chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn wrote:
> The Reids <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Ireland and UK are "potato and beer cultures".
>
> Depends whose household!
Yes, these days I think such "cultures" are becoming less relevant,
what with increased availability of exotic food and changing
agriculture. Loads of Brits eat rice and pasta. Go to a pub for a meal
and you'll get asked "Chips or rice with that?" very often.
>
> We almost never have potatoes as the main carbohydrate in a meal. I
use
> them quite a bit, in stews, curries etc. (yesterday in a Tortilla),
Chips I suppose still keep the potato dominant to some extent. But I
agree it's rare to have them as the only carb (chip butties, lasagne
and chips anyone?).
also
> as accompaniments with rice- but rarely the main thing. I suppose the
> potato probably still dominates in the UK, but I wonder if that isn't
> changing...
Mention "potato" to me and I think tasteless boiled things beloved of
school caterers. (Love the baked and roasted ones though). Ditto
"cabbage". Certainly in the last 20 years or so there's been a massive
move away from these old staples. Many people in Britain under 40 have
come to view old-style British food (shoe-leather meat; potatoes, peas
and cabbage boiled to death etc) with the same distaste as Continentals
long held. Can't say that's a bad thing.
>
>
> --
> David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
> usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
As far as drinks go, here the old boundaries still more or less exist.
Beer: Britain, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden
plus parts of France near German and Belgian borders.
Wine: Spain, Italy, rest of France, Greece
Also whisky in Scotland and Ireland and cider in a few enclaves (SW
England, parts of N Spain and France).
Switzerland is the one that's hard to call.
Edmund