Why do so many L.A. apartments come without fridges? Inside the chilling mystery

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by JManc

Plus the Dutch know a thing or two about good beer.

Hehe my Dutch friend says otherwise; he thinks Belgian beer is much better than Dutch beer. And I agree with him.

[10023]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Hehe my Dutch friend says otherwise; he thinks Belgian beer is much better than Dutch beer. And I agree with him.

That’s because it is better. Obviously Dutch beer isn’t all Heineken and Amstel garbage but Trappist ales are the best beers in the world.

[10023]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Why is that? I've never been to England but I've heard this time and time again. Is it the quality of the ingredients or they just don't know how to cook?

They don’t know how to cook and the culture traditionally doesn’t value it. For the upper class cooking was something the servants did, down in the basement (you can still find unmodernised Georgian houses in gentrifying parts or London where the kitchen is a tiny, almost windowless room at the bottom of the house). And the lower classes have never had the time or money, but there’s also just not a tradition of doing a lot with little like you get in places like Southern Italy.

The climate probably doesn’t help; England is very green but aside from cabbages (which require frost to develop sugars and flavor) there isn’t enough sun for fruits most of the year (fantastic berries for a couple months or so, tomatoes for a week or two if you’re lucky). And despite ruling over 1/4 of the world including India for 200 years, they never assimilated any of those flavors and spices into native cuisine. Apparently they are not allowed to even have garlic in the kitchen at Buckingham Palace because Queen Elizabeth hates it so much (too strongly flavored).

But yeah, mostly people just don’t care. They are incredible cheapskates when it comes to food. Professionals making six-figure incomes in London go to Tesco for a lunchtime “meal deal” to save £1. It’s ridiculous.

You can eat very well in London but that’s because you can basically avoid English food entirely (aside from some very high end British restaurants which, like “New Nordic” cuisine, succeed in elevating it with perfect technique and optimal ingredients). But that’s mostly because London is full of foreigners, especially Southern Europeans and Asians.

[JManc]

Trappist isn't just a Belgian thing, there are Trappist breweries outside of Belgium but yeah, Belgium is hard to beat when it comes to beer but if we are comparing countries with shitty food, at least the Dutch (which has a Trappist brewery) can make a great beer compared to the Brits.

[10023]

Originally Posted by JManc

Trappist isn't just a Belgian thing, there are Trappist breweries outside of Belgium but yeah, Belgium is hard to beat when it comes to beer but if we are comparing countries with shitty food, at least the Dutch (which has a Trappist brewery) can make a great beer compared to the Brits.

There is some good beer in England now, but they only learned to do it from American craft brewers in the last 10 years ago. If you really want to wind up a British boomer that’s a great start.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by JManc

My grandfather was from England and the shit he used to eat....

So grateful my other half of the family came from Italy.

I can relate--my grandfather was the only one in his nuclear family to be born in the US--the rest were born in England.

He was, of course, never taught how to cook when he was a boy (nor was my Dad, nor was I), and he was accustomed to English food. I spent a summer with him, and he insisted on doing all the "cooking," which is to say, the boiling. Everything was boiled. And salt and pepper? Those "spices" were optional add-ons, upon request, after the "cooking" was complete. It was awful. All of it.

[ocman]

I wonder if this is an actual LA thing vs LA has a lot of cheap landlords.

Corporate-owned apartment complexes tend to give you a fridge.

[10023]

Originally Posted by craigs

I can relate--my grandfather was the only one in his nuclear family to be born in the US--the rest were born in England.

He was, of course, never taught how to cook when he was a boy (nor was my Dad, nor was I), and he was accustomed to English food. I spent a summer with him, and he insisted on doing all the "cooking," which is to say, the boiling. Everything was boiled. And salt and pepper? Those "spices" were optional add-ons, upon request, after the "cooking" was complete. It was awful. All of it.

I mean, it’s not like traditional American cooking is great either. People used to eat things like meatloaf, and the whole traditional Thanksgiving table is pretty damn underwhelming.

The US has just assimilated more different cuisines, and benefited from more immigration from countries like Italy and now Mexico. Even barbecue was brought from the Caribbean by the Spanish (barbacoa). It’s just that these things have been thoroughly adopted by most of the US, aside from some very WASP-y families maybe, whereas immigrant cuisines in Britain have always remained distinct and “foreign” no matter how universal it is to “go for a curry”.

See: the Queen of England will not eat food with garlic in it.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by 10023

It’s just that these things have been thoroughly adopted by most of the US, aside from some very WASP-y families maybe, whereas immigrant cuisines in Britain have always remained distinct and “foreign” no matter how universal it is to “go for a curry”.

Not sure this is universal? I mean, there are parts of the country where lots of people ate "casseroles" as family meals. Thankfully I was never subjected to that as a child.

But yeah, the year I lived in England (20-21 or thereabouts) I basically subsisted on Indian carryout.

Wasn't big into beer back then, but my experience with British beer was everything was either bland and "drinkable" or overly hopped and nasty.

[10023]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Not sure this is universal? I mean, there are parts of the country where lots of people ate "casseroles" as family meals. Thankfully I was never subjected to that as a child.

But yeah, the year I lived in England (20-21 or thereabouts) I basically subsisted on Indian carryout.

Wasn't big into beer back then, but my experience with British beer was everything was either bland and "drinkable" or overly hopped and nasty.

I included a carve out for WASPs but you’re right, the midwestern middle classes aren’t any bettter. Anglo-American food generally sucks, but at least there’s American barbecue, American-Italian cuisine, etc.

The English won’t accept that their beer sucks. And then I ask why they drink so much American style beer, but Americans don’t drink English beer (but drink German, Belgian, Czech, even French, Italian and Spanish beer). They think it’s just our ignorance.

[Crawford]

WASPy American food sucks, but I think there's a crescent of extra-suck from around Utah (Mormon food like funeral potatoes, jello salad), through the Great Plains states over to maybe Ohio. Obviously big metro areas and ethnic enclaves excepted.

Just really crappy gut-busting casserole-y food. Worst geography for potlucks.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by 10023

I included a carve out for WASPs but you’re right, the midwestern middle classes aren’t any bettter. Anglo-American food generally sucks, but at least there’s American barbecue, American-Italian cuisine, etc.

The English won’t accept that their beer sucks. And then I ask why they drink so much American style beer, but Americans don’t drink English beer (but drink German, Belgian, Czech, even French, Italian and Spanish beer). They think it’s just our ignorance.

I'll add Japanese and Mexican beer to that list.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I'll add Japanese and Mexican beer to that list.

I don't think I've ever had a good East Asian beer. Passable ones, sure, but they tend towards being light amber lager types with minimal flavor.

There's a lot of good Mexican beer, though of course the Mexican brewing tradition was just brought by Germans/Czechs in the 19th century. Though I suppose that's true everywhere outside of Europe.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I don't think I've ever had a good East Asian beer. Passable ones, sure, but they tend towards being light amber lager types with minimal flavor.

There's a lot of good Mexican beer, though of course the Mexican brewing tradition was just brought by Germans/Czechs in the 19th century. Though I suppose that's true everywhere outside of Europe.

Try Yebisu with Japanese food. MMm, mmm!

Maybe that's the thing too, I tend not to drink beer by itself, I often have food with it.

And I actually don't drink too much beer; for a while now I've been having sake with Japanese food, and I've become more of a wine/cider/mead drinker. I often find beer too heavy. But I do like sour beers, and I'll have the occasional chocolate stout.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by 10023

I mean, it’s not like traditional American cooking is great either. People used to eat things like meatloaf, and the whole traditional Thanksgiving table is pretty damn underwhelming.

The US has just assimilated more different cuisines, and benefited from more immigration from countries like Italy and now Mexico. Even barbecue was brought from the Caribbean by the Spanish (barbacoa). It’s just that these things have been thoroughly adopted by most of the US, aside from some very WASP-y families maybe, whereas immigrant cuisines in Britain have always remained distinct and “foreign” no matter how universal it is to “go for a curry”.

See: the Queen of England will not eat food with garlic in it.

I'm thinking various Asian cuisine is also contributing to food in the US. Didn't salsa become the #1 selling condiment in the US in the 1980s or something, beating out ketchup? I don't doubt that sriracha will eventually be neck and neck with salsa one of these days. And I don't think it's inaccurate to say that in Los Angeles, nobody thinks of Mexican food to be "ethnic" food, they just think of it as food.

I've only had brief visits to London twice, if you combine those visits, it would come out to about 5 days. But anyway, yeah, the best food I had in London was Indian food. English pub food got old really fast, so I ended up eating a lot of Indian food.

[eschaton]

East-Asian-ish food has the advantage that it's quite fast to make (as long as you aren't steaming rice or anything) and very easy as long as you have a pre-prepared sauce (homemade or store-bought).

In contrast, even though Mexican is very popular in the U.S., I feel like it's not really done in home cooking much in gringo families. Due to the need for a lot of fresh foods, warm flour tortillas, etc., it's a lot harder to do home cooking for a small number of people. On the rare occasions I do it with my family, I just do it "taco bar" style and let everyone assemble whatever they like out of what I prepare.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by 10023

I mean, it’s not like traditional American cooking is great either. People used to eat things like meatloaf, and the whole traditional Thanksgiving table is pretty damn underwhelming.

I don't mind cleaner, more upscale versions of 'comfort food' like that, but yeah. A lot of the American food of yore is pretty bad.

The US has just assimilated more different cuisines, and benefited from more immigration from countries like Italy and now Mexico. Even barbecue was brought from the Caribbean by the Spanish (barbacoa).

You beat me to the punch. None of the men in my family were taught how to cook in the kitchen, but my other grandfather was revered for his "cook-outs." It was simple grilling, but pretty good, and since he dutifully tended to a quarter-acre garden with tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, green and wax beans, etc., he pushed fresh vegetables at every meal, for half the year, anyway. I wasn't big on salads when I was a kid, but they were far more palatable than boiled vegetables.

[eschaton]

I'm a completely self-taught cook, as I think is the case with a lot of white men around my age (40-ish).

My mother didn't cook much as a child because she worked full-time. My maternal grandparents lived with us though, and my grandmother more or less was the "housewife" of the family. She was from an ethnic German family from Transylvania, and grew up eating both authentic German and Hungarian cuisine. However, my grandfather was (mostly) Irish and like most Irish people, hated any food which actually had flavor. As a result my grandmother pretty much only cooked (overdone) meat (with a boiled veggie side) and pasta dishes (she loved Italian food, in part because her older sister married a Sicilian man and she was exposed quite early. So growing up we had something with tomato sauce on it probably twice a week.

My grandmother on the other side was an even worse cook, although she was a passable baker.

Regardless, I became a vegetarian at age 13, and pretty quickly realized I had to prepare all of my own meals. I figured out the basics of cooking by my early 20s when I had a roommate who worked as a line cook and we ended up cooking a lot together.

Now I have two picky kids and all the cooking skills I picked up are largely worthless, as I need to rush home and stick...something...in the oven which will be ready within 30 minutes that my kids won't refuse to eat. But they admit I'm a better cook than my wife is.

[Investing In Chicago]

I spend quite a bit of time in London, and I've never had an issue finding good restaurants. I'd put the restaurant scene up there with the top cities in the US. I will agree that traditional British food sucks.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by eschaton

In contrast, even though Mexican is very popular in the U.S., I feel like it's not really done in home cooking much in gringo families. Due to the need for a lot of fresh foods, warm flour tortillas, etc., it's a lot harder to do home cooking for a small number of people. On the rare occasions I do it with my family, I just do it "taco bar" style and let everyone assemble whatever they like out of what I prepare.

I think white families do the ground beef taco with the package of seasoning thing (my parents are from Italy and I didn't really know that was a thing as a kid). Taco night in our house, I marinate a steak (or chicken thighs) and throw on the grill, and grill a pablano or jalepeno pepper and some onion and throw a couple tortillas on the grill. It's pretty much the easiest thing to make and it's great.