(I must be having _big_ trouble concentrating on programming if I'm
replying to this!)

Wirt Atmar writes:

>Mark Wilkinson writes:
>
>> There wasn't such a thing as "good english food" up till recently. For some
>>  inexplicable reason, the quality of restaurants seems to have improved
>>  dramatically. <bg>
>
>The British Empire... left a world-wide legacy of scientific discovery, of
>the inestimable value of the rule of law, of human rights, and even what is
>expected of proper behavior of a gentleman.
>
>What they did not leave either their commonwealth or their former empire was
>a cuisine.>

Is that really true, or is it cultural relativism? Many of the people on
this list are from England or the Colonies. For us, the culinary norm is
a slab cut from of some sort of animal and served with two boiled
vegetables. When Wirt parodies,

>When was the last time you heard anyone say, "Let's go out for
>Canadian?"

it's funny only because eating Canadian is sort of the default -- at
least for most of the readers of this list. "Meat-and-potatoes" is
considered a pejorative because it connotes "dull." But in some other
countries -- for example, Japan -- the slab-of-animal that's the English
norm is quite exotic, and commands a high price.

Besides, the British Empire most certainly did leave a cuisine: Indian.
Our local Indian restaurant, not atypical by any means, serves real
English beers, and the indispensable Indian market run by the same family
in the adjacent space sells not only green cardamom pods and rosewater,
but bangers (frozen) and McVities Digestives as well.

-- Bruce


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