Excellent article, and interesting to compare with my experience as a Brit living in the US (Seattle) for a dozen years. In the US, Britishness (and perhaps especially Englishness) is still considered highly desirable, and so living there is not laced with the kind of middle-class angst about disappearing into the woodwork that you so eloquently describe. In food terms this meant that we were able to delight our American friends with some British foods (Pimm's; sponge cakes; crumpets; shepherd's pie; bread sauce) that made them feel both adventurous and sophisticated. Other British staples, however (kidneys; brown sauce; marmite), remained a hard sell.
Thanks for the article, it was fun to read and quite interesting!
"Just surviving the war dealt an absolutely devastating body blow to English cuisine that has taken generations to recover from (if it has recovered at all); what emerged in the meantime was a whole market of highly processed, sugary and salty goods with which people could cheaply add to their basic cooking." This is an interesting observation, because as a continental European I had always wondered about this. On the other hands, large parts of Europe were even stronger affected by the war (my home town was 90% destroyed for example) and our food has recovered, so while the two world wars can certainly be part of the equation, there must be another factor (or factors) in play here.
Calls to mind a camping trip to France many years ago. One evening I was washing our dishes in one of the communal sinks when an Englishman came to the neighbouring sink and plonked his dishes into the water. Up to the surface floated a dozen or so Oxo cubes with which he had intended to flavour his evening meals. He was horrified and felt his holiday was ruined!
Excellent article, and interesting to compare with my experience as a Brit living in the US (Seattle) for a dozen years. In the US, Britishness (and perhaps especially Englishness) is still considered highly desirable, and so living there is not laced with the kind of middle-class angst about disappearing into the woodwork that you so eloquently describe. In food terms this meant that we were able to delight our American friends with some British foods (Pimm's; sponge cakes; crumpets; shepherd's pie; bread sauce) that made them feel both adventurous and sophisticated. Other British staples, however (kidneys; brown sauce; marmite), remained a hard sell.
Thanks for the article, it was fun to read and quite interesting!
"Just surviving the war dealt an absolutely devastating body blow to English cuisine that has taken generations to recover from (if it has recovered at all); what emerged in the meantime was a whole market of highly processed, sugary and salty goods with which people could cheaply add to their basic cooking." This is an interesting observation, because as a continental European I had always wondered about this. On the other hands, large parts of Europe were even stronger affected by the war (my home town was 90% destroyed for example) and our food has recovered, so while the two world wars can certainly be part of the equation, there must be another factor (or factors) in play here.
Calls to mind a camping trip to France many years ago. One evening I was washing our dishes in one of the communal sinks when an Englishman came to the neighbouring sink and plonked his dishes into the water. Up to the surface floated a dozen or so Oxo cubes with which he had intended to flavour his evening meals. He was horrified and felt his holiday was ruined!
Confusing England and ‘Britain’ yet again
England is not Britain it is a separate country as is Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland