Differences in eating habits and eating out between US & UK!

[BCV23]

Prayers and tons of Pixie Dust for your daughter, Dawn.

 

[RumpleMom]

Prayers and pixie dust coming from PA to Ohio.

 

[thatchicktrish]

very interesting thread. Just to add...


Here in New York, we "grill" things like hot dogs and hamburgers, BBQ'*** is left for actually using bbq sauce or another sort of smoked style sauce and slow cooking your meat (pork or chicken) on the grill. When I make chicken, I am grilling it, not BBQing. I don't know anyone that says BBQing for hamburgers and hot dogs *shrugs* There is a place nearby, called Dinosaur BBQ that I am addicted to, they slow cook all their ribs, brisket and etc on smoke pits for 12 hours or so, you can find a few other "real" BBQ spots all over the place.


Iced Tea is a year round beverage for us here, we drink it anytime, winter or summer, my DH especially loves Raspberry Iced Tea.

I've recently noticed crumpets at our local grocery store, they look yummy!!!



Pixie Dust to graygables DD, hope everything is ok

 

[2BoysMum&Dad]

Graygables, hope your DD is ok. Will she be able to reschedule her visit to the UK soon?

I would love your opinions on "hagis". There has been a recent survey here in the UK about hagis and would love your opinions about the best way to cook it and what it actually is.

2BoysMum&Dad

 

[bubblefactory]

Fair fa' your honest, sonsy face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin' race !
Aboon them a ' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm;
Weel are ye worthy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

Robert Burns, To a Haggis.
This dish is served on Burns' Anniversary, 25 January, and St Andrew's Day, 30 November.


1 stomach bag
Liver, lights and heart of a sheep
1 breakfast cup oatmeal
2 onions
8 oz shredded mutton suet
salt and black pepper
Clean stomach bag thoroughly and leave overnight in cold water to which salt has been added. Turn rough side out. Put heart, lights and liver in a pan. Bring to boil and simmer for 1-1/2 hours. Toast the oatmeal on a tray in the oven or under grill. Chop the heart, lights and liver. Mix all the ingredients together with suet, adding salt and pepper. Keep mixture sappy, using liquid in which liver was boiled. Fill bag a little over half full as mixture needs room to swell. Sew securely and put in a large pot of hot water. As soon as mixture begins to swell, prick with a needle to prevent bag from bursting. Boil for 3 hours.
Serve with mashed potatoes and mashed turnip. Serves 6-8.

 

[BONZO]

Just to wander back into the murky depths of Iced Tea! - LOL

Liptons did start a marketing campaign over here a while back but it went down like a lead baloon - same as instant tea even longer ago.

The only way we have Iced Tea is in a Long Island Iced Tea cocktail.

 

[NMAmy]

I love this thread! My DH is a Brit although he's lived in the states for over 20 years and this is a regular topic of conversation at our house. He's taught my DD to eat "correctly" holding the knife and fork as mentioned earlier and also to drink hot tea with milk and sugar. His big problem when he goes to visit his family now is that they have no coffee maker! It makes him crazy to not be able to have real coffee in the morning.

We did some travelling in northern England with his brother and SIL last summer. SIL asked me why restaurants in the states have such huge portions. I explained that I usually eat half my meal and take the rest home in a doggy bag for lunch the next day. She was amazed that a server would actually bring you a takeaway container in a sitdown restaurant. Now the funny part was that the next day we went to a pub in Haworth and I ordered fish and chips. I got 3 HUGE pieces of fish along with the chips and peas. I asked her where she had eaten at the states that had bigger portions.

Another BIL has not travelled much and at our first meeting/dinner, my MIL had picked up some prepared food from the store. As we were eating ham and pasta salad and fruit, BIL turned to me and asked if I was ok with this "different food from what I was used to!" Umm...yeah, I can handle that cultural difference.

I can't wait to go back this summer...his family is so good to me and make each visit very special

 

[LglBlonde]

Love this thread! I have an English friend who came to visit last September! We had a good time discussing not only food differences but various cultural differences too.

The one thing she could not get over was "biscuits" and gravy, or that they serve biscuits at chicken restaurants like KFC, since she thinks of a biscuit as a "scone."

We also got a kick out of the whole chips & crisps thing.

She took back a case of Hershey bars to the UK, b/c she said they cannot get anything like our Hershey bars over there. I took her to Sam's so she could buy a case.

She also brought me tons of Jelly Babies, which to my knowledge, we don't have anything quite like them here! Yum!

Also, I've been in England, but it's been a good ten years ago, so nothing sticks out in my mind except the warmish beer and soft drinks and not being able to get enough ice! Also, I was there for three weeks and to save money, we went to a grocery store to buy stuff to make sandwiches. I remember you could not get plain YELLOW or DIJON or BROWN mustard there. It was all very "hot" "spicy" mustard that we could only use a very little bit of. Another thing I remember is I swear that Heinz Ketchup tasted differently there. And, at a BK at one of the London Train Stations, the ketchup was sold for 10 p and it came in something akin to the BBQ sauce cups, instead of packets like we have here. I also love Hard Cider, which is much easier to find in the UK than here.

And finally, I'll note that my English friend told me that things like Mike's Hard Lemonade, or Smirnoff Ice type flavored alcoholic drinks were outlawed there because it seemed they were marketed to kids. So she was surprised to see them in our grocery stores. Oh, I could go on and on and on!!!

 

[yecats]

Off topic - Graygables, PIXIE DUST, PIXIE DUST, PIXIE DUST AND A FEW PRAYERS THROWN IN.

P.S. - I absolutely hate the instant mix iced tea. It is always too lemonie or too sweet.

 

[2BoysMum&Dad]

Biscuits in the uk are what Americans call cookies. In some places you can buy "American cookies" which are large and very slightly on the chewy side.

2BoysMum&Dad

 

[crisi]

We just had this conversation at lunch - a bunch of American women living in Minnesota (and having been raised all over the country - and travelled all over the world) eating with a woman from Ireland.....

But one thing we realized is that America is VERY regional and VERY ethnic.

For instance, if you talk about BBQ, I think of beef BBQ with a tomato/honey sauce - or of Bulgogi! Bet many Americans wouldn't consider Bulgogi as BBQ (bet a lot of you don't know what I'm talking about).

Likewise, my friend of Scandinavian ancestry believes meals revolve around dairy (and white food) - where I'm of Italian decent - all meals involve pasta and marinara. I never saw potatos served at my Italian grandmother's house - and never saw a meal without them at my German grandmother's house.

Salad....my Irish friend said she never saw salad come before a meal - practically a rule in US dining. We eat a lot of lettuce salads over here.

My vegetarian friends wouldn't know how to compare Burger King and McDonalds (and there are lots of vegetarians in the US). And my kosher friends have never had a cheeseburger. (I prefer McDonalds - I find BK to be dry. But neither has decent hamburgers - and before children I went five years without ever eating a fast food burger).

We have many Indian restaurants here in the Twin Cities (went to lunch at one last week). My family eats Thai once a week (and Mexican maybe twice a year). Cheese soup is a Wisconsin thing (mmmm, beer cheese soup - with popcorn on top). Sushi is sold at the grocery store (they have a sushi chef there to make it fresh) and available in my company cafeteria. My four and five year old can handle chopsticks - and that isn't uncommon. Okra is NOT a foodstuff (although a Southern friend cooked my girlfriends fried okra a few years ago - quite yummy), few people think grits are edible (we are Cream of Wheat folks up here), and sweet tea is something we stumble across if we visit the South. And our "weird native food" is wild rice (mmm.....wild rice soup).

I know plenty of people who can make a very good cup of tea - although it tends not to be Earl Grey - herbal or Asian (Green, Jasmine, Oolong) tend to be a lot more common in my circle.

(I think breakfast sausage is gross and hate it when maple syrup gets on my bacon --- ick).

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Love this thread!

A CM at Akershus in Norway at Epcot mentioned while talking to us the the living arrangements for World Showcase CMs from other countries involved apartments with a mix of different countries represented. If I understand it, they did not put the same countrymen together and you had to get along; there was no switching roommates, you just went home if you couldn't deal with it. She said the first morning they ate breakfast they all could not get over what different things they all ate for breakfast!
We seem to all find food a common denominator!

 

[2BoysMum&Dad]

Sorry, just have to ask this one! Grits have been mentioned a few times here. What is it?!!!!!

2BoysMum&Dad

 

[sha_lyn]

Originally posted by 2BoysMum&Dad
Sorry, just have to ask this one! Grits have been mentioned a few times here. What is it?!!!!!

2BoysMum&Dad

They are basically a ground corn product that is usually prepared as a hot breakfast side dish or hot cereal. they are very popular in th southeast, but have caught on in some other areas. I've seen them prepared sweet or savory, and it now seems popular to serve them as a dinner side dish with cheese in them. this southern girl would rather have cream of wheat or cream of rice.

 

[BCV23]

Originally posted by sha_lyn
They are basically a ground corn product that is usually prepared as a hot breakfast side dish or hot cereal. they are very popular in th southeast, but have caught on in some other areas. I've seen them prepared sweet or savory, and it now seems popular to serve them as a dinner side dish with cheese in them. this southern girl would rather have cream of wheat or cream of rice.

sha_lyn, are grits similar to polenta? I've never had grits.

 

[tiggersmom2]

BCV23,
I'm not sha_lyn, but I am from the deep south and I do love grits. That being said, Yes, grits are somewhat similar to Polenta.

 

[yecats]

Crisi, I couldn't agree with you more. America has very cultural regions and is very ethnic.

Yes, grits are like polenta. I don't eat grits or cream of anything. I don't like syrup to touch my bacon either.

Cultural and Ethnic example: we have a version of french bread here. It's similar to a true loaf of bread you would find in any french bakery but ours is a little different with a harder crust. Many people think it is like a sub loaf but subs are a lot softer and has a different taste. You will not find our type of french bread outside of a 50 mile radius of New Orleans. Additionally, we eat beignets, a local type of donut with powdered sugar on top. It is a staple here and many people make them at there own homes. The only other place outside of New Orleans that I have ever had a beignet is at POFQ. Due to where we are located, we are also huge seafood eaters. Fried okra is another local staple. We also use more rues and brown gravy here than I believe anywhere else. Whenever, you leave LA, we find that most of the rest of the South will serve white gravy on things.

I also completely agree with you about Italian food. I am not Italian and my stomach can not take a true tomato base on spagetti. It is entirely to acidic. I come from an Irish/German family so I was raised with the meat/potato thing and never really had a spagetti meal until a started dating an Italian guy.

Here is another funny antedote of local variation. I spent a 2 week vacation in California in the mid 1980's when I was about 15 years old. I was vacationing with my dance troup and we stopped at a burger joint. My friend was at the counter and stated that she wanted her burger dressed? Did that stump anyone yet. Well it certainly stumped everyone in that burger joint, it got really quiet and everyone was looking at my friend. Anyone knows what it means to dress a burger??? No it doesn't mean to put a little pair of pants on it either.

After reading what goes into Haggis, I now know I'll never eat it. In fact, should I want to diet, I'll find someone to make that meal for meal and just place it in my refrigerator. Once I open the frig, I know I'll lose my appetite.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Ya'll are probably going to think I have lost my mind, but I would probably LIKE Haggis!!!! I love Chitlins and Souse, two Ewwwww foods in the States. As a matter of fact, I can't think of ANY food that I don't like.


No, I'm not fat, I'm 5'2 and 115lbs.

 

[jann1033]

talk about regional differences. Husband's aunt in Tennessee once made us a great dinner of fried chicken and all the fixings including what she called creamed potatoes...while she was cooking and talking about these potatoes I am thinking how odd since we always had mashed potatoes with fried chicken, not potatoes with cream sauce..surprise so did she but called them "creamed". confusing but good! however their giant breakfasts with biscuits and gravy every morning would do me in...and country ham is just way too salty! but love sweet tea!

also was thinking of differences with other areas since we live near an Amish area...that would really knock the socks off the Brits since I think 90% of their main dishes have some kind of sweet, sweet side, like cold cooked carrots in a jelly like sweet/sour glaze with raisins and raw green peppers or raw broccoli with a sweet mayonaise like dressing again with raisins, corn relish: sweet corn kernels with a sweet sauce and diced red peppers or how about this for the over the top stick to the ribs meal.... thick egg noodles mixed with diced meat( usually beef) and brown gravy served *over* mashed potatoes served with giant yeast rolls of course with pie or date pudding for dessert!...that ought to keep you glued to the couch for the rest of the day!

and to address the McDonald / Burger king..I like Wendy's better but that is all fast food, not really the same as a burger cooked on a charcoal grill then nestled on a kiaser bun with lettuce tomato pickle mayo onion and ketchup...Yum add an ear of fresh picked simmered sweet corn & that tastes just like summer to me!

 

[BCV23]

Originally posted by tiggersmom2
BCV23,
I'm not sha_lyn, but I am from the deep south and I do love grits. That being said, Yes, grits are somewhat similar to Polenta.

Thank you, tiggersmom. Polenta is such a trendy offering in our part of the States these days. We still never see grits on menus up here.

I don't care for sausage or black pudding either and think bacon touched by syrup would be a shame. However, good pancakes with crispy bacon nearby but not tainted by syrup is a good combo for me. Most pancakes are rather neutral here too BTW. The recipe I use for buttermilk pancakes has 1 tsp sugar/1cup flour/1 cup of buttermilk and milk etc.. The overall effect is not sweet at all which is why people add syrup or in the case of my daughter cinnamon and sugar. Thinned down a bit it would be appropriate for crepes.

I've heard of chitlins but never of souse? Please enlighten us, tiggersmom2!