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Carys Cheshire '24 Darcy Mullane '24
Carys Cheshire '24 Darcy Mullane '24
Junior Editor-in-Chief Website Designer
From beans on toast to a pie filled with meat and vegetables, British food has grown a poor reputation. People tend to refuse to give British food a try because of its supposedly bland taste and unattractive looks. As children of the Brits, we are here to prove that British food is not as scary as it looks by conducting a taste test of typical British dishes with people who have never tried them before.
For this experiment, we had Isabelle Matthews ’25, Eva Lloyd ’24 and Rosalia Cortese
’23 try a selection of traditional British delicacies. Going into the experiment, the girls did not have very high expectations for the food because of all of the negative stigma around it. As three girls with Italian roots, they were prepared for disappointment.
The first course of the feast was a popular British juice called Ribena. Ribena is designed to be mixed with water and is made from the juice of blackcurrants. At first glance, the girls were nervous about the dilution but intrigued by the bright red color of the drink.
After tasting the juice, the girls were slightly disappointed by the flavor. Matthews described the taste as “weak” and Lloyd compared it to a worse version of cranberry pomegranate juice. Although Cortese did not mind the acquired taste of Ribena, the overall consensus of the group was that the drink is “dodgy.”
For the second drink of our experiment, we presented the girls with the most British drink there is: tea. English breakfast tea is extremely popular in Britain and is most commonly taken with milk and sugar. Matthews was not scared of the tea as an avid tea drinker herself, but Lloyd and Cortese were expecting the drink to be mediocre as they don’t usually take to tea.
Their reaction to the flavor of the drink was as they expected, and they were once again disappointed. Matthews found that although she had tasted much better tea, this one was not intolerable and managed to finish the whole teacup.
“That tastes like a whole lot of nothing,” shared Lloyd after her first sip.
Cortese agreed with Lloyd and described the tea as simply “water and sugar.”
Overall, the tea was deemed “dodgy” but, admittedly, that could have been the result of our questionable tea-making skills.
The girls cheersing with their ribena
After our rocky start with the drinks, we had to step up our game for the entrees. The first British dish we served is one of the most ridiculed by Americans: beans on toast. Beans on toast is pretty much exactly what it sounds like and often receives hate based on its unsettling and messy appearance.
Lloyd even went as far as to describe the dish as “just a vessel for beans.”
However, the girls had higher expectations for this dish than we expected. Despite their agreement that the appearance of the meal is understandably off-putting, they were actually quite excited to try something new that involved two foods they all enjoyed.
Their predictions for the meal proved right, and the girls were satisfied with their first ever beans on toast. Lloyd not only finished her own slice, but she gobbled down the rest of Matthews’ as well with a smile on her face! The girls’ quickly demolished any rumors of beans on toast being dodgy and gave it the first “delish” of the feast!
The next British delicacy that we bestowed upon the girls was a good, old-fashioned steak and ale pie. Steak and ale pie is not a dessert pie like the pies that most Americans are familiar with, but rather it consists of the crust of any pie but is stuffed with large chunks of juicy steak and a mix of vegetables with a unique but delicious sauce.
In Matthews’ simpler terms, “It’s a stew within a pie.”
The girls did not know exactly how to feel about this pie as they were all pleased by the smell but feared the mushrooms inside. However, the delicious flavor of the tender meat coated in an ale sauce overpowered the mushrooms, and the girls instantly fell in love. All three of them dug into the pie like their life depended on it, and they didn’t leave a crumb. It was an easy “delish” for this pie!
For the third main course of the day we introduced these Louisville girls to a dish called bangers and mash. Bangers and mash consists of seasoned sausages, buttery mashed potatoes and a side of peas and gravy.
While the girls enjoyed it, they explained how the simple meal was nothing special.They all extremely enjoyed the mashed potatoes, because it is a well known dish around the world.
According to Lloyd the sausage was “easily the weak link.”
Overall, the dish was not anything amazing, but not terrible either.
The next course was dessert. The first dessert we introduced them to was sticky toffee pudding. This dish is a sweet toffee flavored dense cake with toffee drizzle. This delightful treat is also accompanied by custard, a creamy dessert sauce.
Going into the taste testing, the three girls were excited because it was a plate of many delicious ingredients.
However, the girls all came to the conclusion that although it was a nice dessert, they could not finish a whole plate of it because it was too sweet for their liking.
The final treat of the day was a sugary honeycomb covered in chocolate called a crunchie. This chocolate is from the company, Cadbury, which in our biased opinion, is better than Hershey’s.
After tasting this sweet treat, the girls decided that it was absolutely delicious. Cortese even said she was a “big fan” of the crunchie. All in all, this incredible chocolate bar was not dodgy at all.
Following this taste testing experience, we asked the girls their overall opinions on British food and if it deserves all the hate. They came to the conclusion that most of the hate British food mainly gets is because it does not have an appetizing appearance, but in reality it can be really tasty!
Lloyd commented that the “hate comes from the fact that everything is beige.”
Overall, we can admit that British food does not have the best presentation. The gravy drowning a plate of stodgy food or baked beans spilling off a soggy piece of toast could seem unappetizing, but only if one did not grow up eating bangers and mash on a night out at the local pub or looking forward to beans on toast on a Sunday morning.
To us, these are comfort foods and delicious meals that have helped show us what our culture is while growing up so far away from England. This does not mean we are going to force everyone to eat British food, but we do want people to stop judging food based on its looks and realize that British food might not be as dodgy as they originally thought.
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