In summary ... if you're in the UK and can't find fresh food, then you're part of the problem. You see a gregs and buy crap. Or you walk into a supermarket, go past the fresh fruit and veg, and pick up a frozen pizza for £2. What quality of ingredients can be on that?
This is why people in the UK are getting fatter and fatter - they can, if they wish, eat nothing but shit food all day every day. It's hard to do that in Switzerland without (a) running out of money or (b) suddenly deciding you've actually had enough hot cheese.
There is wonderful fresh food, and very high quality food, available in the UK to buy as ingredients. Much better and more varied than here. And not at Globus prices, either.
And there are good restaurants.
And sorry, for those saying how unhealthy a Pret sandwish is.... compared to what; a bowl of macaroni cheese with some hot slices of apple in it? Or a really awful slice of quiche from Migros that probably competes with a Greg's sausage roll for vitamins?
Pret does some great wraps, fruit, and nut snacks. As always, if you want to eat unhealthily you can, but it's purely your choice.
Even taking into account the differing salaries and tax rates here (add all the deductions and health insurance into that though) ... if you spent the SAME percentage of your UK salary on food as you do your Swiss salary on food, you buy your way out of Gregs and £2 frozen pizzas.
Make my life so much easier if shops declared non-Chorleywood, sorry is that is off subject
They seem to be going out younger and younger and seem to go to the supermarket to buy cheap drink and get tanked up and then go out for a night.
And of course, alcohol is laden with calories.
I lived in the UK and I have lived in several other countries too.
Your country showcases the worst food in the world (with the exception of pseudo-Indian food, which can be good).
Can't understand people who don't realize their national shortcomings.
I have spoken with at least three cooks at restaurants because I wanted them to explain to me, face to face, what exactly they did to produce such horrendous food. Wonder why they wore a cook's hat.
The only way I know how anyone can eat well in the UK is to either pay a lot or go Indian.
Generally speaking, UK food is a disgrace. I always try to understand why those islanders, having had such a vast empire, having sailed through all seas, never managed to incorporate into their national cuisine the virtues of foreign food and its methods.
UK food, by and large, is fine. If you want crap food, you can find it anywhere. I suggest you find better restaurants to go to, or learn how to cook.
edit: As for "Indian" food - as you call it - it is not Indian or from the Indian sub-continent. It may have been about 40 or 50 years ago but it is now a fusion of sub-continent styles and English tastes and preferences. If anything it describes English cooking perfectly. A fusion of influences from its days as a global empire ( all stand in mourning for what has passed ).
But, when I go back to Edinburgh I love to eat out. There are fantastic restaurants in Edinburgh with great prices and superb variety. I don't think the veggies are as nice in Scotland but if I do cook at home it is with some amazing seafood or lamb from an independent butcher.
I am very happy that we are able to go back and forth a couple times a month so we get the best of both worlds.
I think Flavio you have either been trying to eat as cheaply as possible, or you haven't been to Britain for 20 years, or more. Have you ever been to a Marks & Spencer food shop and looked at the salad based meals? They are streets ahead of Migros and Coop in variety and quality, and they make an excellent lunch.
I certainly think good food is as expensive in London as it is in Basel, but it is certainly there. British families have different life styles to the Swiss. The mother is usually holding down a full time job, and good cooking is reserved for maybe once per week. The rest of the week they live from cheap ready prepared meals, or cheap take out food, hence they are fat.
Looking forward to drinking my own body weight in vodka...
And then hmmmmm. Locally produced sausages, pickled cucumbers, bread rolls, cheese, ham......
Used to drive to Dover and take the Hovercraft (without the car) to France several times a week to get decent food.
Only things edible in England back then were breakfast and the beer (and some pub food).
Tom
In Northern Europe a bit more difficult but doable.
In the UK it is very difficult.
I ignore the reasons for this. Is it because there is not enough demand for quality food? Could this be the reason why there are so many fat people in the UK? Because people not only do not demand good food but are also undemanding concerning each-other's bodily aesthetics?
On the other side, Brits are very demanding on music, theatre, comedy and other scenic arts, which is strange for me. I see good taste as something that should naturally spread to all realms of the human milieu. In the UK it is clearly not the case.
Indian cuisine did have subtle influence though, with things such as chutneys being first introduced to London about 200 years ago. There were a handful of Victorian restaurants in London in Victorian times but they were patronized more for their novelty value than for the excellence of their food and often came with some freakish entertainment aspect displaying some curious Indian customs or dances, or something the owners thought they could pass off as such. It wasn't until large scale immigration began in the 1960s or thereabouts that large numbers of working class low-priced Indian restaurants began to appear. So these are definitely post colonial and have nothing to do with colonialists taking their favorite dishes home with them.
Many of these have over time developed to veritable time capsules of the days that they opened, with both Indian and British culture having moved on since then, but the owners remain seemingly unaware. Some probably do it on purposes as that's what clients expect.