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I am in Sheffield not so far! :faerie: Pev left Yorkshire I think. I would be honoured to attend even if I invited myself :faerie:

 

I'd be more than happy to send you some reggae reggae sauce! haha it goes oddly with so many things! pm me seriously if you want a bottle! haha surely customs can't stop sauce...can they:)

 

Our meal on Saturday was lovely!..I had aspargus to start with a propr poached egg and parmesan (I can't poach eggs so if anyone has a tip or 3 hundred make a thread!) then veal with veggies! the veal was ok not the best but ok :faerie:

 

But I am hijacking your thread....sauces...ahh daddies hahah remember that stuff very crazy-looking and sharp...not had it for years wonder if they have made it sweeter! I swear sauces are sweetened up these days!

 

Chefs emoticons hahah yeah Bond we should have some...pinches gogo and the team :faerie::

 

You are being very kind. I won't forget.java script:add_smilie(":faerie:","smid_19")

 

I think somehow postage on a bottle of sauce would be prohibitive, even if tghe French GPO didn't smash it. Leave it till next March - you can come and help me find some in Hants.

 

You can still get veal in restaurants? I remember it was impossible to find for cooking at home. It was always dry in restaurants, but that was a long time age. No doubt they have learnt to cook it proper now.

 

My thread. Not at all. It is meant to be a general chat thread, like the bar, but food & drink orientated...for anyone to use who has a general problem or query.

 

 

I also wondered, for instance, if there was an argument in favour of collecting certain threads into an illustrated 'dictionary' of names in different countries for some of the basic ingredients used here. Or perhaps an index of relevant threads. That 'onions' thread was a super example and clarified a lot of language problems. Just a vague idea because I personally often find it difficult to follow some of the recipes and discussion here.

 

I suppose they are all too busy with Sacred2. I never did get the demo to work, so am waiting till used copies come within my price range. Dear old PM has robbed me of about a third of my income. Just hope he doesn't join the Euro till the pound gets back to a reasonable level

Edited by Bondbug
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  • 1 month later...

Just wondering...if there is a prize....for the greatest number of... 'last posts'...in dead threads...or for...the biggest number of...zero response threads...:)

 

:)

 

 

Editing rather than triple posting - wow such economy.

I was reading thro the thread where Enci talks of rose hip jam. No one mentions the high vitamin C content of rose hips (who cares!) or the somewhat more embarassing problem of the seeds. Note well that it is of extreme importance to be sure to remove all the seeds, which can cause intestinal problems. Not for nothing do the French (who are pretty basic in their naming of things...pissenlit for dandelion leaves for instance)...call these things 'gratte cul'. Ask Gogo what that means...I dare not translate it.

 

But, with all due precautions, I will certainly try the jam come the season. There is an alternative which uses honey insted of sugar, but Enci would probably find that disgusting!

Edited by Bondbug
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You get to my age, you get used to talking to yourself. Mutter under my breath while I poke the fire.

 

Does anyone remember when chicken was something special, an occasional treat. We used to look forward to a 'capon' for Xmas dinner. T'other side of the Atlantic you were no doubt stuffing turkeys, but here it was a capon, and we looked forward to it. Same for my wife and she is still (fairly) young.

 

Nowadays if you give me chicken I would probably throw it at you, specially since I once was taken on a visit to a chicken battery farm when it was the latest thing. Yuck. What a pity they spoilt the chicken. We eat other birds, but it takes a lot to make chicken tasty.

 

(That should raise a shout from the chicken addicts)

 

I keep meaning to ask Borg about BBQing chicken - who was that called me an old fraud? I saw his beer can special. Does anyone BBQ whole chickens? Does Borg use his rotisserie? He mentioned having one.

 

I daren't look at his BBQ thread, the photos are far too realistic and tempting.

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  • 3 months later...

I just finished turning La Cocina de Loco upside down looking for some tea. I am generally a coffee drinker but my mother, and her mother before both enjoyed a brand of tea here in the states called Bigelow "Constant Comment" it is hot tea seasoned with orange rind and sweet spice according to the box.

 

It is this time of year that thoughts go to family long past. and this particular tea reminds me of cold winter days at home when my mother would be in the kitchen on weekends, as she always was. We would come in from the cold - either playing or helping cut firewood with Dad. And this tea had a smell that used to warm me in more ways than one.

 

I thought I had some somewhere. And as I looked it turned to unloading cabinets, got a little frantic there towards the end. maniacal even. and sure enough the last drawer in the last cabinet.

 

Now my boys noses just led them out to the kitchen wondering what the wonderful smell was. That got me.....

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You get to my age, you get used to talking to yourself. Mutter under my breath while I poke the fire.

 

Does anyone remember when chicken was something special, an occasional treat. We used to look forward to a 'capon' for Xmas dinner. T'other side of the Atlantic you were no doubt stuffing turkeys, but here it was a capon, and we looked forward to it. Same for my wife and she is still (fairly) young.

 

Nowadays if you give me chicken I would probably throw it at you, specially since I once was taken on a visit to a chicken battery farm when it was the latest thing. Yuck. What a pity they spoilt the chicken. We eat other birds, but it takes a lot to make chicken tasty.

 

(That should raise a shout from the chicken addicts)

 

I keep meaning to ask Borg about BBQing chicken - who was that called me an old fraud? I saw his beer can special. Does anyone BBQ whole chickens? Does Borg use his rotisserie? He mentioned having one.

 

I daren't look at his BBQ thread, the photos are far too realistic and tempting.

 

Haven't done the Beer can chicken in over a year. whole on the can for 45 min and you better believe that is the best chicken I have ever had. juicy like no chicken is ever allowed to be. smoked a little from the dripping catching fire, and the beer add a flavor to the meat that..... I am getting hungry now. too bad its only -8 C out side right now.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Haven't done the Beer can chicken in over a year. whole on the can for 45 min and you better believe that is the best chicken I have ever had. juicy like no chicken is ever allowed to be. smoked a little from the dripping catching fire, and the beer add a flavor to the meat that..... I am getting hungry now. too bad its only -8 C out side right now.

 

Well Loco, I always said that a sunny day in winter is the best time for a midday BBQ - far too hot in summer, and too many bugs in the summer evenings. :D

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Veal....whatever happened to veal in GB? Do you folks still have veal where you are?

 

I remember when I was a better-off young junior architect type bloke...when we went out for a meal there were always two or three veal dishes on the menu...veal in bread crumbs...veal with an egg on top...can't remember them all...."cordon bleu" comes to mind. Impossible then to find veal for domestic consumption......it all went to the restaurant trade, where it was uniformly flattened and dry.

 

Now I don't see veal on offer anywhere on the rare occasions when I get to a restaurant in GB, yet there seems to be plenty available in other countries. Plenty of recipes on the Web.

 

It also seems difficult to be quite sure what people refer to as 'veal'...I see US has something like 6 grades for it, and what I like seems to be called 'baby beef' there, somewhere between 6 and 12 months old with the beginnings of a beef flavour.

 

How do people feel about veal? Do you get veal? Is it too expensive to be realistic for domestic use?

Edited by Bondbug
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Veal....whatever happened to veal in GB? Do you folks still have veal where you are?

 

I remember when I was a better-off young junior architect type bloke...when we went out for a meal there were always two or three veal dishes on the menu...veal in bread crumbs...veal with an egg on top...can't remember them all...."cordon bleu" comes to mind. Impossible then to find veal for domestic consumption......it all went to the restaurant trade, where it was uniformly flattened and dry.

 

Now I don't see veal on offer anywhere on the rare occasions when I get to a restaurant in GB, yet there seems to be plenty available in other countries. Plenty of recipes on the Web.

 

It also seems difficult to be quite sure what people refer to as 'veal'...I see US has something like 6 grades for it, and what I like seems to be called 'baby beef' there, somewhere between 6 and 12 months old with the beginnings of a beef flavour.

 

How do people feel about veal? Do you get veal? Is it too expensive to be realistic for domestic use?

 

It isn't very common here anymore either. You can find it at the supermarket, and in some nicer Italian restaurants will serve Veal. The best I ever had was at a little family owned Italian restaurant in Dallas TX. the owner asked me if he could recommend something for me. and I said "hit me your best shot". he brought me a sample platter with 4 different preparations of veal. and OMG was that good. its been 8 or 9 years since I was there. I can't remember the name, but I could find the place on a map for sure.

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Funny thing about veal.

 

The Brits got all sensitive about the "poor little things". About 15 years ago there was loud, and IMHO justified, community action against the conditions of transport of very young calves from GB to France, blockading of ports, quite violent at times. Veal had developed a low profile before that, but since it became something a bit taboo in GB.

 

About the same time, the French who are the worlds champions at blocking roads with their artics (articulated lorries, don't know what they are called in US) were blocking the transport of British sheep into France. In this case farmers also were blocking roads with tractors ("threat to the French farmer") and had raised a great deal of bad feeling by setting fire (possibly accidentally) to a sheep transporter, and roasting all the contents.

 

I don't know if the Brits have now recovered a bit in favour of veal, but you would need someone who still lives there to tell us.

 

By contrast, the French have a high regard for veal. They eat horse meat as well, which many find unacceptable. Veal is always available, in several qualities relating to age and mode of feeding. But prices, like "game" and beef are high, and prohibitive as far as we are concerned....only purchased if there is a very advantageous "Special Offer".

For all that veal tends to be a mild tasting meat, even tasteless in some circumstances, unless you can get "baby beef" approaching 9-12 months old.

 

Apart from Loco's rapidly fading memories of a past feast, where are the rest of you, veggies excluded, with veal?

Edited by Bondbug
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P.S.

 

Oh...forgot to say. We have the wood burning bread oven installed now. It is lit and burning well.

 

Any one feels like popping in to say hello, we can offer pizzas, pitta bread, fouée, fouace, nan bread, with a variety of patés, meat loaf, and chutney, some home-made soft cheese, various jams, preserved fruits ... washed down with tea, coffee, home-made syrups, home-made beer, even excellent home-made cherry brandy. We used to do ginger beer, from a continuous yeast stock, but had to stop when it began to get too alcoholic for the kids.

 

Cassoulets, pies etc you need to order the day before. Unfortunately, for fruit pies, we have run out of custard.

 

It seems that most countries have a sort of basic dough that they form into flat round shapes which swell when cooked on the floor or side of the oven. Some are mentioned above, but they all have different names in different countries. What's yours?

Edited by Bondbug
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A long while back I think I used to eat cheap veal cutlets in the school cafeteria. Breading things wasn't really the way that my family cooked things. WE$ were more of a saucy curry family with lots of home grown vegetables, rice and meats that my family would get down at the meat market where my dad would personally cut the fur off of goats hanging from hooks o_O

 

I think the motto of my family was if it moves, eat it. My reluctance to eat veal only happened I think in late high school years where when I first read up about the way veal calves were treated to release the tender white meat. Since I'm a meat eater, there is no way I'd give up a meat just because it was meat...however I could see myself and ultimately did give up the veal because of the reported pain and suffering of the animals.

 

To make a stand against that, my teen aged sensitibilities declared a moratorum on veal ...and so it"s been for many years now.

 

lol, funnily enough it feels strangely good to have taken a stand on at least something like this in my life, and because I love preparation and eating of food so much, to say no to one thing like this is kind of a symbol to me of at least showing some respect to ingredients's sensibilities.

 

All that IMO of course

 

:)

 

gogo

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Yes I go along with you on the treatment of young calves for the 'tender white meat', and I don't really understand the reason for it. All that stuff the French make so much of disgusts me too. But, perhaps wrongly, I thought that the older veal (american 'baby beef') had escaped that sort of treatment.

 

You may be able to correct me there?

 

 

 

P.S. I don't eat chicken for similar reasons - I visited a chicken battery in the early days (oddly enough - on an architectural visit!) - and though that was 40 years or so ago I still refuse chicken except occasionally if it is guaranteed open range from a farm I know.

Edited by Bondbug
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Apart from Loco's rapidly fading memories of a past feast, where are the rest of you, veggies excluded, with veal?

 

Hey, lol my fading memory is all I have left! :)

 

I had heard of some of the awful ways that the young calves were put through to keep the meat tender and light. I believe that the "baby beef" is all I have ever tried. tender and light with just the start of a beef flavor.

 

My wife grew up on free range chicken. mostly for the eggs, it was a delicate juggle, you can survive on eggs, but that taste of meat would overcome them. then no more eggs! in Guatemala the chickens roam the courtyards and homes almost like pets. until its diner time of course! that was actually harder for me. I asked Mama Paula to wait till I went to the market before she killed that afternoons meal. I am delicate I guess.

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in Guatemala the chickens roam the courtyards and homes almost like pets. until its diner time of course! that was actually harder for me. I asked Mama Paula to wait till I went to the market before she killed that afternoons meal. I am delicate I guess.

 

Yeah. That's the way I remember them when I was young. I also remember how useless I was when an uncle asked me to go down the garden and wring a chicken's neck for dinner. I think we had sandwiches that day. :)

 

Well the cassoulet for tomorrow is out of the oven .. cup of tea and some fresh baked biscuits and we can go to bed.

Edited by Bondbug
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in Guatemala the chickens roam the courtyards and homes almost like pets. until its diner time of course! that was actually harder for me. I asked Mama Paula to wait till I went to the market before she killed that afternoons meal. I am delicate I guess.

 

Yeah. That's the way I remember them when I was young. I also remember how useless I was when an uncle asked me to go down the garden and wring a chicken's neck for dinner. I think we had sandwiches that day. :)

 

Well the cassoulet for tomorrow is out of the oven .. cup of tea and some fresh baked biscuits and we can go to bed.

 

My wifes house had an earth oven as well. looked like a mound of dirt made from mud and cement. with a hole in the side like and igloo. Mama Paula made bread while I was there. a kind of breakfast corn bread that they ate with coffee. she would have one of the young boys collect firewood early in the morning and start a fire that would burn for a few hours until it was just coals. then she used a green branch to sweep the coals to the side of the oven. by then the bread was ready to bake. it was very interesting to watch.

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Hi Loco. Do you have any details of the construction of that oven.

 

I have a place out in the wilds in the Pyrenees, an old converted cow byre, and I have been wondering how to build an oven outside that will not cost a bomb. I have been thinking of adapting an old oil drum set on a concrete base, but Mama Paula's sounds more authentic.

 

The one we have in the house here is brick, 3ft diameter and works well, but I was better off when we put that in. I need to build the other myself, without having to buy special bricks.

 

And hey, Number One, look in again sometime and stay for a pizza.

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Hi Loco. Do you have any details of the construction of that oven.

 

I have a place out in the wilds in the Pyrenees, an old converted cow byre, and I have been wondering how to build an oven outside that will not cost a bomb. I have been thinking of adapting an old oil drum set on a concrete base, but Mama Paula's sounds more authentic.

 

The one we have in the house here is brick, 3ft diameter and works well, but I was better off when we put that in. I need to build the other myself, without having to buy special bricks.

 

And hey, Number One, look in again sometime and stay for a pizza.

 

they started with a mound of dirt. used bricks to lay the flat cooking surface. then they used chicken wire mesh to build the oven cavity and finally covered the whole thing with thick mud. I imagine you could use cement as well and let dry. Very simple actually. I will have to browse my family vacation pics to see If I can show you what it looks like. brb

 

Edit: No luck on the pictures.

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Thanks Loco. I get the basic idea. We used to construct walls a bit like that...wood frame, chicken wire, lime plaster.

 

I am less sure about the materials for the vault/dome. This needs to stand temperatures of 300/350C or so. Bricks for the base...fine. It is the quality of the "mud" that is important. I have heard of 'earth concrete', a mixture of soil and cement, but I am not sure of its qualities in a situation like this.

 

Any engineers about?

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Thanks Loco. I get the basic idea. We used to construct walls a bit like that...wood frame, chicken wire, lime plaster.

 

I am less sure about the materials for the vault/dome. This needs to stand temperatures of 300/350C or so. Bricks for the base...fine. It is the quality of the "mud" that is important. I have heard of 'earth concrete', a mixture of soil and cement, but I am not sure of its qualities in a situation like this.

 

Any engineers about?

 

I assume that the "mud" they used in Guatemala has a high clay content. its also all volcanoes there, so there is gotta be other native elements to the soil from centuries old volcanoes.

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So ... mud of brick-clay quality. Hmmm. Difficult, even in GB unless you are in the London clay belt.

 

In the area I want to build the oven it is mainly slate. I could possibly use crushed slate as aggregate. Have to think about it.

 

You will be invited to the state opening of the new oven. :)

 

PS. Shhh. Don't say anything, but I nearly caught Gogo in the Sacred forum!

 

PPS. I keep meaning to ask you Loco ... what member is it that you are supporting?

Edited by Bondbug
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Suffering from Sunday Dinner. (I wrote this yesterday but the Web connection went off for no apparent reason)

 

I have been a bit puzzled. Every time I mention Sunday Dinner here you folks talk of it as a big affair, a family gathering. Certainly big family meals are special, but Sunday Dinner does not need to be on such a scale. It is just a matter of custom. Certainly if you still have family at home it is the best opportunity of the week to get together ... sad perhaps that families 'get together' less these days ... too preoccupied with their own affairs to see the 'family' as an important affair, a sort of joint business affair.

 

Here there are only two of us now. The family is spread all over the place, not even in the same country. But as a matter of choice we have "Sunday Dinner" every week, just the two of us. We have not been out for a meal, or even to a take away, in years. But every Sunday we make the time to have something roast for dinner, and something to drink marginally better the daily "plonk" (though I should not use that term for the table wines we buy in 30 litre lots from the producer at well under £2/ltr). Never the best cuts for roasting, always something on Special Offer" at the supermarket, occasionally even a bird but not chicken. We have gone back to/still retain the old tradition: roast on Sunday, cold on Monday, minced on Tuesday, then whatever is available for the rest of the week. Sunday is the day when we have time to cook something a little more "soigné" than normal, and to relax over the meal.

 

So a roast bit of lamb today (mainly shoulder blade), mint jelly, roast potatoes, cabbage done in the oven according to some recipe Viv dug out.

 

And this is also the day when we often have an old fashioned "pudding", with custard. Spotted Dick today (suet pudding), and as we have run out of custard powder Viv concocted a white sauce from puréed pear, cream and a bit of cornflour. No recipe, just throw in a bit of this and that. Gogo would have enjoyed it.

 

No photos 'cos we have eaten it all.

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Which reminds me of the problem when I first mentioned Spotted Dick on the Sacred forum. In memory of which I offer the following newspaper cutting, though non-Brits may find it difficult to follow:

 

scan0003.jpg

 

Anyone needs any of these points explaining have no hesitation - ask. :)

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Let's talk about Spotted Dick as a food for a moment. here in the US I grew up thinking Suet is the Lard( animal fat, or saturated fat) we put out for our winter birds to feed on. But the wikipedia says pudding. Here we use pudding interchangeably with custard. I remember my Grandmothers bread pudding, which wasn't like any pudding I ever saw back then, but it was all the left over bread, cookies etc in the house with eggs and sugar and milk. baked into casarole. then served warm with cream and sugar over the top.

 

It searched Wikipedia and it didn't enlighten me any.

 

and Cock-a-leekie or coq au vin are also English dishes, the descriptions on Wikipedia sound delicious?

 

And btw the barely veiled humor of the whole newspaper article isn't lost on many of us. unfortunately slang terms are the new English here in the states. although the meaning of Richard the third is one I didn't get until I read it allowed to myself.

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Struth that is quite a lot to sort out Loco.

 

But first ... Hats off to Schot for this bit of magic ... :)

 

I grew up thinking Suet is the Lard( animal fat, or saturated fat) we put out for our winter birds to feed on. But the wikipedia says pudding.

 

Poor old Wiki! Yes it is used for certain types of pudding but it is not pudding.

 

You are right about suet. It is the dry crumbly fat that you find around beef (or veal) kidneys. Yes you would put it out for the birds. But in GB, specially the north and Scotland it is an important item in cooking. Its value for pastries and the like is that it is a dry fat which can be crumbled fine and is easier to work into flour than butter or whatever. In GB you buy packets of crumbled suet. In France they dont use it so we get it free from the butchers.

 

It is used in pastry for pies, casings for puddings, dumplings for stews, and in GB for Xmas mince pies (which use dried fruit here whereas in US, I think, they may still use the original minced meat).

 

Your bread & butter pudding (nothing to do with suet) is fairly typical here, but personally I prefer it with ordinary cold milk rather than cream.

 

and Cock-a-leekie or coq au vin are also English dishes, the descriptions on Wikipedia sound delicious?

 

Careful with your use of "English" :gun2: - in some parts of GB they are sensitive, quite rightly, about such labels. The French typically get it wrong ... anyone from GB is English. Red rag to a bull.

 

Cock-a-leekie is Scottish, and was traditionally made with the loser in a cock fight!

Coq au vin is French

Both are excellent. :D

 

And btw the barely veiled humor of the whole newspaper article isn't lost on many of us. unfortunately slang terms are the new English here in the states. although the meaning of Richard the third is one I didn't get until I read it allowed to myself.

Yes, I think you got it - Cockney rhyming slang

 

 

Sorry. Can't resist it :chef::chef::chef:

Edited by Bondbug
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You are right about suet. It is the dry crumbly fat that you find around beef (or veal) kidneys. Yes you would put it out for the birds. But in GB, specially the north and Scotland it is an important item in cooking. Its value for pastries and the like is that it is a dry fat which can be crumbled fine and is easier to work into flour than butter or whatever. In GB you buy packets of crumbled suet. In France they dont use it so we get it free from the butchers.

 

It is used in pastry for pies, casings for puddings, dumplings for stews, and in GB for Xmas mince pies (which use dried fruit here whereas in US, I think, they may still use the original minced meat).

 

Your bread & butter pudding (nothing to do with suet) is fairly typical here, but personally I prefer it with ordinary cold milk rather than cream.

 

In these days and times, any kind of fat that turns white or hardens when cooled is a health no no. Bad Cholesterol and heart attacks and all that. we substitute vegetable oil and low fat vegetable based margarine for lard or butter. and a lard substitute called Crisco shortening which is also on the decline.

 

And for all that, Fresh fruits and Vegetables have been replaced with processed foods. which is now starting to get linked to all sorts of diseases in children from luekemia and other cancers to Autism and obesity. so now the new high priced food is "Organic" which just means its not full of chemicals. and everywhere you turn they talk about some new product with anti-oxidants for good health. Meanwhile you are out there in a small village growing your fruits and vegetables and eating the same things your parents did (lard and all) and probably healthier than I am.

 

and Cock-a-leekie or coq au vin are also English dishes, the descriptions on Wikipedia sound delicious?

 

Careful with your use of "English" :D - in some parts of GB they are sensitive, quite rightly, about such labels. The French typically get it wrong ... anyone from GB is English. Red rag to a bull.

 

Cock-a-leekie is Scottish, and was traditionally made with the loser in a cock fight!

Coq au vin is French

Both are excellent. :)

 

I wondered about that but didn't know what to ask. so Scottland =Scottish, and Ireland= Irish, and England = English, and Wales are big mammals that swim in the ocean. But is there a general name for GB? British?

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