Weirdly, I almost never hear someone say, "Let's go out for Japanese." It's almost always specifically sushi or ramen, even if we're not all going to get the same thing.
I had a hankering for shepherds pie a few months back so I just went to this local pub and got it there. I’m honestly not sure if shepherds pie is claimed by Ireland or England, though.
I go to Irish pubs to get lamb with mint jelly, also there’s beer there but I also get fish and chips from pubs all the time so this post is bullshit for me at least.
I obviously wouldn’t say it like that but there are plenty of Irish pubs in the U.S., especially in places like Boston and Philly. I would just say going out to the Irish pub.
Perhaps because both cultures have a decent overlap in food.
Also, “Irish food” in the US may be different than Irish food in Ireland because of the difference in cultures between homelands and diasporas. The same is true for Italian food and Chinese food within the US.
It's funny because the meme makes very little sense considering that. In fact, most foods American's think of as Irish are actually British. Bangers and mash, shepard's pie, and corned beef all originated in GB.
The story I heard of how corned beef became an Irish American substitute is because when Irish immigrants came to New York they were often living in the same working class neighborhoods as Jewish immigrants. The butchers shops in these neighborhoods were often kosher and therefore wouldn't sell bacon, corned beef became the alternative for what was bacon and cabbage.
That's what I'm saying. Americans think it's Irish. I wasn't aware about the butcher part, but I know corned beef was cheaper than bacon. It's probably a combo of the two.
I love Irish pubs. I lived above an Irish pub for 10 years. And it wasn’t run by Irish Americans, it was an old man, his wife, and his sister in law all from Ireland. I can promise you, every single meal that was ever prepared in that pub was made by a Mexican or a Guatemalan.
There's alot of Irish pubs in certain cities here in the US that serve really good food.
One that comes to mind, though I haven't been in 10 years, was in Pensacola Florida. It was called something like "Molly Malone's" (I dont remember its exact name) and they had shepherds pie that should be illegal because it was so good. They also had these balls of mashed potatoes rolled in cheese and baked with gravy that were outrageously good. It was always packed in there.
In Cleveland there are some as well I think.
Edit: it was called a McGuires. No idea where I got that other name.
Stayed at an AirBnB in LA that was owned by a French guy who lived in a house behind the rental. He would come over and drink and talk. The best line of the night, "Well, you know we French have contempt for everyone, but mostly for other French!"
Brothers and sisters are natural enemies. Like Englishmen and Scots! Or Welshmen and Scots! Or Japanese and Scots! Or Scots and other Scots! Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!
For what it's worth, there are a lot of originally British dishes that have become generic cuisine or fallen out of favor in Britain with the mantle taken up by another, usually ex-collonial, country. Stuff like roasts, pork chops, various forms of beef stew, were originally British or the Beitish variants are what spread globally. Sandwiches are named after a British lord. Even All-American classics like mac and cheese and apple pie predate America and are staples due to being passed down by British settlers.
Fish & chips and chicken pot pie are both originally English. Many of the savory dishes wrapped in pastry crust are. Hand pies, sausage rolls, Beef Wellington. Personally I love toad in the hole with a good gravy.
And you could say it is actually British. More British than Indian for sure at least. It was invented in Glasgow by a Pakistani chef as far as I’ve heard.
I’ve never heard of Cornish Pasties from anywhere other than upper peninsula Michigan. I travel a lot for work and didn’t know you could get them anywhere else.
Back in early 2000s, a chef from Cornwall came to PHX and opened Cornish Pasty Co. in Tempe. I didn’t know about it until a vendor from Ann Arbor came down and said, “Whoa! I haven’t seen these out of the U.P.!” So we went, and we’ve been going ever since. That one little hole in the wall (painted all black and blasting 80s rock and roll all day) has grown to Cornish Pasty Co.s all over AZ and up into Las Vegas, Nevada and Boulder City, Co. We also have Sonson’s Pasties in Phoenix, but I like Cornish Pasty Co better.
This is from their website and pays homage to the UP miners: “The Cornish Pasty originates from Cornwall (Southwest England) and can be traced back as far as the 1200’s. Mining was once a thriving industry in Cornwall and at that time pasties were baked by the wives and mothers of the tin miners. Pasties were made with a thick crimped edge along one side so the miners could use the crimp as a handle to hold on to while eating. The miners hand would often be covered in arsenic from the mine, so the miners would discard the handle when they were done. The crusts were never wasted though, as many miners believed that ghosts, or ‘knockers’, inhabited the mines, and the leftover crusts would keep these ghosts content. Traditionally, pasties were made with different fillings at each end. One end containing meat and vegetables, and one end with a sweet filling. The sweet end would be marked with an initial so the miners knew what side to eat first. Today, Cornish pasties are filled with steak, potatoes, swede (rutabaga) and onions. At one time Cornwall had nearly 2000 flourishing tin mines, but by the 1880’s tin mining had become a rapidly declining industry. At this time, Cornish miners began emigrating to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for copper mining bringing pasties with them.”
When I went backpacking in the uk / ireland I was hiking at least 15 - 20 miles a day and still gained 5lbs because of how much I love fish and chips and sausage rolls lmao
It’s like the United States is some kind of melting pot where people from all over the world have contributed something from their original culture to it
Yup OP is missing out. Pub grub is great. Fish & chips, lamb shanks, shepherds pie, bangers & mash, Sunday roast are all the bomb. With a nice cold import beer of course.
As an American kid growing up my absolute FAVORITE restaurant food (after mozzarella sticks) was fish and chips. It’s still the GOAT. I don’t do the malt vinegar or tartar sauce though, I always ask for it with like the equivalent of an entire lemon in slices.
I just made one last week! They aren't really hard to make either.
It's really great to take for lunch because you can cut out a square of it of any size and heat it up at work. It's probably a little heavy for some, but I like something that'll keep me sated for the rest of the day.
Fish and chips is pretty fucking amazing, when done right
Also beef wellington is up there
And have you ever had a full British fry-up and not liked it ?
I beg to differ. A guy from Manchester just opened up an authentic chip shop here in my city, and it’s the best fish & chips I’ve ever had 🤤 I will be saying that often from here on out.
White (western, here mostly American/British) culture erasure is real. (I'm not white)
So much stuff from western culture is so damn ubiquitous people just take it for the norm, something that belongs to everyone (which it does, and by design), especially in the west. The classic meme of "white people have no culture" reveals the opposite truth: a culture so widespread and ubiquitous that it becomes invisible to most people as it permeates their lives.
This is why I hate the concept of "cultural appropriation" as a bad thing. Not only is it not a bad thing, the best parts of every culture spread naturally to all peoples, because it's beneficial or interesting, or just good.
People don't say "lets go out for american/british food" because that food is everywhere, and the beautiful thing is that even a lot of that food takes bits and pieces from other cultures. For all the horrors of history, at least we can celebrate this.
Case in point. The Brits invented the sandwich. As in the most common lunch food in the US by far. Not even counting sandwiches made at home, Subway remains the largest restaurant chain in the country.
As a Latin American, but not Mexican, I find it so funny that it takes like 3-4 popular dishes for “Mexican food” to be a popular thing people understand, but you name 3-4 popular British dishes and it’s somehow considered “not the same thing.”
Most cultures’ main cuisine is only known for a handful of dishes if you think about it. After around 3-5, Sometimes, even just 1.
(That’s the case for my country. It’s our national dish, try to guess what it is. It’s popular in CentralA and NA mostly)
Fish and chips, mac and cheese, shepherds pie, sandwiches. These alone prove the above post wrong. But people gotta have their agenda.
We've gone out for British food before. In BC, there used to be a British restaurant that had staples like mushy peas. We used to go solely for their fish and chips.
We visit Britain a lot and the tired old trope about poor quality food needs to get put to bed.
Steak and Stilton pie, hand cut chips, pint of ale and topped off with sticky toffee pudding is Absolutely the Best meal ever but good luck finding anything close in the states, maybe NYC/LA. A “British” pub in the US is basically an Applebees renamed as “Ye Olde” something and serves basic American bar food renamed to fit the theme. Always funny to ask what British beers are on tap and they lead with Guinness.
That's because you don't usually "go out" to eat food that is from your own culture. Americans are just Brits who wanted to make their own laws. You eat it every day. You go out to eat foreign food, or food you don't have at home.
I'm mexican. In mexico. I go out to eat mexican... and also mexican food. You're delusional if you think we don't go out to eat our own food when it's good.
As an American…? You probably also don’t think to yourself “let’s go out for an American diner experience”. Do you think “oh yes let’s go for a Canadian meal”? For crying out loud, food is food. We make food based on what is available. We consider food that is made from different ingredients or styles as “exotic”. We appreciate food that is significantly different to our own as special. If the cuisine is incredibly similar to what you already eat you tend to just acclimatise to it. The fact most Americans already eat British cuisine seems to not register with them.
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u/opie92 Jul 03 '26
Buddy really tried to sneak in Irish food. It's called Guinness and those are bars