Brits United

[Ruin Explorer]

I have been to an Indian Restaurant once. It was run by Indians who had very heavy accents. I think it was authentic Indian, but that's a supposition as I would not know how to identify it as authentic or not.

It probably was authentic!

Many US Indian restaurants are more authentic TO INDIA than British ones. British ones tend to serve "Anglo-Indian" cuisine, which is quite different - like there's a very classic set of curries which don't exist in or are not similar in US restaurants (Madras, Vindaloo, Chicken Tikka Masala, etc.), whereas American ones tend to from more recent immigrants direct from India, who bring their cuisine more directly, without the intervening Anglo component. Some UK ones serve a mix of "authentic" and "Anglo-Indian" too - indeed this may be the most successful strategy longer-term.

Damn now I really want some curry...

In Chinese restaurants there will be a lot of little surprises about how things are different sauce but for example General Tso's Chicken is a purely American-Chinese invention (as is "orange chicken"), so you usually won't find them in the UK, Egg Foo Young exists in both but is incredibly different in what you actually get, and in the US you don't really have "curry sauce" (consider yourselves blessed, perhaps), prawn toast (AFAICT), or salt-and-chili chips (which are amazing).

Canadian-Chinese cuisine is actually kind of hard to find in Vancouver these days, it’s massively outnumbered by the actual genuinely Chinese places (Chongqing, Gansu, Yunnan, Szechuan, etc., not to mention HK and Taiwanese) that have opened. It’s mostly found in old-fashioned breakfast cafes like The Northern Cafe.

Yeah for a while it seemed like Anglo-Indian cuisine was going to suffer that fate here, replaced by more "authentic" (to Indian regions/Pakistan/Nepal/Bengal etc.) places, but those seem to come and go a lot more than Anglo-Indian, and some of them are fading in popularity themselves.

I was fascinated a few years ago to find out that some of the very popular-in-the-rest-of-the-world Japanese cuisine is actually European (particularly French) - Japanese fusion stuff (called Yōshoku), like Katsu Curry.

 

[GreyLord]

The classic British-Chinese dish is sweet and sour pork, which is similar to a lot of other dishes (such as tangsuyeok in Korean-Chinese cuisine) but is its own thing, quite sweet and orange and with pineapple. The classic Canadian-Chinese dish is ginger beef, which was invented in Canada. Otherwise, both cuisines are similarly aimed at Western palates fifty years ago.

I know a lot less about Indian cuisine, but traditionally British-Indian food is predominately Bangladeshi, with a lot of dishes invented or adapted for Brits (tikka masala, vindaloo, balti and so on). Here in Vancouver, the main influence is Punjabi. One thing I don’t like about that are the naan, they’re a lot less fluffy than in the U.K., sadly.

The Indian food I had was a little spicy and they warned that it was the least spicy item they had. Supposedly their food gets extremely spicy to the inexperienced tongue. The bread I had was extremely light and fluffy, I haven't really had anything like it. I have no idea what the influence on it was.

I would think Sweet and Sour Pork is popular everywhere along with Chow mein and Chinese Rice. Is that different between the Americas and the UK?

 

[Old Fezziwig]

and in the US you don't really have "curry sauce" (consider yourselves blessed, perhaps), prawn toast (AFAICT), or salt-and-chili chips (which are amazing).

I've seen it as shrimp toast on menus at Chinese restaurants in New England and the Bay Area. I haven't noticed curry sauce or salt-and-chili chips.

 

[GuyBoy]

All this savoury food talk requires British desserts of course, so:
Bakewell Tart (or to be strictly Derbyshire, Bakewell Pudding) is the king here, but honourable mentions to Apple Crumble, Spotted Dick and the southeastern speciality, Gypsy Tart.

 

[jian]

All this savoury food talk requires British desserts of course, so:
Bakewell Tart (or to be strictly Derbyshire, Bakewell Pudding) is the king here, but honourable mentions to Apple Crumble, Spotted Dick and the southeastern speciality, Gypsy Tart.

And then we can talk about British uses of the word “pudding”.

Pudding probably most commonly means “dessert in general” (“would you like any pudding, we’ve got some ice cream in the fridge?”) but it of course means a wide range of more specific things, such as:

• Specific savoury dishes (black pudding, Yorkshire pudding, pease pudding etc.)
• Specific sweet dishes (sticky toffee pudding, nursery lemon pudding, etc.)
• A generic description of homogenous slurry (“that bullet turned his brains to pudding”)
• Some people use it to refer to desserts that start as a mixture of dry and wet ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, water etc,) and then separate out during baking into a firm upper layer and a wet lower layer. A rare non-British example of this is pudding chomeur, a Quebecois version.

In Britain at least, it does not mean “gelatine-based dessert cup”, which I think is the commonest usage in North America.

 

[Morrus]

Now want curry.

I probably have curry about once a week. Mixed kebab starter, then lamb dhansak with pilau rice, a garlic and chilli naan, and maybe some Bombay potatoes or aloo chat on the side. All washed down with a lovely lager. Heaven!

 

[Bagpuss]

I live on the Wirral.

More specifically my local games shop (Board, TTRPGs and a little Wargames) is Bulwark Games in Bebington Village, which is turning into a little geek mecca. As together with the games shop it also has Karken Comics which combines a comic shop with cafe so you can read some comics while you have your coffee. Most recently a specialist fantasy book shop Paper and Word opened. Not far away is the WarGameStore, which has every wargame you can imagine scenery and play space.

Right near the chocolate box village of Port Sunlight, and across the water from both Liverpool (River Mersey) and Wales (the River Dee) and by historic Chester.

 

[General_Tangent]

It probably was authentic!

Many US Indian restaurants are more authentic TO INDIA than British ones. British ones tend to serve "Anglo-Indian" cuisine, which is quite different - like there's a very classic set of curries which don't exist in or are not similar in US restaurants (Madras, Vindaloo, Chicken Tikka Masala, etc.), whereas American ones tend to from more recent immigrants direct from India, who bring their cuisine more directly, without the intervening Anglo component. Some UK ones serve a mix of "authentic" and "Anglo-Indian" too - indeed this may be the most successful strategy longer-term.

Depending on the area of the UK you can find some pretty authentic Indian restaurants, I'm not far from Southall and you can find all sorts of tasty treats there, from traditional sweets, Ras malai, and other fine dishes.

When it comes to takeaways though they tend to fall into one of two camps; the classic curry house complete with red flocked wallpaper and a fish tank in the middle, the chef serving the same recipes for the last 60 years or so, or the later modernised eatery, typically categorised with laminate flooring, neon lights and the food is a modern take on the classics. Both will provide you with a good meal but I tend to gravitate to the traditional curry house.

 

[General_Tangent]

Now want curry.

I probably have curry about once a week. Mixed kebab starter, then lamb dhansak with pilau rice, a garlic and chilli naan, and maybe some Bombay potatoes or aloo chat on the side. All washed down with a lovely lager. Heaven!

Cobra or Kingfisher?

 

[Morrus]

Cobra or Kingfisher?

I’m never sure which is which but one of them is more gassy than the other, which is not a good trait when eating large amounts of food.