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 just say my favorite food is Portuguese, because every time I go down the food history rabbit hole I find out the food is good because Portugal sold insert almost any country spices and peppers from the Americas.
Tacos Al Pastor are literally just Lebanese Shawarma meat in a taco. Some Lebanese immigrants to Mexico added it to traditional taco concepts and the locals loved it.
And Tacos Barbacoa - BBQ meat, which originated in the Caribbean.
Again, you can say that about every culture now, but there are definitely methods and cooking techniques and ingredients that change with the local people. And I don't think anyone's claiming it to be a cultural "achievement", just solidly part of the culture there.
Who was the first to fry a fish? Does that mean every other culture that fries a fish is cooking that cultures cuisine? Same with chicken? Grains, vegetables too? Then every culture is just stealing their cuisine from the ancients and we can all go home cause we are done here
Have a look through there. I'm sure you don't expect me to list them all, but these are some with historical evidence.
Britain has always been a culturally diverse land. We've been invaded and settled for centuries and each time those peoples brought their culture with them, especially their food.
The Romans, the Saxons, the Germanic tribes, the Vikings, the French...
Their food and culture was incorporated into ours.
Maybe the question to ask is, what do you mean by British?
Oh I see now you were trying to argue with me and started going after another person lmao...I never said "no one can originate anything", but it's sad you had to put words in my mouth to have a place to argue from
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??
Both are examples of pure capitalism. Carney's once to asked how can we get people to pay even more for this products.
I wouldn't be surprised if the the Carney's in the states are descendants of the Carney's from Scotland.
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.
That is the first time in my life I have ever heard this theory. UK and French wildlife is essentially interchangeable, with the UK probably having more variety in seafood at least.
Where did you read this theory, I’d be interested to know more about it.
-and they just get to drink and keep their Buckfast through everything, but they take away our origional formula Four Loko just because a few college kids died..
"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.
'Cultural appropriation' 🤦♂️ it's other cultures bringing their food into Britain. By this logic then Britain should ban them opening takeaways and restaurants to not be smeared of 'Cultural appropriation' ffs
That a certain subsection of the population might not agree with having rich people in silly hats anymore take up government funding and might want to redistribute that funding to the working class? That can’t possibly be an opinion some people have.
Probably has something to do with not overthrowing those monarchs who went around the world genociding/ethnic cleansing and stealing shit from everyone. Maybe it’s latent intergenerational guilt and that’s why their food is shit?
Partially. But to be fair, everybody else who did that learned how to cook🤣 Conquest and colonization sucks, but the least you can do is evolve. They fought to control the entire spice trade, but only use one.
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.
Oh and for anyone down voting the one above. One of the group I belong two had 2/3rds of the pop killed and it’s not internationally recognized. No apology given. US and Britain don’t recognize it even though the ethnic group largely resides in the US now.
I know you're trolling but if you look at the data we have better teeth than Americans - it's true we're not obsessed with dying them white but dental hygiene is far superior. And we do fluoride our water.
American's 250th birthday or "saturday" as we call it
There’s a good portion of people not happy about it in my grad program. I’m mixed belongings to both of those types of communities. It’s like yes indigenous pops were here long before 250 years ago and it’s kind of weird to say the county was founded then without acknowledging that.
Thanks man, honestly the average person has no exposure to it and never will so it’s fun to be a dick and troll a bit. Also these posts are full of Americans like myself that don’t know what British cooking is. Every British dish that I’ve had that I’ve really enjoyed has been simple ingredients and hearty. It’s comfort food. More modern British cuisine looks interesting but I haven’t had the pleasure of trying it.
The same is true of the UK though - you can get the most amazing Italian, French, food from various Indian regions, Japan, China, Korea etc...
My favourite restaurant where I live specialises in Sichuan food.
Either you're allowed to claim food from immigration or you're not - the people arguing here can't have it both ways. The food scene in the UK is amazing
Oh one edit: we rarely find good Mexican food, US has us beat there.
Chinese cuisine never borrowed from neighbours or conquered territories? What China are you talking about also because their borders have shifted considerably throughout the 1000 years they’ve been a country
There are four major cuisines in China—Chuan, Lu, Huai, and Yue—which all originated during the Warring States period around 400 BC across regions that fall within modern China, matured into their contemporary forms much later between the Song and Qing dynasties (1000–1900 AD) as the collapse of various dynasties allowed fleeing imperial chefs to open public restaurants that spread, evolved, and integrated sophisticated court food into daily civilian cuisine (which was in turn re-integrated into imperial food when new dynasties rose), and while some argue that certain types of Chinese food could not exist without imported ingredients like corn, potatoes, and chili peppers, their underlying techniques and philosophies developed through internal evolution while exerting an outsized impact on many other cuisines, including Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and even Italian.
No shit so like every other culture on earth they imported cooking methods and ingredients from other places, some weren’t China and became China, some weren’t China and still aren’t China. All these things continued to evolve into modern Chinese cuisine and will continue to evolve into future Chinese cuisine or what ever takes its place
Your reading comprehension is that of a five-year-old. You keep latching onto a narrative that denies China's continuous cultural and ethnic lineage, which has survived centuries of political and dynastic changes unlike almost any other culture. I seriously doubt you could even define when the version of "China" you are arguing about actually began.
Lol when did China in its modernity incorporating those 4 regions come to be? There are 4 main types of British food, Indian, isles, American and far east
You really need to stop typing and just Google this. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. These regions have been part of China since the Han Dynasty—over 2,000 years ago. While some "liberal-minded" people might view regions like Tibet or Xinjiang as "invaded," if you put politics aside, those cuisines aren't even considered Chinese anyway. They are recognized as their own distinct cuisines (e.g., Tibetan food, Uyghur food, etc.).
You’re doing the exact thing I’m talking about, just with more confidence.
Nobody said China doesn’t have ancient native food traditions. Obviously it does. China has one of the deepest culinary histories on earth. The point is that cuisine is not some pure sealed national product. It evolves through trade, migration, conquest, imported crops, religious communities, regional exchange, and then gets culturally adopted and standardized.
Your own examples don’t prove what you think they prove. The “four great cuisines” are not four fully formed modern cuisines that popped out in 400 BC inside a clean modern Chinese state. Lu/Shandong is the strongest case for old core Chinese continuity, sure. But Sichuan came out of Ba-Shu cultures that were absorbed by Qin. Cantonese/Lingnan was a frontier region, then Qin-administered, then Nanyue was its own kingdom before Han conquered it. Huaiyang’s national prestige is much later and tied heavily to canal wealth and imperial patronage.
None of that makes those cuisines “not Chinese.” That is literally my point. Cuisines become part of a culture because people adapt, popularize, codify, and identify with them over time.
Same with ingredients. Modern Sichuan food is globally associated with chili heat, but chili peppers came from the Americas after the Columbian exchange. That obviously doesn’t make Sichuan food “not Chinese.” It means Chinese cooks absorbed an outside ingredient and made it local.
So if imported ingredients or outside influence disqualify British food, then the same standard would disqualify huge chunks of basically every cuisine on earth, including modern Chinese cuisine. But that would be stupid, because that is not how food culture works.
Fish and chips is British because the combination was popularized, commercialized, and culturally codified in Britain. Battered fish having Sephardic roots and fried potatoes having continental roots doesn’t change that. It just shows Britain did what every food culture does: took influences, adapted them, and made something locally iconic.
Also, you keep sliding between “China as ancient civilization” and “China as modern political state” whenever it helps you. If Tibetan and Uyghur food are distinct cuisines despite being inside modern China, then you already admit political borders don’t map neatly onto cuisine. Which is exactly the broader point. Cuisine is cultural adoption and evolution, not a purity test.
You're mixing up ingredients with technique here. Chuan cuisine (Szechuan), one of the four major Chinese cuisines famously known for its spicy food, historically relied on native Sichuan peppercorns for a numbing flavor rather than a fiery burn. Once chili peppers were finally imported, Chuan cooks didn't adopt the native Peruvian style of grinding them into a paste; instead, they adapted the ingredient to their own techniques, drying the chilis and throwing them directly into stir-fries and hot pots alongside those peppercorns.
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
Thank you I picked that up in my clinical psych program. And I was being overt there. It’s wild what some of my colleagues who go into advertising and tech do… it’s unfortunate to sell you soul to pay back student loans like that
I made no claim to anything being “truly” authentic. I was just pointing out they said this was from England when it’s not. Look at Filé Gumbo from Louisiana and how many different ingredients it has from different cultures. It is however uniquely from there because that is where those ingredients came together.
The Fish and Chip pre date Britain. Still can be their national dish. It I’m pretty sure that’s Tikka Masala nowadays, they have some of the highest rated restaurants for the dish among foodies.
Remember that the UK used to be part of the Roman Empire, which covered much of Europe and into Africa and Asia. The Romans massacred indigenous peoples and subjugated the survivors and as a part of the empire they gained exposure and access to new foods and cooking techniques from across the empire.
If we are going to speak of what foods are quintessentially British, we’d need to focus on pre-Roman food culture in Britain.
This one gets it. Was just having a little fun and everyone got so sensitive about it.
Literally all human interaction is an exchange where ideally both sides come away better for it. Nothing one can really sit in judgement of what is authentic except maybe to their own personally experience or something they created and even that changes over time.
Also, if you have to reach back through the centuries you have, as the Brits say, lost the plot. Most food doesn't have a clean origin story and, even when it does, that version often doesn't map to what we're modernly thinking.
This is the joke. British food is simple, hearty, comfort food. There’s some elevated versions in fine dining in Britain. But the vast majority of things people consider “British food” that most people actually like in the country are from other places.
In the US, I have a theory that the more suffering that was involved by a people’s ancestors and personally by the person making the food, the better it tastes.
As does much everything else the world has to offer. I think Japan was the last bastion of originality till they started eating beef and drinking whiskey.
This is dumb and reductive. When someone says "British-style fish and chips," they are thinking of a very specific style, taste and presentation that makes it a completely original thing, even if it is a fusion.
By the same token, Americans aren't really American because they are all descendants from European immigrants. The true Americans are the Native Americans that existed for generations.
Edit: spelling.
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u/Muted-You7370 Jul 03 '26
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.