General Discussion Thread

[Haiz]

Well you make a fair point there.  But I wouldn't think to judge a country's food based upon its ready meals.  Is the microwave food at home really that good?

In my experience...... yes.......... except there's also a looot less of it in our stores. but to me it seems like half the things in UK stores are ready meals?? is that normal? because when i asked my northern irish friend if they really eat that many ready meals apparently they do?? we also tried some take-away food and that was also pretty bad, but we might've just had bad luck on that. except there were also a gazillion more take-away food stores than at home, too, hahahaa ha

no but please don't take my words too close to heart!! i am just a spoiled child that has been all over europe and I do in fact eat a lot of garbage wherever I am so I shouldn't really complain this much

it's just a little rare for me to actually miss norwegian food
you should see me in czech supermarkets, it's wild

[Chizu]

In my experience...... yes.......... except there's also a looot less of it in our stores. but to me it seems like half the things in UK stores are ready meals?? is that normal? because when i asked my northern irish friend if they really eat that many ready meals apparently they do?? we also tried some take-away food and that was also pretty bad, but we might've just had bad luck on that. except there were also a gazillion more take-away food stores than at home, too, hahahaa ha

no but please don't take my words too close to heart!! i am just a spoiled child that has been all over europe and I do in fact eat a lot of garbage wherever I am so I shouldn't really complain this much

it's just a little rare for me to actually miss norwegian food
you should see me in czech supermarkets, it's wild

I have no idea where you shop and how, but there are plenty of places like Co-Op, Morrisons and Tesco that have fresh food. Yes it is normal to see frozen food and if you live in an area or town dominated by students, than why be surprised? A lot of the stores offer a great variety of products. Perhaps changing countries has its impact on your perception of the new place's food? When I moved to the UK i used to grumble about the food and the Brits being tasteless, but a lot of people and one person in particular showed me that the food here is not that bad, it has its charming sides.   

[Laufey]

Having lived here and there myself, I'd say it's all down to choices: some foods indeed are gross (I don't miss the bread from UK either) but the trick is to find what isn't. Like bacon, if you like bacon, it's superior in the UK and comes in a millionbillion different types, it seems. I also vastly preferred the taste of milk and strangely I could actually drink it despite having always believed I'm lactose intolerant. Hm, guess it's something else then.

Likewise when I first moved to Iceland I was grieving over the lack of fruit and veggies in the grocery stores... there are some but not very much and some is sold in very questionable condition. The horse meat and lamb quickly won me over however, and the freshness of fish has ruined almost all sushi for me forever. 

[Haiz]

I have no idea where you shop and how, but there are plenty of places like Co-Op, Morrisons and Tesco that have fresh food. Yes it is normal to see frozen food and if you live in an area or town dominated by students, than why be surprised? A lot of the stores offer a great variety of products. Perhaps changing countries has its impact on your perception of the new place's food? When I moved to the UK i used to grumble about the food and the Brits being tasteless, but a lot of people and one person in particular showed me that the food here is not that bad, it has its charming sides.   

wellllllll, as to where
I've been one week around in scotland, one week around in west england (cornwall?), one week in northern ireland, one week in hastings, and now this week I'll be in wales. we travel around a lot and it's a new store every time, basically? some of the places we stay in are very small and don't really say 'student town' to me but yeah. Also you're right, of course we don't know what to buy and all that, it probably takes a while to Learn. I'm sorry for calling your food garbage ahahah ha........

I do agree with Laufey that the bacon is great, and i don't usually eat bacon

edit: also im saying all this as a person who maybe seriously considers moving to ireland or scotland at some point, ehe

[Koeshi]

In my experience...... yes.......... except there's also a looot less of it in our stores. but to me it seems like half the things in UK stores are ready meals?? is that normal? because when i asked my northern irish friend if they really eat that many ready meals apparently they do?? we also tried some take-away food and that was also pretty bad, but we might've just had bad luck on that. except there were also a gazillion more take-away food stores than at home, too, hahahaa ha

no but please don't take my words too close to heart!! i am just a spoiled child that has been all over europe and I do in fact eat a lot of garbage wherever I am so I shouldn't really complain this much

The ready meals thing depends on the people.  When I was living at uni I maybe had 3 or 4 ready meals a year, the rest of the time I would cook.  My parents cook every night, they avoid ready meals like the plague.  As for takeaways it is the luck of the draw, there are places where I could eat almost every night and others that I would avoid no matter how hungry I am.

Also as Laufey said, we have great bacon   Especially if you get it from a local butcher it can be amazing, none of that watery supermarket stuff..... I am hungry now

[OrigamiOwl]

Owl: Illegal things? You guys aren't in trouble or anything i take?  ???

Ah, they were falsifying official documents and trying to get us fined a ridiculous amount of money and ruin our business reputation for not paying them wages for days they didn't work, also stuff that could get them deported. You know, the usual.
In order to have clocked up the hours they claimed to have worked, they would have had to have worked through several nights. Which, -lets give them benefit of the doubt for a moment- in this line of work, is impossible because all work actually requires the presence of the boss to drive the tractor and collect full bins of fruit, date and label them, and load them onto a large transport truck. None of which happens at night. Also, there is no light at night and how they managed not to fall down the hill, trip over a fallen branch or twist an ankle while doing all this work is beyond me 9__9 Plus, the final nail in their case's metaphorical coffin: no one else of the employees- who all share the same house- are claiming this, they also found it unbelievable. They are just silly, silly people who are somehow not content with their (already handsome) salaries. *sigh*

Your ancestors were Welsh? What kind of crimes did they commit that earned them a ticket to Australia?

Welsh and English. Yet, there's only one ye olde convict (convicted of receiving stolen sheep apparently?) in the family history that I know about (technically two as his wife was also a convict), but he made a good business decision that made him very well-off >_> and then over the years the descendants sold it and gambled it away and turned into bogans and I don't ... really have much to do with them. (there's like, a north-south divide in the family lol) They scare me a bit. That whole section of the family (grandma's side) is a bit weird. Grandpa's side arrived in the form of a captain dude, I don't really know what he did... :/ *shrug*
The continental side of the family seem...saner X'D

[Haiz]

I also hope you're all aware I'm comparing my Travel Food experiences with france and italy and places like that, right

[OrigamiOwl]

I also hope you're all aware I'm comparing my Travel Food experiences with france and italy and places like that, right

I'm assuming you mean the good-fancy-end of the french and italian foods? ;P Because I'm sure that not all their eateries and food is 5 star gourmet, hehehe. Bad food exists everywhere...in some form... O___O it's like...a universal law X'D (like microwave food, it's just about everywhere there are people)
But I understand, yes. Some microwave and fast foods actually taste quite good! But I'm randomly remembering a scene from Ouran High School Host Club of all things, where someone was saying that those foods compromised taste for convenience, and people who buy and consume them accept that compromise XD blahblahblah, yaddayaddayadda.

I'm guessing that because there are less types of microwave meal things for you at home, that they would have more effort put into them etc, so I'm not surprised that they don't taste bad at all X)

Why am I talking about microwave food.... I don't know... O___O

[Fimbulvarg]

Welsh and English. Yet, there's only one ye olde convict (convicted of receiving stolen sheep apparently?) in the family history that I know about

Receiving a stolen sheep, sounds Welsh alright. That part somehow made him look like Reynir in my imagination . Too bad the rest of the story didn't conform to that mental image.

[Haiz]

I'm assuming you mean the good-fancy-end of the french and italian foods? ;P Because I'm sure that not all their eateries and food is 5 star gourmet, hehehe. Bad food exists everywhere...in some form... O___O it's like...a universal law X'D (like microwave food, it's just about everywhere there are people)

naaaaaaaaaaah I still mean super markets. Of COURSE there is bad and good food everywhere, but as everyone seems to illustrate - it takes time and experience to find the Good Stuff in british aisles. I'm not doubting we might have been looking all the wrong places all these times, but seriously? In about every other country I've been in, you just walk inside and BAM good bread, right there. We have managed to find the Good Stuff within our week of vacation. We never quite manage that during our time in the UK, so that's what I mean when I say I'll be eating garbage for a weak. SHRUGS. everything is cheaper than in norway anyway, i didn't mean to complain this much about the food!!

(i'm also maybe still bitter about that skittles drink. i had the teeniest of hopes that it might actually taste good, somehow)

alsooo I just got back from visiting 1) castle ruins, 2) abbey ruins, 3) a gold mine, and 4) a chinese restaurant because that couldn't possibly go wrong, right? we know chinese restaurants. except there was a Misunderstanding about there being different kind of menus and then a lot of unnecessary grief BUT THE FOOD WAS GOOD so all is well.
(we haven't had this much trouble at a restaurant since that wok house in spain where the wok dude didn't wok my veggies. why couldn't he just wok my veggies)

to whoever said wales was miserable, you're right. it's absolutely miserable and I think i love it. pictures to come when I'm less lazy hahahaha

[Haiz]

hhhhhhhh please forgive me for Double Posting
WALES ADVENTURES, travelogue part 2~~~

castle ruins

(there was a cave passage under this one!! SECRET TUNNEEEEL)

abbey ruins

(yours truly posing for Scale, if you can see me)

outside the gold mine


i also got hold of a english-welsh phrasebook!!
DWI DDIM YN SIARAD CYMRAEG
(I don't speak welsh)

[OrigamiOwl]

hhhhhhhh please forgive me for Double Posting
WALES ADVENTURES, travelogue part 2~~~

castle ruins

(there was a cave passage under this one!! SECRET TUNNEEEEL)

abbey ruins

(yours truly posing for Scale, if you can see me)

outside the gold mine


i also got hold of a english-welsh phrasebook!!
DWI DDIM YN SIARAD CYMRAEG
(I don't speak welsh)

OoooooOOOOOHHH!
(Secret secret secret secret TUNNELLLLLL!!!)

I really like the tree picture they look so mysterious and gothic but also MAGICAL X3

[Fimbulvarg]

(Secret secret secret secret TUNNELLLLLL!!!)

I got that reference (because since the early days of the forum, before the days of actual pictures, I've been picturing Eich as secret tunnel guy with his guitar).

[Richard Weir]

Particularly all the frozen/stick-it-in-the-microwave food

Don't apologise for truth. It truly is mostly garbage.

Sad fact is that we have had such a high proportion of families with two workers as parents that many families can't cook, or can only cook for special occasions, not for routine meals after a working day. So they buy ready meals to heat in the microwave instead -- and their kids never learn to cook as a result. We also have a very high proportion of people living alone and working long hours, who also depend on ready meals.

For families like ours where both my parents are very elderly, I'm disabled and my brother works, ready meals are a life-saver. I *can* cook a proper meal, but it takes three bursts of activity spread over three days, and at least two days to recover. (And I have to be feeling particularly well to be able to do that.) So we eat a lot of ready food.

Fortunately we have access to a large, up-market supermarket where we get a very wide range and some of it is ... acceptable. It fills hungry stomachs, and tastes good enough that it can tempt faded appetites. We can also get some very nice bread!

Still, we would prefer to be able to cook all our own meals.

[Laufey]

castle ruins

(there was a cave passage under this one!! SECRET TUNNEEEEL)

abbey ruins

(yours truly posing for Scale, if you can see me)

I love castles. Seriously, castles in ruins, castles in good shape, give them to me I will love them all. When I lived in the UK I once visited a friend of mine (who coincidentally lived near Wales), and I'll never forget her face when she asked me what I'd like to see and I replied with an enthusiastic "Castles and stone circles!" She just gave me this slow look and asked me if I wanted to see the one behind their house.

Turned out there was a castle a little way from where she lived. Turned out stone circles and castles aren't exactly a rarity in the UK. On the bright side at least I got to see both.