"Purported to be a condiment or spread"

[major_clanger]

[via Metafilter]

An American living in Scotland rates British foods. She likes crumpets. She does not like Marmite.

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Don't trust her, she likes Irn Bru. But it isn't surprising she didn't like some things, the pictures were Tesco Value packaging, which aren't exactly shining examples of the products concerned.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Several comments to the MF post mentioned this. In her defence, she claims on her website to be rather skint.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oddly the crumpets seem very expensive - Budgens do them a lot cheaper, so I think do Waitrose.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

I thought that when she said she'd splurged on a bottle of "real" Irn Bru for the test, that she usually drank the cheap fake stuff. Shudder. I remember James B drinking Irn Bru and orange juice in Glasgow, and I thought I was obnoxious with Coke and orange. That stuff glowed in the dark.

[mgspiller.livejournal.com]

& what's wrong with the cheap fake stuff ?

Did I mention that the pictured bottle of "cheap fake stuff" was bottled a few meters from my desk? ;-)

I wouldn't recommend the colours used in Irn-Bru / Iron Brew but they are used in miniscule quantities & moderate consumption is generally thought to be relatively harmless.

like AJShepherd below I reckon D&B shades it though Iron Brew is not far behind.

Sometimes it makes commercial sense to deliberately make products for Tesco Value / Asda Smartprice / Somerfield Makes Sense / Sainsbury's Basics etc, etc, taste worse than they might otherwise do just on cost grounds to lessen the impact on sales of the standard product.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that was a General Irn Bru Shudder, not a cheap fake stuff one. It makes my teeth grate.

Another vote for D&B here.

[mgspiller.livejournal.com]

:-) not really worried, my employer is well capable of looking after itself, as is Barrs for that matter. I'm not going to win any clear english awards for that statement about "cheapest on display" brands (as they are known in the trade) on the other hand...

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

You and I will just have to agree to disagree on the Irn Bru issue!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Burn the heretic!

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Deffo.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Likes Irn Bru? Shows excellent judgment!

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Much of what she says is Just Plain Wrong. For example:

Every British person I know has sung the praises of mushy peas. Americans are used to fresh or frozen sweet peas. In Great Britain, most people are used to the starchier marrowfat peas, cooked to the point of mushiness.

To which I can only say: O RLY?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. But at least she didn't confuse them with guacamole.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Yes, in their place (or even with your plaice). But I very much doubt that more Britons eat marrowfat peas than eat garden peas.

[nolley.livejournal.com]

Well, I prefer them. And mushy peas.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Part of what she's missing is that we do have regional cuisines, at least where takeaways are concerned. Live in Edinburgh, and you'll have to ask specially for vinegar on your chips instead of chip sauce. Live in Southampton, and pea fritters are the norm instead of mushy peas.

(I still remember the look of horror when I took some students from Edinburgh down to Sheffield for a film conference, and subjected them to chips with peas and gravy. This was apparently far beyond the pale, and just convinced them that the English were savage barbarians who needed to be introduced to a proper black pudding supper with salt and sauce)

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Indeed - I don't think I tried mushy peas until I travelled from East Anglia to visit my relatives on Merseyside.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Ditto the freezer cabinet bubble and squeak. What's the point of a dish invented to use up leftovers if you go and buy it ready-made?

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

She doesn't really Get It, does she? And she put 4g of marmite on a cracker. Holy fuck, it's not surprising she was shocked.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Real marmite-lovers will settle for their fingers and the jar.

Or maybe that's just me.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

It isn't just you.

I'm going to have some for breakfast, just to spite her. HAH! That'll show the bitch.

We did a poll at a Milford workshop to see how many people actually loved Marmite (it's never just 'like'), in response to an American's query of: what is it? To which a British friend answered that in her opinion, it was the scrapings from the Devil's butt crack, but that view varied widely.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

By the way, I'm glad to hear that Sid's doing well (I've been following the pointers from fjm's journal).