Davis being a college town, the choices were either sports-bar burger joints, Chinese takeout and pizza, (which is very good there,)

This, I take it, was after Professor’s went out of business? Steve’s and Woodstock’s were fairly good but pricey for the average student. The Blue Mango was pub to go to. Excellent beer and salsa.

I think the problem is that as a visitor/tourist you just don’t know where the good places to eat are, and secondly you eat 90% of your meals in restaurants rather than cooking at home. So Brits come back from the US with a few extra pounds and Americans come back from the UK with a few extra pounds.

The lesson? Most restaurant food is made to [make a profit and] taste nice, not necessarily to be good for you.

And, Phil, the Bangers and Mash at the TAM Saturday evening event were really really poor quality. I hope you found some better ones in your other meals!

And then there is the crowning glory of British cuisine, the cheeses! Stilton, real Cheddar from the Cheddar Valley, Cheshire – I could go on…The French only THINK they know how to make cheese. Bah!

Sadly, there is very little recognition of British cheese, even within Britain. I blame the supermarkets – they stock a limited range of pre-packaged, processed cheeses that often aren’t as good as the proper fresh cheese that they are supposed to be.

I find it hard to pinpoint a favourite English cheese, since there are so many and I have had the opportunity to try so few. All I can suggest is to refer the reader to the Monty Python cheese shop sketch for a mere hint of the diversity of cheese that is produced.

As to brewing, while American brewers have come a long way, the one often imitated, never duplicated, glory is Irish, and I mean Guinness on draft (If I have to specify Guinness stout, you’re not a beer lover.).

I take issue with you here. Point 1: Murphy’s. Point 2: Maclay’s Oatmeal Stout. I rest my case.

Let me suggest mushy peas (a specialty of the Northwest, often served with fish and chips).

Nay! Mushy peas are also ubiquitous in Yorkshire and the North-east.

And, IIUC, they are a different species of pea from your normal garden peas. They naturally go colourless and mushy when cooked, and the final stage of the preparation (which I also cannot remember) changes their colour to that vivid green.

Someone once said that he who wishes to eat three meals a day in England should eat
breakfast 3 times. There’s something to that, although I couldn’t eat a full English
breakfast regularly (but do enjoy one occasionally).

Vegetables are rare, true, but there are many vegetarians, and they know where to get
them.

I once knew an English vegetarian who ended up in a steakhouse in New Mexico. After
explaining that he was a vegetarian, they brought him chicken! All a question of
perspective.