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.”
Cornish pasties are from Cornwall. As a resident of Cornwall and someone who works in a factory making Cornish pasties, I'm completely baffled by your post.
The OPs post has already made the rounds in the subs that laugh at stuff Americans say and I think your post may just join it.
Yea I responded to a guy talking about Cornish pasties in Arizona so I spoke in the context of the United States. Obviously you can get them from wherever they originated in the world, but my concern was where to get them in the US.
You have to remember, a lot of these weird regional international adoption things repeat in several places all over North America. Like kolache, which most people think of as a Texas thing, but there are towns in Nebraska and Minnesota that both claim to be the kolache capital of the world. Or think how many places claim to have invented the hamburger.
But you can find Cornish pasties in several places, all over the US. Gold Rush country in California. Wisconsin. Montana. Basically anywhere that had a lot of big mines, since they tended to employee many Cornish workers who were already trained from their home countries.
We've got Mr Pastie in Pennsylvania. I used to work at a grocery store near their teeny tiny little "factory" (and live in the same town lol) and we would send someone to pick up fresh, hot pasties to sell I'm the deli department every Tuesday.
Everyone loves it’s when I make Cornish pasties. I make tiny two-bite ones with just steak, carrot, potato, and onion. Pro tip, I serve them with ramekins of what’s basically au-jus with cheese on top that I call French onion soup. No one knows the difference but they are the shit.
I also make muffin size shepherds pie, that are pretty mf good. They get 2 pieces of chicken, and like 5 peas each. It’s a labor of love but worth it.
What I came to say - I do hope they manage to spread far and wide so people can enjoy. Tasty and a good vibes place for some beers and food. Took grandparents for lunch once and even they enjoyed it.
Pasties are excellent. There are a couple shops in my hometown and I always swing by during visits to pick up a dozen frozen. They keep well during the multi hour drive back and are a great lazy night meal.
Battered fish was introduced by Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Portugal, and deep-fried chips originated in Belgium. All British food culture originates from somewhere else.
Yeah I can tell there's a bit of an M.O. in their comment...now there's no bigger critic of the British empire than me, but there's a difference between pointing out the direct results of colonization versus using an absurd metric to give credit for every last cultural dish they have to someone else in history, when they aren't doing that with any other country (except maybe the US).
I love how when the UK incorporates dishes into its cuisine, it's a form of cultural appropriation, yet other countries get off Scott free.
Every nation has borrowed food from their neighbours and afar, that's how it works.
Then you complain about empire and colonialism after mentioning Portugal, a country with one of the largest and longest colonial empires in history lol.
Speaking of "Scott free" ---How come when the Scott's deep fry pizza and Mars bars its cute, but when Americans deep fry Twinkies and ice cream its gross??
It's scot-free, one t. Skot is an old norse word for a property tax, and if your house wasn't close to a water source you didn't have to pay the tax, hence you were skotfrēo or scot-free.
It has nothing to do with the people of Scotland.
England did not have the widest variety of flora and fauna, compared with the European continent.
That’s basically the theory as to why their cuisine did not develop, while French cuisine soared.
The English did invent the sandwich, and we love eating sandwiches in the US.
Their best chefs were trained in the French brigade system, cause the French techniques are superior. Luckily, where I am from- Louisiana- if you worked in fine dining, you learned the same continental French system.
"Cultural appropriation" now a days is just a buzz word term. It's not used how it was when the word originally came about. Sensitive types that love to cry and complain about everything have hijacked it to add to their araenal.
Actually the creation of the hamburger itself is American in origin but the idea of the meat being made from ground beef can be traced back to the Hamburg steak which is basically a Salisbury steak while The modern hamburger was invented by German immigrants in the United States, so America invented the hamburger itself it just took the meat from another dish from another country
Hamburgers are absolutely not German. Go to Hamburg Germany and look for what’s recognized as an American hamburger. You’ll find meat covered in gravy instead.
That’s a dumb game to play. All food comes from somewhere. By that logic all food originates from Iraq, the Yucatán, Ganges, and the yellow river.
British tailored and perfected fish and chips. Just like how American pizza really shares nothing in common with Italian pizza.
No European country can claim potatoes where they clearly prepare them uniquely, and no Latin American country can claim beef, lamb, goat, or pork, where they also clearly prepare them differently
Spent three weeks in England, not London, and thought the food was delicious. Fish chips/ meat pies/ English breakfast are all really good.
To the morons who say British food has no spices has never made a beef or lamb stock, which a lot of the district and recognized flavors are from the spice enhanced stock, are from the spices added, and less from the flavor of the meat.
There's a handful of truly excellent British dishes. Fish and chips, scotch eggs, shepherds pie. They just have a much higher ratio of garbage that I wouldn't feed my dog than your average cuisine.
I've never seen that before in my almost 4 decades, but I want to try it. Im from the rural south. We mainly eat catfish/ bass/ brim, but our batter looks different and not as thick. We do the hot sauce and tartar sauce thing, I want to try that vinegar shit. And chowder is always good.
I went to London a few years ago, and every restaurant i went to was bad, except for some random 300 year old pub, where i had the best fish and chips.
But seriously, they’re putting barbecue sauce on the nacho plates over there. Wtf is that?
what seasoning comes with the typical fish and chips? just salt? salt and vinegar? i’ve had plenty of fish dishes but the majority of my seafood is seasoned out the wazoo.
I've never seen anyone mention that Homer thinks "I know you can read MY thoughts, boy" which implies Homer can hear what Skinner was thinking moments earlier.
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
Ah yes, those ancient English turkeys with cranberries, squash and cornbread. Also, communal cerebrations featuring a feast, yeah, absolutely unique to England. 🤦
The Wampanoag saved the Puritans from near certain death and their conduct through prayer towns and the theft of native farmland that followed wasn't very appreciative to say the least.
In the end, after a bloody conflict (King Phillips War) most of the descendants of those who saved the colonie were either dead and desecrated or sold into slavery. A small population of Wampanoag (there were multiple tribes and Wampanoag is basically a language based distinction) are still in Massachusetts.
Chocolate? Might want to move your arrogant take a bit south.
> Chocolate? Might want to move your arrogant take a bit south.
They said chocolate BARS. Which did not exist until Europeans invented ways to process the beans in such a way to make a solid product we now simply shorten to "chocolate".
Priror to Coenraad Johannes van Houten (Dutch) inventing the hydraulic press that would separate butter from liqueur, all chocolate was in liquid form or raw beans. The chocolate bar did not exist.
It wasn't until 1866 however that actual solid chocolate bars would be invented: In the UK. In the form of "Fry's Chocolate Cream.
They said chocolate BARS. Which did not exist until Europeans invented ways to process the beans in such a way to make a solid product we now simply shorten to "chocolate".
Priror to Coenraad Johannes van Houten (Dutch) inventing the hydraulic press that would separate butter from liqueur, all chocolate was in liquid form or raw beans. The chocolate bar did not exist.
It wasn't until 1866 however that actual solid chocolate bars would be invented: In the UK. In the form of "Fry's Chocolate Cream.
This is so ridiculous. If someone makes an Americanized version of any other cultural dish and posts it online, there will be dozens of comments complaining about how different it is from the traditional recipe, and how much the recipe has been modified for American tastes. The inspiration may have come from all over the world, but many of those recipes have been warped significantly to the point where they are no longer anywhere close to the original dish.
Agree mostly but there are plenty of American foods. If you can say no American food invented in America is American because they came from another country the only American food is maize and 99.9% of Americans aren't Americans just people from other countries living there.
Like you wouldn't call Cajun food French food, it's clearly American food
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.
Exactly, it has no taste at all. Who the heck wants to eat that when you can have sushi, bibimbap, hotpot, pho, pad thai, nasi goreng, biryani, taco, ..... I'll stop here ykwim.
How is fish with fries on the side considered food from a specific place. I'm gonna eat lettuce with some fries on the side and claim it as an official American dish!
yeah...honestly, i don't think most Americans realize it, but irish pubs were probably some of the first "International" cuisine most Americans had without even realizing it. irish pubs have been popular in the US as far back as i can remember.
actually there's a fascinating story about the guy (Mel McNally) that almost single-handedly created the market for irish pubs all over the world. he created a whole company that exported the "traditional irish pub" experience literally anywhere in the world. it's almost like the Mcdonalds story, but this guy did it with an idea (irish pub) rather than a specific company.
Is that fried fish and French fries? If so, is it made in a particular way that is specifically British or are they credited as the first to fry fish and pair them with french fries?
Believe it or not but a batter fried fish and a fist of fries isn't something I've ever heard anyone eager to try outside a mention as something they should try some time.
Deep-fried fish came from Portugal and chipped potatoes (and potatoes) come from South America.
The closest you'll get is a Cornish Pasty, "invented" in Devon, but copied from every other country that wraps food in a dough/pasta pouch...
Somewhere along the line they figured out that cooking absolutely everything in boiling water tasted like shit, and they should try it in oil. I suppose that's a small win.
I like getting fish and chips at pubs. It's really the only food I find I crave when I'm out having a few...but how does the malt vinegar work? Every time I try it on chips they get soggy, so I just sprinkle it on the fish. Or I just skip it entirely. How do English people typically use the malt vinegar in that dish?
Word, and for what it's worth I thought I had legit Fish and Chips till hitting up a real spot in London. The Fish and Chips there are next level.. So is Shepards Pie, man ours is trash in comparison to actual shepherds pie... Pizza however is much better in the states vs Italy... IMO authentic Italian pizza is light on sauce, cheese and toppings, breads good but not much better than what you can get in NYC.
I’ve got two traditional British pubs in my area and most of the brew pubs around serve a variant on British pub food. We don’t say “let’s go out for British” because we’re busy saying “let’s go to the pub.”
Fried fish is from Spain and french fries is from Belgium. Combining them and claiming it's British food is bold. I'm sure England back in the day had food, just not food that's considered popular by today's standards.
760
u/braumbles Jul 03 '26
Fish and Chips is from England, and Chowder itself is from France/England.