Definitely - foods like British / Scottish / Irish / Ulster fry, pork pies, bangers & mash, fish & chips, Sunday roast (carved meat, roast potatoes, yorkshire puds), shepherd’s pie, beef wellington to name a few. Plenty of deserts too. And ingredients like worcester sauce, English mustard, marmite etc.
A Sunday roast / carvery is basically what Americans get when they order prime rib. The cut of meat is slightly different due to different classifications but for all intents and purposes it’s a Sunday rib roast. For some bizarre reason in the US it’s regarded as fine dining with a price 4x as much as it would be for a better Sunday roast meal / carvery in a British pub. Over two decades ago I went to dine in a Lawry’s Prime Rib in Chicago - big mistake - massively overpriced for what it was.
Out of the food you mentioned only Beef Wellington and English Breakfast/Ulster Fry/ are uniquely British.
Everything else is either not a dish (fried sausage and potatoes definitely is not a dish you philistine :P) or not distinct enough.
Pork pies, fish and chips, roast, shepherds pie - it is eaten in Britain, but is not unique to them, as was historically eaten across the whole Europe (I mean it is fish and chips, it didn’t need “inventing”).
I think we need these smaller distinctions to have a meaningful conversation about food. If not, French crepes would be too similar to Norwegian pancakes, pizza and quiche could be the same if you ignore the yeast and tomato sauce, and if you really want to stretch it you could group Japanese ramen and Polish pasta soup together.
In some ways I want to agree with you, for good ideas usually pop up multiple times and places, but I am too fond of traveling and tasting different food traditions to give in.
Yes all those other things are distinctly British. Britain didn’t function in a vacuum and I’m sure there are influences to everything. But if you eat a British pork pie you absolutely know what it is. Same for fish and chips. Same for all those things.
Since we’re comparing to Italy where do you think tomatoes came from? Do you think pasta wasn’t independently invented in many places? Do you think olive oil, or bread, ragus, salted pork etc weren’t also done elsewhere?
Fish and Chips is Jewish food, and became popular in Britain in the Victorian era with the coincidence of a large
wave of Dutch Jews arriving in the country and the development of a rail network sufficient to deliver fresh fish anywhere in the country.
And if you were to say, for example, that pasta with tomato sauce is an Italian dish, I’d argue it’s not, as pasta was eaten across the whole Europe, and likely first added tomato happened in Britain.
Bolognese sauce with pasta on the other hand would definitely be Italian dish. Do you see the distinction?
Definitely - foods like British / Scottish / Irish / Ulster fry, pork pies, bangers & mash, fish & chips, Sunday roast (carved meat, roast potatoes, yorkshire puds), shepherd’s pie, beef wellington to name a few. Plenty of deserts too. And ingredients like worcester sauce, English mustard, marmite etc.
A Sunday roast / carvery is basically what Americans get when they order prime rib. The cut of meat is slightly different due to different classifications but for all intents and purposes it’s a Sunday rib roast. For some bizarre reason in the US it’s regarded as fine dining with a price 4x as much as it would be for a better Sunday roast meal / carvery in a British pub. Over two decades ago I went to dine in a Lawry’s Prime Rib in Chicago - big mistake - massively overpriced for what it was.
Out of the food you mentioned only Beef Wellington and English Breakfast/Ulster Fry/ are uniquely British.
Everything else is either not a dish (fried sausage and potatoes definitely is not a dish you philistine :P) or not distinct enough.
Pork pies, fish and chips, roast, shepherds pie - it is eaten in Britain, but is not unique to them, as was historically eaten across the whole Europe (I mean it is fish and chips, it didn’t need “inventing”).
I think we need these smaller distinctions to have a meaningful conversation about food. If not, French crepes would be too similar to Norwegian pancakes, pizza and quiche could be the same if you ignore the yeast and tomato sauce, and if you really want to stretch it you could group Japanese ramen and Polish pasta soup together. In some ways I want to agree with you, for good ideas usually pop up multiple times and places, but I am too fond of traveling and tasting different food traditions to give in.
Saying Kimchi and Saurkraut are the same thing is heresy in some parts. Salt water, cabbage, spices, time. Same damn thing the way I cook.
I am not a chef.
Chef here. I have at least 100 recipes for various types of pancakes the world over.
Never underestimate an Americans willingness to take their single racist heirloom joke and run it into the Martians trench thinking it’s a fact.
Fair.
Polish rosół is much more similar to French consomme than to ramen though. The stretch to ramen would be rather significant.
Yes all those other things are distinctly British. Britain didn’t function in a vacuum and I’m sure there are influences to everything. But if you eat a British pork pie you absolutely know what it is. Same for fish and chips. Same for all those things.
Since we’re comparing to Italy where do you think tomatoes came from? Do you think pasta wasn’t independently invented in many places? Do you think olive oil, or bread, ragus, salted pork etc weren’t also done elsewhere?
Fish and Chips is Jewish food, and became popular in Britain in the Victorian era with the coincidence of a large wave of Dutch Jews arriving in the country and the development of a rail network sufficient to deliver fresh fish anywhere in the country.
Like I said, Britain didn’t function in a vacuum. Fish and chips is still a uniquely British thing however.
But it isn’t. Its portuguese.
And if you were to say, for example, that pasta with tomato sauce is an Italian dish, I’d argue it’s not, as pasta was eaten across the whole Europe, and likely first added tomato happened in Britain.
Bolognese sauce with pasta on the other hand would definitely be Italian dish. Do you see the distinction?