I thought of this while replying to the eggs and soldiers thread. Whenever I read interviews with American bands who are on tour over here the one thing they always complain about is the food. And I was wondering if this is an opinion shared amongst the majority of Americans. Do you all think that Europe’s, and specifically the UK and Scotland’s food sucks? Or is it just whinging bands, who are on tight schedules and simply don’t have the time to find half decent places to eat so end up eating microwaved burgers?
Personally, being quite keen on food myself, I don’t see anything wrong with the food over here at all. Or more importantly when I was in America 5 years ago (2 week trip round the west coast) I didn’t see anything that was done any better than we do it. Even the burgers were inferior to one special place around here that I visit on the way home from the pub.
I don’t support any food that has dead animals in it, and it seems a lot of European food (especially Scottish and German food) has dead animals in it.
I’ve eaten British food (and tea! ) before. It scared me because so much of it has animals in it. It seems much easier (in my experience) to find cruelty-free food in American places than in British ones. In addition, I’ve found British food ingredient lists aren’t the same. In America, if something has meat in it it’s required to list “meat source,” such as you may find with “Natural Flavoring (meat source),” or “Natural Flavoring (vegetable source)” but that doesn’t seem to be the same in Britain. That’s how I compared the two. Isn’t that what Chris asked us (well, maybe he should answer that), or did I just completely misinterpret the entire question?
Cheers, Cran. I think you did misinterpret. I believe chrisoff’s question was about cultural taste and expectations about what’s on your plate, e.g. what tastes good to your average American and what doesn’t. Very often what’s unexpected gets a bad reception when it’s merely unfamiliar.
Flanum, this is simply narrowness of perception on the part of a few IMHO. I know Quebecois who complain harshly about how bland the food is in the US, especially how hard it is to get anything fresh. This is, of course, nonsense. Its a matter of spending time to learn the right places to go.
There is more to English/Irish/Scottish cuisine than pub food, but those who look no farther will never know this. Same as if you only shop in the big chain grocery stores in the US, you would never get to know what is really available beyond the big brand name manufactured foods.
If I were to go to one ethnic restaurant and had a bad experience, I would be that much poorer if I wrote off all of that particular culture’s enitre cuisine based on that one narrow perception. I suspect it is the same for those who report such bad experiences.
I have only been to Ireland. I found the food there to be great. The pubs I ate in served great food cheap. The breakfasts at the farmhouses I stayed in were exceptional. Not only were they great I didn’t have to eat anything substantial again until about 19:30 or thereabouts. Around noon we stopped at Spar and bought something light to hold us til evening. No complaints from this Yank.
I haven’t been to the UK, only Ireland and a few continental countries. I agree with Ron that the food in Ireland is good. In the metro areas there’s a good variety of different foods, and in the country, it may not be fancy, but it’s good, honest food. (Once you realize that “restaurants” can’t serve beer, only pubs can.) There’s nothing like stopping at a takeaway place in the middle of the day and getting fish and chips in a newspaper.
Probably the best meal I’ve gotten in Europe was at the Portuguese equivalent of a truck stop – i. e., a little place right off an exit from the motorway. We knew some numbers in Portuguese, but not much more, and not one person in the place spoke a word of English. We just ordered the special, which was beans with ham, sausage, etc., with excellent bread and cheese. The sardines grilled right on the beach were great, too.
I’ll bet those bands would hate the sardines and the beans.
I liked the food in London. Actually, the hardest thing to deal with was trying to get water with meals. There were Starbucks everywhere but it was really hard to find water. We felt kind of dehydrated.
Ah… they need a lilttle bite of reality… many do tend to get rather wrapped up in themselves and the artificial life bubble that tends to be built around them. I much prefer the ones that remember they are humans rather than believe they are gods.
Hmm. You’ve mentioned this now a couple of times. The plot is thickening.
What I couldn’t comprehend in Merry Olde England was the lack of air conditioners.
Imagine, here I was, bright and delightfully ill after an evening of competition with members of nearly every corner of the Empire on how well we, as representatives of our respective geographies, could consume mass amounts of vile distilled liquids, and no air conditioning to cool the sweatsoaked brow.
) before. It scared me because so much of it has animals in it. It seems much easier (in my experience) to find cruelty-free food in American places than in British ones. In addition, I’ve found British food ingredient lists aren’t the same. In America, if something has meat in it it’s required to list “meat source,” such as you may find with “Natural Flavoring (meat source),” or “Natural Flavoring (vegetable source)” but that doesn’t seem to be the same in Britain. That’s how I compared the two. Isn’t that what Chris asked us (well, maybe he should answer that), or did I just completely misinterpret the entire question?
