Cultural differences

[Stormin 9,984]

  My eldest sister married an American air force man some 50 plus years ago. They were at R.A.F Alconbury for a while and I went down. He cooked some Texas Longhorn steaks. The size of dinner plates and not an once of fat.

[rmaynard 16,292]

Neil,

When you come over here for the WHCC show this summer, somewhere on the grounds, someone will be cooking roadkill stew. You never know what meat will be in that.

[SousaKerry 503]

I was in the UK once about 6 years ago for a week, working in our UK plant.  I believe the place was called Cradley Heath in the West Midlands?  I was there by myself with no guide for the first night.  There was a shopping complex of sorts across the street and down a little from the hotel.  The first night I wondered down there and found of all things a Pizza Hut, not knowing anything about where I was I decided to go to something familiar.  I will just say that it was a very interesting pizza even though it was an American chain.  While I was at the plant they fed me lunch because no quick food places were close by, one of the secretaries would make us a sandwich and bring in meat pies and sausages.  Different ones each time none of them tasted like sausages from here, some were not very good but I did not have the heart to tell her.

 

There was a Pub at the hotel and I spent a few nights there sampling local favorites.  Guinness in the UK is so much better then Guinness in the US.  I won't hardly drink the bottled stuff here but I really enjoyed it over there pored by someone who knew how to pour a beer and it was great.  Poured by someone who didn't it was ok.

 

Down the road was a castle on top of a hill that had been converted into a zoo of all things, unfortunately it was closed by the time i got out of work.  On the other side of the hill was an old abbey that wasn't much more then a couple of walls.  You could just feel the history in the place, somewhere I have a chip of stone that I brought home from there.

 

I would go back in a heartbeat if work offered again just not crazy about the 8 hour plane ride.

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,880]

That's got to be the one very cool thing about going to the U.K., the castles!  While the native americans didn't build a lot of monument type buildings what were got destroyed by the settlers.   One of my favorite pictures is Neil's taken in front of Stonehenge, just not a lot of that here.  And the Guinness is the same there as it is here, just maybe a little fresher?

[rmaynard 16,292]

Never been to the UK, but I was in Ireland in 1970. Went to the Blarney Castle in Cork, and kissed the Blarney Stone. Maybe that explains the gift of gab.

[roscoemi 245]

I would love to visit Britain, but now if I do I'll just drink my meals!

[coldone 35]

The States have their own regional foods. I am from whats historically the south. Our traditional foods are different than the north, mid west, west, and the west coast. I am in a very rural part of my state and most everybody of my parents age grew up in poverty. My mother grew up as a share cropper and my father grew up as a ranch hand. Beans and rice was a staple, pork was raised and cured by your family, Dad was lucky being a ranch hand so he had beef.

 

Some of my regions foods are:

Sausage gravy (milk gravy) and biscuits

Beans and rice

Chicken and dumplings

Grits

Fried pork rinds/skins (snack food)

Sausage and eggs scrambled together

Hoop cheese

Iced sweet tea (aka the house wine of the south)

 

I have traveled the US alot and no where have the differences in food been so apparent as in a simple hot dog. Down here a Hot daog all the way will have the dog, mayo, mustard, slaw and chilli. In the northern states It can have sour kraut and relish. Out west it can have ketsup and chilli. West coast can have bean sprouts.

 

As in The UK, poverty lead to people eating the stuff nobody else would. You have blood pudding, we have head cheese. The pigs head would be boiled and all the meat would be scraped off and packed into a ball. We have chittlins (chitterlings) which is the pigs small intestines washed cut up and fried. Pickled Pigs feet, pork brains and eggs and of course pork rinds. Most of this is eaten by the older generations, my grand parents. Its not eaten so much anymore.

[meadowfield 2,754]

Ditto on the differences, I worked for directv up until 6 years ago and commuted between Memphis and LA.

There are very few meals I can draw exact comparisons on... Here are some of the ones that frustrated me:

Breakfast in the US

Baked beans, they are very sweet

Bacon, it is just thin streaky. Here we have decent cuts of middle and back.

Sausages, there doesn't seem to be texture and the skins are really thick

Omelettes, in the uk we do not cover a ham and cheese omelette with more cheese

Pancakes, muffins, waffles and syrup for breakfast? It's just starting to appear here in some hotels.

That's not a rant, it's just remarkable how different things can be. You guys know how to do good steak, ribs and follow it up with great service! Service in the UK sucks in comparison....

I'm not a fan of chocolate, but Brits living in the US also say chocolate isn't as good. My boss used to get me to bring chocolate back over when I'd done a trip home. Sometimes I'd bring baked beans and custard too :D

Edited December 4, 2013 by meadowfield

[Anglo Traction 761]

That's got to be the one very cool thing about going to the U.K., the castles!  

That's one thing we have loads of...History. difficult to know if it's a bonus or burden really, but down in this corner of the Rock, we have several absolutely beautiful Castles. There are over 30 of them in the County of Kent alone.......for obvious geographical reasons . Oh , and that doesn't include Stigian's Palace    

Here's a few examples for you to google if you wish.   Leeds Castle , Bodium , Dover , Hever .  

Then there is my personal favourite local one which is Arundel. It's setting , surrounded by the town, low woods and the River is superb.  

 

Sousakerry- Look's like you had a rough deal on your visit. Not always a pleasure when your on a business mission...... Had a few myself around the world.

[SousaKerry 503]

 

Sousakerry- Look's like you had a rough deal on your visit. Not always a pleasure when your on a business mission...... Had a few myself around the world

 

Wouldn't call it rough other then the lousy hotel I stayed in had Bed Bugs and I think I brought them home with me...

 

My job does give me the chance to travel about once every 2 months or so but it is always a tight schedule with hardly any down time and if you do have any you are to tired to do anything.

 

For regional food the boys out East especially Pennsylvania have the best.  Sweet Bologna, White American Cheeze, UTZ's potato chips, Birtch Beer, Scrapple, Filling,  Mince Meat Pie...  Mom was from Reading area and we would always bring a car load of food back with us on family trips.

[Theswampthing 8]

 

For regional food the boys out East especially Pennsylvania have the best.  Sweet Bologna, White American Cheeze, UTZ's potato chips, Birtch Beer, Scrapple, Filling,  Mince Meat Pie...  Mom was from Reading area and we would always bring a car load of food back with us on family trips.

 

 

 

I live about 45 minutes north of Reading. The PA Dutch food is good. I live in the Coal Region, and we have our own strange mix of food. Traditional Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, and even some Irish food. I'm Ukrainian on Dad's side, so I grew up with Kielbasi, pierogies, halupkis, bean soup, halushki, and other good stuff. Irish on my mom's side, so potatoes and beer, hahaha. We also have lots of Italian food here, too. Even our own style of cheesesteak. 

 

Cool thread, though. Me wife's grandmother is from Devon. We eat meat pie(Pasties?) about twice a month. Good stuff. 

 

Edited December 12, 2013 by Theswampthing

[RMCIII 838]

Hmm. Got me thinking..... While stationed in the UK at RAF Upper Heyford...1988 - 1991, I made friends with a gentlemen from Swadlincote. I never used any of my alcohol rations, and he loved American beer. I'd bring him case after case of Budweiser. I asked him what the attraction to American beer was. He said he enjoys the taste of beer, but does not like, getting buzzed. So he could drink twice as many Budweiser's and not get buzzed.

[neil 2,410]

Some of the English real ales are  to die for ,  burt sadly alot of the old  English Brewaries have disapeared  .

English pubs have also  taken a nose dive as the British Government has just about killed the brewary industry by taxing it to the hilt .

Not sure of the cost of a pint of beer in US but the cost of a pint in the UK would be somewhere around $7.50. £4.00

but then like most things in Britain the government has heavily taxed .

Not that i smoke anymore (3 years now) but ciggies are around $11.00 per pack of twenty

[C-101plowerpower 1,606]

Not that i smoke anymore (3 years now) but ciggies are around $11.00 per pack of twenty

 

and that's why i roll my own

 

i realy like this thread, i'm digging up local history now to see if there's anything interesting.

 

Koen

[flyovrcntry 115]

Ah,I remember rolling my own,haven't felt that good in a long time.Let's see Maybe one of my old buds would help me out.