All things English/American

Originally Posted by Bit

I can safely say I have never had a fry up. Sounds like a buffet at a country diner I guess... well, minus whatever "black pudding" might be....

Black pudding is delish. It's blood sausage, made with pigs blood (well my local one is)

The famous Bury black pudding is made in my home county of Lancashire and the town of errrm Bury.
http://www.buryblackpuddings.co.uk/
http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/eat...al-dishes.html

There are national versions and variations. I personally love morcilla from Spain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding

[Bit]

My eyes are glazing over, lol...

Originally Posted by Incubus

Black pudding is delish. It's blood sausage, made with pigs blood (well my local one is)

The famous Bury black pudding is made in my home county of Lancashire and the town of errrm Bury.
http://www.buryblackpuddings.co.uk/
http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/eat...al-dishes.html

There are national versions and variations. I personally love morcilla from Spain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding

I read those links (well, not so much the Bury link) and I've gotten quite the education... dunno why the whole blood thing squicks me out; I'm an omnivore... I guess the blood's always been an incidental thing, though, and never the focus of the food.

It just wasn't part of the culture I was raised in to even admit that meat has blood in it, and isn't that silly? I don't know if that was just in my area, or if it was real common in the US to be raised that way. Surely kids from families who hunted would know better...

Originally Posted by Bit

My eyes are glazing over, lol...


I read those links (well, not so much the Bury link) and I've gotten quite the education... dunno why the whole blood thing squicks me out; I'm an omnivore... I guess the blood's always been an incidental thing, though, and never the focus of the food.

It just wasn't part of the culture I was raised in to even admit that meat has blood in it, and isn't that silly? I don't know if that was just in my area, or if it was real common in the US to be raised that way. Surely kids from families who hunted would know better...

You are not alone Bit...Here and from what I gather, there in the US, many kids don't now about where their food comes from anymore. Is the organic and free-range eggs/meat market a hot potato on your side of the pond?

I don't touch or eat chicken or fish skin but I will eat cooked blood. We're odd creatures aren't we?

[Bit]

Originally Posted by Incubus

I don't touch or eat chicken or fish skin but I will eat cooked blood. We're odd creatures aren't we?

Indeed we are! Gryph won't eat skin at all, except for the very crackly turkey skin from a holiday bird, but he will eat salmon bones. And me, well, I LOVE rare meat dripping with juice... heh, that's the blood, I know that... but just the thought of black pudding squicks me out.

Maybe it's all in what one gets used to, and maybe also in the relative amounts of things.

Is organic a hot potato? Depends... do you mean hot potato as in highly controversial? Yes. It's also BIG business, so big that all the major food companies are jumping on the band wagon. These days the catch-phrase is "natural" and people have had to be educated that "natural" is literally meaningless as a food label, just like "cage free" is meaningless. Companies are bound by law to use the term "organic" in very particular ways, but the other terms are not regulated at all and a lot of products were labeled that way to mislead people into thinking they were as good as organic.

I suspect that organic food will gradually gain more and more market share as the years go by, but I don't expect any kind of big changes all of a sudden. What I think will happen instead is that as the economy continues to be difficult, more and more people will start gardening.

[Martina]

i have been to England, but the only traditional, i assume, thing i ate was fish and chips in a cone of newspaper. It was good. Beer was good too.

My stereotypes of English food come from the James Heriot books. God, i would love to have had some of those meals. The one thing he hated i think i would have loved, solid fat bacon (no strips of meat) fried till it was crunchy on the outside but oozy on the inside. i can't turn down anything pork.

Has anyone had that? Was it good?

[Merlin]

Sounds like belly pork ?

I don't like black pudding it squicks me out.

Yet I am a carnivore in every other way.

Beans with cheese grated on the top is beaut.
I like poached free range eggs on toast.


In think you would love cider farms .. A ploughman's lunch with cider and crusty bread .. Relish !!

[Merlin]

Ploughman's lunch .. Years ago English fields were ploughed by horses dragging ploughs This is what the ploughmen would have for lunch.

Apple,pork pie,crusty bread,cheese,pickle maybe a bit of salad and no doubt a cheeky bottle of scrumpy cider to wash it all down