Are there pictures on the menus?

Spotted dick. Marmite. Jellied Eels.

Expensive jaunt to eat at Mickey D’s or Pizza Hut but each to their own palette.

My first trip on my own. I was in Scotland, and stopped at a bakery (my favorite kind of stop). I was looking at pastries, and pointed at something that I was pretty sure was a fruit-filled turnover. The woman at the counter said "it's (rolling Rs and hacking sounds)" - something I couldn't understand. She said it twice while I nodded politely and insistently.

It wasn't. It was filled with some kind of green slimy vegetable mixture the taste of which defies description. I pay more attention now.

My maternal grandparents ate a great deal of "typical" British Food since my grandfather immigrated to the States between the wars. My grandmother had a fascination with frozen TV dinners when they first came out. (Remember those metal trays?). She would carefully save those trays and come up with some homemade TV Dinner choices that would never have made it into the American Supermarket aisle.

Anyone for a kidney pie or tripe TV dinner? We kids loved Grandma, but we hated going there for a meal............

Ordered a big salad in France. The menu board listed ingredients, including what I thought were “onions.” Turned out to be “rognans,” kidneys. The bowl of salad was all greens at the top of the bowl, and maybe a little cucumber or tomato. When I lifted the lettuce, I shockingly discovered an extremely generous portion of kidney chunks. I ate around them, but had a very small salad as a result.

Had a steak and kidney pudding at Rules last week. Delicious.

Long ago and far away in a different lifetime....it was the first trip to England for my now ex-husband. He ordered Steak and Kidney pudding or pie for lunch in I think Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

It came...

He started eating it and said..."This tastes funny".

I said...it's probably the kidneys.

Kidneys!! he exclaimed. This has kidneys in it?

Well what did you expect from the name?

Well, he said...I didn't really think they would eat kidneys.

In retrospect, I should have cut my losses then....

Fun article, Joe!

Yorkshire pudding is absolutely the best accompaniment for a roast. And not to be confused with Jello Instant pudding! It’s a classic combination.

Another classic, apparently, is mushy peas with fish ‘n chips. The fish and the fried potatoes are great, but mutilating peas is just inhumane, and really unnecessary.

Joe’s article is interesting about the flapjacks. And Scottish pancakes and American pancakes are pretty much the same food item - but not so with English “pancakes.”

In general, though, menus with pictures are not something I desire to see.

Mushy peas are the greatest achievement of Western civilisation.

And what on Earth is wrong with kidneys? That faint taste of urine is sublime.

One of the more enjoyable parts of my career has been the research & developing the knowledge of historic English cooking plus teaching and mentoring coworkers. It's been a lot of fun diving into some old English foods. So thankfully I've not been surprised by anything. Made many pasties but it was great to get a real pasty the first time.

Now if you do find yourself in England on Tom Bawcock's Eve, don't try the star gazey pie 😉

All this talk about kidneys … how do folks feel about kidney beans?

Actually, “mushy” peas can be delicious, nice bright green, and a good texture if prepared properly. And a lot easier to eat that regular green peas.

Saw a post about "Sunday Roast", and went looking as to what that is.

joe32F, I had to do the same thing. It sounds a lot like an American pot roast. We fix those occasionally so we probably won't go looking for it.

We try to have foods from places or cuisines that aren't available in central South Carolina. I'm looking forward to 'true' English fish and chips, curries, and a Nepalese place in Bath with an intriguing menu. We've had fantastic butternut ravioli and linguini Carbonara at a strip mall in Plymouth, Massachusetts; a great roasted pepper soup near Zion National Park in Utah (almost two soups, each thick and creamy with a different type of pepper, swirled into the bowl); barbequed chicken from a church fund raiser at a gas station in Staunton, Virginia, that even cold from the ice chest the next morning than still better that any chicken we've had fresh and hot; and donuts from a local chain on our last morning in North Carolina's Outer Banks that we couldn't stop talking about on the six-hour drive home. None of these were from large chains or fancy places.

I must admit we got pretty tired of 'Continental Breakfast' on our Italian tour. I could eat salty salamis and cheese on crusty rolls for only a few days before I was ready to kill to get a Hardee's chicken biscuit or a bowl of oatmeal. Upper Michigan's famed pasties were a bit disappointing, just another meat turnover. We don't discuss the Thanksgiving dinner that a road trip forced on us at a Shoney's in Mississippi.

If possible, I suggest asking at the hotel desk. The clerks can usually give several recommendations, and I've rarely had one steer me wrong. If you're travelling with others, try to order different things. That way, if one selection is really unpleasant, you can share.

Either you are adventuresome or not. When it comes to food I am willing to try about anything. So when it comes to food we try for a rough idea of what it is and then go for it. There have been a couple of meals that I left half eaten but many times I am very surprised and pleased with what we are served. For us, that is part of the reason we travel. I am not a big fan of buying a chunk of cheese and a loaf of bread to eat in the hotel room. And if the menu has lots of picture I assume it caters to tourists and probably will past.

OK, VAP, that was a new one on me, Starry Gazey Pie, so I looked it up. For the other uninitiates, here’s a photo, and a recipe: https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/stargazy-pie-english-sardine-pie/

A more tolerable modern recipe. An original version of the recipe was simply egg, turnips, onion and fish with the heads peeking out of the pastry.

"Actually, m”mushy” peas can be delicious, nice bright green"

Proper feshly made mushy peas are a pale green as that is the natural color of marrow fat peas, the glow in the dark bright green variety are normally from tins and have had colouring added. Proper mushy peas with a pork pie and mint sauce is a meal of wonder.

Marmite and proper Bury black pudding are marvels.

So the fish are poking their heads out of the top of the pie, ostensibly gazing at the sky. If there were kidneys in the filling, too, one might argue that the fish were trying to escape the kidneys, by wriggling through the crust!

Mushy peas have their devotees, for whatever reason. Not exactly my cup of tea, or cup of peas, as it were.

But I recall a post on this Forum from some time ago, and while I really enjoy cream-style corn, most of the others had only disparaging things to say about it. There’s no cream there, of course, but smashing corn releases starch, and just as rice can be turned into delightful risotto, and course-ground corn can be wonderful polenta (or not-as-wonderful grits), creamed corn is an excellent preparation. So is corn on the cob, corn relish, corn tortilla chips …

Sunday roasts, or any roasts, in Britain are nothing like a pot roast. It means (usually) beef, chicken, turkeys or lamb cooked in the oven, I think the American term would be “baked” (which in English English is the term only used for cakes, not meat). And you’d definitely find it in many pubs for Sunday lunch.

English Sunday roast is NOT like pot roast. It's regular oven roasted meat, and it can be beef, pork, or lamb.
Yorkshire pudding is the same basic recipe as popovers, but involves meat drippings.

On my first trip to Europe, we were driving through northern Spain (in Galicia, I believe). Rural area, getting late in the day, girlfriend was hungry and starting to protest the lack of food. No cafes we could find, but we spotted a bar in some tiny town we drove through. It looked a bit questionable, but there was nothing else around, and I figured we would poke our heads in. We did.

I open the door, we step in. Every head turns (my girlfriend was quite attractive, and often turned heads). The room went completely silent, except for the TV over the bar with a football match. She looks at me anxiously and pulls me a bit closer. There's not another female in the place. The patrons look a bit scruffy, this is clearly a working man's bar. No fancy food here, it seems. I reassure her, "Don't worry, my Spanish is pretty good. Let's just see what they have..."

I ask if there's food. Bartender says "si!"  and nods towards an empty table. We sit down, he brings a menu. I order a glass of red wine for her, water for me. Nothing on the menu looks familiar, absolutely nothing, I can make no sense of it at all. We (well, OK, mostly her) are still getting a lot of stares. We are getting uneasy.

Looking up and down at the menu, I finally spot something that I thought looked like "morsellas" (spelling approximate). Guessing that this must be the Spanish word for "morsels", in other words, some kind of small snacks, I'm thinking...tapas. Yeah, lets order some tapas, how bad could it be? And it'll be a small portion, so a low-risk choice. "Morsellas, por favor!"

Bartender scurries off, comes back and puts a large, warm bowl of, um, something, in front of us with two spoons, and walks away. It looked kind of like chili or a stew, it was mostly small chunks of meat, tripe, I think, in a thin, a brown sauce. It smelled god-awful. My girlfriend shot me a look. I smiled and picked up a spoon. She didn't. She sat with her arms folded, looking at me like I was crazy.

I stirred the contents of the bowl a little, hoping I might find a hint of a vegetable or some rice in there, but nope, it just looked like chunks of meat in a sauce. I poked around, cautiously put a bit of the stuff in my spoon, brought it towards my mouth. My girlfriend grimaced. I took a sniff - ugh! - it smelled horrible. I hesitated. I could hear a few people at the bar starting to snicker. I touched the spoon to my tongue. Oh god, that's foul, I muttered. I opened my mouth, trying to stifle my gag reflex.

My girlfriend picked up her glass of wine, and tossed back half of it in one big gulp. She put down her glass, looked at me, and shook her head. I took a tiny bite of the stuff. It was tough, greasy, slightly sweet and and a little spicy, and I started to retch. I closed my eyes and managed to swallow. She laughed out loud at me - HAH!  I put my spoon down quickly, grabbed her wine glass and drank all of what was left in it, then chugged my full glass of water, and shuddered.

I stood up, walked to the bar, asked for the bill, paid it, turned around. My girlfriend was already out the door, several of the bar patrons were howling with laughter. I managed a weak smile, waved adios and muttered a quick "gracias!", headed out the door, and back to the car. We drove on in silence.

No more experimenting with unknown "morsels" for us on that trip.

David, maybe “morsellas” from any other place in Spain would’ve been delicious. Maybe the patrons howling with laughter in that bar just knew not to get anything from its kitchen.

Mushy peas are the greatest achievement of Western civilisation.
And what on Earth is wrong with kidneys? That faint taste of urine is sublime.

OK, so combine the two. Crush some kidneys, and it sounds like you’d get “mushy pees.” Urine luck!

By no means comprehensive, this is a fairly good Rosetta Stone to translate the King’s English (on menus) to American Menu English.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/english-to-american-recipe-translator-435441

I have some food issues while also taking quite a bit of delight in food. I’m also a bit of a snob, so tend to shy from places that cater to tourists with multilingual menus. So, I am always looking for culinary rosetta stones. When I come across a good one, I save it. The Italian Wine Rosetta Stone that I clipped from a restaurant here is a miracle, and massively helpful on my last trip to Italy.

I have found, even here in the US, the Google to be really useful in navigating menus, both with typical ingredients in a dish, and with what ingredients listed on a menu are. Came real close to ordering a giant phallic clam once because I didn’t know that geoduck wasn’t some fancy breed of waterfowl.

If mushy peas are traditionally made with marrowfat peas (mature, dried peas (sometimes described as beans) soaked and then boiled to death) then they are indeed worthy of disdain.

But the ones I had with my fish ‘n chips at the cafe in front of the London Southbank BFI were made from fresh green baby peas right from the garden, and never saw the inside of a tin, or artificial color. They were the natural color of young peas, the type we in the US call “English peas”, especially those of us who are gardeners. That distinguishes them from black-eyed peas (used to make Hoppin’ John) and the yellow or green dried peas used for soup.

They had a bit of chopped mint which was nice. Maybe the kitchen was using the Jamie Oliver recipe, which definitely uses fresh green peas, not your old dried marrowfats.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/fish-chips-and-mushy-peas/

We were just remembering this event this morning. My son and I were in Berchtesgaden sitting at a table outside with beautiful views. He ordered something whose English translation was "onion steak". The dish was brought to the table and my son's eyes got big.
He said, "this is exactly as I pictured it!!". That was his favorite meal of the trip. So, the opposite of what you posted about, but we talk about it frequently.

This might also be an opportune moment to mention Rick Steves’ latest book, Italy for Food Lovers. https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/italy-for-food-lovers. I learned about it on a recent Monday Night Travel video presentation. It’s co-authored by opera expert and food aficionado Fred Plotkin, and it covers every region of Italy, meaning lots of places that will never be mentioned in Rick’s guidebooks. Inspiration to try new things in new places! The menu decoder could prove very helpful, and, yes, there are lots of color pictures. Not exactly a photo menu directed at lowest-common-denominator travelers, though.

"but I would think it would be hard to find one in a pub."

99% of pubs serving food will do a Sunday roast, I would venture it is the most common place to find one these days and perhaps where most Brits will have one.

As regards pictures on menus, one is more likely to see that at fast food outlets, less so in pubs and resturants other than perhaps in more touristy areas.

David, maybe “morsellas” from any other place in Spain would’ve been
delicious. Maybe the patrons howling with laughter in that bar just
knew not to get anything from its kitchen.

Perhaps, Cyn.

But it's equally possible that those were the best damn morsellas in all of Spain, or the entire world.

Maybe I'm just not a big fan. I have not come across that menu item since (though I do love Spain and pretty much every other bit of food I've ever put in my mouth there).

The food in Spain is my favorite in all Europe, especially Pulpo a La Gallega.

" OK, so combine the two. Crush some kidneys, and it sounds like you’d get “mushy pees.” Urine luck! " I'm certain there are people who have gone to The Tower for things like this !

If you can wade through all the ads, you will get what you want......a list of "British" foods with explanations and pictures.

https://www.worldtravelconnector.com/must-try-british-foods-in-britain/

No worries, joe32F.

Just partake of the British national dish, Chicken Tikka Masala.

But be sure to follow it with the real reason the Brits have bad teeth, the absolutely delicious Sticky Toffee Pudding. Make sure it's homemade. Truth be told, every slice of cake I've had in Great Britain has been excellent.

And no need to go to Mickey Ds. Hamburgers seem to be very popular these days, but they do come with chips (fries). I've had some of the best ever in Great Britain, including at the Erskine Arms in Conwy, Wales last summer.

You can Google and find lots of lists of British vs. Amercan food words. This is only one of many that showed up when I did: https://7esl.com/british-vs-american-food-names/

One thing that I have to remind myself about is that corn = grain, so if someone says something about grinding corn or a corn mill, it's likely some kind of grass-like grain like wheat, barley and oats (but not rice).

Mushy peas are meant to be made from dried peas. Some fancy places make them from garden peas and mint but this is them trying to be upmarket because poor old mushy peas have a bad image. Mint does not go with fish so I do not understand where this idea came from.

But be sure to follow it with the real reason the Brits have bad teeth,

Excuse me?

Are you the same guy who told us recently that the King owns every home in the UK?

(Fun fact .,,, far more Americans have bad teeth than “Brits” because of the lack of access to health care)

Pukka mushy peas come from marrow fat peas, hence the pale green colour.

I love good mushy peas spread on warm buttered bread wrapped around chips (fries)! Try it!

Upper Michigan's famed pasties were a bit disappointing, just another meat turnover.

"Upper Michigan" pasties will vary in quality and ingredients depending on the source. There's even disagreement on what constitutes a true "Upper Michigan" pastie. I've found a great one at a small shack in St. Ignace and a terrible one in Sault Ste. Marie. We've tried them throughout the UP and there's just too much variation to call them "disappointing".

For decades the best we've ever had were obtained at Fox's Pasties in Dearborn MI where orders were taken in advance. Many people didn't want rutabagas or some wanted carrots. Eventually chicken was offered as well. The hero in our Ford IT offices was the guy who gathered up requests, ordered and picked up the pasties from Fox's. The hero at home was the Ford IT guy who brought home a batch of Fox's pasties ready to bake. Sadly they retired several years ago but we have some other sources here as well.

Pretty sure the bad teeth thing is an image from the past when many children were sent to boarding schools and given very little adult supervision in their toilet.

Curious how dentistry fits with NHS in England, as opposed to America, where your teeth and gums are considered something completely separate from the entire rest of your body, requiring practitioners who go through a completely separate education and certification process to the rest of medicine. Same thing with vision.

I’m gonna Google for the rest. But reasonably sure that the sweets were only part of the issue, with maintenance being the lion’s share.
-Update-
It’s apparently an American trope that our cousins from the other side of the ocean have bad teeth. Their system works very similarly to ours, but the NHS focus on health rather than cosmetic perfection. As a result, British have healthier teeth, while Americans have whiter teeth with more rot. Must be all the corn syrup in everything here. ;-)

The worst meal we have eaten is the one often recalled with a smile.
For us travel is meant to expand our knowledge of how people live.
Pushing past our palette constraints often leads to rewarding experiences.
We tend to avoid places offering photo menus (for same reason I prefer my older passport photos).
So we have experienced a broad array of tastes, aromas, textures all contributing to the travel journey.
All forming memories recalled with an eclectic mix of facial expressions.
Taste freely and fearlessly.

Dentistry is a completely different specialism here too, it’s just that some dentistry is NHS funded. It’s never been as comprehensive as other medical care and now there are actually very few NHS dentists. They make more money doing private work and are choosing to do that instead.

Aaaa !!!!! You haven't lived until your have had guinea pig on a stick purchased from a road side vendor in Peru.

Well, it is a different country to yours. In London, it is sometimes hard to fight past all the fast food garbage, to find decent traditional English cuisine (no that is not an oxymoron). The Indian take out places are easy to figure out, and good value, as the Brits like to say. Pics are on most menus of the take outs (takeaway to them - anyways) IMO, the English traditional meals have improved exponentially in the past 30 or 40 years, from an execution standpoint. The Full English breakfast being the exception; that can be hit and miss - hope you like cold toast.

Do Americans not eat liver either?

The do but I would guess it is on the decline since liver has high fat and coupled with a reputation for collecting bad chemicals. In our household in the 40s and 50s liver was common dish and still a favorite to this day except that it is rarely seen on menus these days. Growing up in a farming/rural community various organ meats were common but not so much today.

@Nick: Americans have contributed more than cheez-whiz to global cuisine. Our forte though is the culture jam and optimization of things for mass consumption. Oft times, that results in a monstrosity, like the Kraft Parmesan in a can that had wood fiber, but was shake & sprinkle ready, and a good sight more affordable that DOP 24 month parmigiano reggiano. But occasionally, a genuine improvement over the original thing from its home country. To take something generally popular in England now, the hamburger.

American BBQ (as a whole, without deep diving into regional cultures) is a blending of traditions developed in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Central Europe. It owes something to the colonizers, the enslaved, and the indigenous populations of the Americas. And it is appreciated throughout the country as uniquely American.

But why do we have to contribute in the culinary arts? Aren’t our contributions in culture of sufficient influence? Jazz, blues, rock, disco, rap, hip hop. And on and on.

@ Charlie Spencer....I love YakYetiYak! That has got to be the restaurant you are referring to. It's been years since I ate there, though, but it was delicious for my tastes (vegan). Very sweet staff as well.

And @Cyn...yes to kidney beans....but then I'm a bean-y kind of gal. Undercooked they can be toxic and cause illness or death. There was a Dick/Felix Francis book that featured this as the "weapon" I think....might have been Dead Heat which features a chef.

I am convinced that "American food" is widely misunderstood by foreigners. For example, I have overseas family coming to visit soon, they'll be living with us for a while (6 weeks). My dear sweet niece is a smart young woman (she is from Thailand, and has never been to the USA previously). I asked her if there was anything she was worried about before her trip. She was shy and reluctant to answer at first (she's very polite) but when pressed she admitted she was not looking forward to the food. "I don't really like hamburgers" she confessed. Of course, the only "American food" she knows is Macdonalds and Burger King, which are everywhere in the world. I tried to hide my chuckles, and reassured her that we would keep the Micky D's to a minimum (I haven't eaten anything from them for over 20 years).

Her cousin (also from Thailand) came to stay with us a few years ago. He had the same worries before his visit (he said he didn't eat beef). By the end of his first week, he was begging for more of, pretty much everything we could find - he especially loved Mexican food, Indian food, middle eastern food (he had never tasted any previously), Italian food, salmon, crab and other local seafood. he loved everything we put in front of him, even the beef tenderloin filet wrapped in bacon with seared scallops on the side, local strawberry shortcake, raspberries, corn on the cob, whole Maine lobster, guacamole...this boy could eat!

My point is: there is little in the way of "American food." What we do have are many local and regional cuisines, which are based on our own local specialties, along with imports, refinements, and fusions of world cuisines that have been brought here by immigrants from all over the world.

"American food" is not about "cheese in a can", hamburgers, or fast food chains. It's all about the beauty of E pluribus unum. Our food is the same way - in diversity there is deliciousness: Diversitas est delectamentum.

I look forward to teaching my niece about salmon, barbecue, jambalaya, quesadillas, shawarma, mulligatawny soup, jazz, rhythm & blues, jimi hemdrix, freedom of the press, and a hundred other things that America has either invented, improved or embraced, all of which she's not expecting. No Micky D's (if she wants to try a decent hamburger, we can set up some lovely Japanese Wagyu beef, and see if that works for her).

Mmm...OK, now I'm hungry.

My adventure was in Montmartre, I recognized agneau on the menu but not cervelles ...

Re the earlier post about "morsels" in Spain - morcilla is a sausage enjoyed in many Spanish/Latin countries made from pig or cow's blood, bits of lung and heart. Perhaps what you had was related.

My wife's Brazilian, she'll eat it, but I've never had the guts to try it!

And here if you want to see some British food. I was impressed by how accommodating the culture is to vegans

https://youtu.be/8nGnn6CfG_M

These are great stories! I’m reading several to my husband as we remember meal experiences from past trips.

Nick, we both laughed at your “spray cheese” comment! We just returned from a couple of weeks in Hawaii where the grocery stores tend to mark the groceries with “Go ahead, hurt me” prices. We stopped at the store for some favorite snacks to watch the Super Bowl (American football), and we didn’t want to buy tortilla chips, hot sauce and a large chunk of cheese. We saw the “spray cheese” near the chips and thought it could be a substitute this time. Whew, nasty stuff! Not sure we can call it food!

We’re staying in a B&B at Betws-y-Coed this summer, and I appreciate that they sent us info, including their options for breakfast to see what we prefer. We decided to skip the “pudding” because we wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings if we really couldn’t finish it.

@Riley - That sounds like it exactly: Morcilla, aka "Spanish blood sausage." Thank you for solving this (now) decades-old mystery.

We were expecting some yummy tapas, so blood sausage made with organ meats was quite a surprise.
No wonder everybody was laughing at us!

Cold toast is a B&B special. I can assure you we all prefer hot toast!

@pam: I got into Dick Francis from my mom when I was you, maybe ten or twelve. We went to a book signing of his in NY, at this bookstore, Murder Inc.

We were the only people there, and he was kind of a jerk to a young fan. But man could write a good mystery in the British horse scene.

If you want some great American cuisine, go to New Orleans.

My Darling Bride and I occasionally discuss what we'd serve if we were to open an 'American Food' restaurant somewhere outside North America. Fried chicken is usually at the top of the list. Shrimp and grits (grits are similar to polenta), slow-smoked beef or pork ribs, catfish (fried, grilled, or blackened), roasted corn on the cob, baked sweet potatoes, ...

Pam, yes, YakYetiYak is one I'm looking forward to!

“. . . The sole American contribution to international food is spray-on cheese”.

Hmmm. Where would Italian cuisine be without tomatoes? Or the Spanish cuisine without capsicums (the source of paprika, among other virtues). And how would the Brits make fish n chips without potatoes?

These foods, and many others**, originated in the Americas, and were unknown in Europe until the so-called “New World” was “discovered”, and exploited.

** in addition to tomatoes, potatoes, and capsicums/peppers of all kinds, the foods that originated in the Americas include squash and pumpkin, avocado, maize, and beans of all kinds.

I’ve got one word for any gastronomic Americaphobes out there:

CHOCOLATE.

I rest my case.

David,
My wife is from Hershey, PA.....................
We both believe the chocolate found across the pond is far superior to American milk chocolate.
However, authentic Amish made Whoopie Pies will stand against the finest of international desserts. ;)

David, how could I forget chocolate! Probably America’s greatest contribution to culinary pleasure.

To Steven from FL: milk chocolate ala Hershey’s is not American. It was invented by the Swiss as a way to use excess milk from all those cows. Swiss dairy farmers populated the eastern US, ( particularly Pennsylvania and Ohio) in the late 1800’s (my husband’s great- grandfather was one of them) and milk chocolate followed.

To my mind, milk chocolate is not real chocolate and not worthy of the name. And the original chocolate of the native Americans did not use milk. Nor should it today to my mind.

Chocolate: Original food of the Mayan gods…

“The history of chocolate begins its 4,000 years of history in ancient Mesoamerica, present day Mexico and the birthplace of chocolate. It's here that the first cacao plants, the plant which chocolate is made from, were found.”

Yes, lots of fine chocolate now from all over Europe. We can all thank Quetzalcoatl for that:

“An ancient Toltec myth identifies Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, as planter of the cacao trees in the tropics of southern Mexico. He was called "the god of light, the giver of the drink of the gods, chocolate." Both the Mayas and Aztecs regarded chocolate as a potent aphrodisiac.”

Ahem.

One can't beat very well done cold toast with spread and Marmite.

Mushy peas made with fresh peas aren't mushy peas, they're simply crushed peas. Proper, authentic mushy peas must be made with dried marrowfat peas. This gives them the distinctive taste and texture that differs to that of fresh peas (crushed or not). They should be well seasoned and not contain mint or any other herb or spice. Served alongside fish and chips accompanied with freshly made tartare sauce is the best way to eat them.

I also don't consider Jamie Oliver someone who provides a good representation of British food. He has a tendency to alter dishes often in an attempt to make them appear fresher or healthier. Better representatives of traditional British cuisine are Marcus Wareing, Jason Atherton and Nigel Slater to name just a few.

They should be well seasoned and not contain mint or any other herb or spice.

JC, if they shouldn't contain herbs or spices, what's being used to 'well season' them?

"Mushy peas made with fresh peas aren't mushy peas, they're simply crushed peas. Proper, authentic mushy peas must be made with dried marrowfat peas."

Indeed.

Once flicking thro' through the channels, I caught Guy Fieri making mushy with fresh garden peas in some flashy place in Los Angeles, caiming the he was making them was the original Irish way - wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels, mushy peas are born an bred in Lincolnshire!

Chocolate, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, chilies, and on an on. Many modern global products came out of colonial “discovery.”

You mean like this kind of menu

https://www.eatatperkins.com/menu

A real British Cadbury Dairy milk (or Irish Cadbury, yet again different) is the only milk chocolate to eat.

Have to say I'm more than a bit partial to the Valrhona Jivara 40% Milk Chocolate, myself.

The Perkins menu … the nutrition information pages at the end are kind-of interesting. Maybe it should be labeled “Nutritional Warning!”. Nice that there’s almost no Trans Fat in anything, but, boy is there a lot of Sodium present! No need at the table to say, “Pass the salt.”

Perkins (at one time called Perkins Cake and Steak) had a restaurant at the corner of West Colfax Ave. and Simms in Lakewood, Colorado, just west of Denver. It closed several years ago, and the hulk of the building has sat empty ever since. Maybe that speaks volumes. I wasn’t sure the company was still in business.

Cadbury chocolate bars … got one in Kathmandu 25 years ago, thinking it would be a treat. I’m not sure now whether it was made in Nepal or India (I believe the latter), but it was unpleasantly waxy and not even to the standards of what was being marketed in the U.S.A. at the time. I realized then that production standards for the same item weren’t universal around the globe.

Keeping that in mind, Kettle brand potato chips (crisps to some folks) in the U.S. are thick cut and have a firmer texture, and are extra crunchy, akin to kettle-fried potatoes. In the U.K., with the exact same packaging, right down to the font for the printed name on the bag, and by all indications being the same product, are not the same. They’re just plain ol’ potato crisps (chips), thin and brittle. On either side of the pond nowadays, they seem to be more about the variety of artificial flavorings, and less about the potatoes. That’s one reason not to overindulge.

Back to Nepal for a moment. That’s where I discovered the spelling “chilli,” for a spicy ingredient, and I thought it must’ve been a well-intentioned but incorrect spelling, with too many “L’s.” I realized later that’s the spelling in the U.K. and its most recently affiliated places. The U.S. has its own variations on the spelling. A past thread on this Forum had a heated (yes, spicy) argument over “chile” versus any other iteration.

JC, if they shouldn't contain herbs or spices, what's being used to 'well season' them?

Salt.

Do Americans not eat liver either?

Rarely at home BUT at least once on every trip through Germany along with fried onions and mashed potatoes. Being of Eastern European descent our family was raised on the Nose-to-Tail diet.

@AMann, we have had several wonderful Sunday roasts in pubs, can’t knock pubs roasts until you try it.

The OP asked about experiences of ordering something and getting surprised, including if pleasant. In March 2020, two days before the Pandemic was declared and we had to cut the vacation short and catch the next flight home to the U.S., we had a much-anticipated dinner at the Michelin starred Pollen Street Social in London. One palette-cleanser course on the tasting menu was an oyster ice cream. Maybe it wasn’t ice cream - but it couldn’t have been sherbet or gelato. It was creamy and refreshing, though, and surprisingly good. The waitstaff said that customers were evenly split on it - 50% loved it, and 50% abhorred it.

If you’re paying that much for a meal, hopefully you’ll enjoy everything that’s served!

I have a funny dinner story for you. My husband and I and another couple were in a Christmas market tour in Germany. We had traveled by car in a blizzard from somewhere in eastern Switzerland to Munich the day before. We had spent quite a bit of time at the markets in and around the Marienplatz and were ready for a meal. The guys are beer lovers so we found a table at a beer hall near the Marienplatz (not the Hofbrauhaus). The gals saw a turkey dinner on the menu. Not having had turkey on a previous trip to Germany we ordered that. My husband was translating for us and saw a filet on the menu. The guys were really hungry. That was the meal for them. How can one go wrong with a filet?

The gal's meals were delivered first. There was so much food we could have shared one meal with food left over. We were awestruck! Shortly thereafter the guys food was served. The gals started laughing and laughing and laughing. The guys food was served on a small plate which held a lettuce leaf with a small whole fish ( "Matjes filet") with a bit of sauce on top. That's it. Nothing else. The guys were awestruck but in a very different way.

My friend and I continued laughing. Soon neighboring tables figured out what was going on. The word spread. Soon the entire large room was laughing too. Finally, the gals stopped laughing. But soon we started again. I have laughed a lot in my wonderful life. But never as long and as hard as I did that day! My husband and I have returned to thatparticular beer hall a couple times on subsequent trips in the fall of the year but always order venison as a main course.

Happy Travels everyone!

Traveler Girl

P.S. The gals shared their dinners with the guys.