oh gee------clearly not an anglophile------more personal anecdote-----
my seventh grade "social studies" teacher (social studies in my
school at that time was English and history) was an anglophile----
he decided to go on an extended vacation in London but had to cut
it short------the food made him sick. The brits do have their roots in
barbarism-----it's not their fault-----they lived in trees and painted themselves
blue------they are trying to get over it-------
Many people in Britain had no other food but boiled cabbage and would do anything to add taste to it. But we had plenty of wild food that we kept from the travellers, like hedgehog, squirrel, rabbit, crow, rook, many fishes. then we had the wild fruits and plants that are now cultivated to suit modern tastes. Prior to the industrial revolution we had an abundance of salmon in our rivers and the tale goes that when the navvies were straightening the local river to make it easier for vessels to moor upstream they complained about being fed fresh salmon 3 days a week.
I am aware of british isle abundance-----really---I am -----but there is an intense
CRAVING ---for the exotic-----I got that from my youth and those silly 19th
century British novels-------there seemed to be an underlying theme-----
as in "THIS PLACE IS DAMNED BORING AND THE FOOD IS LOUSY" ----
even into the 20th century SOMERSET what-his-name--with an "M"-----obsessed with FOOD
Maughn I believe his name was. The French used to employ British chefs because we were the only ones who could do Roast Beef and make it palatable. This is why the French to this day call the English Roast Beoff
Yes---I do recall----from those damned 19th century novels----"THE JOINT"---took
me a long time to grasp that a "JOINT" is a blob of meat with the BONE-IN.
No doubt the brits are good at "JOINTS"-----but how many slices of red meat
can one consume and for HOW LONG-----unrelieved?--------for the record---
just the thought of "mutton stew" makes me sick-------it's gooey----at least the
way my mom did it. --------did you munch on your boiled potato yet, today?---
how about the RICE PUDDING??? ---I grew up on it------my mom did it with brown rice------not bad but not all that good. In my life---I never ate an oyster----
my family was by no means KOSHER----but somehow------despite the Brit
influence------shell fish just did not show up. ------I am not even sure what
"sherry" is