Dining out replaces eating in

[2pints-mate 0]

People in the UK spending a lot on eating out these days. Not sure what "in store" and "other" will be, but I had a good "Roadside" bacon and sausage sandwich yesterday. I think it might have fulfilled my calorie count for the day but it sure was good.

 

Fast food - 27%

Pub catering - 23%

Hotel catering - 15%

Restaurant meals - 14%

Ethnic restaurants - 7%

In store - 5%

Roadside - 2%

Other - 7%

[rach 1]

Unfortunately I guess a lot of that is because people have no time and/or can't be bothered to cook.

[misorano 1]

Watched "supersize me" last night.

 

Bit of a bloody worry. Esp their explanation of chicken nuggets.

[dale#1 1]

Yes that chicken nugget part was an eye opener!

[thursday 1]

I think the "in store" means those cafes inside department stores.

[Roger's head 0]

Pub catering - 23%

 

I remember when pubs where all about drinking. Hard to find one now that doesn't do "all day food".

[farquah 0]

Ethnic Restaurants only 7%<<<

[damian 0]

I am purposely missing your point, but don't worry Rog, most of that "all day food" isn't really food worth stepping off the street for. I think the UK is the only place that has restaurants that advertise the sale of "food".

 

"Food served all day"

 

Great. Just like a petrol station "petrol served all day".

 

It speaks so much about the lack of enjoyment of eating and the interest the people on the street have in what they are eating.

 

You don't often see "food served here" on a sign in Japan. Rather you see "certain type of soba served here" or "cakes of a local speciality made on premises". Thats what I like.

 

The UK is a unique place in this regard. I cant think of many other places in the region with such an obvious disposition towards the utility consumption of the homogenous product of "food".

[BagOfCrisps 24]

You really do have a thing about UK and food, don't you?

 

(BTW, did you ever make it to one of the huge supermarkets or are your experiences all based on that small conbini Tesco Express I think I heard you mention?)

[damian 0]

yes - however it could be great if the people cared a bit more, but the level of apathy towards almost everything in the UK is noticeably high. Even though I have left the country it still bugs me because I see so many similarities in German and English people and food: both are simple, unpretentious, generally over cooked and quite basic, almost crude. But eating in Germany is just so much more an enjoyable and sociable part of daily life: great apple juice, incredible bread varieties, perfect beer, rudimentary meat and sausages, boiled vegetables. People eat, live and enjoy themselves here. Another example: what remains of England’s long brewing history is being choked off by chain and franchise bars selling slightly too warm cattle piss mass production lager poured to look like a flat apple juice in a pint glass: Stella, Heineken, Carling, Fosters, Millers.. the list of undrinkable beer goes on. If England wants to have an affair with blonde beer, why the hell doesn’t it import some awesome weis beer and pils from Germany and pour it in the manner required to bring out the character and life of the brew? England could and should be so much better. Why on earth do you think Jamie Oliver is so successful? (something I myself could have done if I had the stage personality to go along with my observations and beliefs). He is desperately trying to build something that is sadly in decline. There are turnarounds as a result, but many are unfortunately nuevo-trendy and lost on the more pedestrian person, which is exactly the level at which a community should enjoy good living.

 

Supermarkets: the big ones were just as bad, full of processed junk on a different scale and aimed at a different segment of the market. I have shopped extensively in supermarkets in Japan, Australia, Italy, France and now Germany. I can say without a doubt that the UK loses flat. If I could be bothered flying around with my video camera then I could make quite a telling and amusing documentary about it. I have already scripted it in my head. The UK has one of the largest collections of pre-sliced and flavoured ‘ham’ in plastic bubble packs I have ever seen. Yuck.

 

I have said it so many times: one of the best (but very expensive) fresh produce markets I know is borough markets in London. There should be a small one of them in every suburb of the city. With that, how could you ever go into Tescos again?

[happyhappy 0]

 Quote:

Why on earth do you think Jamie Oliver is so successful?

I would have thought that if people in the UK were really so apathetic about 'food', then he wouldn't be as popular as he is.

[pie-eater 207]

I had an amazing selection of pies this summer. Pie shops, butchers, yes even supermarkets. One of my personal favourites is from the local butchers though. So good.

[damian 0]

Local butchers are worth their weight in … meat. I really like the stuff they sell, especially different types of pork pies. Same goes for a good baker. Those in house Tesco bakeries should be illegal.

 

 Quote:

I would have thought that if people in the UK were really so apathetic about 'food', then he wouldn't be as popular as he is.

because he is tapping into what is deep down part of peoples English lives: the enjoyments of food and drink and community. People love having it awoken, but are so apathetic that they need a celeb to do it for them. Apathy exists only because forgotten passion exists. If Brits didn’t have that long lost passion then they wouldn’t have anything to be apathetic about. Apathy implies the simultaneous existence of the opposite.

[Ocean11 0]

I stayed in London with my sister and brother-in-law who are foodies, and shopped in the 'organic food from all over the world except England' Waitrose that has its own foody magazine called "Food" (rather crassly I thought). In their house, all there was to read on the toilet was "Food" magazine, and as I was constipated while I was there, I read far more of it than I wanted to. I also thought a lot about le spud and his curious opinions on this matter.

 

I concluded that, bollocks, English people have always felt the enjoyments of food and drink and community, but without laying too much stress on the food. And why should you if it's not in your nature? My family has always eaten and drank together, without television, and the food has always been ... quite susceptible to adverse criticism. The community has always been good though.

 

I've eaten some very good food, in various parts of the world, some of it actually prepared by my sister. But frequently eating food that isn't that special doesn't bother me. There are times for good food, and there are times for daily nutrition, although there's no need to let your standards drop too low. And preparing good food all the time is often very time consuming. Personally I would prefer to spend that time doing something else (or that money if that's the case).

 

There is such a sin as gluttony, and gluttony does not as many people believe, mean simply overeating. I saw it sprouting up all over England, yea, unto the pages of Waitrose's "Food" magazine. Indeed, especially so there, where some fat London restaurateur was arguing very disingenuously in favour of food miles, to justify himself flying lobsters from Maine, to tickle the apathetic palates of the English, and to justify Waitrose in doing essentially the same thing.

 

Besides the obesity and the environmental harm all this engenders, I fear it will turn people into pretentious fools. And if they have not known that a balance must be struck between food and drink and community -- a balance that must be struck according to the necessary culture of a Northern European island -- they will not learn it from Waitrose or Oliver or from the Italians. They will simply be nothing but gluttons of the sort that medieval moralists knew and warned all about.

[damian 0]

Food magazines in the duny. Only in England

[Ocean11 0]

I think that couple would probably even provide appetizers and an aperitif in the dunny if only my mother wouldn't object on the grounds of hygiene.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:
I think that couple would probably even provide appetizers and an aperitif in the dunny if only my mother wouldn't object on the grounds of hygiene.

That just goes to show what happens to people when their inner instincts are suppressed for so long. Not unlike Japanese teenagers deprived of individuality and end up hanging out at the bridge in Hirajuku dressed as freaks

Thank you for correcting my spelling of dunny.

[pie-eater 207]

 Quote:

Local butchers are worth their weight in... meat

Most definitely.

The shame is, there are very few of them left.

[Ocean11 0]

I remember when they used to have sawdust on the floor and sides of meat hanging around with no refrigeration.

[soubriquet 0]

Ah yes. My first Saturday job was in the slaughterhouse behind a traditional butchers. The patriarch was huge. Well into his 70's, he was over 6 feet and must have weighed 20 stone. He had massive jowls and a purple face. He ran the shop. His wife would have been about 5'2" if she could have stood upright, but she was bent double with arthritis.

 

One of their sons ran the slaughterhouse. Nothing was wasted, apart from horns and ears. The offal that couldn't be sold went as pet food. Non-commercial cuts were made into pies and sausages, blood into black pudding. One of my jobs was to empty and clean the cow's stomachs (paunches) for tripe. Another was to "run out" the guts for use as sausage skins.

 

Come 1 p.m., when the whole town shut down, he'd pay me 25/- from the till, cut me a couple of steaks, and bag it up with a handful of sausages and a pie. Yum.

[big-will 7]

(Nice, clean) butchers are good - I like all the different sausages that some good butchers have as well as the pies. Not sure I want to see behind the scenes!

[Ocean11 0]

 Quote:

Oliver criticises parents in his new television show Jamie's Return to School Dinners, the follow-up to his successful Channel 4 series on improving school meals.

In the programme Oliver says: "I've spent two years being PC about parents, now is the time to say, 'If you're giving your young children fizzy drinks you're an arsehole, you're a tosser. If you give them bags of crisps you're an idiot. If you aren't cooking them a hot meal, sort it out.' If they truly care they've got to take control."

The Independent

I'm glad I'm not an arsehole, although my parents might have been on occasion.

[rach 1]

 Quote:

Food magazines in the duny

Yuck. Books and newspapers in the toilet. It's just not a good idea is it.

I saw an ad today for an ipod dock for toilets called (I think) toiletdock. It showed the speakers and ipod nicely positioned above the toilet roll in the ad.

[muikabochi 208]

My grandad used to take his newspaper with him and spend a long time on the toilet. I bet he wishes he had the ipod back then. (Then again, maybe not!)

[yoroshiku onegai shimasu 2]

 Quote:

Supermarkets: the big ones were just as bad, full of processed junk on a different scale and aimed at a different segment of the market. I have shopped extensively in supermarkets in Japan, Australia, Italy, France and now Germany. I can say without a doubt that the UK loses flat.

My experience of UK supermarkets is much different. I found them to be excellent and offering a wide range of good fresh foods. (And, er, Cds). Smaller ones definitely concentrate on more convenience like things, but the large ones I have been to beat anything in Japan in most departments apart from seafood.