steviedeluxe

If it's good home cooked food, I can't say I blame them. My better half loves it when I cook traditional British nosh like Toad in the Hole, Shepherds Pie or a roast meal with spuds and veg. I'm happy to continue cooking the same dishes I'm comfortable with. I leave the exotic and/or spicy stuff to her (she's from the Middle East).

HBG

I applaud what you’re trying to do – and depending on where your customers come from, give them what they want, even if it’s sausage, egg and chips.

The most popular eating venues in these parts, apart from the Chinese and Indian places, are just that, English to the bone. Traditional Sunday roasts fill the venues, it’s what the customers want, including inquisitive Spaniards.

I suspect that most of the Spaniards also come for the accompanying entertainment, karaoke mostly, and they’re never shy to join in.

JLFS

Yes, you are missing out on those foods, but when you have lived most of your life eating veg, as in meat and 2, your body needs it, to feel 100 per cent.

Apart from the grelos in the pote, and the fried onion and red peppers in the empanada, no veg used in any of these dishes, unless you count the boiled spuds somethimes that go with pulpo. Also the UNTO that is used in the pote and caldo Gallego is usually quite offensive to the British palate and sense of smell.
It is rancid fat and has a very pungent smell, sort of like a heavy aniseed smell.

Whenever you have roast meat of any kind you usually get a little bit of red pepper place on top, and that is my experience of the veg served in restauants.

Dick Dasterdly

Strange thing, because Galicia must have the best possible climate for growing the widest range of vegetables in all of Spain.
Most of the tiny self sufficient farms I saw up there, seemed to grow quite a good selection, though I can't recall seeing too much of them in the menus around bigger towns.

JLFS

Thats right it has the best climate for growing veg, so I dont know why more isnt eaten.

JLFS

What I am trying to say is that most if not all the English people I have come into contact with, know how to make a chilli and/or a curry. These have become part of their "home cooking" and are made on a fairly regular basis.

on the hand I dont know any Spanish women of the same age who make curry at home.

agoreira

Obviously, that's why I stated they don't live in cities, talk about stating the obvious. But you couldn't go into hardly any UK village or town without coming across all manner of "foreign" food outlets, be it Chinese, Indian,kebab, or whatever. I live in a very small town, more a village really, and there are Italian, Indian, Chinese, kebab, Spanish, Thai etc

agoreira

Strange! As I say, we always eat Spanish, but invariably if anything comes with veg, it's a disaster. Normally a little pile of pale, insipid looking and tasting mess which has had the life boiled out of it. The "greens" seem a white, soggy mess, totally bland with no taste whatsoever. More power to the man from Jimena with his fresh veg!

agoreira

Hey, that's two of us! My father died very young, and my mother was left with four of us to bring up, as soon as we could leave school, we were out earning a wage!

Dick Dasterdly

They do often seem to cook and stew veg, almost beyond recognition.
It should be cooked just enough and no more, so that the garden freshness and quality is always retained.

jimenato

Thanks for that.

Where we are, Sausage egg and chips wouldn't work but Cumberland sausage with mustard mash and red onion gravy is very popular. Get beyond the stereotypical British food and it is as varied and as good as it gets.

Dick Dasterdly

You seem to be doing an excellent job there, jimenato.
Lets hope you can educate the Spanish into enjoying lots of nice fresh healthy veggies that haven't been boiled to buggery.

steviedeluxe

Heh, you reckon most English women (the younger set) even know how to cook? I appreciate they're out earning a living, climbing the career pole (!), but I fear many young women would find it hard to boil an egg. And if they do attempt a curry, it'd be with the cook-with sauce in a jar ie very easy. In fact thinking about it,that's true of the older generation. Very few of us cook a curry from scratch - we'd either use the pre-prepared sauce or (in reality) use the takeaway/restaurant. I'm sure a certain poster will now jump in and claim everyone in his village cooks curries from scratch, and always have done.... but I've lived in several parts of the UK and never met anyone who did this, unless they actually sold the stuff in their restaurant or (in one occasion) a pub.

steviedeluxe

I agree that cooked right, and with the right ingredients, British food is great. Good to hear you're flying the flag for good British nosh. I've done my best to dispel foreigners poor view of British cooking over the years. Unfortunately it's an uphill battle - we're seen as having the worst food in Europe
http://thejetpacker.com/what-country...he-worst-food/
Various surveys in different countries constantly place us bottom. I suspect part of the reason is visitors to the country only come across microwaved meals in pubs or takeaways from dodgy chicken and kebab shops in central London. Even the food dished up in expensive hotels is often a dissapointment. They never have exposure to wonderful home cooking, which is a pity.

steviedeluxe

Not all villages are the same obviously, even within a region. But away from the Costas I find Spanish villages share one common feature that makes them totally different to a lot of British villages (and to clarify, I'm comparing villages in the southern part and Midlands - Scottish villages for example have kept their character). The UK villages are full of incomers, and indeed in some places have become commuter villages. Sometimes this allows the newcomers to set up delicatessens, take-aways etc, sometimes it leads to the local shops closing down. Spanish villages (when they don't collapse totally and become ghost towns) tend to be occupied by families who've always lived there, and even when folk move to the city to find work, they often hang on to their family home. This is clearly a generalisation, and I'm sure people can quote exceptions, but it's what I've seen in large areas across Spain eg Aragon, Castilla-Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, even parts of Valencia province.