I don't know where you gents ate in Germany, but my experiences indicate that German cooking is a bit limited in scope (many variants of the same thing), but is otherwise rather good.
Then again, I do not eat in company cafetirias. And I do not eat what I cannot identify.
Perhaps, having a cook's qualification, I look at things a little differently ... Nothing fancy, mind you, it's an army qualification good also in civvies. While serving national service, 1980-1981, I cooked two complete dishes for 120 men and hardly ever had any leftovers. Not in any barracks, but in a Military hospital, where one is inspected not by some Rambo officer, but by doctors.
At this time, I will discreetly avoid mentioning that I was an accomplished cook before I even got to the army, because if it was left over to army cook training, I would have been the best man in the enemy's army.
I will give the army this - their cookbook is easily the best I have ever seen, from anyone, at any price, bar none. It had complete breakdowns of each and every meal's contents down to the minute details, and whoever drew up those monthly menus, I bow to him with utmost respect, that was one hell of a good nutrician.
Proof? Well, literally everybody I know picked up a few pounds in the army, except me - I lost like 14 pounds of bodyweight. All day with food, lick this, try that, and you lose all appetitete, my feast was a loaf of fresh bread and two pints of lemonade. Me, who cannot imagine a meal without meat. That's why pro cooks are either like barrels, or two fingers lean.
Then again, I do not eat in company cafetirias. And I do not eat what I cannot identify.
Perhaps, having a cook's qualification, I look at things a little differently ... Nothing fancy, mind you, it's an army qualification good also in civvies. While serving national service, 1980-1981, I cooked two complete dishes for 120 men and hardly ever had any leftovers. Not in any barracks, but in a Military hospital, where one is inspected not by some Rambo officer, but by doctors.
At this time, I will discreetly avoid mentioning that I was an accomplished cook before I even got to the army, because if it was left over to army cook training, I would have been the best man in the enemy's army.
I will give the army this - their cookbook is easily the best I have ever seen, from anyone, at any price, bar none. It had complete breakdowns of each and every meal's contents down to the minute details, and whoever drew up those monthly menus, I bow to him with utmost respect, that was one hell of a good nutrician.
Proof? Well, literally everybody I know picked up a few pounds in the army, except me - I lost like 14 pounds of bodyweight. All day with food, lick this, try that, and you lose all appetitete, my feast was a loaf of fresh bread and two pints of lemonade. Me, who cannot imagine a meal without meat. That's why pro cooks are either like barrels, or two fingers lean.
Because of my previous occupation in the Electricity industry I have eaten many meals in power station canteens. Some were OK but a few really were examples of what foreigners think we Brits eat all the time. Probably one of the worst was Hams Hall power station, which fortunately is now closed. In addition to the poor food, the 'industrials' would often make rude remarks about the professional engineers (and lewd remarks about the secretaries) and thought it really funny to loudly belch their way through their meal. The British class system at its best!scott wurcer said:
can be diabolical.
Fortunately, during my military training, I realized early on that whatever it looked, smelled or tasted like, the stuff we were served was probably not intended to kill us, but rather to keep us healthy, so I decided to just eat whatever was offered and not ask too many questions.
That philosophy served me well. By comparison, I remember another chap becoming almost too weak to walk after refusing to eat tinned food for several days (when nothing else was available) because "Where I come from, people don't eat tinned food; it's for animals".
Admittedly, some of the tinned food we got (without labels) did bear a remarkable resemblance to dog food, but so what? The worst that can happen is you get a shinier nose.
But in all truth, the stereotype of Brits' poor wine and dine is about as wrong as stereotypes tend to be. It simply is not true, wasn't true while I resided in England, and I left in July 1970. My last visit was in 1986, and I sorely miss that island.
Anyway, I did try some local specialties. I believe the British liver and kidney pie is second to none. In general, Brits have outstanding pies, even the commerical ones - apple and apricot stand out for me.
I will wager that nobody else on this planet makes jams and marmelades like the Brits do. Perhaps I should mention that I resided in Somerset, between Brodgewater and Taunton, at the foot of the Quantock hills, meaning I was in the countryside, surrounded by an old forest, fields and sea (the Bristol channel was less than 5 miles away). Also, Somerset is well known in the UK as the apple county, so it's hardly surprising that I got addicted to British cider. To this day, I have never had cider as good as that one anywhere, and I make it a point to try. It's a very similar do over here, only locally it's not cider but plum brandy, called sliwowitz. It's a matter of houshold pride to show your prowess with it, from the barrels in the back yard, those in the front yard are for the tourists.
I have had some really fine biscuits in Germany, USA, France and elsewhere, but nowhere like in the UK. No wonder the Brits had to invent the custom of biscuits, butter and Cheddar cheese as an after lunch tradition. No matter how you like them, neutral, salty or sweet, they will accommodate you and then some.
Fisn'n'chips, properly wrapped in old newspapers, are charming as a tradition, but gastronomically, I can't say they impressed me.
I never got the point of Yorkshire pudding, especially not in 1970, when the national contest for best Yorkshire pudding was won by a Chinese.
And since I don't like menthol, I was obviously not quite taken up with the UK custom of putting roast beef, fried potatoes and boiled vegetables on a plate, and then pouring apple sauce followed by menthol sauce. That is an outright insult to British roastbeef.
But taste aside, if one thinks about it, British cuisine is a well balanced one, and a pretty healthy one. I seriously mean that. While in the UK, my daily meals were provided by the boarding school staff, and in all honesty, I cannot complain, even if on Saturdays and Sundays I explored the wonders of Chinese and Indian cuisine in the town of Bridgewater, in two restaurants which were literally door to door.
Few people ever mention that even way back then, Britain had a very solid supply of steak houses. A few I had been in were, by any criteria, very good ones. On a par with some I visited in NYC, Boston and Washington DC, though the menus were a little different, as might be expected.
All in all, the gastronomical scene of the UK is far removed from being meager, even when one discounts national restaurants (i.e. Chinese, indian, Italian, French, etc).
can be diabolical.
Fortunately, during my military training, I realized early on that whatever it looked, smelled or tasted like, the stuff we were served was probably not intended to kill us, but rather to keep us healthy, so I decided to just eat whatever was offered and not ask too many questions.
That philosophy served me well. By comparison, I remember another chap becoming almost too weak to walk after refusing to eat tinned food for several days (when nothing else was available) because "Where I come from, people don't eat tinned food; it's for animals".
Admittedly, some of the tinned food we got (without labels) did bear a remarkable resemblance to dog food, but so what? The worst that can happen is you get a shinier nose.
Hey, Mel Gibson dined on dog food in Mad Max 2. He even gave some to his dog.
But you are quite right. To the uninitiated, it's surprsing to learn how much knowledge, time and effort is dedicated to feeding the army properly. A hungry army won't get you far.
Once a month, I also fed the men their dry meal, a package designed to contain a complete field breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is also easy to understand, armies must refresh their stocks, and canned food only theoretically has no limit of keeping. But 29 out of 30 days, I had to do complete fresh cooked meals. I fed 90-120 men every day, and because of that number, I had to have two complete dishes, soup and salad for everybody. One of the dishes is by default army beans - locally, if there aren't at least two types of meat in it, it ain't beans. Beans are the traditional meal in Serbia in each and every spot of it, while the rest may vary at will.
While it may sound like a tall order for one cook and one assistent to feed that many people, in reality it wasn't hard at all because we had it all, from German made Stefan kitchen machinery, to automated dishwashers. It was a hospital, after all. For company, I had at least 8 women in any one shift, all civillians of course, all trained and certified cooks. They made fresh cakes for my men, and I helped them out wherever I could, a good atmosphere of camaraderie, and a very enjoyable 11 months of national service for me.
But, I was a dangerous cookie. My duty notwithstanding, like everybody else, I had to go for live ammo shooting training. I went five times, and five times came away with an award for sharpshooting, consisting of a three day furlough. Which is a paradox, because in essence, I hate guns, never had one, and never will have one, even local folklore assumes every household has at least one gun (legal, the rest illegal). Also, I wear glasses, -4 left and -3.5 right. Anyway, the men, mostly kids 18-24, were almost intimidated by these results, and I certainly didn't lift a finger to dissuade them, as this helped me keep a very orderly mess hall, after a few moths, the offcier on duty stopped even bothering to come and oversee meals.
Do you mean mint sauce? If so, that is normally had with lamb not beef. Apple sauce is with pork. Beef is usually served with Yorkshire pudding (lovely!) and horseradish sauce (horrible!) or mustard (equally horrible). Some people mix these up - my sister's kids always insisted on Yorkshire pudding with any roast meat.dvv said:
Sadly, decent British food can be hard to find in Britain today, apart from fish and chips which can be found everywhere (although usually cooked by Chinese or Greeks). Pubs used to be the place for proper British food but most now have joined franchise chains and serve pre-cooked factory food warmed up in a microwave. There are still some pubs and restaurants which provide a genuine freshly-cooked steak and kidney pie, but these are rare.
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It was an Englishman, one Mr martin (who worked for the UN with my dad), who said something in May 1964 which impacted me and I remember it to this day:
The more civilized a society is, the worse it eats.
Well, he did his bit in good eating, he was one of my mum's regulars for any dinner or lunch we threw (and these were the only forms of social life in 1964, in Ankara, Turkey). And literally EVERYBODY knew that he won't be in his office the next day, but at home, keeping company with Alka Seltzer and ice in the bottle, yet the tanacious Englishman always prevailed, and he was back on the first next occasion.
My mum just loved him! My dad thought him to be an excellent engineer. I did both, at the tender age of 11, one is impressed by big men, with a booming voice, a ruddy face and a fabulous disposition. A bit like Steven Fry. I don't think he even knew how to frown.As for hardships in finding decent food, it's not just the UK, you know, it's everywhere. Seems to me one has a simple choice today - if he wants the place, he pays for it with food quality, and if you want food quality, you must reconcile yourself to sharing a restaurant with riff raff. Your only other option is to eat at a place in front of which you see a lot of long haul lorries parked.
There is confusion about whether there is an identifiable tradition of BRITISH restaurantation in the way that, for example, ITALIAN is clear.
I guess that all that remains as being "authentic" is desperately over cooked roast meats and soggy vegetables. Plus "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe"
Look around any UK high street now and there are thriving eateries - but of Indian / Bangladeshi, Cantonese, Italian, French, Greek, Thai, etc. I even saw an Australian Pie shop in London a few months ago.
Then there is the division by food type: Sandwiches, Hamburger, Pizza, Kebab, Curry, Baked potato, Fried fish, etc
All very fascinating but confusing and following developmental strands of Social Class, Licencing (alcohol) laws and times and climate (al fresco dining) and Pub evolution. Not to mention immigration from other cultures and the British holidaying almost everywhere in the world but here!
I am old enough to remember our works canteen doing a good trade in curry and chips, in dire attempts to feed oneself in Wales on a Sunday on anything except tea and buns and absolutely no where to take young kids except pub gardens for lemonade and crisps.
Within the Bournemouth conurbation (c 10^6 souls) where I live, there is an almost infinite choice of styles from many tiny restaurants with chalk-board menus of specials to pub chains with brightly photographed and laminated menus (= portion-controlled frozen)
I guess that all that remains as being "authentic" is desperately over cooked roast meats and soggy vegetables. Plus "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe"
Look around any UK high street now and there are thriving eateries - but of Indian / Bangladeshi, Cantonese, Italian, French, Greek, Thai, etc. I even saw an Australian Pie shop in London a few months ago.
Then there is the division by food type: Sandwiches, Hamburger, Pizza, Kebab, Curry, Baked potato, Fried fish, etc
All very fascinating but confusing and following developmental strands of Social Class, Licencing (alcohol) laws and times and climate (al fresco dining) and Pub evolution. Not to mention immigration from other cultures and the British holidaying almost everywhere in the world but here!
I am old enough to remember our works canteen doing a good trade in curry and chips, in dire attempts to feed oneself in Wales on a Sunday on anything except tea and buns and absolutely no where to take young kids except pub gardens for lemonade and crisps.
Within the Bournemouth conurbation (c 10^6 souls) where I live, there is an almost infinite choice of styles from many tiny restaurants with chalk-board menus of specials to pub chains with brightly photographed and laminated menus (= portion-controlled frozen)
You obviously have a true English traditional upbringing (cf comments on mustard etc
)I blanch at the sight of a carvery sign - keeping roast meat and cooked vegetables warm under lamps is where it all went wrong .....
I've even had a fine venison dish in East Germany only a year after the wall came down (I hope the air has improved).
Same old story, making caps for computer supplies was more profitable. I got some of the caps Thorsten recommended (Elna Silmic) to try, we'll see I usually can't hear a difference.
Hi,
There are two stories I have:
There is the story that came to me via chinese whispers "directly" from Rubicon. The production runs for BG's where so small and they had disagreements regarding the royalty payments to the "inventor", they simply stopped bothering.
Then there is my take, BG's reliably provide poorer objective (measured) and subjective (audible) sound quality than the cheapest cheap generica, so they finally gave up trying to sell Technically Ultimately Retarded Devices (T.U.R.D.'s) to the public and switched the production lines to stuff that made money.
Honestly, I have never been able to reconcile the hype for BG's with what they actually produced as sound quality and unfailingly again, again, again, again.....again, again and again removed them and replaced by actual Audio Grade Capacitors that have both better objective, as well as subjective performance than cheap generica (Elna Silmic / Silmic II), while carrying a modest cost premium.
I mean on HD the BG's measure so bad, it makes you wonder if they are defective by design.
Ciao T
There are two stories I have:
There is the story that came to me via chinese whispers "directly" from Rubicon. The production runs for BG's where so small and they had disagreements regarding the royalty payments to the "inventor", they simply stopped bothering.
Then there is my take, BG's reliably provide poorer objective (measured) and subjective (audible) sound quality than the cheapest cheap generica, so they finally gave up trying to sell Technically Ultimately Retarded Devices (T.U.R.D.'s) to the public and switched the production lines to stuff that made money.
Honestly, I have never been able to reconcile the hype for BG's with what they actually produced as sound quality and unfailingly again, again, again, again.....again, again and again removed them and replaced by actual Audio Grade Capacitors that have both better objective, as well as subjective performance than cheap generica (Elna Silmic / Silmic II), while carrying a modest cost premium.
I mean on HD the BG's measure so bad, it makes you wonder if they are defective by design.
Ciao T
I'm ever so happy you said that, Thorsten, because you may as well have read my mind.
I tried them on several occasions and found them to be about standard fare - at best. The regular Fisher & Tausche series ran circles around them, and F&T plainly calls the "regular series", no fancy talk, no black magic, no voodoo.
However, in all truth, this is the n-th time I tried highly regarded, most touted High End components and was let down by them. On average, I feel like I've been let down 4 out of 5 times by clever ad men.
Just one of the reasons why I so wholeheartedly second John's statement - trust in your own ears only.
Ultimately, I am willing to assume that it's perhaps my own hearing which prevents me from enjoying so many mystery, space age tech products, selling at criminal prices, but if I can't hear any benefits from it, why should I care if Joe Bloggs is extatic with it? Its nominal added value is still zero to me.
I did, and still do, feel that Siemens and Fisher & Tausche give me an incomparably more fair deal and vastly better value for money. I was also very happy with Sprague caps, but I haven't had them for a very long time. Cornell-Dubilier also used to be good, don't know how they fare these days. BC Components is good, and Roe(derstein) also used to be very good (I understand that these days they are owned by Vishay).
In general, regarding smaller values, I agree, Scott. There's a local village idiot who claims he can hear the difference between the same thing in a red or black coat - I guess he also hears the paint drying and the grass growing.
However, regarding large value caps, from say 2,200 uF upwards, I can hear the difference easily. Take ANY Japanese amplifier, integrated or power, rip out its Nichicon, Elna, Rubycon or whatever capacitors and replace with Siemens, F&T, BC components, Sprague, Cornell-Dubilier and such like and the difference is both striking and immediate.
What used to be a 69 lb weakling, singing softly so as not to disturb you, suddenly becomes a 6'6'' Schwartzenegger, with a clean and clear bass voice. You gain authority, control and definition. At first listening, amps may appear to have become bass heavy, but after a few days, you will not want to go back to the delicate geisha. You will understand that it is in fact the geisha who is fooling you and giving you sound which is cioloured insofar that it lacks bass.
Yet, on paper and with the instruments, it's all there, and then some. But with real music, it's lacking slam, punch and lots of life. A hard rock band is no gentle flower, nor is the tympani in "Also Sprach Zarathustra" a kitchen pot any more - it's a tympani, for God's sake, it's SUPPOSED to kick your kidnies around.
On this point, Thorsten and I have never agreed. Or, more precisely, we have agreed not to agree.
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