General

I've recently voted here on FF for Italian food to be my favourite. But while taking a closer look to the list something seems to be weird:

Italian cooking claims place 1, nothing to moan about that, Italian food is magnificent, no doubt. They discovered that a normal north-italian worker eats better than a middelclassed Englishman. Wow!

Chinese follows being 2nd, well, let's be honest, these guys really have a clue of cooking, so it's allright. But I'm talking about real chinese food and not about the rubbish from european chinese takeaways.

But now things start to get weird: For 3rd place our most honourable forum-members voted for Mexican!!?? It might be a nice, traditional cooking from the countryside, but there's nothing special to it, nothing outstanding! Have You ever heard about a country called France? Travell there and You won't even think about Mexican food ever!

This was number 3, weird but true, sometimes things go wrong, but now this whole thing becomes ridiculous: The 4th place goes to American/English cooking! My dear friends, I've got just one humble question: Are You f... nuts? I've lived in Britain for a year and over there they don't even know what a kitchen is, for the British hot water is a most delicate dish! Even worse things are going on in the colonies: The Americans survive on fast food, which means rubbish!

Ladies and Gentlemen, stop feeding Yourself or Your feedees with with cheap stuff prepared with low-quality ingredients! We should get fat in style with pleasure! Go to the next bookstore (if You're still able to walk) and buy Yourself a proper cooking-book! The title might be something like "La Cuisine Francaise" or "Real Chinese Cooking", whatever, and go for the real thing!

Bon Appetit

Yours humble servant,

Quert

Good morning everybody!
(Or what time it might be in Your part of the world)

Thank You very much for Your statements!

Dear Mickey, I haven't got a clue if You can eat american style in Britain. If it shall be fast food there's McD, of course. During my days on the island we da Fatty Arbucle's Diner in Oxford, but I don't know if it's still there.

Dear Mrs. Ripples, first let me say that I had a look at Your pictures and I must admit that You're a magnificent sight and really can make a man dream! I would like to guess that You've stuffed Yourself with proper food looking so healthy, tight and beautyful. In the end I possibly would admit that there's just one person left in Britain who knows how to cook. But all the others have no idea, wonderful people, but no idea of food!

We do ferment cabbage over here, indeed, and believe or not, it's wonderful! A perfect side-dish with ham (salted to make it last - don't know what it's called in English), mashed potatoes and fried onions - wonderful and healthy, too! If I'd take You on a gourmet-trip to southern Germany (our notherners can't cook so well) You'd need to travell to Paris after to get dressesd completely new!
Makes me think if it would be a better idea to go to France directly...

Yours

Quert

Sigh. Every country makes unpleasant fast food--at least by someone else's standards.

But most places have fantastic cuisines, too, if you bother to get to know them. Mexican food, done in a serious restaurant or by a serious home chef, is as good as any other cuisine. A really good mole sauce, for instance, is an art. But as hard as I try here in Britain, I can't even find an *edible* taco, much less a plate of food worth eating. The cheapest taquerias in California outcook the Mexican restaurants here.

As for British and American food, the same is true. Yorkshire pudding, freshly made and with good gravy, may be a staple, but it's heavenly. Crab cakes, New England clam chowder, barbeque babyback ribs (as Mickey pointed out), cornbread, fried okra, San Francisco sourdough bread...I could go on and on, but the regional cuisine in the US is spectacular if you bother to get to know it.

There's really no point in dismissing cuisines until you read a few cookbooks, and eat at a few *good* restaurants, chosen after research.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm afraid this whole discussion develops in a wrong direction: We're on our way to discuss what could be cooked and not what is actually on the menue! For example: In Britain they were always sure that the dialect spoken on the Isle of Man is a very special one and typical for the island, but when they sent someone to write a dictionary about it they discovered that the last person who was able to speak this dialect properly had recently died!

And that's the point: You're telling stories about the the good old days and its good old recepies, but think twice: Who actually is cooking like that? 1 out of 10 or 1 out of 100 or even less?
In many statements I've read: "If You go to a restaurant where they do it the right way..." This is like visiting a museum for food while outside everybody goes to the chippy. And for christmas mommy does a nice original, but because she lacks the expierence it turns out to be awful and the rest of the family thinks of McD tomorrow...

I beg Your pardon if I got carried away a bit, but I'm really into food - very german, I'm afraid. But we could end up with complete artificial food...

Quert

My brother in the US cooks clam chowder almost weekly during the summer when the kids go out and dig clams.

I think you're making some terrible and incorrect assumptions about everyday life in the US and UK. My market has very nice organic vegetables. In my small city of 300K people, two different companies offer home delivery of organic vegetables. I have a number of friends in both countries who are very serious cooks. Both countries have wonderful food tv stations, with both simpler and more complicated cooking.

Yes, there's crap. But there's also all sorts of great stuff, being made by both home cooks and restaurants all over both countries.