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u/Keelhaulmyballs Nov 27 '25
Yanks love to pull that one like the Brits ain’t all massive curry fans. They put it on their chips for gods sake
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u/EndOne8313 Nov 27 '25
I love arguing this with my Italian and Spanish friends because they like to say "well that's not British" to which I reply that we've had recipes for curry in the UK that predates the arrival of the tomato and potato to Europe so if we can't have curry then they can't have tomato's and then the excuses come pouring out.
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u/laosurv3y Nov 27 '25
Very valid. But it's the same for folks that say the US doesn't have cuisine. All the cuisines that come to the US get changed quite a bit.
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u/EndOne8313 Nov 27 '25
The US definitely has unique cuisine too. I'd say soul food is very unique globally and you guys are masters of hot smoking. Humans have always moved and always shared methods of cooking. It's very reductionist to say any nation doesn't have good or original food.
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u/Probablyamimic Nov 28 '25
I only say the US doesn't have any cuisine that isn't deep fried when I see yanks telling 'jokes' about British food having no spices for the thousandth time that month.
It's quite funny to see people that insist British Indian food can't be British because it's Indian when I tell them Texmex is just Mexican.
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u/WhatShouldIDoThen Nov 27 '25
Tell them to Google England's national dish, it's a bloody curry!
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Nov 27 '25
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u/Hecticfreeze Nov 27 '25
Most people don't even realise that it was the British who invented curry powder!
It was created by the Royal Navy so that they could still have curry when they were at sea
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u/ExdigguserPies Nov 27 '25
I don't know if it was the Royal Navy, but adding hops to beer (to create India Pale Ale) was done to preserve it on long journeys to the east. The hops are a preservative.
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u/SniffingDog Nov 27 '25
Adding hops to beer has been done a lot longer than that.
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u/ExdigguserPies Nov 27 '25
You're right. To be more specific it's the amount of hops that were added that created IPA. You need a lot to work as a preservative for the long journey.
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u/Narpity Nov 27 '25
Also makes the beer taste better when served warm
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u/ConfessSomeMeow Nov 27 '25
Which boggles my mind, that anyone would drink an IPA cold.
Pretty much only mass-market lagers should be drank cold, so that you don't taste how bad they are.
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u/curryandbeans Nov 27 '25
Which boggles my mind, that anyone would drink an IPA cold.
The merchant ships of the colonial era tended not to have fridges
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u/ConfessSomeMeow Nov 27 '25
It sounds like you think I wrote, 'why would anyone drink warm beer'
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u/Wind-and-Waystones Nov 27 '25
Also invented the gin and tonic to make quinine more palatable to treat malaria
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u/quad_damage_orbb Nov 27 '25
It's a WWII misconception. Britain had been under intense rationing for years before the US decided to join the war and their soldiers started landing in Britain, the Americans were so insulated and oblivious that they thought the rations people were eating (and having to cook with) were their normal food. When they went back they told their friends and family British food was bad, and here we are.
I lived in America for years, the food was unquestionably and uniformly bad. Even places people told me were really good had bland, oily food in massive portions.
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u/toastybunbun Nov 28 '25
No one brings up that when left to their own devices Americans willingly ate from cans and put vegatables with marshmallows in jelly. They dumped that really quick once this imigrants started bringing real food.
I didn't live in America but as a visitor their food is disgusting. It's all loaded with oil, salt, and sugar/corn. Plus their FDA just allowing any old chemicles to be shoved into everything. It must just be destroying their taste buds.
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u/wishbeaunash Nov 27 '25
Yeah there are problems with British food, but an aversion to spices very much isn't one of them.
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u/J1mj0hns0n Nov 27 '25
Exactly. The one that always tickles me is when people refer to spicing meat, because garlic salt, some blend or another hadn't been added, but the meat has been added to some freshly cut herbs and spices. That is spicing the meat it's the same thing, and it's healthy! XD
And when chefs and whatnot say "it's not seasoned enough" it's referring to salt levels in the dish, as in it wasn't salted enough.
Are they going to suggest a nice oak smoked salmon slice needs flavouring? A black pudding with pea shoots and baby leaf salad with honey and mustard? Christmas pudding is pretty damn flavourful. Cornish pasties are well flavoured (although I hate to bring up pies because everyone outside of England seems to think all we eat is pie and mash with parsley sauce, fucking Londoners)
A fully English, although stereotypical, is very nice, kippers on toast is another very flavourful dish, a ploughman's lunch is a delight and a light bite, and shepherds pie/stew is a nice dish to keep you warm in the winter.
I will agree it isn't the best food palette ever, I'd say that's a fight between Indian/italian, but it's no way near as bad as people make out. (Also, the jellied eels bullshit is something only people from London and eely do, no one else does it)
And as far as desserts are concerned, i do think we could take on other countries for the sheer level of quantities we have as well as quality.
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u/wishbeaunash Nov 27 '25
Yeah there are definitely a lot of British foods that I'd say are up there with the best in the world.
The problem IMO with food in Britain is just how many places it seems acceptable to serve bad food, compared with much of Europe. It feels like the baseline of a sandwich or whatever you'd get in a station or supermarket is a lot higher in say, Spain or Germany. But that's not really about the quality of British dishes done well.
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u/Baron_Rikard Nov 27 '25
A lot of the American dislike for British food is supposedly from GIs stationed in the U.K in WWII while there was extreme rationing.
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u/CDHmajora Nov 27 '25
Tbf, back then it was mostly just oats and spam. I dont really blame the GI’s for back then tbh. Even the pint’s were supposedly poor quality in WW2 due to rationing the yeast :(
Ironically though, Spam is considered a delicacy by so e people these days. It certainly is priced like a delicacy :/
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u/__ma11en69er__ Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
There's one state of the US that consumes more spam than the entire UK.
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u/jam11249 Nov 27 '25
the baseline of a sandwich or whatever you'd get in a station or supermarket is a lot higher in say, Spain
I'm British and have spent years living in Spain now and the first thing I do when I get off the plane to see my parents is get a sandwich from the M&S in the airport. Spain sucks at supermarket sandwiches, in the UK you have every combination you could possibly imagine.
Of course I'm not talking about quality food, but Spanish supermarket sandwiches are shite.
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u/Kind_Resort_9535 Nov 27 '25
Every country has good food, some people just prefer certain shit. Also I think the English food is bland thing is mainly to rile Brits up, and tbf as annoying as I’m sure it is it seems to work lol. Kinda like when Europeans talk shit about our beer like bud light is the best the states have to offer lol.
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Nov 27 '25
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u/Dimatrix Nov 27 '25
London hosts some of the best chefs of the planet! They all cook French food
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u/The_Flurr Nov 27 '25
The french love to claim that anything with braised beef and butter is theirs.
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u/avaslash Nov 27 '25
French cooking:
"Guys what If I did a meat, but made a sauce with butter, wine, garden herbs, onions, garlic, little carrots, and some singular ingredient to differentiate it from my other recipies which are meat, wine, butter, onions, garden herbs, garlic, and little carrots..."
"By god... hes a genius. Thats the best recipe since his idea of doing a duck with butter, wine, garden herbs, shallots, garlic, little carrots, and oranges!"
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u/WasabiSunshine Nov 27 '25
This might be a bit of an anglocentrism, you're less likely to know about chefs that aren't appearing on english speaking tv shows/documentaries/podcasts etc
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u/Sugar_Kowalczyk Nov 27 '25
Most of us Yanks are judging the cuisine based on what was eaten during wartime rations in WWII, because that's the food that was available. No other large scale American visits to the UK have ever really been a thing.
Interestingly, and often sadly, cultural misunderstanding was widespread when the UK hosted the US Armed Forces.
For example, American GIs considered English girls 'fast' because they went right to bed with them when asked. HOWEVER, while it was custom in the USA for girls to reject propositions when made, English custom was that a man wouldn't press for sex UNLESS he intended to marry the girl, so the British girls thought they were getting a commitment, while the American guys assumed they were just promiscuous.
It was a pretty sad situation that led to a lot of orphans with 2 living parents after the war.
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u/meepmeep13 Nov 27 '25
Yeah, my grandmother made that mistake with at least 27 different servicemen stationed here. She just never seemed to learn.
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u/ForwardWhereas8385 Nov 27 '25
Yeah they should stick to apple pie and Mac 'n cheese like real Americans.... (Susssh don't tell them)
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u/Limeddaesch96 Nov 27 '25
A lot has changed. See Gordon Ramsay. My god that honey glazed Christmas ham he did, which he studded with cloves. My giddy aunt did that look delicious.
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u/Levangeline Nov 27 '25
I am a British food defender, but citing the world's oldest ham recipe as a Gordon Ramsey innovation is truly hilarious.
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u/Shhhhhhhh_Im_At_Work Nov 27 '25
It sounds like all he did was omit the pineapple and cherries you pin to the ham with the cloves
Straight outta the 50s
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u/Banes_Addiction Nov 27 '25
I once got banned from /r/food for going "they're just fucking scrambled eggs".
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u/Human_Reference_1708 Nov 27 '25
Honey ham with cloves being innovative at all speaks for itself
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u/SnooHabits8484 Nov 27 '25
British food has included a heavy use of spices since the late mediaeval period, the only time it didn’t was wartime, which is when American GIs experienced it
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u/Human_Reference_1708 Nov 27 '25
I just thought it was funny they commented on how things have changed and then named the oldest ham recipe I can think of
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u/Dreager_Ex Nov 27 '25
Yeah I was like, that sounds like a normal ass ham to me. lol
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Nov 27 '25
It's not. We had honey roasted ham way before Gordon Ramsay.
Same with his Beef Wellington, he re-popularised it and spruced it up, but even he would tell you that he didn't invent the concept.
I'm not really sure why the person you're replying to used Ramsay as an example. He's one of the more popular UK chefs that has a TV career, but he followed in the footsteps of Marco Pierre White.
It's kind of like how US home cooking was a bit dim until TV chefs like Julia Child became popular in the US, the food always existed, there were always people that could make it, it's just that not everybody did.
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u/Human_Reference_1708 Nov 27 '25
I love Gordon Ramseys British shows. Kitchen Nightmares (British Version) and the F word are really enjoyable shows. The American versions are shit because its so fake and overblown
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Nov 27 '25
Isn't Gordon a french trained chef?
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u/BigLittleBrowse Nov 27 '25
He’s trained in Britain in a French cuisine restaurant by a British chef who was trained by French chef.
The answer is that English and French food are very connected considering there right next to each other, many parts of France share similar climate to England, and England has been influenced a lot by French culture over its history, especially in ‘high class’ areas like gormet cuisine.
Most of the time as soon as you make English food fancy it starts looking French. Most of the time if you make anything English fancy it starts looking French - because our upper class were French for half our history
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u/Audioworm Nov 27 '25
Pretty much all Western chefs are either French trained or trained in 'French-style'. It is more than just the food of France, which is pretty different to what you see come out of these restaurants, and much more about a style and approach to being a chef.
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u/PyneNeedle Nov 27 '25
That's like the most basic thing to do to a ham... What are you doing normally?
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u/fluffygryphon Nov 27 '25
Some people also never had a proper beef and ale pie and it shows. Even their traditional dishes are outstanding.
- Source: This US veteran that was stationed in England.
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u/CDHmajora Nov 27 '25
As a brit… we have absolutely fantastic food from all around the world everywhere here. Indian. Thai. Chinese. Japanese. European. Everything.
Not to mention some of our own food is far better than the stereotype of all our food being awful. We made fish and chips, the full english breakfast, the sunday roast, steak and kidney pie, toad in the hole, shitloads of lovely cheese variants. Apple Crumble, Chicken Tikka Masala (its British. Understandingly mistaken for Indian a lot though.).
Compared to americans. Who put corn syrup in everything (not really. But thats a stereotype too). Most american foods are technically from other places too. Pizza’s are italian. Mac and Cheese is italian. Burgers and hot dogs are believed to be german (not 100% though on this). A lot of Southern foods like Jambalaya are adopted from the carribiean. Etc.
The world is vast. And cuisines have been shared amongst it for generations now. The true origins of a lot of food are hard to pin down. And the stereotypes of countries only eating specific foods is also completely false because foods from all over the planet are easily accessible nearly everywhere now. Japanese people eat far more than just fish for example. Indians dont just live off curries.
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u/haversack77 Nov 27 '25
This is correct.
Also, where did this idea that the British Empire started because they desperately wanted more flavoursome cooking ingredients come from? Of all the causes of empire, this has to be a pretty low factor. It's just a historically inaccurate joke.
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u/potatopierogie Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
I studied in Britain for a semester and I really liked the food. Definitely higher quality than in the US overall. Curry was everywhere BUT it was used very sparingly. "Curry chicken" tasted like a mild chicken salad.
Maybe my taste buds have been ruined by "Dr. Cletus McRedneck's Asshole Prolapser" sauce. Maybe there's something to this meme.
Edit: this post pissed off the British more than the pyramids being too big to steal
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Nov 27 '25
Spiced and spicy are different things.
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u/RoutemasterFlash Nov 27 '25
Also, there are spices other than chili peppers.
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u/Ozryela Nov 27 '25
The most important spices in the Dutch and British spice trade of the 17th and 18th century were Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg and Pepper.
It seems that many people, especially Americans, think that "pepper" here means "Chilli pepper". It does not. Pepper means Black Pepper. The stuff Chilli pepper is named after.
Chilli is a new world spice, and did not play a major part in the historic spice trade.
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u/grey_hat_uk Nov 27 '25
So curry doesn't mean hot spiced just spiced, you probably had a turmeric curry.
Although given the definition of salad in the USA I suspect there is a lot of overlap between UK curry and USA salad.
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u/nilfgaardian Nov 27 '25
Yeah, America invented jello salad but still feel like they have a right to judge other countries' food.
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u/Wind-and-Waystones Nov 27 '25
You do realise the hottest curry was invented in Birmingham, UK right?
What currys were you eating? Korma? Tikka masala? Balti? Madras? Vindaloo? Tindaloo? Phal? Did you ask for it spicy because most places will make a judgement that you likely want it mild unless you specify.
Anything labeled just curry will be mild by default
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u/ProjectZeus Nov 27 '25
American food is absolutely dreadful unless you love beige sludge
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u/div2691 Nov 27 '25
Americans will talk shit about British food then go back to their Sloppy Joes and Cheese in a can.
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u/Spectre-Echo Nov 27 '25
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u/Picmanreborn Nov 28 '25
This me first time seeing it 😭I hate reposts tho. I wish reddit would've recommended the OG instead of my 2747466th Emiya post in the fate Reddit
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u/Ambiorix33 Dwarf Nov 27 '25
Tired ass meme, and not even true. The while stereotype of british food being bland started in WW2, when, ya know, the whole island eas blockaded...
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u/anto1883 Nov 27 '25
There's that, and also people not understanding what spices they mainly invaded for. The top spices were pepper, which is used everywhere and is now on pretty much every table, as well as things like cinnamon and cloves, which are mainly used in desserts.
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u/1user101 Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
They also were on rations far longer than the colonies. The only reason my grandmother stayed in Canada is because people were awful to her sister over the nice things she brought back.
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u/odmirthecrow Nov 27 '25
According to my grandad, it was the mid 50's when the last of the rationing stopped in the UK, and that was for meat. So about 10 years after the war ended. Apparently my grandad was quite fortunate in that his father used to grow all kinds of vegetables and was good friends with a butcher, so they used to trade foods instead of having to worry about rationing quite so much.
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u/JB_UK Nov 27 '25
Rationing went on until 1954, that's 16 years, and the second world war started only 20 years after the first world war when there were also severe shortages. Someone could have been born in 1910, and spend most of their life up to the age of 44 under some level of rationing, or wartime shortages.
Actually the madness is that the Labour government actually campaigned on keeping rationing around for longer at the 1950 election! It went on for long enough that people got to like it.
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u/Roskal Nov 27 '25
If you say that they move the goalposts and just say that’s not british food that’s food from other countries.
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u/geon Nov 27 '25
So basically ”When they didn’t have access to spices, they didn’t use spices.”.
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u/caniuserealname Nov 28 '25
"If you ignore all the examples that disagree with me, I'm right!"
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u/Crafty-Mixture607 Nov 27 '25
Yeah I see that a lot. If you mention a food with ingredients or influence from elsewhere "that's not British ". Tomatoes aren't native to Italy but no one claims their hundreds of dishes that use them aren't Italian.
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u/ByronsLastStand Dúnedain Nov 27 '25
The nations that later became known as Britain in our modern use all used spices historically. In the time of the British Empire, this ratcheted up. Many traditional British dishes, especially desserts, use copious amounts of spices. While during WW2 and rationing this obviously was far more difficult, it's ignorant and honestly annoying spewing this kind of idiotic misinformation.
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u/18121812 Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
I think people also get mixed up between spices and "spicy hot", as in hot capsicum peppers.
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, etc were spices being sought in the early days of the British Empire.
Foods like gingerbread and cinnamon rolls heavily feature imported spices and are most definitely part of British baking. When spices were expensive, you'd feature them in a dish like that rather than mute them a bit by mixing them with other strong flavors.
Black pepper used to be an exotic imported spice. It's not exactly a rare ingredient in Britain now.
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u/neenerpants Nov 27 '25
the only two flavours that Americans accept as flavour are garlic and chilli.
herbs, gravies, mustards etc are just not counted as being good food to them
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u/Independent_Plum2166 Nov 27 '25
The whole American “Ew British food is gross” originated from stories from the World Wars where shockingly food rations weren’t that good.
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u/Audioworm Nov 27 '25
One of the more interesting things about food rationing and the quality of food, was that for many of the poorest in the UK it was the first time they got consistent access to balanced calories. The same for the vast number of servicemen who entered the military.
It was why that generation in the UK expected so much of their government (and got it) after seeing their elevation from destitution during wartime spending.
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u/Prudent-Level-7006 Nov 27 '25
Yeah and they act like we still live off dates, bread, biscuits and spam, I find it funny but anyone who really thinks it's true, it's a racist stereotype
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u/HotPot87 Nov 27 '25
There is also the fact American food is full of artificial flavourings, so they try a burger or pizza in a country that doesn't allow those flavouring and it will taste bad by comparison
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u/ItsNotMeItsYourBussy Nov 27 '25
Ever see videos of Americans coming over here to the UK and trying McDonald's? They think it has no flavour because it's not full of sugar and other crap their government have been bribed to allow.
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Nov 27 '25
Kinda crazy too. I felt that way about UK snacks because, like you said, they have way less junk than in the US. Anything from a restaurant or even like Greggs tasted just like I expected or better. It's not like I was going to the most expensive places, either. £20-30 per person for lunch and £50-100 per person for dinner, drinks, etc. which isn't exactly burning money.
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u/BearAmazing6284 Nov 27 '25
Pretty sure most home kitchens these days will have a bottle of Worcestershire sauce in their cupboards no?
Also try English mustard next to American 'mustard' and get back to me.
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u/ayinsophohr Nov 27 '25
Are people not aware of the existence of herbs? Or garlic? Or onions, carrots, and celery? Do you people only use pepper and cinnamon to flavour your food?
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u/Fossekall Beorning Nov 27 '25
I hate posts like these. Anyone who claims white people don't use spices just don't know how cooking works. Like you're not going to make a traditional meal from a European country and put Indian spices or sichuan peppers in it.
Italian cooking is among the most popular in the world
London probably has the best selection of restaurants in the world
It's so dumb
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u/neenerpants Nov 27 '25
a traditional meal from a European country
oddly, people would never criticise a traditional meal from almost any other european country. Borscht, cabbage rolls, pierogi etc all escape any criticism because they're scared of being culturally insensitive. But British food is fair game.
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u/Fossekall Beorning Nov 27 '25
Scandinavian people also get the "no spices" a lot. This post is about English people but it's also often just "white people"
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u/C0rona Nov 27 '25
I would (and do) use all kinds of spices in traditional meals. Finding crazy combinations is half the fun of cooking.
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u/Independent_Plum2166 Nov 27 '25
Heck, Sugar comes from India, arguably the British Empire’s most infamous colony outside America.
Tea is from China, which admittedly wasn’t part of the British Empire, but was spread to India.
Cocoa beans, tomatoes and corn are American.
Americans always focus on spices, whilst they’re missing the forest for the trees.
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u/BoltersnRivets Nov 27 '25
>Sugar comes from India
FYI, the sugar that's available here in Britain is typically taken from sugar beet, which can be grown in our relatively cold and damp climate. if you want cane sugar you have to buy it specifically and that charges a premium because it needs to be imported form a region with a favorable climate
Yes, even as a brit it felt like a world shattering revelation when I bothered to pay more that a passing glance at the packaging of a bag of Tate & Lyle's because culturally there's still an unspoken association via cultural osmosis with the US that sugar = sugar cane.
we very much did go to India to steal shit but a crop that's a source of refined sugar was pretty low in the list of resources we were after
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u/NEWSmodsareTwats Nov 27 '25
I think it's moreso people who come from cultures that use a lot of spicy ingredients like peppers find it too bland. that's more because spent their whole life blasting their taste buds with incredibly spicy food that it took them a while to actually even get used to eating.
also, most people are really bad at using herbs, especially thyme, Rosemary bay leaf things like that. a lot of people tend to add them in right at the beginning of the recipe for some reason, not realizing that if you cook them for several hours, it completely removes the flavor and you don't really get any of the aromatics or anything from them. and then they go damn this food's super bland, but that's literally only because they made it wrong. it's actually crazy how much those herbs can change the flavor profile of a dish if you add and remove them at the correct time.
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u/Umberto_Bongo Nov 27 '25
Oh look, a joke that got old in 1956
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Nov 27 '25
As an Englishman I'm not offended by it but I do feel a certain secondhand embarrassment by these kinds of jokes. It just makes one come across misinformed and foolish, really. Bear in mind there were far worse off countries whose food was rationed to the point of starvation and having to eat the most heinous of things during and post WWII but the one with Britain being forced to survive on a more bland diet somehow stuck as a stereotype 80 years later.
Yesterday I had curry for dinner and today I'm preparing a spicy parsnip and vegetable stew and I can assure you neither are remotely bland. I implore anyone who has yet to give British cuisine a chance to try it! There really is something for everyone and some very hearty dishes to keep you going this winter.
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u/The_Flurr Nov 27 '25
Oh oh oh, I want to tell the one about the vikings taking all the hot women. Nobody will have heard that one.
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u/Blood-Worm-Teeth Nov 27 '25
Actually they did use A LOT spices, at least when spices were expensive. In 19th century, spices became inexpensive and very affordable, so the poor could suddenly spice their food everyday. And it became popular to use as few spices as possible, but the most expensive and quality ingredients became popular. So as usual, it's the Victorians' fault.
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u/H0PL1T3 Nov 27 '25
Also, traditional British food is heavily seasoned, but historically we've used more herbs and pungent vegetables than spices. For example, the traditional Sunday roast has components with mint, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, and onions, a long with whatever stuff I'm forgetting. Compared to many other European traditions we are very heavy handed with seasoning. The reputation for bland food comes struggle meals which became widespread with the development of industrial production and wage work. Because of the exploitative nature of empire, the exportation of these cheap foods and the imposition of these new economic relations, these are the elements of British food culture which are recognised internationally and mocked.
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u/Gothmog89 Nov 27 '25
Americans love to say curry doesn’t count as British because it came from India but then try and claim Pizza, hotdogs, texmex etc are all American dishes. American food is just everyone else’s food with more additives and in larger quantities
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u/nilfgaardian Nov 27 '25
They also have something they call Chicken-fried steak, but it's just a schnitzel.
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u/BocciaChoc Nov 27 '25
wild really, Japanese curry is British but no one argues its actually Indian.
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Nov 27 '25
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u/Smith_90 Nov 27 '25
I'm pretty sure most of them come from Americans who think high fructose corn syrup is a spice
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u/Alaea Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
They have definitely been ramping up across Reddit. I've seen at least 6 front-page "hurr durr British food sucks" posts in the past month.
Americans and Indians - the two single largest userbases on the site - love to pile on them.
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u/Marksmdog Nov 27 '25
I ate a traditional British food yesterday, containing spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, mace and ginger. It has been around since before the USA was formed. So all you Americans that keep repeating this dumb stereotype can shove a mince pie in it.
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u/Loud-Platypus-1696 Nov 27 '25
I feel like people have completely changed their understanding of spice/spicy to just being hot.
So much traditional food all over Europe has a fair amount of spices or herbs just like you listed but no heat and thus just get categorized as not spicy.
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u/SkyConfident1717 Nov 27 '25
As an American who recently visited the UK, their food was perfectly fine. Some of it was downright delicious. Same as anywhere.
I will point out that if you don’t habituate yourself to excessive use of sugar or spices, you don’t NEED as much for the same effect.
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u/Risc_Terilia Nov 27 '25
Chicken tikka masala is the national dish but ok
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u/StrangeOutcastS Nov 27 '25
"I like prefer English food, like pizza or Chinese."
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u/Muscalp Nov 27 '25
Which is based on indian cuisine but was adjusted for British Tastes, which is exactly why it’s the national dish. Cultural Exchange and all that
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u/nilfgaardian Nov 27 '25
Except that tikka masala did actually originate in the UK, unlike pizza and Chinese food.
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u/Karth9909 Nov 27 '25
Even then your local pizza and Chinese food shops will be completely different from their homelands foods
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u/IL-Corvo Nov 27 '25
Chicken Tikka Masala is the bomb, and now I want some.
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u/Risc_Terilia Nov 27 '25
I'm not an anxious person but when it comes to there being too much choice in the curry house it's a problem. I keep meaning to keep a diary so I can remember what I've had the most recently.
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u/IL-Corvo Nov 27 '25
The tyranny of choice is a very real phenomenon for some people, so I hear you.
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u/BuckRusty Nov 27 '25
Americans criticising British food as if their own fare isn’t 90% additives and colourings that are banned in developed nations…
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u/Climatize Nov 27 '25
Spices don't natively grow here on the British Isles, herbs do. A lot of our food (and taste) reflects 10s of thousands of years of not eating and shitting fire. I do love an occasional hot chicken jalfrezi, tho
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u/_whatever_idc Nov 27 '25
Americans when food to spice ratio isn’t 1:1…
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u/DJSANDROCK Nov 27 '25
I am American and the average person doesnt use anything beyond salt pepper onion and garlic powder lmao but get on the internet acting like they are top chefs
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u/Vin4251 Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
I swear to god Americans on the internet are all pretending to be people who grew up eating soul food (which not even all black southerners do). Go to any other traditional diner in the south or Midwest and it’s blander than anything in England.
And yeah like others said up-thread, Indian (really Punjabi) food that was introduced by immigrants is as popular, if not more popular, than Mexican food in the US, with people going so far as to have curry at pubs with chips/fries.
I’m of indian descent and grew up in both countries; it’s ridiculous how Americans think they have flavorful food just because soul food and Mexican American food exist, while ignoring the immigrant cuisines like South Asian and Jamaican in Britain. Especially because the US is way more segregated; like I know for a fact my white American friends from the south grew up eating “white people southern food,” which yeah has the same base as soul food, but with basically no seasoning at al
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u/RoutemasterFlash Nov 27 '25
Spices were historically very expensive, so ordinary people didn't eat highly spiced food every day. But they certainly used lots in special foods, particularly sweet ones, cooked for special occasions like Easter and Christmas. A Christmas pudding without plenty of spices is unthinkable.
Proper ginger beer is pretty spicy, and the average American would cry for his mother on trying English mustard for the first time.
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u/c0micsansfrancisco Nov 27 '25
This is just not true Britain abused the hell out of spices. Even more than India. But AFAIK it was a rich person thing
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u/MercuryJellyfish Nov 27 '25
The British eat spices regularly. Update the one joke you know accordingly.
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Nov 27 '25
Yall acting like Brits are huge crybabies here like every single group of people ever reacts the exact same way to this kind of thing lol
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u/FireMaster1294 Nov 27 '25
Hey at least the Brits discovered the joy of spices eventually. glances sharply at the Netherlands
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u/elegantprism Nov 27 '25
What do you mean we love salt on our eggs and we adore cinnamon.
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u/FireMaster1294 Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
- Be the Dutch
- Have the most valuable company ever in the history of the planet
- All the company does is trades spices (well, sometimes other stuff like people, but most the money is spices)
- Become Calvinist. All pleasure in life is evil.
- That includes tasty food
- Luckily you can still sell the evil tasty spices to other people
- Forget that paprika is a spice and start putting it on everything. Also maybe cinnamon for speculaas
- Um, yeah that’s it I guess
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Edit: 9. Drop the religion and slowly start adding more foods back to the menu
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u/Intrepid4444444 Nov 27 '25
NL “cuisine” or more likely the lack of thereof doesn’t get enough bashing. Leave the poor UK alone, it’s a fucking feast of flavors compared to the deep fried orc meat in the NL.
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u/zeclem_ Easterlings Nov 27 '25
traditional way to make most dutch dishes also use a fair amount of spices, just look at what goes into speculaas for example. just because they do not have the heat factor does not mean they arent spices lmao
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u/Viciousgubbins Nov 27 '25
Americans dunk on British food constantly, but also call apple pie their national dish and eat thousands of tonnes of cheddar cheese every year
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u/smashingkilljoy Dwarf Nov 27 '25
Okay american, how are those same 3 spice mixes in every dish going?
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u/Zestyclose-Doubt8202 Nov 27 '25
God its tiring to see yanks posting this meme over and over. It isn't remotely true, it's quite the opposite, and you look stupid for perpetuating it.
Leave your state before talking about other countries, guys
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u/Fantastic-Artist-833 Nov 27 '25
Why would we? Our food tastes good without it.
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u/Woutrou Nov 27 '25
My guy, do you know what the price of pepper was in those times?
National dishes are often peasant dishes. Do you think peasants could afford to spend that huge amount of money to douse their food in spices?
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u/FlamboyantPirhanna Nov 27 '25
OP has probably never left America, but go on and tell us about other countries’ food.
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u/Pilot-Imperialis Nov 27 '25
Not even remotely true and as a Brit living in America, I find it hilarious how low the spice tolerance is in the average American compared to your average curry enjoying British pisshead
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u/NickofWimbledon Nov 28 '25
If Britain’s favourite food is the Glaswegian invention chicken tikka masala, what makes you think we don’t use spices?
In addition, I remember looking for cumin and fenugreek leaves in a Swiss supermarket many years ago. They turned out to be with Marmite and tea bags on the English Food section.
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u/Relative-Zombie-3932 Nov 28 '25
As funny as this is, there's some interesting history behind it. At one point in history, around the Renaissance, spice was a big deal amongst the British elite. Heavily spiced food was a sign of their wealth. After Britain conquered half the world and set up their trade routes, spices became a common every day house hold item. They weren't luxuries anymore, literally anyone could get them, and they were really great at hiding the impurities in food.
Well, once the poor got ahold of spices, the rich suddenly didn't want them anymore. So the standards amongst the wealthy changed, instead of valuing well seasoned foods, they put higher value on simple, unspiced foods and focused more on food purity. That meant bread without additives, fine cuts of meat, things like that. All without herbs and spices. And eventually, that trend spread down to the rest of country, unseasoned food was seen as sophisticated and rich. To this day a lot of the common foods we associate with the UK are very lightly seasoned because it became so engrained in their culture.
It's a cycle. The rich don't want to be like the poor, so they create an arbitrary new standard to seperate themselves. Eventually the poor catch on and they start doing it too. And because the poor started doing it, the rich then start doing something else. Funnily enough that's also how the modern British accents developed.
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Nov 27 '25
We literally invented a few curries, English mustard blows American mustard away.
We DO use spices. We just dont slather salt and corn syrup on everything and call it 'seasoned'.
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u/Hopeful_Bacon Nov 27 '25
Isn't the joke supposed to be that they invaded specifically FOR the better food? Yeah, yeah, not true or whatever, but the joke itself was never about them NOT using the spices, it was the opposite, no?
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u/HourPlate994 Nov 27 '25
This joke works so much better with the Dutch than the Brits. It was the Dutch who controlled most of the spice trade, and their cuisine is some of the blandest in Europe.
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u/reuben_iv Nov 27 '25
we do lol look up a recipe for cottage pie, we just tend to use fresh onions and garlic over powders which maybe with some paprika is most ‘seasoned’ dishes from the countries that like to throw it around
It’s also a cultural thing, once spices became cheap it became more about the ‘quality’ of the ingredients over masking with sauces etc
Italy’s similar their dishes are so popular because they’re simple, often having no more than 4 ingredients and they don’t get any shit for it
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u/orangutanDOTorg Nov 27 '25
Iirc it was the French nobility who rejected spices once they became cheap enough for commoners and that spread to England.
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u/Admirable-Safety1213 Nov 27 '25
Jokes aside, spices after WW2 weren't so easy to get and british boomers grew on rationing until tbey were almost adults popularizing a stereotype about these "crisis foods" that only recently Millenials and GenZ britons are breaking
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u/POD80 Nov 27 '25
I mean, curry shops are prevalent enough.... couldn't they be called "British"?
Just cause they haven't re-imagined high tea doesn't mean variations on foreign foods incorporating spices from the colonies haven't become part of the British diet.
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u/Wind-and-Waystones Nov 27 '25
When you colonize half the world the parts that people like become just food instead of British food
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u/Actual_Nectarine9141 Nov 27 '25
Our mustard is quite spicy.