I live in southern California and los Angeles county.
There are several "English styled pubs and food places" in the county range. Only one offers Carlsberg Special Brew.
I intend on going there to try out "specialty" foods in the style of English food.
It's come to my attention that my behavior here sometimes falls under the "special" bracket. As in Carlsberg Special.
I've anticipated the drink as it's not found very often locally. But my main question is European mostly ENGLISH cuisine.
I've heard it's absolutely awful and that anything authentic aside from some sort of broiled beef or eggs is virtually unpalatable.
Has English Cuisine gotten a bad rap or is it truly shit requiring a multitude of ounces to enhance its appeal?
I've had "fish and chips" but haven't had "eel pie". And as I understand it, eel has been exploited to it's yielding detriment. What sort of menu items would be THE most British/English sort of food, and what I should I look for for authenticity?
Before I re enter wage slavery again, I intend on having a gruesome ugly English meal of garbage and Carlsberg Special's. Afterward I plan on distorting my teeth as well.
I just want to have the true British experience and want to weed out impostors before spending my hard earned cash.
Also. .. *among white folks in the USA, Neil diamond songs are held to the greatest extremes as if they're gospel.
Are there any equivalent sycophantically structured English career artists whose music is held in similar regard in spite of its lack of appeal for fun and spirit?
I'm very curious.
Until I can afford the actual trip to Europe, I may not experience this bit of culture. And if FAKE IT I MUST. ... then FAKE IT I MUST.
Also. .. Are those goons a.k.a. Chavs... As prevalent as I've been led to believe?
And if so. .. what are the approximate experiences of the casual outgoing Englander these days?
What's played locally. .. What's on the jukebox?
What is a jukebox called over there?
What are the typical ground up type of performing artists you'd find at a regular spot?
Original? Covers? Coffers? Stand up? Punk?
I'm very curious.
Sincerely,
Matt
P.s. I'm aware that the special brew is associated with the dregs. Just as much as the word CUISINE may not be proper.
I intended to ask what was the proper expectation for "Grub" or it's equivalent at a British/English spot.
Not the suit and tie affairs. I'm talking working class portion and carbohydrates. .. stuff necessary to bust ones ass.
Well the "english food" is a bit better than it's reputation, but it still having it's disgusting lows. Imagine Pudding with Beef !!! But you can try "Brighton Rock" :) ...wich actually is crystalised sugar (Rock)Candy.
Oscar J wrote:
Carlsberg is Danish. Get a clue! :)
Ah ha!
So these British style pubs and kitchens are operating under false pretenses, probably lumping together 3-4 different regional food stuffs.
My apologies but I thought special brew was readily available throughout most of the uk.
Over here I can get GUINNESS and grolsch and even sapporo and all that. So it's not always exclusivity is it?
I've heard that some American brands are highly regarded overseas as imports *(and therefore costlier which OF COURSE means they're better. ...;-)
I've heard that crap like COORS LIGHT is even trendy out there.
British, Dutch and Scandinavian cuisine used to be AWFUL. And I mean AWFUL as in grey meat, brown vegetable pulp (I have seen a Dutch cookbook from around 1900 that informs its readers you needn't boil vegetables for more than about two hours!), monotony and poor choice in spices (the 'Dutch approach': cover everything in a mass of ground nutmeg).
The good news: that was in the 19th century. The great impulse towards colonialism from about 1875-1945 did a lot of harm, but it certainly did improve Northern European cooking. Britain had its Indian (and, to a lesser extent, West Indian) influence, The Netherlands its Indonesian. I don't know what Scandinavia got, but even they seem to have taken the hint. After World War II, international contacts increased, America got a better rap (and you can say what you want, but American home cooking is a very succesful melting pot! There is no finer cookbook than The Joy Of Cooking. If you don't have a copy, GET ONE. I *promise* you won't regret it!!!) and in the 1960s, when tourism for the middle classes and even the working class got off the ground, international cooking skyrocketed (I don't know details for the UK, but in The Netherlands, the 1960s saw a spontaneous and massive interest in Italian food of all kinds, as well as Chinese and 'Chinese' (the kind you get at your local Chinese restaurant if you don't happen to be lucky enough to live in a place with a large Chinese population) cooking).
So fifty, sixty years ago, people were living in the tail-end of the Culinary Dark Ages of Northern Europe, but since then, it's improved massively.
Having said that, the two worst meals I've had in my life were both in Britain: fried chicken made with no seasoning except salt and apparently boiled in oil so cool you could bathe in it, and a steak diner with an overcooked steak (or possibly a piece of half-finished leather, I'm still not quite sure) covered in a sauce that both looked and tasted disturbingly like vomit.
To end on a cheerful note, though: Cumberland Sauce. It makes up for quite a lot of nasty cooking.
matt z wrote:
I live in southern California and los Angeles county.
Nice! I've always wanted to live somewhere in Cali - in a good part of it. I live in Oxford, where I pay $1400 a month for a one bed apartment. Probably could get something similar in a relatively decent area Cali for the same price, but without the rain and gloom.
English pubs have great beers (although I always stick to Ireland's Guinness because I'm a predictable bore, unless they have some cask ales worth trying), pity it's always raining and you can't enjoy a cold one in the sun here.
Just spottet two british slpless sluts in a fine Restaurant - no joke
It was disgusting.
Here's a picture I was able to shot when they left in a Bentley with a driver, short after us.
They were drunk as hell.