British food is basically fine, you can joke about it sure but its a lot nicer to try and find shit you like about a cuisine than just turning making jokes about it into a personality trait.
Also if you gotta reach for the poorest people slop and food that has only been served as novelty within living memory, then firstly you're doing fucking "this hoe eating crackers" but for a whole countrys food and should get better material cause its unfunny as fuck, and secondly whatever your favourite cuisine is probably has some maggot cheese or baby piss eggs buried in a dark box somewhere too and you should simmer down a bit.
Le disgoosting Englishman wents to eet hees beans on toast. Now, to eet le snails.
Fish and Chips is actually a good dish and surprisingly hard to get outside anglo countries, even in Europe.
I'm basing it on the majority of British cuisine sounding like the same generally tasty and good savoury stuff Ive eaten most of my life, not super fancy yeah and there isnt usually a ton of spices, but you can pair it with stuff like jams or pickled vegetables to brighten up the dishes, which is one of my fav flavor combinations.
If I can cheat a little one of my favourite stews to make right now is a Guiness stew with a bunch of roots and mushrooms in it, also like to add a little HP sauce into it cause it works pretty good as a stew ingredient.
Yeah ok libsoc is gonna come try and roast me, buddy you probably eat childrens souls like you're a fairytale beast or something, go away.
A meat and potato pie in a bread roll? Fried bit of potato with some peas in a bread roll?
At least go for the jellied eels if you're gonna do exactly the thing I said, moron. This shit is literally fine, its just regular fast food type stuff but presented with a funny accent.
fake meat burgers tremble before the might of the humble bean burger
I went to burger king once recently and asked if they still had the old garden burger NOT the impossible whopper. She acted like that was a crazy question and said there never existed a burger king garden burger.
I've been (at least) vegetarian my entire life don't you gaslight me. :owl-pissed:
All this beyond meat and impossible meat stuff is bs. It just exists to make shit more expensive. Just give me a veggie patty damnit.
:10000-com: agree. Lentil burgers are also great, and i prefer jackfruit burgers over meat surrogate patties as well. I've been veggie for decades, i love eating plants, i want to have chunks of legumes and vegetables and grains in there. Some of this stuff comes so close to actual meat that it becomes kinda disgusting for me, i used to be an "i just don't like meat" vegetarian before i went vegan. So if something's too meat-like, i get kinda queasy.
Now i don't think it's a bad idea to have an alternative for people who like meat. there's also some fake meat stuff that i really enjoy once in a while, like the veggie shrimps at that one vegan restaurant or the vegan lox that Aldi sells now in Germany. It's always good to have more vegan options, and it's good when going vegan doesn't require people to give up on too much food they like. But it's kinda sad when the "plant-based meat surrogate" stuff does not complement the bean burgers and the jackfruit and the tofu, but when only one of them gets offered for economic reasons - that always ends up being the fake meat version, because the market share of flexitarians, carnies doing a veggie day once a week and vegans who really want their meat replacement is just bigger than the market share of people with a strongly herbivoral appetite like me.
Any DIY recipe you'd recommend ? I have been guilty of using pre-made vegan burgers too often, because making good ones yourself seems somewhat hard.
i use this as a baseline, then just add stuff/change stuff as i feel like it
You ever tried a wild rice burger? I had one at a restaurant once and it was good.
sadly i have not, i'd try one, but it's pretty hard to get here
my local grocer has their store band veggie burgers which are sweet potato, black bean and corn - so fuckin' good
Fusion cuisine is good actually and anyone that cares about "authenticity" is a nerd.
I think people should take authenticity to the extreme and cook European foods without all of these crazy ingredients from the new world. I'm sorry but tomatoes, potatoes, and corn are now banned.
You okay babe? you've barely touched your unseasoned stew made entirely of root vegetables.
You joke but I eat root vegetable soup every day from the local coop and it's great
As one should in winter. My favorite part about this season is root vegetable soups and eating ungodly amounts of citrus.
European people used as much seasoning as they could get access to for most of history. Most of the time that was onions, garlic, mustard, and various other herbs and whatever that could be grown locally, but people generally used as much spice as they could afford and get access to. European food only became deliberately bland a like 200 years ago because of some weird bourgeois thing about poor people getting uppity if they ate spicy food or something, I can't remember the exact details.
But if you look at medieval recipes they use a startling amount of anise and stuff.
if you don't cook it in a pot that's never been washed with soap over a wood fire then it's not authentic
I care about authenticity in that the authentic version of a food is always going to be much better than the cheap Americanized version. But yeah fusion is good, combining different good things is basically what cooking is.
I like to eat fusion cuisine, however, authentic recipes have been refined over centuries and you can taste that. Sushi filled with mayo, corn, and avocado just isn't as good as the original, as is pizza with hollandaise and schnitzel, or whatever you want to call that stuff you get in western "Chinese" restaurants.
Anything that suggests you can't tell the difference, you can.
"I can't believe it's not butter?" Damn, I can. Quite easily in fact.
Any time I see some vegan burger that's like ""9/10 people can't tell the difference" I genuinely start to believe I must be part of the 10% of humans that have tastebuds because what the fuck are they talking about?
You can say the alternative is cheaper, or still tastes good, or is better for the environment; but don't fucking lie to me.
Literally wrong. I cook everything in salted butter and it tastes way better than any of those awful vegetable oil replacements.
Olive oil is the one I do cook with but mostly for sauces, dressings, and dips, or if I'm actually attempting something Mediterranean.
It's also good for glazing certain things.
I don't fry with it.
Good cheese is the only dairy item that is hard to give up.
I mean. You have to seek out these alt foods from people and companies who know what they’re doing. Not go to your local supermarket chain or fast food place and expect good quality food.
“I can’t believe it’s not butter?” Damn, I can. Quite easily in fact.
yeah the difference is real butter sucks
idk but I want to tell the chefs I work with that they don't know how to fucking roast vegetables. If there isn't any browning or charring it isn't fucking roasted, all you did was steam that vegetable in the oven, congrats. They need to cook them for longer and hotter.
But I'm The New Guy, have no culinary education, and I just make a da pizza. I feel like I would look like an asshole questioning what they've been doing. But man their roasted carrots are dog shit, green beans too, zucchini is just soggy with no caramelization. Amateur shit.
I'm friends with the vegan chef and she thinks they cook like shit too but her big problem is they apparently spray all the vegetables with the canned oil we use, but I'm 99% sure that's fine, it's just fucking aerosolized sunflower oil w/ nothing else in it. The temp/time to cook and general lack of seasoning (I assume they leave it bland for students that don't like or can't tolerate salt...) are the real fucking problem
right? literally might as well just steam them at that point, hell they'd probably be better without the oil then
but what do I know, I'm just a home cook who thinks brown is the most important flavor
The vegan chef prolly wants to use coco or avo oil or something.
But damn that sounds like a bad place to work/eat at.
Food is bullshit* and I wish I didn't have to do it. Yes, I've tried Soylent, and it suits my purposes just fine, but it's not affordable for me. So I'm stuck with eating, even though I ate yesterday.
(* - The reverse is not true. Be careful out there.)
Hell yeah, eating is only fun when your body isn't forcing you to do it.
I like food well enough. I don't like needing food.
I remember there was this whole backlash to soylent because it was cringe engineer nerds who can't cook, but they're right! Having to cook constantly just to survive kinda sucks.
Soylent actually partially solves a problem that people have (a deficit in their time and knowledge concerning healthy food preparation/planning) and isn't like some kinda' government OP to replace public benefits meanwhile actual cringe engineer nerds think we need to start drinking untreated water and should defund public water treatment.
(* - The reverse is not true. Be careful out there.)
Niu bie is a kind of soup made from the partially digested food found in a cow's rumen, the largest chamber in a cow's stomach.
Before cooking niu bie, fine grass and herbs are fed to the cattle in advance. After the animals are slaughtered, the undigested food in the stomach is removed and a green smelly liquid is squeezed out of it. Then herbs and condiment like ox gall, Chinese prickly ash, ginger, orange peels and bay leaves are added to the mix, which is then boiled into the hot pot broth.
I think it probably exists as mostly tourist attraction nowadays, but I saw a person set up a niu bie hot pot on one of those weird "chinese boomers doing old-timey things because of nostalgia" tiktoks so I dunno, it probably does taste like cow manure.
Have you tried powdered Soylent, or the other brands of meal replacements? They're cheaper than the stuff that comes in bottles. (Still a little expensive for me, I use it to fill gaps when I don't have leftovers and haven't had time to cook.)
My discount grocery store usually has some off-brand something-or-other at a reasonable price, but not quite enough to stock up on. I'll probably switch to powdered sooner or later, since the discount grocery's selection is too unreliable to count on.
yeah I think you gotta buy bulk online for the cheapest price
Eating food is tedious and I wish I didn't need to do it. You're constantly having to think about it, constantly planning it, buying it, cooking it, making sure you're eating enough but not too much but it's got to be stuff that's good for you. Just give me nutrient cubes I can stick into the stopper installed into my belly button and if I want to eat for fun or taste I can.
Honestly yeah. Cooking should be a hobby or something you can do on the weekends, not a requirement for living.
Do you have ADHD? I'm the same way and that's what I blame it on, I can eat the same meal every day for a month as long as the prep time is like 30 seconds.
I'm not officially diagnosed with anything because what is healthcare but I've suspected I have many things wrong with my brain space.
They literally have that it's called Soylent. Lived primarily on that for over a year when I had some orthodontics done. Hated it but wasn't hungry and honestly it was more complete nutrition than I get when I'm eating what I want.
I saw a documentary on this stuff, didn't catch the ending but it seemed like a great product with absolutely no downsides.
Well one downside is the only good flavors are chocolate and plain, can't stand the mint/strawberry/banana. Another is that it's vegan so the dha/epa ratio is not ideal, it's debatable how much this matters and basically there is no vegan product which solves it that I'm aware of so you're in the same boat as all the other vegans (if you buy vegan omega 3 with high dha you're actually getting mislabeled fish oil or they're lying).
Cooking with little to no spices can take a lot skill, you need to take care to preserve the inherent flavour of your ingredients.
100% disagree
cooking with little to no spices takes very little skill, and depends almost entirely on ingredient quality
obviously having very fresh, ripe, high quality ingredients is good. But it's not cooking. It's just having better stuff
obviously exceptions for dishes which require high skill/technique in other ways (Soan papdi, mousse, bread in general, among others). But say a chicken stew or a beef casserole? Just plop that shit in with some thyme and wine and you're done
The taste of the ingredients can easily be destroyed when cooked for too long or too hot, or maybe not as good when cooked not hot enough. Especially with like many sauces(though those have spices), they will taste worse when they have boiled. Like take vegetables, mush is easy to make and also tastes like shit.
The taste of the ingredients can easily be destroyed when cooked for too long or too hot, or maybe not as good when cooked not hot enough.
This also applies to spiced food though
mush is easy to make and also tastes like shit.
I guess this is true, mush with thyme and butter tastes a lot better than mush with butter.
I think it's because when I hear "spices" I think of Indian spices. Which can be harsh if overused and require a lot of skill/knowledge to use properly. Whereas Mediterranean herbs are incredibly easy to use in comparison (I've never had a dish ruined because it "had too much thyme")
I rarely cook Indian food for this reason, and most of my go-to dishes are either Mediterranean or Chinese inspired--I think this is actually the norm because these two, and maybe Mexican, are the most popular cuisines that Americans tend to make
Indian cooking is hard?? That’s the first time I’m hearing of it lmao.
I mean, I think there's a low floor but a very high ceiling. It can be very easy to make a passable Indian dish, but to make it real good it takes a lot of practice and knowledge.
That's also true, maybe making good food just isn't always easy, one way or another, and some spices can cover for mistakes made or make food worse if used wrong, I never intended to say spices were bad or anything.
okay I think there should be a distinction between spices and herbs.
spices are unanimously tricky to use
whereas most herbs are very simple to use
There are a few exceptions on the herb side (sage, cilantro) but even these aren't as easy to fuck up as spices (asafoetida, cumin)
if you throw a bunch of thyme, rosemary, parsley, dill into your food it's basically idiotproof
if you throw a bunch of cumin, turmeric, achaar powder, mustard seeds into your food you better know what you're doingOil -> hing, cumin, ginger, garlic, onion -> tomato -> veggies, potato -> turmeric, salt, garaam masala -> cook -> cilantro.
Usually. Different for daals (stop before the veggies step and add the rest to the daal), add water before cooking for curries etc.
It’s simple as shit.
hing
yea you better know what you're doing
It’s simple as shit.
I mean you just listed out 10 extra things, also garam masala is itself a blend of a bunch of spices, but sure
Hing is super easy. You just put it in hot oil and it cooks within seconds. You can smell when it’s done. Then just add the other stuff and proceed.
I only mentioned garaam masala cuz i didn’t wanna write out every spice lol.
Indian cooking, generally speaking, is easy. You don’t have to measure anything and the food basically cooks itself.
Edit: I’m gonna edit this comment because I don’t want it to seem like I’m making a broad sweeping declaration about Indian food.
Indian food is very varied and diverse. I just found it kinda funny that people were claiming it is this difficult arduous thing and spices are these complex alien items you have to be super careful about.
Not really. Just find a good simple recipe online and follow it. It’s like the Italian food of Asia. It’s very hard to mess up.
Hing is super easy
Maybe you have different tastebuds, but too much Asafoetida/Hing just wrecks any chance of a dish being palatable
I think you're doing that thing where you're used to something so you claim it's easy lol. literally every other cuisine uses less stuff
Indian cooking, generally speaking, is easy. You don’t have to measure anything and the food basically cooks itself.
This is...pretty much every other cuisine except with fewer ingredients, and ingredients that are much harder to mess up.
I've put too much cumin in my food and it tasted really bad
I've never put too much thyme or garlic or green onions in my food thoughIndian grocery stores literally make millions selling premade spice blends and fruit pastes because so many of the dishes have SO MANY fucking ingredients that it's impossible to keep track of them all
It’s like the Italian food of Asia
Italy is a country, India is a continental-scale landmass
For Hing you just need a pinch. I’ve messed up spices too so I get where you’re coming from.
There is a lot in Indian cooking that is genuinely tough. But I think the basics are super easy to learn and can be used in a huge variety of foods.
The basics vary too, I guess. Everyone knows South Indian food is different from North Indian. But the way Punjabis prepare daal, for example, is different from how people in UP/Bihar do.
I just think Indian food is so interesting. I wish there was a way to properly explore all the different varieties and local versions and home recipes and everything.
Anyways, thanks for talking about it.
Not everything especially vegetables need spices. They have their own unique flavours that can combine and make deliciousness all by them selves. Beans do need spices though they are bland af on their own.
I feel this is trivially true, since "cheese" is such an extremely unspecific term. Mascarpone, Cheddar and Roquefort are all cheese, but i wouldn't put the Roquefort on my vanilla ice cream or in my muesli.
Kinda, my friends have a running challenge with me where they try to come up with things that can't possibly be paired with cheese. Some things are rather difficult, couple I've had to spend a few days thinking on but I've yet to fail. So not trivial but huge variety make certainly makes it possible.
Some things are rather difficult, couple I’ve had to spend a few days thinking on but I’ve yet to fail.
You can't just say that and not give an example.
Have you tried no sugar added ketchup? It's actually really good!
Tomatoes, vinegar, and spices. I think sometimes they add stevia.
If you use a rice cooker I've found washing it improves the results a lot
I don't lol, so maybe I would change my mind if I did. But I worked for years at a restaurant where I would have to wash and cook pounds of rice multiple times a day and I never want to do it again
Grew up Japanese, so I kind of expect my rice to stick together regardless. Makes it a little easier to eat.
