'I've tasted an English breakfast but otherwise I've heard the food is awful'

Guardian (U.K.) ^ | Monday June 27, 2005 | Hsiao-Hung Pai and Jonathan Watts

[ApplegateRanch]

Smoke me a kipper; I'll be back for breakfast.

[Atchafalaya]

Should have steered him away from the Albert Museum and all that "stuff". Hope he doesn't tell anybody what else is in there.

[AZLiberty]

There's no better place for Indian food than London. Don't miss the fish and chips. And yes, those eggs-and-everything breakfasts are great, too.

[nickcarraway]

I didn't see that much fidh and chips in London. In the North, yes.

[nickcarraway]

The Windsors are German, after all.

You mean the Hanovers.

[Atchafalaya]

Breakfasts were great at the B&B last I went (fresh squeezed juice, fresh fruit, baked bread, eggs, bacon, potato's, sauteed mushrooms and tomato's). I looked forward to waking up! After breakfast, well, it was all downhill. I did manage to teach two friends how to make a roux. They still use the skill.

[Don W]

Red Dwarf ROCKS! However, Arnold Rimmer is, was, and forever will be the ultimate in self important do-nothings.

How I loved to despise him!

[Don W]

Actually, London Bridge was sold, deconstructed, shipped and rebuilt over a reservoir in Arizona (Lake Havasu?).

It did not fall down.

[Allan]

Compared with the French, the British are quite cold and restrained.

Yes as any tourist will tell you the French are warm and hospitable.

(Stopped reading when I reached this line).

[Happygal]

The blood pudding is in the Irish breakfast! :-)

[oioiman]

The Top 50 Restaurants in the world 2004
Notice that London Dominates

I have never seen more culinary creativity in a city...
Gordon Ramsay (68 Royal Hospital Road) , Hakkasan (8 Hanway Place), and Tom Aikens (43 Elystan Street) are magnifique!!!

1 The Fat Duck, Bray, Berkshire

2 El Bulli, Montjoi, Spain

3 The French Laundry, Yountville, California

4 Tetsuya's, Sydney

5 Gordon Ramsay, London

6 Pierre Gagnaire, Paris

7 Per Se, New York

8 Tom Aikens, London

9 Jean Georges, New York

10 St John, London

11 Michel Bras Laguiole, France

12 Le Louis XV, Monte Carlo

13 Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California

14 Charlie Trotter, Chicago

15 Gramercy Tavern, New York

16 Guy Savoy, Paris

17 Restaurant Alain Ducasse, Paris

18 The Gallery at Sketch, London

19 The Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire

20 Nobu, London

21 Restaurante Arzak, San Sebastián, Spain

22 El Raco de Can Fabes, San Celoni, Spain

23 Checcino dal 1887, Rome

24 Le Meurice, Paris

25 L'Hotel de Ville Crissier, Switzerland

26 L'Arpège, Paris

27 Angela Hartnett at the Connaught, London

28 Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Oxford

29 Le Cinq, Paris

30 Hakkasan, London

31 Cal Pep, Barcelona

32 Masa, New York

33 Flower Drum, Melbourne

34 WD50, New York

35 Le Quartier Francais, Franschhoek, South Africa

36 Spice Market, New York

37 Auberge de l'Ill, Illhaeusern, Alsace

38 Manresa, California

39 Restaurant Dieter Muller Begisch, Gladbach, Germany

40 La Maison Troisgros, Roanne, France

41 The Wolseley, London

42 Rockpool, Sydney

43 Yauatcha, London

44 The Ivy, London

45 Gambero Rosso, San Vincenzo, Italy

46 The Cliff, St James, Barbados

47 Le Gavroche, London

48 Enoteca Pinchiorri, Florence

49 Felix, Hong Kong

50 La Tupina, Bordeaux

[Winniesboy]

The blood pudding is in the Irish breakfast! :-)

This brings back to me a memorable one-liner from a B & B landlady in County Kerry 30 years ago, when we were on a cycling holiday. We'd remarked on the particularly - er - fresh and authentic-looking black pudding she'd served us for breakfast. "We kill ourselves", she said.

[Cronos]

actually their family anme is the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas

[Finalapproach29er]

Is that it? HMMM.

[RaceBannon]

SAVE money by staying in London????


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

[Winniesboy]

British food seems to be one of those unexpected leitmotifs which crop up regularly in FR threads - and reading the transatlantic comments it's clear the subject is surrounded with as many myths as Wagner too. One of the problems of these discussions - quite understandable - is that they're always concerned excelusively with restaurant and hotel food, not domestic cooking. But if you're going to get the true feel of the cuisine of any country, you have to know its domestic cooks: and in the UK the revolution in domestic cookery over the last 30 years or so is even more extreme than in its restaurants. We at last have a large body of really skilled amateur cooks who know how to make the best of the superb quality of the ingredients available to us: we have, after all, one of the best climates in the world for growing most vegetables and fruit, some of the best seafood (if you know where to find it) and (and I know this is particularly hard for many Americans to accept) some of the world's best slow grass-reared beef and lamb - again, if you know where to look for it. This is not to say, of course, that there isn't still plenty of absolutely lousy British domestic cooking (as there is in most countries, including the USA!) but if you want to get some sense of the real passion of the British for good food these days, you only have to look at the extensive and learned coverage of the subject in the lifestyle sections of the quality newspapers, and the huge popularity of 'celebrity chef' series on TV.

[tortoise]

Ugh. Are you kidding me? I've been to many of these restaurants (maybe half), most more than once, and it is more a list of "trendy" restaurants than genuinely superior restaurants.

For starters, I'll just say that French Laundry, which gets listed as #3, is positively "ho hum" on the broader restaurant scene (same for the sister restaurant on the list "Per Se"). I'd give it about a 3.5 stars out of 5. Anybody with a clue and finicky taste who is stuck in that part of the country would much rather eat at Gary Danko's (first-rate) or even Fleur De Lys (which you cannot beat for romantic, never mind the food). Chez Panisse is pretty good, but truth be told I'd rather eat next door at Cesar, which is a very good tapas-esque bar (put together by former Chez Panisse chefs, go figure).

I know many of these other cities very well too, and it makes me highly suspect of the grading system. There are many grossly over-rated restaurants on this list, and many world-class superior restaurants nowhere to be found.

I consider myself to be an extraordinarily knowledgeable restauranteur, and this list reeks of trendiness rather than quality. Some of the restaurants here really are quite good, but it looks more like random chance than the fact that the determiners knowing what they were talking about.

Feh.

[Happygal]

I hope she meant the pigs, and not her husband! :-)

[tjwmason]

Did I mention the blood sausage?
---
The Windsors are German, after all. Cut em some slack.

I wonder if the English serve Uschinger Liversausage on toast.

H.M. the Queen is directly descended from the House of Wessex which ruled parts of England in the 8th century; all of Europe's Royal houses have blood from various places having spent several hundred years marrying other royals from other countries.

Black pudding (which is the blood-sausage in question) is not German at all in origin, but has been part of British cuisine for many years. Most European countries have at least one type of blood-sausage - personally I think that ours is the best, but then I would.

[Northern Alliance]

They eat duck's feet but complain about English food??