Top 10 Restaurants....in the WORLD

[2pints-mate 0]

Earlier:

 Quote:

I find the standard of English home food to be very poor.

Later:

 Quote:

the home cooking that I have had has also been bad, or a non event

A bit of a mellowing there, possibly? What home food/home cooking have you actually experienced, dude?

 

(Am I annoying you? --- busy week at work, you know.)

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by 2pints,mate:
Earlier:

 Quote:

I find the standard of English home food to be very poor.

Later:

 Quote:

the home cooking that I have had has also been bad, or a non event

A bit of a mellowing there, possibly?

Good one spud head, you really caught me out. Tool.

Home made meat pies,
Roast beef + Yorkshire pudding,
Cottage pie,
Various basic and nondescript fish dishes, Fish n chips...
Roast lamb,
Sausages, mash, chops, onions
Potato, potato, potato...
B-grade beans, bacon and eggs.

Guess what... it is exactly the same as suburban Australia.

Those excellent Jersey Royal new potato's are great though.

[2pints-mate 0]

Tool! Now that is a good word.

 

Sorry to have annoyed you. (Well, a bit). It's all in good humour.

[2pints-mate 0]

Great variety of home cooking you've had there mate. Now I understand where your comments are coming from.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by grungy-gonads:

 Quote:

British people (in London) are proving notoriously difficult to be-friend. Very bitter and unfriendly with huge shoulder-chips, men and plough pulling women alike. I have given up.

Bitter? Unfriendly? Huge shoulder-chips? Sure you're not talking to a mirror?

What on earth have you been doing to get that response from people?

Nothing, it is just what I have met in London. I don't get it in any other city that I visit. I have made friends with and drank beer with strangers on the street in NY (more than once). Same as Milan. I now fly back to Tokyo just so I can hang with some firends.... after a year in this town it is the only chance I get*. Mind you, when I arrived I did not know one person in the whole city, which makes it an up hill battle.

I came here so amped up to build up my group of friends. It took so long ion Japan and on that count I was bummed about leaving. I thought being in London was the perfect opportunity. Just didn't happen. Mind you I do travel a lot and do spend pretty much every weekend in my local park, the most stunning non-ocean suburban setting I have ever seen. After few months here I realised I was meeting no one outside my industry so I even stopped using my iPod (don't tell Veronica) in the chance that might remove one obvious social impediment. Jesus, I even picked a footy team in the hope that it would help. Who knows, perhaps I just can't. Or perhaps I am one.

* although my best mate of some 25 yeas and long term buddy in drinking terms has arrived here with his girl. They are staying for a year and the stupidity has already started.

[Ocean11 0]

There must be some mountainboarders that ride in London parks (LARD!). They probably won't improve your gastronomical life much, but as for stupidity, they'd probably help you loosen up your shoulder joints a bit. They won't be people from your industry either...

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:
There must be some mountainboarders that ride in London parks (LARD!). They probably won't improve your gastronomical life much, but as for stupidity, they'd probably help you loosen up your shoulder joints a bit. They won't be people from your industry either...

I met some good guys on the group BC trip I did, but only a few were from Ldn. We were actually catching up last weekend but there was a mishap and it had to be deferred. And correct, not from the industry... so all the better

Ignore me and my non- serious moans.

As for my shoulders, I now have two really bad rotor cuffs, tendonitis starting in one biceps, something wrong with my scapulars. I have turned into a crusty of gomel.

[cheesewoman 0]

How are you finding the world of cheese over there in London, 34 guests?

[damian 0]

Like most UK descendent countries: cheese is not pervasively part of daily food and so is usually produced by factories and bought by the shrink wrapped block from the supermarket. But if you find a deli you find great cheese. There is a rather large cheese shop in Borough markets that specialises in big wheels of UK Stilton. I get quite excited in that place. Although more generally, Stilton can be a little hit and miss. Some of the up-market departos have great deli's and I have been hitting them pretty hard for my flavour of the year: sheep's milk cheese from the Pyrenees Other than that I go to said Borough market each friday lunchtime (it is a nice walk or over-the-river bus ride) and stock up on some bread cheese and salami (admittedly 'European style'. I think that Japan is rivalled only buy England for its lack of bread baking skills ). I am tempted to move down towards Borough just so I am near the market. London should have at least 5 more markets like that. You can even buy freshly shot hare and rabbit. There are some guys making a fortune buy going to a town in Switzerland, near the the Savoie region of France and buying big wheels of the worlds most amazing cheese. They bring it back to Borough market and flog it of at a tidy profit. I buy a chunk each Friday.

[Ocean11 0]

> I think that Japan is rivalled only buy England for its lack of bread baking skills

 

What? WHAT?

 

There is just so much wrongness in the latter half of that statement, I'm afraid you've disqualified yourself to talk about this subject, smiley or no.

[2pints-mate 0]

I was thinking the same. The man obviously is either just taking the piss or simply has no idea what he is talking about. Or a mix of both.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:
> I think that Japan is rivalled only buy England for its lack of bread baking skills

What? WHAT?

There is just so much wrongness in the latter half of that statement, I'm afraid you've disqualified yourself to talk about this subject, smiley or no.

Sorry Judge!!

Both countries get bread baking very wrong, but in very different ways. Japanese bread is sweet and full of milk powder, no crust and all round lame, I hated it. English bread is bogged down in oil, heavy and falls apart with no texture. Toast it and add butter and it turns into a slimey paste of glug. Most English bread has an amazing property in that it can transform itself back into dough.

I am afraid that nearly every German, Frenchman, Australian and Italian I meet here all sing exactly the same dissapointed tune (although Italians can provide some pretty heavy bread shocks themselves). Amongst nearly every non-Brit I know there is one constant: dislike of the local bread (and chocolate). All have a special bread outlet that they make a special effort to visit to get decent bread, as do I (B-market and the Hungarian bakery near my house).

Hell, I was asked "what do you think of the bread here?" before I had even had any. It is quite a common complaint. Not all bread is bad, but you have to know where to go to get some good stuff.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by 2pints,mate:
I was thinking the same. The man obviously is either just taking the piss or simply has no idea what he is talking about. Or a mix of both.

I know what I am talking about. people with high standards are unhappy with native English commonly available bread. The standard is very low.

[2pints-mate 0]

 Quote:

I know what I am talking about.

Nope.
You don't.

[damian 0]

Well, that proves it. Mr Convincing has struck again. Please keep up the trend of no meaning one line posts, you are good at them.

[2pints-mate 0]

(Not that all my posts have been one liners, but....) One liners are better than waffle that is basically total bollocks. That is what you are good at. (Your brand of bollocks falls into the 'know-it-all' bratty kind of pretentious bollocks.)

 

You have hardly been Mr Convincing yourself, now have you?

 

In fact, you were disqualified to talk about this subject by Ocean11, so you shouldn't be talking about it anymore.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by 2pints,mate:
(One liners are better than waffle that is basically total bollocks. That is what you are good at. (Your brand of bollocks falls into the 'know-it-all' bratty kind of pretentious bollocks.)

ok, you are degenerating into insulting territory. I have seen this happen 100 times on this forum so it is the end of play for me... with a PM on the way.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Calm down 2pints, we're out on the town tonight remember? 7pm at the Slug?

 

Just remember what the borg said about resistance.

[2pints-mate 0]

Might be nearer 730 when I get there B - got to get this report finished and sent before I pack up and still a bit to do. See you later.

[miteyak 0]

By crickey us English are a tolerant lot.

 

There's a fundamental difference for you, Mr Guests, between the Aussies and the English. What kind of reaction do you think one would get if a Brit went after anything Australian with the tenacity you have been exhibiting, let alone going after symbols of national pride?

 

 

Your countries shit

 

No, it's not

 

Yes, it is, and everybody agrees

 

Ok, OK, it's shit

 

But do you understand just HOW shit?

 

Give it a rest...

 

I'll try to be a little more tolerant in Australia (it probably won't kill me...)

[2pints-mate 0]

Yes, end of play.

 

Sorry. Let's friend. Perhaps I'll show you some nice bread sometime

 

[guzzlers-baps 0]

Well well, this seems to be the testosterone thread of the month, hey?

 

I think England is quite good at bread actually. Perhaps I would, can't tell. But there's some brilliant places near where I'm from.

 

I often find that whenever I go somewhere overseas I like the food. Probably because I'm going to decent places to eat and trying out new stuff. It's always exciting to do that rather than go back home and have to make something in an evening after a day at work.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by miteyak:
By crickey us English are a tolerant lot.

There's a fundamental difference for you, Mr Guests, between the Aussies and the English. What kind of reaction do you think one would get if a Brit went after anything Australian with the tenacity you have been exhibiting, let alone going after symbols of national pride?


Your countries shit

No, it's not

Yes, it is, and everybody agrees

Ok, OK, it's shit

But do you understand just HOW shit?

Give it a rest...

I'll try to be a little more tolerant in Australia (it probably won't kill me...)

Sorry, I didn't know that bread was a symbol of national pride.

I also note that not once did any of my positive comments get noted.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

 Quote:

....with a PM on the way

Whoah, sounds like you're in for a right bollocking there, mate!

[miteyak 0]

It's one of the things I go home for. Nowhere in the world I've visited to date has bread (that I've tried, of course, I'd hate to make a wholly unqualified statement here) that beats our local cobber (just my opinion, of course, along with a good few foreign visiters) although some come damn close... your description of English bread is completely alien to me...

 

You might just have grasped from Ocean's reaction that we have a certain amount of pride (although not 'mother's pride', that bread is untouchable) in our bread, certainly down in the west country.