/ck/ - Food & Cooking

People poop on British cuisine because, aside from the truly batshit stuff that might have been eaten by nobility in the middle ages when they were stuffing literally fucking anything into pies like peacock tongue and beavers, it's cuisine has generally always been very basic and rustic with an emphasis on simply prepared core ingredients. In many ways this is similar to early Italian cuisine - in fact Bangers and Mash was around as early as 410 AD (sans the potato of course) probably thanks to Roman occupation and the confluence of the two cultures cuisine. Worcestershire Sauce is another modern descendant of this occupation, being an ancestor of the ubiquitous Roman Garum.

I digress though. British cuisine gets a bad rap through a combination of the natural decline modernity and convenience culture has on food culture, two world wars, and an alltogether more limited selection of ingredients (until they became a global naval super power in the 18th century and started stealing everyone's spices). A lot of it is some variation of a roast or sausage or fish, cooked along with vegetable, often served in or alongside a pastry crust of some kind. But while the cuisine is simple, if you look at the ingredients it's quite good. British grains, wild game, poultry, fish, cheeses - are all good.

All England lacks is a good GIMMICK. Some food it's known for above all others. Even it's national dish, Chicken Tikka Masala, gets associated with Indian cuisine (even though it was invented in England in 1900). English cheddar? Good, but you're probably not putting it up against the Italians and how fuck shit insane they are about their cheese. And you can hardly count fucking pies, pasties, popovers and pastries together as uniquely British.

No, if I wanted to select something uniquely British, being done in Britain better than anywhere else, endemic to a specific region of England?

Kippers, from the Isle of Man.