Change

[pbray]

Stopped by a neighborhood brewpub today and was informed that today is the last day of their current menu. The menu, which hasn't been changed in several years, is heavy on what is referred to here as British Pub Food-- Shepherd's Pie, Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips, Cock-a-leekie pie, etc, plus the occasional foray into globalism e.g. Bratwurst and Sauerkraut.

The new menu will eliminate some of the old favorites and add in new items including kebabs and curries. Which leads me to suspect that someone involved has actually visited Great Britain.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Yes, the national dish is officially Chicken Tikka Masala. It is unusual not to find a curry on a pub menu over here.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the confirmation. My impression was that curries were ubiquitous, but over here British pub food seems stuck on "What I think my grandfather might have eaten in a pub".

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

There's a pub in Charotte that offers the most wonderful chips and curry. Suddenly feeling the need...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Mmm, sounds delicious!

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

If you're ever in Charlotte, let me know, and we'll go have chips and curry. :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Curry and Thai food: British pub staples. And lasagne. I can't remember the last time I saw Shepherd's Pie (except in a gastro-pub).

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I wouldn't have guessed lasagna.

And here pubs that are either British or Irish influenced will always have both fish and chips and shepherd's pie on their menus. And they call their fries "chips" regardless of whether they are authentic chips or merely relabeled frozen fries.

Not that I have anything against good British and Irish style pubs, just that they are usually as authentic a cultural representation as anything found in the international village at Disneyworld.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

The basic pub menu would look something like this:
burger and chips
chicken korma
lasagne
scampi and chips
ploughman's lunch
Some kind of pie and chips
Fish and chips (and mushy peas in some parts of the country).
Assorted sandwiches/baguettes and/or jacket potatoes.
Sausages and mash (not 'bangers': those are for transport cafes)
Dish of the day -- wildly variable
Some kind of soup
Pudding -- sticky toffee is common, as is apple crumble/pie, and something chocolate-based.

I have to admit I've never met an 'Irish' pub outside Ireland that was anything like an actual Irish pub (and I'm still slightly boggled by cock a-leekie pie. It's a soup, here). I did once go to a good Irish-themed bar in Copenhagen, which concentrated on the drink aspect, though (and kept the Guinness properly). 'British' pubs are weird to me in other ways -- there is so much variety, both by region and by type, that I find it hard to imagine what a default would be. (Our three favourite local pubs are The Queens Head, which is has been a pub continuously for around 500 years, serves wonderful real beer and soup. The soup is home made, perpetual and defined by colour. You get whatever soup they have that day. They add sandwiches -- made with home-cured ham, or salmon or home-roast beef, or local good cheese. The QH is a village pub, which attracts all sorts, from lifelong locals to posh upper class incomers. The Empress, another favourite, comes in the category 'back-street boozer', has hard floors and a limited range of stuff (the food is pizza -- meat or vegetarian. That's it. But it's not a food pub) but good beer and regular beer festivals in its back garden. And it has pet pigs. It attracts a local, working class clientele, who are very loyal, and it sometimes shows football, or children's films. Then there's The Kingston Arms, which is a classic food-and-real-beer pub, warm and cosy, with excellent food (local, not fancy but well cooked), ever-changing beer and lovely staff who talk to you. It's attracts professionals and students (and, as it has free wifi, is rather popular with local writers too. Much though I love The Empress, it's often too noisy to write in. The Queen's Head is too small and all its tables wobble). They're all very different to each other. They're all very British.
My other favourite pubs are both bars -- one is a Belgian beer bar in Strasbourg on the French-German border -- great beer, crowded, noisy, fun. The other is the Asian and Oriental Brewery in San Francisco, which brews its own beer, serves slightly pretentious food, and is usually quiet and friendly, if prone to outbreaks of live jazz. I can't explain quite why they're not pubs: it's a feel thing. But they're closer to pubs in some ways than some of the non-British bars I've visited that call themselves pubs. (The only places I know of outside the UK that are definitely pubs are a small brewery tap in Hong Kong, and one of the breweries in Columbus Ohio, which called itself a brewery but was definitely in every way a pub.)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

cock-a-leekie pie is a stew served in a crockery dish, covered with either piecrust or puff pastry on top. It probably lands somewhere between what you would recognize as a soup, and the more traditional American dish chicken pot pie.

It occurs to me that America's British and Irish pubs are excellent examples of cultural appropriation, where only the bits that we like are kept, and much is lost in translation.

Defining a pub is indeed tricky. In the US we now have chains of brewpub restaurants that have excellent beer but zero personality. But you can still find pubs, usually local hangouts or independent brewpubs. In my youth we frequented a pub called The Nutmeg-- regulars knew that as soon as you stepped in the door you ducked to avoid flying darts, while first timers got what they deserved. It was a tiny place but perfectly friendly if you were eighteen or eighty. Provided you didn't ask why the beer was served warm.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Warm is the only correct temperature!