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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Apr 11, 2009 0:32:36 GMT
I think the general perception is that Brits are lousy cooks. But they're far better than Germans (who have no taste buds and might just as well eat dog food).
The French and Italians are the masters of taste (or so goes the conventional wisdom in foodie circles).
Americans are not in focus on this issue because they borrow their food ideas from other cultures.
I will say that American fast food chains provide stiff competition to the Germans when it comes to serving dog food. Buying a pizza from an American fast food chain like Pizza Hut is like buying hot cardboard.
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Post by beth on Apr 11, 2009 3:28:15 GMT
I think the general perception is that Brits are lousy cooks. But they're far better than Germans (who have no taste buds and might just as well eat dog food). The French and Italians are the masters of taste (or so goes the conventional wisdom in foodie circles). Americans are not in focus on this issue because they borrow their food ideas from other cultures. I will say that American fast food chains provide stiff competition to the Germans when it comes to serving dog food. Buying a pizza from an American fast food chain like Pizza Hut is like buying hot cardboard. As you say, we in the U.S. have a wide variety of foods, brought here from many different countries. We do have some traditions of our own . . . various corn dishes, Boston baked beans, etc.. . I think almost every country in the world has a nice variety of restaurants that represent foods of different cultures. It's hard to pick a favorite. We love Mexican and Italian. There's a German bakery in my area that has the most fabulous breads and sweets. The best idea might be to try some of everything but with the attitude and proportions of the French. That way, we'd get all our nutrition and not gain weight. |
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Post by peterl on Apr 14, 2009 19:24:49 GMT
I will say that American fast food chains provide stiff competition to the Germans when it comes to serving dog food. Buying a pizza from an American fast food chain like Pizza Hut is like buying hot cardboard. The best pizza i have ever had was in Berlin none of the others come in where near it |
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Apr 14, 2009 21:08:57 GMT
Best pizza I've ever had was in Italy at a roadside restaurant just outside Positano in the direction of Amalfi. Truly amazing. Lick the plate good. Since then I've taken an interest in learning what makes a great pizza in the authentic Italian style. First of all the crust is quite thin - about a quarter of an inch (7 or 8 millimeters) at most but probably thinner than that. The quality of the bread dough is more important than the toppings. It must have crispness, chew, and taste. If you hold a piece in your hand it should stay horizontal (rather than the point of the piece drooping -- which would indicate a lack of crispness). You should be able to make an excellent pizza with just olive oil, garlic, and salt for toppings. It should not be slathered in gooey tomato sauce and overloaded with cheese. Less is more when it comes to toppings. Quality of ingredients (for toppings) comes next in importance. One good example of a great topping is to take those flavorful little tiny tomatoes (we call the grape tomatoes in Texas because they're about the size of grapes), cut them in half, and toss in a plastic bag with crushed garlic and coat them with your best olive oil. Spread them on the pizza dough and then freshly grate a little Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top. Bake on a preheated very hot pizza stone in a 450 degree F oven for about 15 minutes. Yummy! For a great pizza dough follow a recipe for making Italian Ciabatta bread which will give you a wet dough which makes a crispy flavorful bread. Just roll it out very thin and slow rise to let the yeast flavor develop fully. Here is an example of a good Ciabatta bread recipe www.recipezaar.com/Ciabatta-Italian-Slipper-Bread-29100 |
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Post by drewsmom595 on Apr 14, 2009 23:03:00 GMT
I really don't think there's one cuisine that reigns supreme. And I'm not trying to be politically correct, either. I usually can find something uniquely wonderful about most cuisines -- whether it be French, German, Italian, Indian, Polish and yes even certain regions of America (e.g., Southern). I would be hard-pressed to pick just one.
The only food that I really haven't cared much for is Chinese, to be honest with you. But maybe that's because I haven't been to a really great Chinese restaurant yet.
I haven't tried any Scottish food though (although I would be brave enough to try haggis if someone put it in front of me).
And I really don't know that much about traditional British cooking. Here in America, all I've ever heard about England is that the food isn't all that great. I don't really believe it though, because there's a wonderful British pub not too far away, and I love their fish and chips and bangers and mash.
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Post by trubble on Apr 14, 2009 23:03:18 GMT
Best pizza I've ever had was in Italy at a roadside restaurant just outside Positano in the direction of Amalfi. Truly amazing. Lick the plate good. Since then I've taken an interest in learning what makes a great pizza in the authentic Italian style. First of all the crust is quite thin - about a quarter of an inch (7 or 8 millimeters) at most but probably thinner than that. The quality of the bread dough is more important than the toppings. It must have crispness, chew, and taste. If you hold a piece in your hand it should stay horizontal (rather than the point of the piece drooping -- which would indicate a lack of crispness). You should be able to make an excellent pizza with just olive oil, garlic, and salt for toppings. It should not be slathered in gooey tomato sauce and overloaded with cheese. Less is more when it comes to toppings. Quality of ingredients (for toppings) comes next in importance. One good example of a great topping is to take those flavorful little tiny tomatoes (we call the grape tomatoes in Texas because they're about the size of grapes), cut them in half, and toss in a plastic bag with crushed garlic and coat them with your best olive oil. Spread them on the pizza dough and then freshly grate a little Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top. Bake on a preheated very hot pizza stone in a 450 degree F oven for about 15 minutes. Yummy! For a great pizza dough follow a recipe for making Italian Ciabatta bread which will give you a wet dough which makes a crispy flavorful bread. Just roll it out very thin and slow rise to let the yeast flavor develop fully. Here is an example of a good Ciabatta bread recipe www.recipezaar.com/Ciabatta-Italian-Slipper-Bread-29100The tomatoes sound gorgeous - they are probably what we call Cherry Tomatoes this side of the Atlantic although they could be something else. I am going to try that. I haven't made pizza dough since I was in school and I didn't like it but it obviously wan't the real thing. I will try your version and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the link. Your description of the perfect pizza is spot on. I haven't been to Italy, apart from Venice, but I ate a pizza very similar to your description in Ibiza of all places at an Italian restaurant and ever since then every pizza I eat is judged to that ideal. My friend who lived in Italy for years - and in Positano/Sorrento for the most part! - describes the perfect pizza as you do too. Could it be a Positano/Southern thing? We have a local Italian restaurant run by a man from the South of Italy and he serves a starter of a very thin crust pizza with a topping of olive oil, garlic, salt and rosemary. It is so beautiful that you can get high eating it. Unfortunately I can't usually order it because it's not filling enough for a dinner but it's so filling you can't really eat anything else but a salad for a main course and his salads are awful. ;D I have a yearning for it now though - I will order it next time I'm there and it's your fault!  |
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Post by trubble on Apr 14, 2009 23:11:12 GMT
British Food is awkward - the British have, like the Americans and Irish, taken to other foods so well that anything ancient/traditional can get lost in the choice. One thing that I think is definitely English (someone correct me) is the Pasty!  When I lived in England I loved Cornish pasties, shortcrust pastry filled with a meat mixture (beef? Lamb?) that were gorgeous (I have been vegetarian for 23 years so my memory might be quite wrong!!! ;D). You don't get them in Ireland. Er...it looks pretty uninviting but I swear it was delicious, meat, potato, onion, carrot...it just works! 
I like the way that every country has its own version of bread and its own version of pancakes - even regions within the country have their own versions. |
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Post by drewsmom595 on Apr 15, 2009 1:40:28 GMT
The pasty looks really good to me...much better than the pot pies we have here in America.
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Post by beth on Apr 15, 2009 1:52:31 GMT
The pasty looks really good to me...much better than the pot pies we have here in America. I was going to say that it looks a little like a pot pie in a turnover crust - just without the rather runny filling most pot pies seem to have. KFC has a very good pot pie if one can put aside the probability it's loaded with artery clogging ingredients. |
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Post by alanseago on Apr 22, 2009 19:40:34 GMT
This is a problem I have encountered throughout the USA and its colonies. Always comparisons between mass produced fast-food outlets. One rarely hears, 'My wife/husband/brother-in-law, cooks a lovely.......'
Cooking is an act of love. If you do not cook with love, you cannot cook at all.
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Post by drewsmom595 on Apr 23, 2009 10:30:24 GMT
This is a problem I have encountered throughout the USA and its colonies. Always comparisons between mass produced fast-food outlets. One rarely hears, 'My wife/husband/brother-in-law, cooks a lovely.......' Cooking is an act of love. If you do not cook with love, you cannot cook at all. While I agree with you that cooking is an act of love, let me tell you why convenience and fast foods are so important here. Yes, fast food is pretty much on every street corner of most bigger towns here. But that doesn't mean that people don't cook here. In fact, cooking has become "cool" again with children and teens, and there has been a cooking "renaissance" here in the US. Cooking shows are popular...we have a whole network devoted to cooking and food 24/7. American workers work harder and longer hours than ever. We don't get 4-6 weeks vacation like some Europeans do. If we get to take a 1 week vacation a year, we have to bring our Blackberry's with us so the office can keep in touch with us at all times. We don't take siestas. We barely get time off for an unpaid maternity leave. That's one of the reasons why convenience foods, and especially pre-packaged frozen dinners in grocery stores, are an important part of getting by here in America. When you get home at 7 pm after a grueling day at the office, after doing 2 - 3 other people's jobs because of "corporate downsizing", you often don't have time or the energy to make a "lovely" meal from scratch. I primarily cook on weekends and we live on leftovers for much of the work week. And, yes, I am quite proud to say that I make a lovely pot roast. |
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Post by chefmate on Apr 23, 2009 11:20:39 GMT
I grew up with pastys and miss them as they aren't produced in California and I can't afford to have them sent from Upper Michigan.
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Apr 23, 2009 21:21:06 GMT
It is true that American cooking is on the upswing. The Food Channel is popular. Cookbooks sell very well and they're much better than they used to be (no more Betty Crocker).
Super markets are getting in the act with better ingredients. I can actually buy fresh brocolli rabe (rapini), fava beans, and pancetta in some of our stores now. That would not have been the case even five years ago.
But a decent loaf of bread and a fresh fish would be two very rarely seen items in most American markets. That's where Europe has it over us. Those street markets with glistening fresh fish just caught last night, fresh baked artisan breads, home made salamis, etc. just can't be duplicated on this side of the pond.
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Post by june on Apr 23, 2009 21:56:31 GMT
It is true that American cooking is on the upswing. The Food Channel is popular. Cookbooks sell very well and they're much better than they used to be (no more Betty Crocker). Super markets are getting in the act with better ingredients. I can actually buy fresh brocolli rabe (rapini), fava beans, and pancetta in some of our stores now. That would not have been the case even five years ago. But a decent loaf of bread and a fresh fish would be two very rarely seen items in most American markets. That's where Europe has it over us. Those street markets with glistening fresh fish just caught last night, fresh baked artisan breads, home made salamis, etc. just can't be duplicated on this side of the pond. Ina Garten never seems to have problems finding such produce |
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Apr 23, 2009 23:41:51 GMT
June - Isn't Ina Garten based on Long Island? If so she would have access to better ingredients than most Americans. The same is true for Manhattan residents (note: If you are forced to live in the armpit of the western world there should be some benefits).
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Post by everso on Apr 27, 2009 16:49:40 GMT
I really don't think there's one cuisine that reigns supreme. And I'm not trying to be politically correct, either. I usually can find something uniquely wonderful about most cuisines -- whether it be French, German, Italian, Indian, Polish and yes even certain regions of America (e.g., Southern). I would be hard-pressed to pick just one. The only food that I really haven't cared much for is Chinese, to be honest with you. But maybe that's because I haven't been to a really great Chinese restaurant yet. I haven't tried any Scottish food though (although I would be brave enough to try haggis if someone put it in front of me). And I really don't know that much about traditional British cooking. Here in America, all I've ever heard about England is that the food isn't all that great. I don't really believe it though, because there's a wonderful British pub not too far away, and I love their fish and chips and bangers and mash. I've never had a really decent meal in France. I've had some great meals in Germany. Italian food is my favourite and I've had some great pizzas there - but then I once had a delicious pizza in Frankfurt. The very best steak I've ever eaten in my life was in Boston two years ago at a restaurant called Aquitaine. My god, it was wonderful! And in the southern states of the U.S. I've had some fabulous sea food. Indian-style food I enjoy as long as I've cooked it - likewise Chinese. I find that in the UK the food in Indian and Chinese restaurants always tastes the same wherever you go. There's no variation. That's my humble opinion and I haven't travelled the length and breadth of the UK trying out these kinds of restaurant so I'm happy to be proved wrong.  Haggis is good, btw.  |
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Post by Big Lin on Apr 27, 2009 20:57:53 GMT
I agree with you that Indian restaurants vary a lot. Where I live there are no decent ones whereas when I lived in Tooting there were half a dozen.
Mind you, the best chicken jalfrezi I ever tasted was in Ironbridge, Shropshire!
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Post by fretslider on Apr 28, 2009 22:07:27 GMT
I think the general perception is that Brits are lousy cooks. But they're far better than Germans (who have no taste buds and might just as well eat dog food). The French and Italians are the masters of taste (or so goes the conventional wisdom in foodie circles). Americans are not in focus on this issue because they borrow their food ideas from other cultures. I will say that American fast food chains provide stiff competition to the Germans when it comes to serving dog food. Buying a pizza from an American fast food chain like Pizza Hut is like buying hot cardboard. OK, so which masters of taste would serve you with Chicken's foot soup? |
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Oct 18, 2009 0:23:22 GMT
We vacationed in France last month and I must say the French obsession with good food is alive and well. Here is a photo (taken with my iPhone) of our fish course at Restaurant Avel Vor in Port Louis, Bretagne, France. What a great restaurant. There were two types of fish here and very pretty.  |
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Post by beth on Oct 18, 2009 16:52:38 GMT
Nice photo. Good ol' IPhone What exactly is that? I think I see 2 kinds of fish - a pastry of some sort, sauce and - is that a carrot? What is the pastry like thing? What kind of sauce? |
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Post by chefmate on Oct 18, 2009 19:01:04 GMT
I think the general perception is that Brits are lousy cooks. But they're far better than Germans (who have no taste buds and might just as well eat dog food). The French and Italians are the masters of taste (or so goes the conventional wisdom in foodie circles). Americans are not in focus on this issue because they borrow their food ideas from other cultures. I will say that American fast food chains provide stiff competition to the Germans when it comes to serving dog food. Buying a pizza from an American fast food chain like Pizza Hut is like buying hot cardboard. OK, so which masters of taste would serve you with Chicken's foot soup? being a good old fashioned American no damn chicken foot is ever going to appear in my kitchen or my plate......give me a pot roast, filet mignon or a prime rib but keep the chicken feet attached to the chicken, the tripe in the cow's stomach, the fatty liver back in the goose and the blood still running in the circulatory system of an animal not my pudding. |
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Oct 20, 2009 0:08:53 GMT
Nice photo. Good ol' IPhone What exactly is that? I think I see 2 kinds of fish - a pastry of some sort, sauce and - is that a carrot? What is the pastry like thing? What kind of sauce? You are definitely looking at two kinds of fish. That is a small carrot. There is a ravioli with filling that I think is crab. Under the ravioli is is a round serving of duxelles (chopped mushrooms in a sauce). I think the dark brown item beneath the carrot is FAR, a Brittany speciatly. It was delicious no matter what it is. |
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Post by beth on Oct 20, 2009 2:12:22 GMT
Nice photo. Good ol' IPhone What exactly is that? I think I see 2 kinds of fish - a pastry of some sort, sauce and - is that a carrot? What is the pastry like thing? What kind of sauce? You are definitely looking at two kinds of fish. That is a small carrot. There is a ravioli with filling that I think is crab. Under the ravioli is is a round serving of duxelles (chopped mushrooms in a sauce). I think the dark brown item beneath the carrot is FAR, a Brittany speciatly. It was delicious no matter what it is. Far Breton. I've never had that but it sounds nice . . . maybe not on the same plate with my fish, but I'm sure if it weren't good they would not serve it that way. The fish looks very tasty. Far Breton Ingredients 2 cups milk 3 eggs 1/2 cup sugar 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, cooled 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract 1/8 tsp. salt 3/4 cup all purpose flour 1 cup pitted prunes 1/3 cup raisins 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup brandy Instructions Put milk, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt in a blender. Blend for 1 minute. Add the flour and pulse until blended, scraping down the sides of the jar. Cover and chill in the jar at least 3 hours and up to 1 day. Meanwhile, put the prunes, raisins and water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the fruit is softened and water is almost evaporated, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. Pour brandy over fruit and ignite it. Let the flames burn off, shaking the saucepan occasionally. Transfer the fruit to small bowl. Let cool at room temperature Preheat the oven to to 375�F. Butter 8-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides. Line the bottom with waxed paper. Butter the paper. Dust the pan with flour, shaking out excess; place on a baking sheet. Reblend the batter until smooth, about 5 seconds. Pour into the pan. Drop prunes and raisins into the batter, distributing them evenly. Bake the cake on the baking sheet until sides are puffed and brown and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool completely. www.marga.org/food/int/brittany/far.html |
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Post by Liberator on Oct 20, 2009 3:46:57 GMT
Just a supercilious guess but is the flour ordinary or buckwheat? I discovered that the difference between a pancakes and a Breton crepe (or Russian bliny) is that the latter used buckwheat (dock-seed) flour.
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Post by ♫anna♫ on Oct 20, 2009 3:57:44 GMT
Nice photo. Good ol' IPhone What exactly is that? I think I see 2 kinds of fish - a pastry of some sort, sauce and - is that a carrot? What is the pastry like thing? What kind of sauce? You are definitely looking at two kinds of fish. That is a small carrot. There is a ravioli with filling that I think is crab. Under the ravioli is is a round serving of duxelles (chopped mushrooms in a sauce). I think the dark brown item beneath the carrot is FAR, a Brittany speciatly. It was delicious no matter what it is. If i fly internationally i try if possible to fly with Air France! The meals, ambiance and service are all first class! |
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