Need some insight into British cuisine

[hitmouse]

A lot of years back I had singing lessons, and my teacher said that my middle class southern English accent was the worst for learning to sing, as it is a lot in the back of the throat and very flat so doesn't resonate. Whereas the Welsh accent places the voice very much just behind the lips, and it has good resonance, which is why a lot of Welsh are good singers, because they are already in the habit of placing their voice in the right part of the mouth for a good round sound.

I am not sure I agree with your singing teachers analysis. I would argue that it is the other way around. More pronounced in the north than the south, but just listen to Richard Burton or Anthony Hopkins or Michael Sheen, who are all from the Port Talbot area. Certainly, my Welsh is back of the throat compared to my home counties English. The vowels in Yma O Hyd are very much back of the mouth and pharynx.

 

[Ursa major]

A mashed potato-topped pie made with beef is a cottage pie. To be a shepherds pie, the meat must be lamb (or mutton).
Shepherds don't look after cows - the clue is in the name...

It seems that you do have a beef about the product (and its name)....

 

[Mr Cairo]

I just know that I'm now compelled to try this tomorrow!

It was very much a meal of necessity so I am not sure that it will go across well in this day and age but IIRC use very Strong tea leave it infuse for a good 4 minutes, at least 3 teaspoons of sugar, the bread is butterd and thick cut add the cheese first and give it a minute then the bread.

Its kind of like dipping a slice of cheese on toast into your morning tea and oddly enough its also nothing like dipping your morning toast into your tea

 

[Mr Cairo]

Couple of questions I may have missed is did your Captain come from money or not and how old are they?

Binging it back to the original subject...

I was trying to stay on subject as age will mean the type of food that they ate as a child would be different, I was born in the 60's and what I ate growing up is incredibly different to what a child born in the late 80's would have eaten, food became a lot more diverse and affordable during the late 80's to early 90's and Cardiff (where the captain was born) is a massive multicultural city being so close to the docklands so lots of different exposure to different tastes.

Then the money, as I said earlier we grew up with little so we were exposed to cheap meals but people with money had more fish, fresh veg, fruit etc

I know this is a future set story but I was trying to get a feel for the captains childhood and age to ground my reply to my own experience .

 

[Dave]

A mashed potato-topped pie made with beef is a cottage pie. To be a shepherds pie, the meat must be lamb (or mutton).
Shepherds don't look after cows - the clue is in the name...

It seems that you do have a beef about the product (and its name)....

I've a similar "beef" about Moussaka. It should be lamb mince, aubergine and thinly sliced potato inside with a béchamel sauce on top. If there is sliced potato on top, then that is not a Moussaka, that's a Lancashire Hot Pot!

 

[Foxbat]

As this is a thread on UK cuisine, I’d like to point out that the haggis is the only British dish I know of that has suffered summary execution.

In 2001, there was an outbreak of foot and mouth in the UK. A correspondent for The Scotsman newspaper landed in Seattle and caused a panic. A haggis was discovered hidden in his luggage (banned in the USA). Security staff took it out to the runway, shot it repeatedly and then doused it in petrol.

Poor beastie.

Makes me proud to be a Scot

 

[Pyan]

Here's a picture of haggis in the wild, for our overseas friends. Note that the left legs are longer than the right, enabling the wee beastie to scamper along steep hillsides. They're easily caught, though, by making them turn round. They promptly roll to the bottom of the slope where they can then be easily scooped up in a haggis-net, and taken off to be fattened up for Burn's Night.

 

[Ursa major]

for Burn's Night

...named after the first person to cook a Haggis, a distant descendant of King Alfred (he of the famous "exceedingly baked" cakes)....