What do you like about living in Britain?

POLISHFORUMS IN INTERESTING THREAD SHOCKER :)

Wow, something worth replying to at last :D


Indian food is hardly "exotic" in the UK, it's been all over the place for decades. Paleolithic food is the new curry ;)


You wouldn't expect Polish people to make decent Indian food, so why expect the Chinese to make decent English-style fish and chips?


It's a strange one. Even I'll admit that most British food isn't exactly gourmet food, yet British food is one of the things I would miss most about this country:

Haggis
Fish and chips
West Midlands faggots and peas
Bury black pudding
Chorley and Eccles cakes
London pie, mash, eels and liquor
Melton Mowbray pork pies
HP sauce

I imagine that what we take for granted over here, would be exactly what I would miss most if I moved to somewhere where it wasn't available.


Whereas a plate of pierogi covered in okrasa is of course really healthy... :p

My mother-in-law serves pierogi with fatty fried bacon and then spoons melted butter over the top. We do not expect to live long.
I have a large collection of cookbooks, including several books on traditional British cooking. There are so many wonderful dishes from the British Isles but people just don't cook them anymore. Processed and junk food are cheaper and easier, so busy people live on them instead.

I challenge any carnivore to try my steak and kidney suet pudding with beer, steamed for four hours, and tell me British food is bad.

I don't think anyone read what he wrote and interpreted it as him expecting it. Merely disappointed that it has come to that (in his experience).

When I was living there, what I liked most was being able to strike up a conversation with anyone at anytime anywhere.

- I like the temperature - one type of clothes all year round and no need for winter tyres :-) But I need to complain about the rain though

- Ulster fry - yum
- muuuuuuuuuuuuuch less stresful lifestyle - and that was my main reason to move,
- National Trust sites,
- a chance to learn English the way people speak and not the one a school teaches you( I know, it's not always a good thing),

Well, it could be either I suppose ;)


Fair point. However, I've also found this in Wroclaw and Prague, but definitely not in Paris, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong or Warsaw :)


Are you sure you live in the UK?? ;)


What?? You must be joking. Where on earth do you live? It can't be in a large city.


Indeed. You kno dat we chat differently pon road and ting you get me blud ;)


The strange thing is, everyone I knew/know who lived or lives like this, seems to have lived at least into their late 70s! :D

It is NOT " anti everyone " more non Poles acquiring the Polish art of complaining - when in rome and all that gubbins.

freedom to wear what you want without too much hassle from the locals.

here in Poland one might become an object of ridicule when expressing such freedom. maybe not as much as in the past, but it still happens.

Sophie Lancaster? :(

I very much like that it's easy to steal all kinds of benefits in Britain and get away with it.

Oxygenthief would be a better name.

a sad exception. but generally i think the attitude is more relaxed in the uk.

there is some truly revolting traditional English food

raw tripe in vinegar
tripe in a sort of vile white sauce with unidentifiable vegetable, possibly onion
toad in the hole (better referred to as toad in the hell)
lancashire hot pot
jam roly poly
boiled beef (usually brisket with cabbage)
spotted dick

I mean the list keeps going on

as for the Ulster Fry or UF - it is infamously high in cholesterol
as Owen O Neill so wisely said, '' the UF has been responsible for more loss of Catholic life than the UDF, the UDV or any other paramilitary organisation'

But these are great!


You're Polish, but you're complaining about cabbage? :D

I agree with tripe, though. Polish or English recipe, I wouldn't touch it if you paid me to. Ugh.

I am British but I feel for the sake of fairness I ought to mention the darker side of English cooking

We used to buy tripe from Wigan market, cook it in a white sauce and have it with mashed potato
it was truly vile.

Polish tripe (Flaki) is much tastier. I still find it difficult to eat as each spoonful brings up a lump of
cow's stomach from the depths which resembles an extra from a science fiction film about aliens

you can only say 'show me how you kiss earthman' so many times before it stops being funny

I am just having tripe and pumpkin soup. Interesting experiment.


bull`s or donkey`s ?

very good :-)

do you know what spotted dick is?

Scottish Highland, the choice of beers, general easiness of life, prices/salaries ratio, quality of higher education, general helpfulness of strangers, various offices going online and some other stuff.

Hmm.... let me gues.... a bull dick with red spots on it, after contracting a veneral disease?

Don`t tell me it is ram`s! England has been famous for sheep.....


English women?

ease of setting up a business
relaxed attitude towards accounting

business mentoring - having a retired businessman advising you as a hobby and giving you contacts to all their friends
Business Link - in spite of the fact that it is now run by Serco - still provides excellent advice for budding business people

car boot sales and jumble sales and the thrill of rummaging through piles of tat to get a bargain

Church fetes, mystery tours, treasure hunts and all the quintessentially naff but adorable things associated with village life

@pawian

you are nearly right....

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick

You're lucky you're in Poland. Otherwise you could earn a couple of Glesga kisses for calling people here 'English' (not that I'm in a fighting mood, hehe). Contrary to all that talk about the evil foreigners 'destroying' Britishness, I'd say there's still a strong regionalism (which, after all, constitutes what Britishness is) across Britain, at least in Scotland.

Should have stuck to pies ;)

fantastic with golden syrup....

Wow, it is even in Polish: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick

I like the way it is economically developed and makes life easier in general. Other than financial positives, there is nothing I like and a lot I do not like.

I would imagine it must be a great anti climax for you :-)

are the kiosks still open 24/7? they offer all kinds of stuff. no worry about food, coffee, cigarettes etc.

oh my god teflcat.. you can actually make this dish? wow am big style impressed! not easiest of dishes to make! i like to make steak and kidney pie in puff pastry...yum yum! british food is far from bland,but people rarely have time these days to spend it cooking. do you know how to cook stew? traditionally this is a winter dish, and it takes about 3 hours to make it properly. i have my own recipe and all my polish friends love it!

hmmm, this thread seems to be getting very food related! would love to know if anyone has ever tried deep fried mars bars? personally cant think of anything more revolting,but they are popular in scotland, which has very high rate of heart disease....lol

strangely enough most Polish people become completely freaked out by pickled eggs

they seem to be utterly mesmorised by the horror of a jar of pickled eggs in a chippie

There's often a jar of pickled cucumbers next to them, which should make them feel more at home :)

My ex was appalled, intrigue, satisfied and then told everybody he'd eaten one.