National Dishes.

vizardika said:
Each country has dishes are like a visiting card of the country. We in Latvia is rye bread, gray peas stewed sauerkraut and more. In England there are the same dishes. I would like to find out what.
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morning glory said:
I'm interested in gray peas. Are they dried peas? In the UK 'mushy peas' are a sort of national dish. @Yorky makes his own. You can buy them in tins quite cheaply. I wonder if they are anything like gray peas.

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We sell dried grey peas and cook it should be himself. I do not like it.
 
I would say for England, at least, a good Sunday roast would be high on the list - though not necessarily beef these days - followed by a good curry. I wouldn't count fish and chips as I can't eat the fish and most chip shop chips these days are pretty abysmal.
 
Elawin said:
I wouldn't count fish and chips as I can't eat the fish and most chip shop chips these days are pretty abysmal.
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Decent chippies were becoming a bit of a rarity before I left 23 years ago!
 
Yorky said:
Decent chippies were becoming a bit of a rarity before I left 23 years ago!
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There is one (family run since it opened in the early 1950s) near where I live which has won awards for their fish and chips. I can't vouch for the quality of their fish, but the chips are yummy (provided I get some that are not cooked in the same oil/fat as the fish or stored next to the fish :oops:). Maybe the people round here have been spoilt :D
 
Elawin said:
I would say for England, at least, a good Sunday roast would be high on the list - though not necessarily beef these days - followed by a good curry. I wouldn't count fish and chips as I can't eat the fish and most chip shop chips these days are pretty abysmal.
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Exactly as I said really but I would doubt the popularity of 'the roast' at all now. Can we really be the only country whose real main dish is not the one in the guide books anymore ?
 
sidevalve said:
Exactly as I said really but I would doubt the popularity of 'the roast' at all now. Can we really be the only country whose real main dish is not the one in the guide books anymore ?
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We used to have a local takeaway which only did roast dinners. Came in very handy, but even they seem to have disappeared now. Although the company is still active according to companies house, their advertising is non-existent and their FB page hasn't been updated for some time. I still like a good roast dinner, although I tend to cook them only every couple of months now and freeze what meat I don't use. You can't even go to my daughter's at the weekend without getting a Sunday roast, and I know plenty of people who wouldn't miss cooking a roast for the earth. Before I started getting my shopping delivered, I use to come home from the supermarket and bung a joint in the oven. By the time everything was put away, it was time to prepare the vegetables. By the time I'd done that and made a couple of cups of tea, dinner was ready.
 
Elawin said:
We used to have a local takeaway which only did roast dinners. Came in very handy, but even they seem to have disappeared now. Although the company is still active according to companies house, their advertising is non-existent and their FB page hasn't been updated for some time. I still like a good roast dinner, although I tend to cook them only every couple of months now and freeze what meat I don't use. You can't even go to my daughter's at the weekend without getting a Sunday roast, and I know plenty of people who wouldn't miss cooking a roast for the earth. Before I started getting my shopping delivered, I use to come home from the supermarket and bung a joint in the oven. By the time everything was put away, it was time to prepare the vegetables. By the time I'd done that and made a couple of cups of tea, dinner was ready.
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Fair enough - perhaps I'm wrong but asking around friends the big roast seemed to be sort of a [as you say] once a month thing. Families are smaller and the days of six/ten people at the table are [or seem to be] very rare now. Can something only eaten that infrequently be classed as a 'national dish' anymore ? After all a national dish is surely something everyone eats frequently not something that a large number of the population only have [or can afford to have] every few weeks. I just get the impression that we are looking back with a little bit of the rosy tint specs to something that isn't there anymore and maybe it's time to change the guide books.
 
sidevalve said:
Fair enough - perhaps I'm wrong but asking around friends the big roast seemed to be sort of a [as you say] once a month thing. Families are smaller and the days of six/ten people at the table are [or seem to be] very rare now. Can something only eaten that infrequently be classed as a 'national dish' anymore ? After all a national dish is surely something everyone eats frequently not something that a large number of the population only have [or can afford to have] every few weeks. I just get the impression that we are looking back with a little bit of the rosy tint specs to something that isn't there anymore and maybe it's time to change the guide books.
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I think you may be right! And it may be a generational thing. I still do roast dinner (usually chicken or lamb - not beef) but not every week. OTOH there are loads and loads of Pubs (including Wetherspoons) which have Sunday Roast on the menu. And they get packed out! So perhaps its become a national dish which we go out to eat rather than cook at home.
 
sidevalve said:
Fair enough - perhaps I'm wrong but asking around friends the big roast seemed to be sort of a [as you say] once a month thing. Families are smaller and the days of six/ten people at the table are [or seem to be] very rare now. Can something only eaten that infrequently be classed as a 'national dish' anymore ? After all a national dish is surely something everyone eats frequently not something that a large number of the population only have [or can afford to have] every few weeks. I just get the impression that we are looking back with a little bit of the rosy tint specs to something that isn't there anymore and maybe it's time to change the guide books.
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Funnily enough, although the business I referred to may no longer be open, our local café has a notice in their window to say that they will be opening on Sundays for roast dinners. They wouldn't be doing it if there was no call.
 
Elawin said:
Funnily enough, although the business I referred to may no longer be open, our local café has a notice in their window to say that they will be opening on Sundays for roast dinners. They wouldn't be doing it if there was no call.
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My brother used to be the chef in a restaurant pub and Sundays and the Sunday roast was the busiest day and dish. They even do it in a half size fit the older generation who can't face a huge plate piled high. My grandfather used to have it all the time (as did both of my grandmothers). It wasn't aimed at children, just people who didn't want to see food go to waste and the waist line go south!
 
Roast dinners are very popular, especially in most pubs that do food. I cook a roast dinner quite often, not always with Yorkshire pudding and I vary the form of potatoes.
 
Elawin said:
I would say for England, at least, a good Sunday roast would be high on the list - though not necessarily beef these days - followed by a good curry. I wouldn't count fish and chips as I can't eat the fish and most chip shop chips these days are pretty abysmal.
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Our local changed hands a few years ago and is way below the standard of what it used to be. Finding a decent chippy around here isn't easy although maybe I am just being picky.
 
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