I had lunch today with friends, we got some fantastic burgers at Frankie And Bennies.
I am sad and disappointed that pretty much the only two places I've found in town with really good burgers are just outside of comfortable walking distance. (Working from home, a car would be a silly expense for me.) There are dozens of pubs and take-out places which sell burgers, but all of them deliver mediocre burgers at best. The last one I tried sold me a chicken burger with nothing on it except the chicken patty and the bun! I mean, come on!
I love Burger King's burger, so it's clear that even minimum wage workers can make a good burger if they just have the right recipe. So why can't most pubs/restaurants get it right?
I wonder if it's a case of the general public being too undiscerning? There's just no perception of, and thus no demand for decent food?
A friend I have in town had two cafes. One was an upscale one with good food, but still what I considered reasonable prices. It went out of business. The other one was a push-them-through place with the cheapest prices one could deliver at. This one was always a huge success. (It closed only because the market was closed.) So maybe it's people in this town (North-west England).
Remember rationing only just finished in the 1950's. It takes Northerners time to adjust ;-)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I feel that I have a "sophisticated palette" at times. My dad has been a caterer in the NW of England and N Wales for many years, and I swear the best received stuff is a well done roast and two (overcooked) veg with gravy.
There is an ingrained frugality and cultural associations which are taking generations to break down. A restaurant is for "something special", but a cafe (pronounced caff) is acceptable for every day.
Look at the line out the door at Greggs, or Stantons, and what for, a basic pasty or cheese and onion pie. I think half of it is not knowing any better, and the other is counting pennies.
I can also remember back in the 80's burgers still came in a can at the wholesalers, you'd boil them in water to reheat them and serve them in a balm cake. People loved them. It wasn't until I had a grilled burger I could see the appeal.
Can you not get a clipper card or saver seven (now called "System One Travelcards") that will get you further afield. Clipper cards were good, bulk bought tickets. Savers were better, any bus in the Greater Manchester area, Bolton Wigan, Skem and Stocky too.
Well, I could afford to take a taxi every day if I cared.
ReplyDeleteYou are surely right about the frugality, ingrained. I once happened past the Bolton Sunday morning market, tons of stalls selling used junk. And I don't use the word junk likely, I didn't see a *single* thing I would even have taken for free. And yet the market was *full* of people, before eight on a Sunday!!
(Working from home, a car would be a silly expense for me.)
ReplyDeleteIn England anyway. Other places you'd have to have one.
Yeah.
ReplyDeleteI suspect it's a European phenomenon to be able to live without a car, since civilization is rather packet tightly here, none of the open spaces like in North American and much of the world.
My Manchester commute - 7 miles from E Didsbury to Manchester Polytechnic (All Saints).
ReplyDeleteDrive - 20 minutes + 10 minutes to find 2 hour parking
Rail - 15 minutes and 2 two minute walks.
Bus 25 minutes and 1 one minute walk.
California - 38 mile commute
Road - 45 min to 2 hours traffic pending. $11 (inc tolls, gas, wear and tear)
Rail - with 10 min drive to station and 10 minute bus connector 2 hrs to 3 hrs rail freight traffic pending ($11 all in with monthly ticket, $30 on daily ticket)
Bus - 3 hours. about $20.
Fuck, that's grim.
ReplyDeleteThat 10 metre commute is looking better and better I expect.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming 'round to it!
ReplyDeleteJust a patty and a bun? Wow. That's like the epitome of laziness.
ReplyDeleteI stock lunchmeat at Wal Mart for a living, and it's the cheapest brand that always sells the fastest by far. I've never tried it myself, but a coworker's told me it has the taste of shoe leather.
Nah, there was the option to add onion, ketchup and mustard.
ReplyDeleteReally, in the 70's Burgers were new. I remember I was in high school (early 80's) before we had a McDonalds, and it was about 5 years before we had a BK. There was "Wimpy", but they were a sit down place I believe.
We just didn't have burgers, in fact I seem to remember my first burgers being served up with two veg and potatoes, as if they were a roast.
To be fair, Americans have a similarly weird idea about pies. They only seem to fill them with fruit, once in while chicken, but never steak and kidney, or beef and onion.
So...if you can't find a good burger, perhaps you might want to try to smell like one! I know...I don't get it, either! Ewww! lol! :-(
ReplyDeleteHah! Only in America!
ReplyDelete--
"I stock lunchmeat at Wal Mart for a living, and it's the cheapest brand that always sells the fastest by far."
That's sad.
Really, in the 70's Burgers were new.
ReplyDeleteNew? In the 70's? They had A&W in the 50s. I think McDonald's has been around almost as long.
New? In the 70's? They had A&W in the 50s. I think McDonald's has been around almost as long.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but seeing them in those foreign Hollywood movies didn't mean we knew what they tasted like.
Macdonald's was in the US for a heap of time before they came to the UK, and even longer before they were outside London. It was '74 when they came to the UK.
I guess I should have qualified it with "here" but I don't want to keep on shouting "I'm a Brit"...
I guess I should have qualified it with "here" but I don't want to keep on shouting "I'm a Brit"...
ReplyDeleteI guess in this case it would have been a good idea. I forgot. :-)
I always thought that burgers had been around forever. Once they'd found out how to grind up crappy meat not good for anything else - and once they'd invented the bun - you'd think it would have been a no brainer. I could see them chowing down on burgers in pioneer days.
ReplyDeleteThing is, grind up the crappy meat and put it in a sausage, where it doesn't get damaged in transit, or put it in a pie crust and again it holds it's own until needed (c.f. Cornish pasty, Mrs. Miggin's). Where is the need for a burger.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing is, when you are surrounded by ocean and sea and you have plenty of potatoes, why invent the burger when you can have cod and a pennorth o' chips?
I guess the people of Hamburg (NY) had a novel idea, and it needed an area of no competition to spread.
As bad as burgers are, it's clear from those alternatives you've listed that the English reputation for liking really, really, reaaaaalllly bad food is well earned.
ReplyDeleteI once tried a "traditional English breakfast", I could barely get up after.
ReplyDeleteYou should have known better! They train for that their whole lives! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don't see anything bad in an English breakfast apart from the grapefruit.
ReplyDeletePersonally for me a good English breakfast is a modest one of bacon, egg, mushroom, black pudding, white pudding (years in America has given me a taste for Irish food), fried slice, orange juice, tea and followed by a round of toast and marmalade, preferring lime over orange.
I understand EO and wouldn't go the whole hog adding the traditional bangers, grilled tomatoes and the half grapefruit, and I've never really taken to smoked fish.
Mmmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about that.
Personally for me a good English breakfast is a modest one of bacon, egg, mushroom, black pudding, white pudding (years in America has given me a taste for Irish food), fried slice, orange juice, tea and followed by a round of toast and marmalade, preferring lime over orange.
ReplyDeleteOnly to the English is that a light breakfast! ;-)
Two, or three great nations separated by a common language.
ReplyDelete"Modest" does not mean "light". It means not full.
A "Light Breakfast" is a bowl of cereals or toast and marmalade. That is toast and marmalade on a plate, or cereals in a bowl. I don't know many people who use a bowl for their toast.
Hmm, Canadian breakfast, is that Canadian Bacon and loon eggs on toast ;-)