> Gut ist auch, dass das Gemuese hier knackig gelassen wird,
> z.B. Karotten oder Erbsen

Bist Du sicher das Du in England warst :-) Das Gemüse, dass ich dort gegessen habe, war nie 'al dente', sondern im Gegenteil völlig überkocht und daher fast ohne Geschmack.

@Norbert: Wo hast Du denn gegessen? In Restaurants oder auch privat?

*lach* Genau das habe ich auch gerade gedacht, Norbert... es stimmt aber, dass die guten britischen Restaurants (bzw. die nordirischen, die ich kenne) das Geheimnis des knackigen Gemüses bereits kennen. Nur die Kantinen und PrivatköchInnen noch nicht. *g*
Das mit den Chips fand ich ja auch sehr pervers (zur Pizzaschnitte? Zum indischen Gericht??!), aber seit ich im Ruhrgebiet wohne, wundert mich gar nix mehr: Sauce zum panierten Fleisch? DAS ist wahre Absurdität, Paradoxie, Perversion!

Not so many insults.British cooking is not so bad!you are all just too fussy and want fatty food! Yorkshire puds are so good as the beans on toast.mmm

Also, ich muss sagen, nach 2,5 Jahren in England schmeckt mir das englische Essen sogar noch besser als das deutsche... weniger Fett, sehr viel mehr Gemuese und ich finde auch, dass Pommes eigentlich doch ganz gut zu Lasagne und Essig zu Chips passen ;-) (jaaaa, ich weiss, damit stehe ich jetzt wahrscheinlich unter den Deutschen allein da!!). Auch zu Weihnachten gibt's sooo viel leckeres, Mince Pies, Christmas Pudding mit leckerem Custard, Christmas Cake... hmmmmmmmmmmmm !! Und was mir auch aufgefallen ist, die Englaender (Briten?) sind auch gesundheitsbewusster... jedenfalls sind mir noch nie soviele Fett-/Kohlenhydrat-/Vitamin-/Diaet- besessene Leute begegnet !!

Aber Vorsicht bitte mit den Verboten: Ich LIEBE Chips mit Vinegar, die Dinger zu essen hat für mich etwas von süßem Schmerz, ist aber meine einzige masochistische Anwandlung ;-)
Und erstklassig sind in England die Süßspeisen, ist zwar schon lange her, dass ich dort war, aber Marshmellows und Co. sind mir noch in bester Erinnerung (nicht nur an den Hüften)

ich kenne die vorangegangene Diskussion leider nicht, aber ich muss eine Lanze für meine Gastfamilie in England brechen. Begrüßt wurde ich mit meinem eigenen Obstkorb (jeder in der Familie hat einmal die Woche seinen Obstkorb randvoll mit leckeren Sachen gefüllt bekommen, damit die Streitereien über das Obst in der Familie gelöst werden konnten). Jedes Essen, das auf dem Tisch stand hatte zwar den Namen 'caserole' aber es sah jeden Tag anders aus (also auch anderes Fleisch, andere Beilagen) war super lecker und nicht matschig gekocht oder geschmacklos. :-)
Allerdings habe ich mir kürzlich auch von einer Freundin, die in England an einer Schule unterrichtet hat, erzählen lassen, dass Olivers School Dinner's nicht weit weg ist von dem, was sie als Schulkantinen-Essen gesehen hat. :-(
Viel Spaß beim Erkunden des Linksfahrerlandes.

Hi,

I've just read the past two months worth of discussion about English food - and it's made me hungry :-)) I'm getting more homesick by the minute, even though my parents brought a car full of Xmas treats which I have yet to get through... I've been in Germany for the past five years and even now, when I talk to new people about "home" I get confronted with the same comments about the "terrible food" in the UK. Most people have never even been there, and if they have, they spent 10 days as a fussy teenager on a school exchange. When I came to Germany as a teenager, I survived by drinking milk because I hated the family meals I was offered. But now, 15 years later, I can appreciate the positive "Leckerlis" that Germany cuisine has to offer...

I must admit, no-one can beat my mum's roast ham, mashed swede, parmesan parsnips and roast potatoes cooked in goose fat, but my partner's mum does a mean Sauerbraten too... and I miss Cornish pasties and fish & chips with lashings of malt vinegar when I am in Germany, but then I miss Käsespätzle in the UK :-))

Please don't paint everyone with the same brush - and when you pay three pounds for a bottle of Weizenbier in Tesco, you have to pay 5 Euros for a jar of Marmalade in Karstadt...

Viele Grüße aus Saarbrücken!

@ Rasta: erstmal ein guten Neuse Jahr! Da bin ich sehr froh, daß Du gut in England angekommen bist und daß es Dir, allem Anschein nach, nicht so schlecht geht. Und wo wir gerade beim Linksfahren sind: als Fußgänger immer erst schön nach rechts schauen, wenn Du die Straße überqueren willst, gell!

@ puck: frohes Neues Jahr auch Dir. Lies doch ruhig mal den vorangegangenen Faden. War wirklich interessant.

@ Laura / ex-Plymouth UK: Happy New Year to you! Have you read the other thread? To me, it kind of boils down to what we're used to from home. Of course, MY mum cooks the world's best food! (As I am sure everybody else's mum does, too.) I have lived both here in Germany and in the UK and when I am here, I miss proper tea and when I am in the UK, I miss wholewheat bread and things like that. One just can't have it all :-) OH and Cornish pasties are an absoluet treat, you're right.

Bitte?? 'ein guten Neuse Jahr'??? Wie doof bin ich denn? Merke: erst lesen, dann abschicken!

Übrigens kann ich zu diesem Thema das Buch 'English Cooking - Ein schlechter Ruf wird widerlegt' von Patricia Clough absolut empfehlen. Es ist nicht nur ein Kochbuch, sondern auch sehr nett - stellenweise etwas ironisch und witzig - geschrieben.

@ Katharina - Happy New Year to you too... I read the other threads with a mixture of amusement and horror - we (die "Inselaffen") aren't really THAT bad, are we? OK, I grew up eating salt & vinegar crisps and having mint sauce with my roast lamb, but it wasn't that bad. If I had grown up eating Schwarzbrot, I could probably eat it now too. Now the challenge is to bring up my daughter and the one on the way to appreciate both sides of the coin. Maybe then my kids can start a new style all of their own!

We should get all our Mums together, seeing as they all cook the best food.. a few preconceptions may be broken down then :-)

Viele Grüße,

@ Laura / ex-Plymouth UK: no, you're not all 'that bad'. At least not in my opinion. As far as I am concerned, there's nothing wrong with fish & chips with vinegar on them, or with having mint sauce on your lamb, or whichever. And believe me - you'll be doing a fine job in raising your children to appreciate both German & British food. They will not like *everything* you serve them, but that's just the way it is :-)
Another hint for you: I don't know if there's a shop near you that sells genuine British food. I live in Bonn and there's a shop in Cologne (about 30 kms away) that sells almost everything you could wish for - they do mail order too. Might help you get over the worst bouts of homesickness?

@ Katharina - :-) They will eat everything I give them, if they like it or not ;-))) Thanks for the tip about the English Shop - I have been there once and thought I was in "English Heaven"! I am envious of those in the Stuttgarter and Köln-Bonner Raum with such a choice of English contacts and the like - we can get a mean brie or cremànt here on the French border, but pork pies are not quite as easy to come by!

By the way, does anyone know how best to transport clotted cream?? My parents bring it every time they come and it always turns crumbly on the way, when it's supposed to be all creamy and relatively runny. After not being home since July 2004, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms, and being pregnant, that is NOT funny!!

Viele Grüße!

@ Laura - again, try the English Shop in Cologne (try googling for it - they are called just 'The English Shop' and are in a street called An St. Agathen or something similar). As I said, they do mail order, and most of the staff are British - so if you ring and ask about clotted cream, they might be able to supply you!

Best of luck!

The english shop sound great.Funny though,when at home(GB) and you can get a tin of baked beans for 30p it just doesnt seem right to pay 1 euro for the same.... on the otherhand if it makes you feel like at home...

As for jacobs fig biscuits,Id pay the world!

My kiddies love the chicken crisps which they always bring back with them.the english small packets are so much more practical than the german family bags.But all that isnt cooking.My mum really does the best beef casserole( i just cannot remember the name of it!) ,yummy apple crumble

@ hele(GB), it's the same the other way around though. When I lived in England and wanted to buy a German weekly magazine that at the time cost DM 2,50 here in Germany, I very nearly keeled over backwards when I found it cost GBP 3,80 - more than DM 10!!! I didn't have access to the internet back then, so had to go with it if I wanted some news from home. Tough, but that's the way it is.

Hm, muß es eine bestimmte Sorte baked beans sein?
Entweder Plus oder Lidl hat die im Sortiment, für 39Ct.

@ hh: wie ich die meisten hier 'kenne', sollen es mit Sicherheit Heinz Baked Beans sein...und die sind teuer, das stimmt.

Thats right it must be heinz.By the way i work at lidl and they dont do baked beans! Elsewhere i have found alternatives but who wants to eat runny sauce with pellets in?

@ hh: Siehste...? Mein Freund ist nämlich der gleichen Ansicht. Nur wo Heinz draufsteht, ist auch Heinz drin! Meinetwegen müßte es in unserem Haushalt keine einzige gebackene Bohne geben - aber nein, er besteht ja auf seiner wöchentlichen Ration :-D

@Katharina: Och, nichts gegen gebackene Bohnen. Lecker grüne mit ein bißchen Zwiebel und ein bißchen Fett, so daß sie bräunen aber nicht austrocknen. :-) Aber komische weiche Klümpchen in pappiger Soße (als was ich auch die von Heinz definiere) ... *schüttel*

Man gut, die Geschmäcker sind verschieden. :-)

@ hh: Dem ist nichts hinzuzufügen :-D

@ hele and Laura
Here is the link Katharina was talking about
http://www.english-shop.net/english/start_gb.htm
They have some choice but unbelievable prices, I still hanker after the times when M&S was still around in the Rhineland.

ooohhh Mavis, wasn't M&S just fabulous???? And right around the corner from The English Shop, too (which at the time was called Piccadilly Circus). I used to just adore shopping there!!!

baked beans hatte ich noch nie... esst ihr die wirklich zum frühstück?


ich glaube zwar nicht dass englisches essen im allgemeinen schlecht ist aber der fraß den ich von meiner gastfamilie bekam war die hölle

mein lunchpaket: ein tiefkühlbrötchen(noch gefrohren) mit käse aus der tube, crisps, und ein green fizzy drink

und das abendessen: chips aus der mikrowelle und eine undefinierbare sauce darüber die wie ich später herausfand als ich einmal heimlich ein küchenkästchen öffnete aus der dose stammte(in der küche gab es nur fertigfutter aus dosen und packungen)

nicht das was ich mir von einem netten älteren paar erwartet hatte..

@Katharina
Yesss, and everyone I have talked to about M&S in Cologne said the same thing.
Beats me, why they had to close down. One would have thought their trade was pretty good.

@ kiwi aut: also, ich bin aus der Nummer mit den Baked Beans raus... und mein Freund ißt die zum Abendessen!

Es ist dasselbe wie überall sonst auch - Du wirst überall Leute finden, die versuchen, sich halbwegs vernünftig und gesund zu ernähren; ebenso gibt es Leute, die darauf keinen gesteigerten Wert legen. Da ißt der Hund bald besser als der Mensch, man ernährt sich ausschließlich von Dosen- und Tiefkühlfraß und hat in seinem Leben noch keinen Apfel gegessen, denkt, daß die Milch von lila Kühen stammt etc etc. Aber wir müssen ja nicht unbedingt den ersten Diskussionsfaden wieder 'aufwärmen' (no pun intended)...?

Mavis..thanks for eng.shop internet site,but i will stick with Edeke and save porto. 99ct is ok. Afterall we do eat other things too!mm bacon sandwiches for dinner! My family always bring loads of bacon over once a year.Yes ,you can get it here but its not the same.

when I go home ,i now have to take Knödel for my sister!

@ Mavis, I think their trade here was probably not too bad, but overall they had made huge losses for years. So they decided to close all of their European branches (Poland, Germany, France, Belgium etc) down and just keep hold of the British ones. That's what I heard at the time.

Theres still a M& s in Prag.

Wa-hey! Let's all just book a cheapie flight to Prague and go shopping in M&S! Who's up for it???

Thats exactly what I did last time in Prague.
But the food department in M&S Prague is soooo small, they do not even have fresh food, only a very small selection of cookies, chocolate, pickles and chips...

Well, then there is nothing for it but a cheap flight to the UK ;-)

don't get me wrong i love gb and i'll probably visit my friends again next summer, but the first experience i made with english food was the one i wrote about above... and most of my schoolmates had the same problems.

all i'm trying to say is the first impression is most important because for most people it's the only impression they'll ever get- afterall not everybody hast the oppertunity to go to gb more than once(with school)

another question:
woraus besteht yorkshirepudding?

@kiwi
Ingredients:
vegetable oil
290ml/œ pint milk
4 eggs, beaten
255g/9oz plain flour, sifted
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Yokshire pudding is made with flour ,egg and milk. ie pancake mixture. The special yorkshire pud tins must be smoking hot ( use lard as fat) so that the mix. sissles when poured in,before going into the oven

@hele
right, lard and piping hot - that is according to Mary Berry the crucial thing about yorkshire puddings - the recipe from my above positing is from Anthony Worrel and I have not baked according to that - mind you my baking is not really up to scratch - even if I use lard and a sizzling pan they go all soggy on me ... :-(

the food in american cafeterias isn't better(my family lived there for 2 years) my mother always tried to pack us propper lunchbags but when you're 6 years old you'd rather have chips and co...

i'm sorry i did't want my post to start that kind of discussion, i was just posting my oppinion on the topic- i think i pointed that out with the first sentence :)

mahlzeit :)

Mmmm...Anyone else have cravings for Irish sausage? I think it is one truly irreplacable food.

@ kiwi aut, that's fine, don't worry - no harm done!

Ja Mahlzeit indeed, I'll be stuck here until seven, so will now go forth in search of a vending machine that sells something edible! (Not good style, I know - and I do bring my own packed lunch for work - but I am just ravenous today!)

I live just outside Hannover and my local super market is 'Real'. There they sell cadbury's chocolate and heinz baked beans (but with the labels in German!), so they are not totally unavailable in Germany at normal prices.

Damn shame that I can't stand baked beans and want Heinz SPAGHETTI!!!!!

PS, I find it really hard to eat nice food in Germany. I find the fruit and veg is not very good - they go off very quickly or are tasteless - and when are they going to wake up and start selling decent fresh ready meals!

I guess I was spoiled being brought up on a diet of marks and spencer food!

@ Rachel, I am not being mean, but have you read the other thread concerning the topic of fresh fruit & veg? Somebody called Emma kept on & on about how poor the quality of the fruit & veg was here in Germany and how awful the choice at her local supermarket was. All I can say to that is, I just do not understand the problem. Go and buy your produce from a local farmer - you will get VERY fresh and decent produce at an affordable price, and real supermarkets surely are not that bad, are they?

As for 'and when are they going to wake up and start selling decent fresh ready meals!' - what's the point of those??

mavis: same with me too!!Ivw watched my mum and hers always work out so crispy and perfect.It must be the german air that cant compare with that of yorkshire/derbyshire.

I (American, recently come to England for study) am amazed at the Marks and Spencer food. It is like a mini-supermarket within a department store...But it seems awfully expensive, I could definitely not afford it and I wonder how people can manage to buy it all the time... (I haven't even bought it once, but my uncle has it almost every night, and I've had it at his place, and it did taste really good:))
The fruit and veg in England does seem to last for a reeeaaallly long time, but that honestly makes me wary of it-- I keep wondering what kinds of chemicals they pump into it to make it stay good so long;)
I don't find the English food bad at all, the desserts are particularly good...mmm...crumbles... and I haven't really had cravings for any American foods...but then most American foods are available here anyway, I think. (Besides, my dad is Scottish so I was brought up a bit cross-culturally, I guess that might be why it wasn't such a shock coming here...)

Prizes to me for excessive use of parentheses:)

what are parentheses

brackets.

@ hele(GB): Dictionary: parentheses

@ Catherine: 'I guess that might be why it wasn't such a shock coming here' --- sorry, but did you think that we had no electricity here in Europe, or that we were running around wearing helmets with horns on our heads?

getting fresh fruit in germany can't be different from getting fresh food in austria so i don't see the problem either.

Real supermarket is not a patch on tesco or asda.

I've looked for that other thread mentioned about fruit and veg but can't find it. I'd be interested to see what was said.

I can't get to local farmers etc because i don't have my own transport.

Ready meals have lots of point. When you can't be bothered to cook for a start. When you want to know exactly how much calorie/fat/salt content your meal has. When you need to eat something quickly. etc etc.

@Katharina-- please be polite. I meant more of a cultural shock, which can happen when you move even if it is within the same country, same state, whatever.

No is the answer to your question. My point was actually that I have spent a lot of time in Britain (and a fair amount in the rest of Europe) before but that it was never actually *living* here, so I had expected to be more homesick than I was.

No need to jump to an assumption that is unlikely, especially considering the audience on this forum.

i just don't see why people want to know the exact amount of kalories in each little piece of food they eat. cooking some noodles al olio is not only quicker than a ready meal but they also taste better!

@ Rachel: I have copied and pasted one of Emma's comments for you here:

>>>I'd just like to thank you all for saying such wonderful things about English food. I'm studting here in Germany for a year and am sick of people telling me how rubbish Ebglish food is. It gets me down as I know how good English food is, and to be honest, I've not found the food here to be great. Feeling a bit homesick after reading all of this and very much looking forward to Christmas in England this year. I suppose we are all used to what we have grown up with and so to me English food cannot be beaten. When I return I will eat every type of cream and milk! Coleslaw, hard cheese, triffle, steamed puddings, sunday dinner, salad cream...oh the list is endless.

But really, there have been some good tips here. I come from Bradford (not too far from Manchester) and hope that you find some nice places and experience English food in its full glory! (And a nice Indian too!) Just one word of warning about Indian food - the Indian food I have eaten in Germany has been very mild in comparrison to England, so I woulds choose something mild is you're not too keen on really spicey food.

And one last tip - go to a supermarket, Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons. You will find the difference striking and can look at all of the different food one can buy in England. I'd recommend that you buy some Red Leicester or Chedder cheese. <<<


She would just go on and on and on like this, on more than one occasion, until I think she realised that people were getting a bit tired of it.

As for 'Real supermarket is not a patch on tesco or asda.' - I don't think this is true. I have shopped in all of those and honestly don't see thge difference.

'I can't get to local farmers etc because i don't have my own transport' - surely there is a Wochenmarkt where you live? They can be found in every tiny village.

And, sorry, but I still don't see the point in a ready meal.
 

They might taste better than the ready meals you can buy in germany, but not in the uk. You can get all sorts of chinese, indian, italian meals, plus things like bangers and mash.

Admittedly some are a bit grim, but if you get nice ones from m & s, you can't go wrong.

@ Catherine: I was not being impolite. These were actual questions, posed to me by actual Americans, only a couple of years ago. They seemed to think that Europe was some sort of developing country. I didn't know that you were referring to a cultural shock or what else you meant, that's why I asked. Sorry if I offended you.

I'm going to give up now, because we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Living in Germany, there are definitely a lot of things I miss food-wise. I shall endeavour to take on board what you've said about veg etc. though, and find a wochenmarkt, although I've not heard of there being one arounf here yet.

I still think that real is crap, and won't change my mind. (still, it's better than penny, lidl etc!) But that's just my opinion.

@katharina

all the people we met in the us thought that all austrians jump around the mountains and sing nonstop(just like in "the sound of music"-we first saw this movie in the us). when we told them that we do not usually wear dirndl-dresses they were shocked... sad but true


i have had ready meals elswhere but i still think they're bland and tasteless compared to real food

@Katharina
Please don't judge the entire country based on the lowest common denominator. But I accept your apology:)

I love Aldi and Lidl-- but again, maybe because of the student thing: they are wonderfully cheap! Well, we don't have a Lidl nearby, but there is an Aldi down the street and I think the quality is not bad, either:)

Noch ein kleiner Tipp: Die Lebensmittelabteilungen in Kaufhäusern wie Galeria Kaufhof oder Karstadt sind zwar ziemlich teuer aber dafür auch sehr gut. Meist haben sie qualitativ hochwertige Lebensmittel, auch "Fertigfutter", und darüber hinaus auch ausgewählte Nahrungsmittel aus anderen Ländern. Ab und zu gibt es sogar Themenwochen mit Spezialitäten aus z.B. Italien oder GB/USA. Ist also sicher nichts für den Wocheneinkauf, aber ganz gut geeignet, wenn man mal was Besonderes sucht.

I"ll drink to that,being a happy lidl-worker and shopper!!

@ kiwi aut: See, my point exactly. But I have burned my mouth (so to speak) in another thread already, concerning this exact same topic - so I'll shut up about it now! And like you, I don't know why people need to have ready meals. What's wrong with cooking?

Concerning fresh vegetables and fruit:
I really loathe the 'fresh' vegs and fruit which you get in german super markets (like real - yuk!). They are tasteless and look like they've been stored for ages in their 'Kühlhaus'.

For gourmet-vegetables and fruit you should try one of the smaller turkish or greek makets (I live in Düsseldorf and they pop up everywhere here!). They are often really cheap and also sell things you have never seen in a 'normal' super market before.
At my favourite market in Meerbusch (near Düsseldorf) they have extremely small apples which taste like the ones we grew at home in our garden - yummy^2 !

Attention everybody who is hankering after Clotted Cream! It is now available from Paul Schrader & Co, 28182 Bremen. A jar of 170 grms costs €5,50-expensive, I know. But it might just help you get over the worst spell of homesickness.

Hat schon jemand das heimliche schott. Nationalgericht ewähnt?

Forget haggis -- here comes fried Mars! (richtig: frittierte Mars-Riegel!! äußerst kalorienarm!)

Hey leute!
kann mir irgendwer vielleicht helfen?ich bräuchte das typische essen von england(nur das wichtigste)
für meine tochter, die in englisch eine präsentation darüber halten muss.

It depends (occasion, class, etc.).

A case could probably made for some of the following:

- roast beef and yorkshire pudding with roast potatoes, peas and gravy; followed by trifle;

- shoulder of lamb with mint sauce and two veg

- fish and chips

- fish fingers

- bangers and mash

- beef curry with chips, buttered bread, and a cup of tea

- mixed grill with sausages, egg, bacon, grilled tomato, chips, and possibly lamb chops

- beans on toast (or even tinned spaghetti on toast)

- steak and kidney pie

- pork pies

- chicken tandoori

- cucumber sandwiches

Try these two Wiki pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_food

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englische_K%C3%BCche

Hallo, bin gerade zufällig auf diesen Faden gestoßen.
Ich LIEBE das englische Essen... allein schon das Frühstück... mjammm! ;)
Hat vielleicht jemand einen Tipp, wo ich in Unterfranken diese leckeren Frühstückswürstchen bekomme?