland and overcooked.

Of all the "curries" about to be cooked, here, Kongou's is actually probably the most palatable - "German Curry" seems dangerous, and the "Russian Curry" is probably just going to be borscht. I'm not all that fond of the flavor of beets, although that's just a matter of personal taste.

Shooting down the "biggest" threat already.

Kongou, blow them all away with Chicken Tikka Masala.

Just don't serve Vindaloo, it'll be too hot for their (childish?) palate. Akatsuki will try though.

Of all the "curries" about to be cooked, here, Kongou's is actually probably the most palatable - "German Curry" seems dangerous, and the "Russian Curry" is probably just going to be borscht. I'm not all that fond of the flavor of beets, although that's just a matter of personal taste.

Researched a bit. Apparently the Russian 'curry' soup is some sort of split-pea soup with added tomato paste and curry powder. Topped with smetana (sour cream), of course, the Russians love to smother everything with it.

Seems like it would taste similar to Indian daal varieties. Which are technically curries, but then again anything with a sauce is considered a 'kari' anyway.

Nakano-kun said:

Blame Hiei for this, Kongou. Blame your little sister's unique cooking skills.

Everyone's saying fish and chips here, but are there any other examples of fine/decent/great British dishes? I don't have a lot of exposure to various cuisines, so I'm pretty curious here.

My personal favorite is probably bangers and mash with good sausage, some mustard in the potatoes, and a well done onion gravy. That crap is seriously F'ing great. We do it for our Saint Patrick's Day party every year where the entire menu is British/Irish food actually, none of the southern neighbors seem to mind.

Tk3997 said:

food for the extremely poor (which as you might expect tends to be awful anywhere).

Beg to differ. Food for the very poor in Catalonia included pickled olives, olive oil, cheap wine, bread, cheese, tomatoes and lots of vegetables and fruit. Since those were locally produced they were readily available and cheap. Even the very poor had a decent and tasty diet.

The english just lacked good ingredients in their island.

OskarVanBruce said:

Beg to differ. Food for the very poor in Catalonia included pickled olives, olive oil, cheap wine, bread, cheese, tomatoes and lots of vegetables and fruit. Since those were locally produced they were readily available and cheap. Even the very poor had a decent and tasty diet.

The english just lacked good ingredients in their island.

Just having basic stuff to live on isn't the issue.

How much salt and pepper you think they were using on that stuff way back when? Never mind any other sort of more exotic seasonings, even today the prices of some spices can be pretty damn high. Real older recipes (not modern versions that have been doctored with ingredients there's almost no way where common back then) for "poor people food" tend to be universally bad because they're universally extremely bland to a modern palate. The only old recipes that tend to still be regarded as good would have been very expensive special event meals or rich people fare back in the day, and even many of them probably taste nothing like the actual originals because modern cooks have added seasonings that were very unlikely to be available back then. It's not like England didn't have decent raw food, but they were a long way from the sources of common seasonings and hence they didn't get used much by anyone without plenty of money hence the food of most people was by our standards very bland.

This was true pretty much everywhere, even really in regions that grew species because those spices where worth a shit ton more sold or shipped to people with actual money then all but given away to broke ass peasant farmers. Even today do you think the dude that owns the coffee farm that produces whatever brand of gourmet coffee is letting the migrant workers making a dollar a day on the farm drink that shit on their breaks (as if they get breaks), HELL NO. That's product and it's ALL bound for people with money, and if he catches you snitching it your ass is getting flogged.

It was the same deal back then anything that was actually really good and worth money sure as hell wasn't being 'wasted' on the poor. Some dude in a slum in India wasn't and still isn't dumping Saffron into his rice every day just because there happens to be a farm for it down the road.

Tk3997 said:

My personal favorite is probably bangers and mash with good sausage, some mustard in the potatoes, and a well done onion gravy. That crap is seriously F'ing great. We do it for our Saint Patrick's Day party every year where the entire menu is British/Irish food actually, none of the southern neighbors seem to mind.

Give me some toad in the hole, mash, veg and gravy.

~ ~ ~

As a British citizen, born and raised, specifically English, I can say without a doubt that the whole "English food is crap" is a terrible stereotype based on the worst-done samples. Of COURSE it'll be crap if you take only the WORST examples. When done well, ANY nation's traditional foods will be good, assuming you like the contents. I don't like curry, because I don't like spicy food. But it doesn't mean I call ALL curries terrible.

wolffenrirhelix said:

Give me some toad in the hole, mash, veg and gravy.

~ ~ ~

[...] I can say without a doubt that the whole "English food is crap" is a terrible stereotype based on the worst-done samples.

After spending a week in England (London and Liverpool), let me see...

Traditional English Breakfast - depends more on ingredients' quality than technique. The one I had had tasteless sausages made of something (no idea what exactly), the cooked beans are "different" (since I am used to have them salty instead of slightly sweet) and the eggs were in omelet form (no seasoning at all). Bacon and potato brick thing were good.
Roastbeef with a bread "pudding", chips, peas and carrots - The meat was good but not delicious by lacking juices. The gravy had a weak taste, like as dilluted. The peas and carrots were... Peas and carrots.
Fish and Chips - breadcrumbed with just-made chips. Simple, but effective, always a good choice.
Chicken-ham Pie with chips, carrots and peas (and gravy) - Again, the gravy lacked intensity and the carrots/peas... Were carrots and peas... The pie was actually delicious with a juicy chicken cut with a creamy filling.

Other stuff...
Cookies (the one from Sainsbury's) - Good, but too sweet.
Ales - Could exchange a Lager for an Old Speckled Hen or Doom Bar anytime. Otherwise, going for a German lager. Also, don't drink the Cobra.
Ginger beer - Drank only one, liked the spicy feel that remains.
Ciders - Good as well, but if it is about fruit, needs to be lemon... Which means in my dictionary, Radler or Alsterwasser.
Ice Cream - Cornwall's something. I'd certainly prefer the cheapest of the cheapest Italian ice creams.

Will spend an extra week in Cumbria and Scotland to taste more stuff.

Darkagma said:

After spending a week in England (London and Liverpool), let me see...

Traditional English Breakfast - depends more on ingredients' quality than technique. The one I had had tasteless sausages made of something (no idea what exactly), the cooked beans are "different" (since I am used to have them salty instead of slightly sweet) and the eggs were in omelet form (no seasoning at all). Bacon and potato brick thing were good.
Roastbeef with a bread "pudding", chips, peas and carrots - The meat was good but not delicious by lacking juices. The gravy had a weak taste, like as dilluted. The peas and carrots were... Peas and carrots.
Fish and Chips - breadcrumbed with just-made chips. Simple, but effective, always a good choice.
Chicken-ham Pie with chips, carrots and peas (and gravy) - Again, the gravy lacked intensity and the carrots/peas... Were carrots and peas... The pie was actually delicious with a juicy chicken cut with a creamy filling.

Other stuff...
Cookies (the one from Sainsbury's) - Good, but too sweet.
Ales - Could exchange a Lager for an Old Speckled Hen or Doom Bar anytime. Otherwise, going for a German lager. Also, don't drink the Cobra.
Ginger beer - Drank only one, liked the spicy feel that remains.
Ciders - Good as well, but if it is about fruit, needs to be lemon... Which means in my dictionary, Radler or Alsterwasser.
Ice Cream - Cornwall's something. I'd certainly prefer the cheapest of the cheapest Italian ice creams.

Will spend an extra week in Cumbria and Scotland to taste more stuff.

Gravy will always depend on the maker. My dad and I tend to put in the meat juices, gives added flavour.

Meat will always depend on if it's marinated, how it's cooked, and how long it's been sitting for. If you cook it to perfection, then leave it on a lower tempreture to stay warm, it'll dry out.

If the sausages were black and semi-squishy, then you had Black Pudding. AKA "Blood Pudding". I am not kidding at all about that.

Eggs should have been fried, not omelet. Plus, you season that part yourself with salt and pepper to taste.

Potato Brick would be Hash browns.

I don't drink beers, but for cider, I drink Strongbow. It's a sweet cider, but fairly fizzy.

Tk3997 said:

How much salt and pepper you think they were using on that stuff way back when? Never mind any other sort of more exotic seasonings, even today the prices of some spices can be pretty damn high. Real older recipes (not modern versions that have been doctored with ingredients there's almost no way where common back then) for "poor people food" tend to be universally bad because they're universally extremely bland to a modern palate.

That's not really true, though...

"Spices" like pepper were certainly rare, but there were plenty of herbs that could spice your meals no matter what part of the world you were in. Rosemary, thyme, basil, etc. all grow like a weed in marginal farmland, and every household had a small garden for herbs. Every household generally had a plot for the likes of garlic, onions, and a citrus tree or three.

In fact, onions were considered a "poor person's food", and willingness to eat them was seen as proof of low breeding.

Since curry is the topic of the day, it's worth pointing out that curry is FAR from bland, and curry recipes go back practically to the dawn of history in India. The major ingredients of most curry sauces are the likes of garlic, onions, peppers, ginger, cardamom, and turmeric, which are all native to India, or at least Southern China and transplanted in India millennium ago, and not difficult to grow in even marginal lands. (Onions, especially, are light feeders.) (Ginger, cardamom, and turmeric are all cousins of one another, incidentally. The likes of turmeric really need a lot of rainfall, however.)

I can't grow ginger and the other rhyzomes because it's too cold where I live, but I can grow the rest with my lazy "throw seeds in a hole and forget about them for a year" gardening methods, and ginger is apperntly grown the same way so these are hardly things a typical commoner housewife couldn't grow herself in her spare time without needing to expend any money at all.

=====

wolffenrirhelix said:

As a British citizen, born and raised, specifically English, I can say without a doubt that the whole "English food is crap" is a terrible stereotype based on the worst-done samples. Of COURSE it'll be crap if you take only the WORST examples. When done well, ANY nation's traditional foods will be good, assuming you like the contents. I don't like curry, because I don't like spicy food. But it doesn't mean I call ALL curries terrible.

Well, I went to England for a couple weeks, too, and I do have to say the "English food is overcooked and bland" stereotype really held up to scrutiny.

Things like eggs you are "supposed to season yourself" is another way of saying "it's supposed to be utterly bland", and most of the eggs I got were hardboiled eggs overcooked to the point of inedibility. No, eggs are not supposed to be completely bland, you can't properly season them by just throwing salt on top of them, and just salt and pepper is a terribly bland seasoning to begin with. Where's the garlic?!

In general, I found a lot of the English food to be like that: bouncing from one extreme to another. Anything sweet was typically ultra-sweet, with no supporting flavor, anything salty was just pure salt, and others were just a flavorless mush.

By about halfway through, I wound up seeking refuge at a local Pakistani dive near the hotel. Considering the dinginess of the place, they might well have been serving marinated rat meat, but it was the best food I had while I was there. When we were going out to places like Bath, we took to eating at the Italian restaurants.

If anything, I'd say it's proof of the difference of cultural culinary palettes that the true Brits stay away from the more flavorful Indian foods and love their own foods, while others say British food is too bland.

. . .
. . .
Indian curry da bes.

Nagumo said:
I liked eating meat pie with a cider in England. It was really good, the gravy, the meat, potatoes, peas and carrots made a godly combination. I still remember how tasty it was.

a post from a year ago just made me droll dammit

Kongou's hair doesn't have its usual fullness. I thought she was Hiei. She's also acting like Hiei.

Holy shit, that's Hiei pretending to be Kongou so she can make curry.