Is English Food a Joke?

FISH & QUIPS! Update: read the amazing entries for Fish & Quips here! Help me prove that English food is not (always) a joke by getting involved in this fun St George's Day event called "Fish & Quips" in which everyone who enters gets the chance to host the roundup, too, if they would like. That's it folks, no more waiting impatiently for the event host to highlight your hard work. This way, if everyone pulls together we'll each have our delicious posts splattered all over the foodblogosphere on April 23rd - England's neglected national day, St George's Day.

Why do so many people laugh when you mention English food? You would think it was some kind of joke, right? But aside from French President Chirac's comment that "the British could not be trusted and worse food was only found in Finland", you'd be hard pressed to find an actual joke about English food if you do a search on google.

The English themselves, even those whose reputation in the culinary world is assured, can sometimes display a lack confidence in English cuisine:

Much these days is made of British food culture. Chefs and food writers, myself included, are keen to tell you that it's thriving, it should be celebrated, it's as good as anything our Continental cousins enjoy. Yet sometimes it seems as if our words come rolling back to us, as if bouncing some distant land mass, unheard and unheeding along the way, so that we begin to have trouble persuading ourselves, let alone others, that there is something here worth fighting for." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from The Taste of Britain

Sure, there are some memories of English food I'd rather forget like overcooked vegetables and school dinners, but there is also so much that can be celebrated. English breakfasts, wonderful puddings, afternoon teas and so much more. Your challenge if you should rise, like a cottage loaf to it, is to help me prove that English Food does not have to be a joke. You can do this however you like. Visit England, eat some great food and write about it, follow a recipe from your favourite English Chef, cook a classic English meal or dish, create your own recipe based on English foods, highlight your favourite edible English product (Marmite, of course?), do any of these things or anything else and then write a post about it on your blog anytime between now and Friday 20th April 2007. (I'm giving you plenty of time to prepare.)

How to Enter
Email me at fish[DOT]quips[AT]gmail.com and let me know you intend to enter Fish & Quips and that you commit to a posting, before Friday April 20th, declaring that English food is not a joke. [If you have a gmail account it may prove easier to use it for this because the shared spreadsheets are google-based.] Please request database access by midnight PST on Thursday April 19th at the latest. I will be away from my computer for most of the 20/21st April and wont be able to sort out any stragglers until Aprill 22nd at the earliest.
When I receive your email I will give you access to an online shared database where you will be required to leave the following information:
- Your name (or at least the handle which you wish to go by)
- Your location (as vague or as detailed as you feel comfortable with)
- Your Blog URL
- A quick answer, in less than 15 words to the question:
- "English Food is Not a Joke Because..."
- (by Friday 20th April, at the very latest) edit the database to include the permalink to the "Fish & Quips" post you have created. (By doing this you agree that other bloggers will be able to use this information to create round-up posts and you should also agree that they could include photographs from your post in their roundups should they so wish).
- You will not be asked to put private information such as email addresses on this database. Only share as much as you feel comfortable with.
- Please be sure to include a link to this announcement post in your post, so that your readers understand the background of the event and will also know how to take part if they are interested.

How to Host a round up
- This part of the event is optional, but I thought it would be a great idea to give bloggers, especially those who have never hosted an event before, the experience of what it is like to do so.
- On Saturday April 21st I will publish the database (as it stands at that moment in time) and make it available to anyone who wants to try their hand at hosting, by putting a link to it on my blog. I will be very busy on that particular Saturday, with little internet access, so I won't be able to field any questions until Sunday at the earliest. Hopefully there won't be any questions, since bloggers are a smart intelligent bunch who can work things out for themselves.
-Anyone who wants to host a round up may then look up the information and publish a roundup on their blog on St George's Day, April 23rd. Note: you do not have to have created a post to take part in the rounding up. Anyone who wants to spread the word is welcome - the more roundups, the merrier. My own round up of all the entries will be published on St George's day.

Publicising the event on your own Blog
You are more than welcome to publicize this event on your own blog and use the name "Fish & Quips". You also have my permission to use the animated gif above as long as in doing so you make a link back to this post.

I am dashing to the market right now, but later I will I have also prepared some other logos, smaller ones, non animated ones, etc, that you could use for this event. See below.



Credits: Huge thanks go out to Andrew from Spittoon and Kevin from Seriously Good for providing me with wonderful Fish and Chip photos to wrap on my exploding cracker animation.

Fish & Quip Logos
You are welcome to use any of the following logos, as long as you include a link back to this post or this blog as way of a credit:

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Is English Food a Joke?