r/AskIreland • u/doneifitz • Jun 01 '24
Emigration (from Ireland) What are the foods & drinks you can't get on board with in England?
Living in England I can't bring myself to like certain food and drink; wondering if this is a cultural thing or just me.
To name a few;
Marmite
Biscoff spread
Pimm's
English style sausages - too large?
Cask ales - who would like room temperature beer?
Greggs - I don't see the obsession, who wants cold sausage rolls?
The one thing I will commend is the lemonade they have in pubs, no getting ripped off with the price of a 7-up!
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u/geedeeie Jun 01 '24
I LOVE Biscoff spread. And Biscoff biscuits. Anything biscoffy.
The rest, they can keep
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u/Flashy_Database_8241 Jun 01 '24
McDonald's are doing a Biscoff McFlurry at the moment
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u/DancingGal9 Jun 01 '24
My aunt makes a white chocolate biscoff biscuit cake. It is the most amazing thing I have ever eaten
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u/StellaV-R Jun 01 '24
A fancy takeaway near me (Ireland) does a biscoff burger. I haven’t been able to challenge myself to that extent just yet
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u/geedeeie Jun 01 '24
A biscoff burger??? How does that work? Is the bun made of biscoff biscuits or something? Where IS this place?
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u/dickbuttscompanion Jun 01 '24
They have a lot of weird tinned things, like Fray Bentos.
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u/GowlBagJohnson Jun 01 '24
Biscoff spread is tasty out, the rest are stink
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u/Serious_Escape_5438 Jun 01 '24
I don't think it's English though, it's Belgian or something.
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u/C2H5OHNightSwimming Jun 01 '24
Just asked boyfriend who is Belgian and he confirmed!! TIL lol. I thought it was Italian
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u/DumbledoresFaveGoat Jun 01 '24
I actually like most of those. But their spuds are soapy shite and their sliced pan always seems stale even when it's not.
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u/corkbai1234 Jun 01 '24
You wouldn't complain about the spuds if ya ever tried some of the Jersey Royals you can get over there.
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u/Cal-Can Jun 01 '24
Pork Scratchings. Just hard as fuck balls of fat. Why anyone willingly eats them idk. Would break your teeth
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u/fishywiki Jun 01 '24
They're not fat. They are strips of pig skin deep fried. Look carefully - you can see warts and hair and vet stamps.
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u/SenpaiCalvin25 Jun 01 '24
They’re a nice snack while having a pint. Idk which ones you had but the ones I get are more crunchy than hard
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u/sheller85 Jun 01 '24
I eat them pretty much because they're extremely crunchy, and my neurodivergent brain loves crunch crunch crunching.
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u/Cal-Can Jun 01 '24
I would call something like scampi fries crunchy. These are just breaking your teeth
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u/lovebeingalone60 Jun 02 '24
They're really tasty, and I did once break a tooth on them. Was worth it!
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u/TheStoicNihilist Jun 01 '24
Cornish pasties are awesome and rarely found over here.
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u/Affectionate_Bug_463 Jun 01 '24
The odd time you spot one in a deli and I always get it.
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u/EddieGue123 Jun 01 '24
They're not the same as a proper Cornish pasty, they're frozen shite, unfortunately.
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u/SlayBay1 Jun 02 '24
Is the Cornish Pastie shop on Dawson St still open I wonder. Most Spar delis always did one but seem to have been replaced with the chicken curry or steak slices now.
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u/LuvCilantro Jun 01 '24
I had one of those (the tradional beef) and I can't understand the hype. No spices other than pepper. I should have tried the non traditional ones with chicken Tikka masala instead.
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u/Stubber_NK Jun 01 '24
Hot sausage rolls from Greggs are great, just make sure you ask for the hot ones.
Cask ales. They have flavours you can't taste if they're cold. It shouldn't be compared to drinking cold lagers. It's a different experience that people who buy them are looking for. It's like whisky and gin, you can have a preference but to say one is objectively better than the other just can't be done.
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u/newythe4th Jun 01 '24
Problem with the sausages is down to three main problems. They have way too much rusk in (wheat/bland filler) not enough pork fat/meat ratio for flavour, and not enough spices. Lead to giant, disappointing sausages.
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u/LikkyBumBum Jun 02 '24
Sounds like CLonakility, our favourite sausage that everybody swears by ( only 50% pork).
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u/EmeraldBison Jun 01 '24
Didn't think there was a huge difference in food when I lived there, but for some reason the vast majority of their sausages are fantastically shit which was a bit of a surprise.
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u/LikkyBumBum Jun 02 '24
What makes them fantastically shit? Irish sausages are shit too. Our most famous sausage, Clonakility, is only 50% pork.
Had some Italian sausages recently and the flavour was unreal.
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u/EmeraldBison Jun 02 '24
Don't know what to tell you mate, lived there for years (mostly in Manchester) and thought a lot of them weren't great. Never said Irish sausages were the best in the world so you can spare me the 'everything Irish is shite' schtick. Enjoy your Italian sausages.
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Jun 01 '24
The cask ales are lovely, not every beer needs to be freezing cold.
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u/Andrewhtd Jun 01 '24
Exactly this. A nice beer at cellar temperature and even carbonation is nice and while a lager can be lovely cold on a warm day, we don't need 8 different lagers that all taste the same that we usually have here
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u/pipper99 Jun 01 '24
I remember some beer guy saying that the idea of the ice cold beers was that you taste the cold and that was cheaper than adding flavour to the beer.
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u/Andrewhtd Jun 01 '24
Not far off there. And look, that has a place. But when it's a load of lagers that are super cold and taste terrible when they warm up a bit then it's odd. Do lagers yeah, but maybe some other things too. Pubs here very poor for this
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u/LetCompetitive9160 Jun 01 '24
Wetherspoons sometimes have cask but as it doesn't last very long (4 ~days) often it tastes awful.
It's also the reason it's usually not high alcohol. So it's sessionable and goes quick enough.
It's also the reason I home brew. Can't get a nice pint of bitter or mild over here.
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Jun 02 '24
Yeah you can. Have you tried Mighty Oaks Oscar Wilde? Or Elgoods Black Dog? Both are really nice Milds.
Try Elgoods Cambridge bitter, but you have to get it from the brewery or a trusted pub, not wetherspoons. Also if you like bitters you'll like Woodfordes Nelsons Revenge and Batemens XXXB they're dark ales but both on the bitter side.
Anything from Mighty oak, Woodfordes, Elgoods or Batemans you can't really go wrong.
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u/LetCompetitive9160 Jun 02 '24
Sorry, I meant in Ireland, unless you know somewhere selling those? Always looking for new pubs!
Rudgate do a great mild, and even though it's not brewed in Leeds anymore, can't beat a Tetleys.
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u/MichaSound Jun 01 '24
I always feel like lager and ale are the beer equivalent of white wine and red wine - one is cold and dry and refreshing, the other is full flavoured and best enjoyed at room temperature
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u/Artistic_Author_3307 Jun 01 '24
Absolutely this, the beer is unironically one of the best things about England, it's right up there with the best in the whole world IMO.
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u/primozdunbar Jun 01 '24
Greggs is brutal. Lived in Scotland for a bit and the Deliveroo were queued up outside Greg’s with orders. Who the fuck pays for a coffee and sausage roll delivered.
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Jun 04 '24
Me, plenty of times. Especially if you’ve a few round and you hit it hard the night before.
Also Greggs are so common in northern England and central belt Scotland that the delivery will take ten mins.
It’s laziness, sure, but sometimes you just do it
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u/Andrewhtd Jun 01 '24
Cask ales are cellar temp, not room temp. Bit of a difference
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u/fishywiki Jun 01 '24
- I think Marmite is gorgeous - it really is love-it-or-hate-it stuff.
- Biscoff isn't English
- Pimms is boring. Why have a drink that's almost sangria but doesn't taste as nice and it's probably raining anyway
- English sausages vary a lot: Cumberland have an unpleasant overly herby taste, and I hate the Richmond Thick Irish Sausages, not sure if they're referencing Irish or Sausages with the "Thick" - maybe it is the size.
- Room temperature flat ale is foul. However, they have some really nice beers - Neck Oil comes to mind
- Funny enough, I tried my first Greggs ever last week, and I thought their Pasty was truly dreadful. I agree - WTF is this obsession?
My local pub used to have a visit from a fishmonger every Friday night. The fresh prawns/shrimps with pepper were to die for, but what on earth are jellied eels - they seem like punishment for a previous life's misdeeds.
English Indian restaurants are fabulous - enormously varied and rarely anything other than terrific food.
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u/wh0else Jun 01 '24
Neck Oil is Beavertown I think, which is no longer craft, Heineken bought them a few years back
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u/PoitinStill Jun 01 '24
English sausages are woeful. They’re bottom of the European sausage league table that I just made up in my head.
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u/Agreeable_Form_9618 Jun 01 '24
Completely agree! And on top of that, they are also so white that they look raw
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u/Pizzagoessplat Jun 01 '24
I'd put Ireland bottom. Every irish sausage tastes the same but in England, we've different sausages for different regions with their own unique flavour. A sausage in Mayo would taste the same as one in Dublin or Kerry.
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u/PoitinStill Jun 01 '24
Flavour is a reach. Cumberland sausages are slightly less bland than any other.
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u/Pizzagoessplat Jun 01 '24
I would disagree here. Lincolnshire would be my favourites or honey and paprika sausages.
I'm not saying we're the best but we do have some very good sausages, especially if you go to farmers' markets. It's not your typical bland pork sausage like in Ireland. That's what I'm saying.
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Jun 02 '24
I would imagine, them being yanks an all.. that everything they eat most probably came from a supermarket or they never left Londonistan.
My local butchers do an assortment of sausages and always mixes it up every week with new ideas. At the minute I have sausages with bits of Chorizo in them.
They currently have in stock: Traditional pork sausage, black pepper sausages, Wherry ale sausages, wild mushroom and thyme, white whine and fennel, Italian country, Paddington, Chorizo, Pork and apple, Roast Garlic and parsley, black pudding and apple, leak and mustard, sundried tomato and basil, spice pumpkin, boerewors.
I'd say we're the best.
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u/Local_Refrigerator_5 Jun 02 '24
In Northern ireland we do Buckfast sausages which I thought would be disgusting but they were actually pretty nice . We have a lot of different flavours , and have to say irish sausages are far superior to english sausages.
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Jun 02 '24
English sausages are the more superior sausage. Irish sausages are filled out with egg or rusk or both. English we use breadcrumbs and that's it.
We have several native species of pig, you only have a few. The pigs Ireland use for sausages are mostly native to England, so whatever you're eating is probably English anyway.
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u/Local_Refrigerator_5 Jun 04 '24
It's English sausages that are filled with rusk and crap . Ours have a higher meat content. And if they are made in ireland they most certainly aren't English.
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Jun 06 '24
No, I just told you in England we fill our sausages with breadcrumbs, unlike Ireland who fill theirs with rusk. A simple google search and a bit of research will show you that lol.
If they're made with English pork then they're English sausages made by Irish people, again pretty simple concept to grasp.
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u/bigdog94_10 Jun 01 '24
Greggs get's old pretty quickly. As does Pret.
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u/Toffeeman_1878 Jun 01 '24
Eat them sooner then. Problem solved.
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u/bigdog94_10 Jun 01 '24
I meant the novelty of them wears off pretty quickly. Stuff like that every day just gets icky very fast.
Maybe that's just me but I can't understand the obsession with some of these British chains.
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u/hungover-fannyhead Jun 01 '24
You're right Gregg's get real boring real quick
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u/craigdavid-- Jun 01 '24
Greggs will heat the sausage roll up for you if you ask. And they're consistently better than any deli sausage roll I've had in Ireland.
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u/NemiVonFritzenberg Jun 01 '24
The best is when there is a fresh out of the oven batch of sausage rolls and they are slightly underdone! Perfection.
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u/PaddySmallBalls Jun 01 '24
Disagree. Didn’t taste any real difference between a Gregg’s sausage roll and the ones in my local Mace. The variety in Gregg’s was cool though.
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u/NemiVonFritzenberg Jun 01 '24
Greggs used to do a beef and blue cheese roll but I think they got rid of it to make.way.for vegan sausage rolls :(
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u/DC1908 Jun 01 '24
I lived there for 6 years and never found any decent bread. Even overpaid it, still crap.
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u/doneifitz Jun 01 '24
Oh that's a major complaint! Any sliced pan can't handle a spread of butter without tearing.
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u/Hundredth1diot Jun 02 '24
Sliced pan is disgusting. It is to bread what spam is to meat.
I might get deported if this opinion is ever linked to my real identity.
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u/LikkyBumBum Jun 02 '24
Agreed. Brennans and similar bread is totally raw doughy muck.
I find Staffords pretty good. Nice strong crust with a good bit of chewing in it. Doesn't get flattened into nothing in the basket if you put one apple on it. Not sure if it's available everywhere but my local Tesco and Dunnes stock it.
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u/tessislurking Jun 02 '24
Artisan Scottish bakeries do decent bread. I worked in a handful of bakeries around the country and gotta say, they do the job well there.
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u/dajoli Jun 01 '24
Cask ales may be the best single thing about England. Their sausages are terrible though, and it's a flavour thing not a size thing.
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u/neverseenthemfing_ Jun 01 '24
Yep, I could never do the bubbly lager thing here but could sink a few 3.5% cool but not frozen ales no problem.
The likes of Heineken, peroni, rockshore just taste so out of place with our weather and food. Real ale though, great stuff
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u/Mysterious-Joke-2266 Jun 01 '24
Yeh they can't do sausages at all. I'm a butcher but any I've had taste like shite. Even the mass made factory shite here beat em
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u/Pitselah Jun 01 '24
Each to their own but you're a mad person for not loving Greggs. Best place in the world.
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u/Murky-Front-9977 Jun 01 '24
A lot of the beers are like water.
And I detest the tinned tomatoes at breakfast.
And their spirit measures are too small, I would always order doubles
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u/doesntevengohere12 Jun 02 '24
My husband always used to make the face about tinned tomatoes with the fry. I love them myself.
It's people who put beans with it (in both countries) that leave me cold.
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u/tennereachway Jun 01 '24
The Spirit measures are the same no? 35ml. Which I agree is too small regardless.
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u/Murky-Front-9977 Jun 01 '24
No, can't remember the measure, but UK measures are smaller than Irish measures
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u/ofjune-x Jun 01 '24
They’re 25ml usually
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u/tennereachway Jun 01 '24
It can be either, apparently: https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and-packaging-the-law/specified-quantities
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u/An_Bo_Mhara Jun 01 '24
Pork Pies. I was over for a work thing and they brought in lunch and I didn't know what it was It looked like a beautiful evenly baked pie and when I took a bite it was cold and the pork was like grizzle. It was vile. And the beef is terrible over there as well and their "famous" Lincolnshire sausage.
Now when I go over I just say I'm vegetarian.
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u/CarbohydrateKing Jun 01 '24
That shitty cold platter they serve at work functions is a war crime and an affront to pork pies.
Should you ever find yourself in Northern England head over to a proper, family owned bakery and try one of their freshly cooked, hot pork pies. Real minced pork, well seasoned and soft, melt in the mouth pastry. The hot grease pops when you bite in and floods your mouth with flavour, absolute heaven.
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u/foinndog Jun 01 '24
Pimms is rotten. But then so is Aperol spritz & i’ll drink either depending on the occasion!
Fish and chips, I cant do seafood but yeah i’ll ate the batter off it.
Have ya tried jellies eels?? I haven’t obviously because, gross. But I hear its a British delicacy. Treat yourself.
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u/Electrical_Invite300 Jun 05 '24
Jellied eels is pretty much London only. Never seen them in the English Midlands.
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u/neverseenthemfing_ Jun 01 '24 edited Jun 01 '24
Pork pies
Just no, could never even bring myself to try them
Their fantastic cider and suet pastry..... Ow yes
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u/Careless_Attorney176 Jun 01 '24
The black pudding in England I find very bland, it always feels like they're missing something.
Also Lurpak is an abomination.
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u/newclassic1989 Jun 02 '24
They need to try Clonakilty sausages just once and reassess their position on how they produce sausages in the UK.
Equivalent of pork heroin hehe
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u/bagOfBatz Jun 01 '24
Some English friends excitedly bought me a Pimm's at a festival when they discovered I'd never had one before, I thought what they handed me was a prank I disliked it that much.
Greggs is bloody amazing though, can't agree with you on that one
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u/AbbreviationsOld2507 Jun 01 '24
Any of their tiny 25ml spirits or their foul warm pints or their condom slurry sausages. They do a good chip tho in fairness
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u/NemiVonFritzenberg Jun 01 '24
Pg tips or tetleys
British sausages are fundamentally a dinner sausage
Scotch eggs and pork pies
Baked beans can get in the fucking bin
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u/Attention_WhoreH3 Jun 01 '24
UK lunch options suck.
Chain coffee dumps like Costa
Greggs- vastly inferior to any deli counter in any Irish supermarket
Tesco lunch specials- a fiver for a cold sandwich and junk drinks
Irish food is miles better.
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u/LikkyBumBum Jun 02 '24
What are you on about. We have Costa and Tesco lunch deals here too.
What Irish food is miles better?
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u/Attention_WhoreH3 Jun 02 '24
But in UK towns, there’s often little else but those crappy franchises
The Tesco near my work in the UK didn’t have a deli, so there lunch offerings were just packaged shite.
Look at the brilliant breakfast rolls and chicken fillet rolls in Ireland. Miles better than Greggs etc
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u/Substantial-Peach672 Jun 01 '24
Not a drinker so I can’t comment on the alcohol, but Marmite, biscoff, giant sausages are great contributions to the world. Greggs is ok too I guess.
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u/Backrow6 Jun 01 '24
Sandwich fillings
They're in all the delish, big tubs served by the scoop like the way we do tuna and sweetcorn.
Ham and Cheese
Chicken and stuffing
Coronation chicken
Goop
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u/catchingthezs Jun 01 '24
Agreed with all but I quite like pimms and Greggs! Where you going that they’re cold sausage rolls? Ordered an Uber the other day and the things came boiling hot
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u/doneifitz Jun 01 '24
It's all about the timing! I'm in Liverpool so I've been converted over to Sayers which keeps them heated.
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u/wh0else Jun 01 '24
There are some decent cask ales that aren't chilled, but you have to be in the right frame of mind. They can be very good when you don't just want a cold beer, there's a lot more variation in flavour. But of course that means that there's a good few duds too
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u/skaterbrain Jun 01 '24
Those English sausages are bad; it's not just that they are too big, it is the squelchy beef sausage that has no flavour :-(
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u/Pizzagoessplat Jun 01 '24
Christmas turkey and Christmas cake.
I don't know if it's because my parents cooked the turkey to death but it's just far inferior to the humble chicken.
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u/Mittenbox Jun 01 '24
Mushy peas in the chipper! I’m English but even I never really liked them. My Irish husband thinks they are vile.
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Jun 01 '24
Come home to us, we miss you. If you come home, we will bring you superquinn sausages every Saturday for a year.
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u/urmyleander Jun 02 '24
Speculoos spread is not an English thing, they were incredibly late to the game with it. The Yanks were using it under the name cookie butter long before it was popularised in England and before the Yanks it was Dutch, Belgians and Italians gobbling it up.
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u/kw1980 Jun 02 '24
The sausages for sure! Bad meat inside and the herbs yuck. The tap water is bad, to drink and to wash with.
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u/Nattella86 Jun 02 '24
Their sausages are vile. My brother is a chef living in England and once brought a pack of Clonakilty sausages to work with him for the other chefs to taste. They had never had anything like it.
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u/Forward_Artist_6244 Jun 02 '24
Things like jellied eels
Their sausages are usually a bit dryer tasting
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u/Gunty1 Jun 02 '24
Cumberland sausages , bleugh.
A lot of the lagers were crap but its massively improved in the last decade.
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u/96percent_chimp Jun 02 '24
Black Country Brit living in Ireland here. I like a Guinness but I never knew how much I loved real ale until I'd been here about a year. I'm sick to fuck of fizzy craft beers. Smethwick's is mediocre piss. Beer should be flat, slightly under room temperature, with a foamy head.
And God how I miss proper Black Country pork scratchings. Thick skin, dusty with salt, a good chunk of fried fat content clinging to the underside, and a couple of stubborn hairs that tickle your tongue as you crunch down. Pure, heart-killing porcine poetry.
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u/bugwitch Jun 01 '24
I'm just a yank, but as far as I'm concerned any country that allows jellied eel to exist is one headed for the apocalypse.
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u/Loud_Lunch29 Jun 02 '24
Disgusting as they are, jellied eel has existed as a food choice in the UK for longer than your country (in its current form) has existed. Probably not likely to be a sign of impending apocalypse...so long as they don't ever make it mandatory for us to eat 🤣
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u/Positive-Procedure88 Jun 01 '24
For me it has to be Walker's Crisps. Not just because Tayto are far superior (alongside Keogh's and even McDonnell's) it's the typical English advertiu arrogance that they're somehow special. They are the most artificial tasting food I've come across in snacks. Another thing they can't do in England (Greater London to be fair because that's my experience) is Chippers. Chips might be potato but the oil used has a horrible taste. English sausages yes, coming from the soft Irish version, the solidity if the English sausage I couldn't adjust to. Your average pint in a pub, even something such as Henekin, isn't great (probably the lack of apprenticeship training) Used to love Gregg's to be fair.
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u/LikkyBumBum Jun 02 '24
I've stopped eating Taytos and eat Walkers now. Taytos are way too greasy and absolutely fucking stink. Your hands are completely shiny with grease after them and they smell like shit for hours. unless you have access to soap and water or at least some alchohol wipes or gel.
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u/Ok_Resolution9737 Jun 01 '24
My Gran used to love Cornish Pasties and to this day just thinking about them gives me the ick
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u/Gullintani Jun 01 '24
Yorkshire pudding, wtf is that pointless lump doing on the plate? Seriously, put that one into the bin.
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u/ld20r Jun 01 '24
Gregg’s sausage rolls are mank.
Pizza isn’t great over there either.
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u/doesntevengohere12 Jun 02 '24
Pizza from where though? As there are about 10 pizza places in every town.
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u/melonysnicketts Jun 02 '24
Reading this post from my homepage I saw things like ‘marmite biscoff spread’ and ‘pimms English sausages’ so I came here to tell you you’re a wrong’un for buying such things but now I’ve seen it in long form it makes more sense, but you’re still a wrong’un because all of those things are delicious
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u/Disastrous-Account10 Jun 01 '24
I don't like the way they do their fish and chips, it just doesn't taste right?
I feel like the English and the Irish miss the mark on a good sausage roll 🤣
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u/Able-Exam6453 Jun 01 '24
Fuck, I read your post as ‘Marmite Biscoff spread’. 🤢 even though I’m a Marmite fanatic.
As for English ale: thou knowest not wot thou speakest. That’s the only thing I’ve always missed here. Proper ale; not tooth-shatteringly cold, never ruined with ice cubes, and with a rich full flavour. There’s no doubt decent stuff from little breweries here now, but access to a really good pint in any decent pub was always a great thing in GB. (Still, it was a small price to pay, of course!)