Hot, hot, hot!

[Unframed Dave]

We've been in Northern France for the last couple of weeks. Normally, I'd be eyeing up the birds enthusiastically. With temps in the low 30s over the last 7 or 8 days, my enthusiasm has wandered elsewhere. Mostly Belgian beer, shade and breeze.

Is this an age thing, I am nearly 60 after all?

 

[iamdlewis]

In the low 30s, if the humidity is low then I would say yes, unless you got good shots of basically everything worth getting better shots of. It is your vacation so spend it however you want and don't feel bad about it.

 

[THXGEEK]

Alcohol might just be the missing-link to surprisingly creative ICM of BIF...

...YMMV, of course.

(PS, please be strapped/secured to your gear if you proceed down this path.)

 

[Richard A]

Low 30s is just an average summer day here. We actually had a more or less normal summer this year after it being milder than normal for about the previous four or five. I turned 65 a couple of months ago and have found that I can't handle the heat as well as I used to. Having said that, the cold doesn't bother me as much. It's really cold here today! 12℃!

My enthusiasm for beer hasn't waned. Whatever the weather.

 

[iamdlewis]

It's really cold here today! 12℃!

Usually for cold temps I would suggest that you always go with a base layer and then add in a downed jacket of at least 600 but for that extreme you are seeing I'd probably say a hoodie is enough. Hope you can make it through such rough weather.

 

[Unframed Dave]

That's the thing, we're used to cold, wet drab and grey. We moan about it endlessly, then when the sun comes out for more than 48hrs, we moan about that too.

It's the British psychi.

I'm home now and it's 33. Heady stuff.

Dave

 

[Chris 3754]

I read Sherlock Holmes as a kid with all the gloomy/foggy nights, then heard about all the bad English weather over the years. Also heard all the complaints about terrible English food. On my trips to the UK the weather has always been great and the food is excellent. I believe this is all an English conspiracy to keep us Americans out. Some really nice people too. No worries about an American invasion, we got all we needed 250 years ago…sorry could not help myself with the last comment it is a big anniversary after all

 

[Unframed Dave]

See now, I've been to 'Merica a few times. Detroit more times than I'd like for work, (I will never forget St Patrick's day), a road trip from Orlando to key west, and New York, (the wings on Statten Island were to die for).

I've watched every documentary on your country there is: cheers, big bang, Frasier, parks and rec, Superstore, Modern family, young Sheldon, the middle, Raymond, curb, the office, Seinfeld, etc.

Just recently, I've learned more about your politics than my own homeland.

Your weather is better, absolutely, but I reckon it depends where you are, but food, everyday food that is, we win hands down. To start we have proper chips, maris piper potatoes, lovingly caressed in bubbling washes of beef dripping. Not some skinny, French (actually invented by the Belgians) sticks of carbohydrate. Then there's the Sunday roast, as Carly sang, "nobody does it better", and bacon, proper bacon, from the animals back, cut thick for bite and griddled until crispy and finally, tea, made with just boiled water, in pots, using leaves, served in China cups. Not a T bag, in a mug with hot water from the tap!

Sorry, I have no idea where I'm going with this, my wife's driving, I'm bored and hungry. This isn't helping with the latter.

We don't have biscuits and gravy from red lobster though, which is a shame, I like them.

In all seriousness, I like to travel, I started young with work and developed a lust to taste everything there is. So far, I haven't found a winning cuisine, there's good and bad everywhere, we have jellied eels for some reason.

So there you have it. I guess. Whatever it is.

 

[Chris 3754]

Not sure where you went with that either LOL. I remember George Bush, the second one, who was famous for his “Merica” pronunciation speaking alongside Tony Blair during a press conference. All politics aside, I remember saying to myself we’re neanderthals after hearing them both speak. As the old saying goes, our countries are only separated by a common language. Like you, board at the moment while getting my pickup truck serviced, you do know what they are in the UK…LOL.

 

[Chris 3754]

The size of our pickup truck and/or lawn tractor is in direct inverse to a certain male body part.

 

[iamdlewis]

but food, everyday food that is, we win hands down.

my wife's driving, I'm bored and hungry. This isn't helping with the latter.

Clearly that is the hunger speaking. I'll give you the win for the tea (mostly because it's all bad) but everyday food? We invented and perfected the hamburger, we perfected the pizza, we created the Philly Cheesesteak, the fajita is ours, heck spaghetti and meatballs is ours and American's have the literal weight that proves our everyday food is better.

Also you might not want to suggest to anyone from NC west to CO and south of that line that you do a roast better because if you think we fight for freedom hard you most certainly don't want any part of a "who cooks cow best" discussion with any of them.

 

[Unframed Dave]

Apologies for the delayed response. I've been shooting. Bell target shooting. It's been around since the end of the Boer war and is a very sociable activity. We do it in the village hall.

In the name of further cementing relationships with our cousins over the pond, I feel it behoves me to address a couple of points. By the way, if I hear a certain world leader starting to behove things, I will know how he came by that word. Anyway, I digress, as is my wont.

We do indeed understand the term pickup, however in the United Kingdom, we tend to lean more towards land rovers. In a rover, one can gralloch a deer in the boot, drive a debutante to the ball and take tea at Balmoral in one vehicle. It just never looks out of place. Mine is orange and has massive, shiny split rims. It really does!

As for a cow cook off, it was never my intention to upset anyone, so for clarification, a Sunday roast is rather more than cooking the meat. It is a meal that one inherits rather than learns. It is handed down from generation to generation, much like Aunt Gwyneth's pianoforte. As my mother was in bad health for most of my adolescence, I studied my father in the kitchen. I realised that most of that was best forgotten. He was a hard working, generous man, but what he did to beef and runner beans should have resulted in him being deported to the colonies. Again, I find myself running at a tangent. So, Sunday roast isn't merely meat, it's a plateful of everything that makes us British. Potatoes roasted in goose fat, Yorkshire puddings crispy yet light, with a mild hint of the beef dripping they've been roasted in. Vegetables, should be numerous and varied. The condiments should be selected carefully to compliment the protein, horseradish to the cow, apple sauce to the swine and black current jelly to the stag. Then finally and only then should we consider the gravy......

The gravy is a product of stock, meat juices, herbs, a splash of something fruity, perhaps and thickening. It does not come out of a packet. It is a product of love and like love, should be nourishing on it's own.

Some like bread sauce, me, I like to add some olive oil. It helps it slide out of the gravy boat and straight into the bin.

So there we have it, we can all celebrate our traditions.

One of mine is to put mint sauce in mushy peas and my wife likes to dip her chips in curry sauce.

Tim, I'd fully understand if you wanted to move this into general drivel or some similar section.

 

[Chris 3754]

Gotta love British traditions, you have us on that score for sure!