So I was at my favorite international grocery the other day, picking up some samosas for lunch. It's the place I go for good olives and cheese and such. As I was leaving I spotted a small sign on the front door that I had never noticed before."Fine British food sold here."
I can only assume they were being ironic.
9 comments:
Yeah, it won't rot your teeth either, I bet.
British Cuisine-- a contradiction in terms.
When Atwood backpacked through Europe in 1990, he tried to not be the ugly American, and live on the local cuisine wherever he was. This was challenging in England. He decided that since Indian, Pakistani and West Indian cuisine had been integrated into British culture, it was okay to subist on that food while he was there.
I was a little surprised, remembering the horrible bachelor cuisine he and I subisted on when we were roommates, and said "Hey-- there's nothing that ketchup can't fix." He replied that even British ketchup sucked! It was, basically, tomato sauce.
Since that conversation, I've developed the theory that this was a main motivation for British imperialism-- the search for decent food.
I love JY's theory, I'm going to be testing it next week and figured that I'd be relying on Indian and other types of food. I'm bringing extra teeth too.
I love samosas, the food and the word.
Hooray for your all-British Friday. Not to make you jealous or anything, but I'm having and all-British WEEK in the UK on vacation. It's so exciting that I'm up late (UK time anyway) catching up on my blogging.
I love Hob Nob cookies, the dark chocolate kind. Those are Fine British Cusine to me
"Samosas" or "sambusas," still one of the greatest snacks of all time, by any other name.
"British cuisine?"
That would be pub fare, roasted meats, puddings, and thrice-boiled vegetables, wot? What's real British cuisine? Indian, Chineses and Jamaican take away.
When I was in London I ate ma lot of delicious Indian food. When we ate home cooked meals with our hosts I was a little scared. Ketchup on pasta??? What is that all about? However, as it is "basically tomato sauce" it wasn't AS scary as I thought but was still scary enough.
When the US played England at Soldier Field a couple of years ago, some of the American fans started a "We've got dentists" chant. It was silly but funny.
You know, Johnny, I came up with the same theory about why the Germans always went after France. They didn't want the land or the people, they were just sick of sausage.
You know, dale, my friend Justin used to say that British cuisine was the result of centuries of drunken bets beginning with "I bet you wouldn't eat..."
Samosas are the bomb. You know, I thought about making an Anastasio Samoza reference here, but I figured no one would get it. Damn. Too late. You're all off to google now, aren't you?
The only part of England that I've seen is Heathrow. I don't like Heathrow much, but I won't hold it against the rest of the country, which I'm sure is much nicer. It is, right? Except, of course, for Milton Keynes.
Don't forget Cadbury's eggs, Lulu. I'd steal a truckload of those... but you didn't hear it from me.
If there's a snack that can trump portable Indian food, wp, I don't know what it is.
Natalie, I feel your pain. When I was growing up, my mom thought that tomato juice was a perfectly acceptable marinara sauce. I still don't understand.
"If there's a snack that can trump portable Indian food, wp, I don't know what it is."
The Burmese take on it is pretty damn good, imagine Thai and Indian mixed together, which it pretty much is.
Without Googling it, Somosa was Nicaraguan, right? I should know that one by heart, there's enough Nicaraguan and Salvadorean ex-pats in these parts. He was related to Bianca Jagger, right?
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