Thinking about what is food .

A funny thing happened to day I was reading an article that was expressing all the virtues of English food on St Georges day. And the more you looked at the list you realised that is mas a mix up of several different food cultures. The question that it was leading with was curry now a true English dish as so many of us eats it. Then it began to list dishes that it said was English. Now you have the full English breakfast, by its name this must be English, I think that is on safe ground but then it mentioned fish and chips.

Fish and chips as far as I know originates from Portugal and was brought in to this county by portages sailors. So can we call it English? It also mention Welsh rarebit, by its name I would not say that that is English, Cock-a-leekie soup, that is from Scotland, and roast beef. Roast beef I hear you cry that must be British but the version that we have now came over with the Normans so it is French.

So what is true British food , well the truth is that if you go back in history you could say that all food  in Europe comes from Italy as most of it was under Roman occupation at some time, and  what you have is a mash mash of all kinds of thing going on . But like the English language we have taken from all cultures that we have come across and  adopted it as our own.

In fact now in this county I think is one of the most exciting times ever to have been working in the food industry, whether it is a restaurant or a shop.  More and more prominence is being given to the quality of the food and what is going on the plate, in the pack or on the shelf. It can be a mine field of complicated ethical question now of what egg you should use. How was the animal raised and where did you get you vegetables.  But the more it is done the better it must get. The only down side is that for some it becomes more and more expensive, and then out of reach.

So what can we do, well at the end of the day that is hard to say.  In this day and age when the high street is full of global brand names and the choice in the supermarket is so varied that no matter what time of the year you can almost anything from any part of the world at your fingertips.  This is a good thing, or is it.

Well the truth is if we did not buy the good for sale they would not be there. And I for one would not lie to see the days come back that the only place you could get olive oil was from the chemist to treat ear wax.  We do have a strong movement to local sourcing and more eyes looking at what it is that we put on our plates and where it is from. Also you have to think of the global consequences of food from all over the world, how that effects the environment.

So we cannot turn back time, but we can act and perches things that we now are right, not just what is cheap. Instead of being a nation of people who just watch cooking on the television get out in the kitchen and do some cooking.  And get wise to the supermarkets and the offers that they seem to be giving us. At the end of the day someone suffers , the small suppliers are pushed out and the big boy are the only ones who can compete. Everything is ruled by margins and when the margins are so tight the only thing that really suffers is the quality.

I know that this has nothing to do with St Gorges day really but it needs to be said more often and by more people. If we are what we eat then let it be at least of a good quality, and is sustainable, for all our sakes.