A good chunk of what makes us British is the ability to take the piss out of ourselves and each other in a lighthearted manner. The classic stereotypes that we’re all alcoholic prudes that don’t take care of our teeth and become disrespectful and obnoxious the second we step abroad therefore probably don’t faze many of us, even the ones that hold little truth.
For me, however, when a discussion pipes up (either online or irl) about food with people from other countries, my eye starts to twitch and my heart rate kicks up a gear waiting for the inevitable implication that we can’t recognise good food and, more specifically, that we like all of our food bland. The common statement on reddit that ‘the British conquered the world to steal spices but decided they didn’t like any of them’ makes me see red, especially when it comes from elsewhere in the Anglosphere.
Of course I recognise that we eat a lot of shite, and that many countries including most of Asia and a lot of southern and western Europe have us beat for cuisine as a whole, but the diversity and quality of our food is incredible and I’ve missed it almost every day since I moved abroad a few years ago. I’d pay an awful lot of money to be able to walk into a British-style Indian curry house this afternoon.
This isn’t intended as a rant thread, but rather the opposite. I’m curious about which topics will make the average UK redditor jump to the defence of their country.
The inspiration for this post was the comments under a picture of chips and mushy peas on r/shittyfoodporn. It did look shit, to be fair.
41 comments
As you said the one about food pisses me off a lot for two main reasons
1) when spices began to be imported/taken from Asia and N/S America the average Brit used them quite a lot, but the upper classes feared that the peasants would now have access to a previously exclusive item so they told the common folk to not use spices as “good ingredients should taste fine on their own” so of course everyone believed that BS
2) most/all of the “bland” food is actually just recipes created to be cheap by the working class during recessions like the world wars. So in actuality they’re not making fun of how bland British cuisine is, they’re making fun of people too poor to afford nice good
I will accept food slander from pretty much every nation in the world, however not from a nation (USA) who eats cheese out of squirt cans, puts marshmallow on sweet potato, and who’s biscuits and gravy contain neither biscuits or gravy.
The classic “invaded every nation for their spices but don’t like to use them”… when our national dish is literally a curry.
Same goes for our dental care, which is again, almost always Americans. Which is ironic as our dental care actually ranks above theirs.
The teeth thing. Mainly because it comes from Americans who have statistically less healthy teeth than us & is down to appearances rather than actual dental hygiene
I’m not a fan of British food but I think it gets an unfair amount of criticism. There are plenty of countries with similarly bland or gross food (not going to name names). Also people seem obsessed with calling baked beans disgusting. I don’t like them, but they’re also a cheap source of protein and a poverty staple. They’re not supposed to be gourmet.
Teeth criticism is just annoying because it’s silly – UK has good dental health in general.
Not really a stereotype but more of a misunderstanding – when people talk about “the British accent” as if there’s only one, or use England and Britain and the U.K. interchangeably. I don’t know why I find it irritating but I do.
That we have an ‘island mentality’ and think we are somehow different to or better than our neighbouring countries. Yes, some people think like this but you get people like that in every country who believe in exceptionalism.
Our food *can* be amazing. Small producers, farms, markets, seafood etc. Problem is accessing it. Look how much people rave about Greggs, or the only option when on the road is some shitty chains. It is not like we have the culture of walking into any pavement cafe and getting decent home cooked food. British style curry house – surely actual Indian food in India is better, especially street food! We do however have a very big range and are generally open to food from all over. Shame it tends to be a rather mediocre version that catches on. I guess it makes it special when we do find the good stuff.
I wouldn’t say any stereotypes *annoy* me, some countries can fly off the handle when criticised (see /r/askanamerican, do not dare ask them even about silly things like red cups at parties or their toilets), I like to think we can take it in good humour and be factual.
Brits on holiday – the drunken louts type.
Small miniority of people tarnish the entire nation as people who cause problems when we’re abroad.
The “bri’ish” nonsense and the “bad teeth” usually from America because on both counts;
1. We have better teeth than murica
2. We speak a variety of accents and still actually use the English language better than old boddle of wahler yanks do.
And really both stereotypes don’t even come close, it’s like how they used to think we all had top hats and said tally Ho! All the time.
I much prefer the European’s takes on us as they usually hit closer to home, and sometimes a bit on the nose. 😂
We’re all being stabbed every time we step outside.
We’re all drunken louts into football. I have a glass of wine every couple of months if that and I can’t stand football.
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The bad teeth and bad food ones are the worst. Especially when Americans spout that nonsense. They class rubbery cheddar as a posh cheese FFS. Our supermarket budget cheese is better than most of what they have (I’m discounting stuff you buy from very expensive restaurants, etc).
If I wanted all my food to be high in salt, carcinogens and fructose then the US would be too of my list for gourmet dining. And don’t get me started on chlorinated chicken, how the FDA pretty much allows anything to be sold as food until it’s proven bad (a slight generalisation here) and the fact that they think their beef is of such high quality (when in fact it’s utter shite).
And breathe
The teeth thing is from yank serviceman based here during WW2. Dear America, when your country is fighting for its entire existence, dentistry tends to be a tad lower down on the priority scale.
That ‘bottal of wotah’ or ‘queen’s english posh’ are the only 2 British accents (mainly touted by Americans) Hundreds of cool accents here!
Also that we’re a tiny island which can’t possibly be diverse in beauty, culture or ideas due to size (also mainly Yanks)
The spices thing annoys me for two reasons.
First, why does food need spices to be good? There are loads of delicious British dishes that don’t have paprika, cumin, chili etc but use more locally available herbs and seasonings.
Second, just because traditional British food doesn’t have a lot of spices doesn’t mean that no British cuisines do.
This entire thread is a Reddit moment. Ask about a British topic and it just descends into insulting Americans for no reason.
“Here’s a wildly off base generalisation that bothers me and I’m going to do the exact same thing about another country while trying to prove my point.”
It’s hilarious when Americans say we don’t season our food when they literally just dumped Dan-O garlic powder on everything and think that constitutes as seasoning something. Most of them haven’t seen actual herbs or vegetables in their life unless it’s sweet potatoes (yams) which they cover in sugar and marshmallows.
Funny you ask this because just last night I went on a date with a Bulgarian woman.
She explained to me that all British people are on benefits and it’s the foreigners here that are supporting them. That’s a new one for me.
In fact, she had a very long rant to me about how bad this country is and the people here are.
When I asked why she moved to such a god awful place she didn’t really have an answer.
Agree about the food thing. Yeah, the mushy peas mentioned by the OP did look a bit rubbish but the slander you see on similar posts about some of the great comfort food you can get here is really annoying.
I once found myself getting actually angry on behalf of a chip butty.
I don’t like the view that all youngsters are useless, vapid thugs. Some school kids in my area are very polite and well mannered.
Probably alot of the food shit as a lot of the time it’s like ya sure it’s not making fun of poor food people eat and spices things is while bland is an actual thing it’s kinda talked about how some people find spices hard to handle as alot of the hot ones for me it’s very much a case of chilis make my mouth and lips burn
The Weather. If anyone can show me a better climate than the south of england i’ll happily disagree with them.
That everyone is upper middle class from the Home Counties.
Being stuck in a perpetual Richard Curtis movie is my idea of Hell.
Most of the banter if you will is just classism disguised. Chavs, bad teeth, it’s all a way of laughing at poor people.
Knife crime stereotypes from American trumpists who have higher knife crime in every single state than there is in the UKs worst region.
Oh yeah and gun deaths too
that our teeth are bad. don’t even know where that shit came from
I’ve seen it mainly online but I’ve been told several times that England has no culture apart from colonialism. Which is ridiculous when you breakdown the country because all the different counties have different cultures and even in there, some towns do things unique only to them. I’m from the West Country and there’s lots of little different things we do, folk festivals, carnivals (which are floats, not like Notting Hill carnival), etc.
The food thing doesn’t piss me off, exactly, If I’m in the mood, I’ll often spend some time bigging up British dishes, and defending the concept that food doesn’t actually have to be spicy to be good, but I won’t actually feel annoyed – usually. It’s mostly about different preferences, after all.
I did have someone argue VERY strongly with me – and be backed up by his friends – that all British people eat a full English for breakfast every day. They were insistent that I, the other British people there, and all the statistics were wrong, and their experience of staying at B&Bs was right. They were actual friends of mine, not internet randoms, or I’d have just laughed and ignored them.
The stereotype of the violent English/British football fan winds me up a bit. Because:
1. At all times it’s only ever been a small minority of fans.
2. Today it’s pretty miniscule – sure, you hear about cases where people are violent, but there are like a million people that go to watch matches every weekend.
3. Fans in other nations are much worse.
4. We still have to deal with frankly ridiculous laws and policing as a result of this reputation. It’s still illegal to drink a can of lager on a coach that is taking you to a football match.
One thing I do find irritating is that you can’t ever have a thread like this on this sub without people immediately, and apropos of nothing, bringing up America. See e.g. the top three comments in this very thread for examples of this in action.
The question is about the UK – if you’re typing three paragraphs about another country, maybe stop, take a deep breath, and have a think about why.
I don’t mind insults, but the unoriginality annoys me sometimes.
“British food and British women are why British men became sailors and went elsewhere”
I swear I see a variation of this at least once a week. Shite banter. Maybe I just spend too much time online.
I generally don’t care about from the USA what regularly make fun of us for
Knife crime when they have higher per capita than us
Bad teeth when our dental hygiene records are better
And bad food when (thanks to our cosmopolitan cities) its really not.
The food in the UK is so much better than what people think it is. It’s as good as the best places I’ve eaten. There’s so much influence from other food cultures it’s really elevated it here beyond a lot of other European countries which are a lot more homogenous
I think that UK’s food gets a mostly bad rap. We have some great food. While British food isn’t my favourite it would probably be in the top 3. There is a lot to love about British food. It constantly get’s undersold and I think part of it is not just because of outsides but we do it ourselves and don’t value what we have. We do desserts better than any other nation.
However, the problem is we don’t have a strong food culture. I don’t know of any other country where you would struggle to find the food of it’s people. If I got to Italy most of the food is Italian, if I go to Thailand most of the food is Thai. The same is true of anywhere. But Britain? Go to a food market where is the British food??? It’s 90 percent from elsewhere or even 100 percent. I walk out of my door and apart from a few cafes and chippies there’s no British food to be found. Don’t get me wrong. One of the things I love about the UK food scene is that we have so much variety, more than anywhere else probably, but it comes at a cost.
Food is more than just fuel. It binds us together. It’s a language of friendship, of love, of bonding, of consolation, of celebration and of joy. It also binds people together as a nation. It’s a vital part of the fabric of any society. We don’t have that and I think Britain is far worse for this and has lost something truly vital. Unfortunately most of Britain just considers food something to fuel you that you have to do. They pay the least amount for the biggest portion they can get and while it is changing, it’s slow. So while we do have some world class best in the world food it’s not universally available. Much of the country is quite happy eating ready meals and nandos.
If anyone had “defends everything negative with a comparison to America” as their stereotype this thread will disappoint you greatly.
Dental shit. We rank way higher than the USA for dental hygiene and yet they still give us shit based on centuries old stereotypes.
The food things drives me mad, I’ve only ever known it come from americans, when questioned about american cuisine they come back with the all-american staples of tacos and pizza. But obviously curry can’t be a british food.
That we are constantly falling to our deaths from Mediterranean balconies. I mean it can’t be any higher than the 7th or 8th most common cause of death of British people.
I get our traditional food is pretty awful, but we were saved by Indians and Chinese the same way America was saved by Mexicans and Italians.
That we’re all racist.
The UK is the most tolerant and (probably) diverse country in Europe. Somehow, daring to suggest we have a culture or (worse) trying to preserve it in the face of constant ungoverned immigration is racist, too.
Ironically, the culture we want to preserve is politeness, respect, tolerance and progression (IMO).
Americans thinking that we don’t have freedom of speech. Or that we can’t own guns. Or that we constantly drink tea.
I’m a builder. And apparently builders are all sexist white racist cis males that should be absolutely hated. Do NOT make eye contact with me I’m scum.