British Food

GirlAlive - The British Food Experience. This is largely what you would expect ("My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare." - Mike Myers), and sometimes not. I agree with her view of haggis - although I think it's reputation is mostly hype. It's basically meatmeal. And then there is this from the marmite review:

This stuff had to have been invented as a practical joke [ed, see above quote]. Here's what I picture: some guy at a food company said, "You know L. Ron Hubbard? He invented that religion Scientology and admitted that he totally made it up, but there are still people dumb enough to follow it. I think we can do that with a food. We'll concoct a foul tar of smoker's lung and yeast poo and market it as a health food. People will buy it and eat it, no matter how nasty it is. I'll bet you £10." And now decades later that guy has his £10 and the rest of the world is stuck with Marmite and Tom Cruise.

P.S. It has now been hours since I ate the Marmite, and in between I've had many crackers with mustard and pickles and some onion bahjis and ice cream and coke and I swear I can still taste a hint of this crap in my mouth. It won't go away. I can't believe something that foul is legal. And they feed this stuff to children!

My own theory is that cold Northern(ish) countries with questionable food often make up for it with good beer and/or alcohol. But there is a limit to this - I once watched a few grimly amusing minutes of a Scandinavian cooking show. Not that Dutch cooking is any better; Although I do like Dutch Baby.