Now for something completely different.. The one thing I hate about the Brits.

[Peacetrain]

Toast.

I have been going to England for the last 40 years.. absolutely adore the English and Irish, Scots, and Welsh and everyone who has moved there and become part of the great noise of the British Isles.. love everything about them, including the almost impossible Welsh accent. I love London and Dublin.. you don't need to travel to another country.. London and Dublin have the world in them, every group of people you pass speak a different language, it is thrilling to be there.

You go to the countryside, and you feel like you are in a PBS special.. so beautiful.. and the greatest graffiti ever when you travel by train.. it covers everything.. it is an art form there

But the toast.. dry little triangles of bread, usually cold sitting in a little metal toast holder, that no amount of butter or jam or orange marmalade is going to reconstitute..

Now if that is the worst complaint anyone can ever say about you, then pat yourself on the back.. and you will get through this Brexit hell.. love you too pieces you wonderful islands of cold toast and hot tea..

[Skittles]

1. why have toast when you can have crumpets

that's what I like when I am in England

[Peacetrain]

2. I love hot toast with jam and butter.

And I have learned to find what ever little place is around the corner that you can get scones and coffee or tea for breakfast and forego the breakfast served at the hotel.. (that is true in the United States also, never ever eat at the hotel or motel you are staying at if it is a complementary meal)..

[HipChick]

4. Headed home in a couple of days..

My first stop will be the nearest place I can get a fried English breakfast..I am usually too stuffed to eat the toast.. so doesn't bother me..

[Peacetrain]

5. Safe travels! and enjoy your wonderful breakfast

[HipChick]

6. Real Bacon...

Can't wait..

[Kurt V.]

27. yuk. lol. bacon is a pigs belly

[OnDoutside]

50. Yummy. And on two rounds of bread from a fresh sliced pan, with tea, it's the best.

EDIT : And lashings of butter, of course.

[Kurt V.]

57. omg. That's good eats! w/o the bacon.. of course. hehe.

[OnDoutside]

59. Of course...lol

[OnDoutside]

51. Rashers.

[shanti]

8. Yum, crumpets

my favorites! Like them better than english muffins. Trader Joe's used to sell them, but when I went there last, was told they'd been discontinued.

[Skittles]

16. aw man

those Trader Joe crumpets are DELICIOUS - I did notice they did not have them last time I was there

[pennylane100]

3. I was born in Britain

and I always wondered about that when eating out. It was certainly not a practice in my house when I was growing up. You should ask about that when ordering your meal. You may get a strange look but at least you will enjoy your breakfast.

[Peacetrain]

7. ROFL!!

My cousins live about an hour outside of London, and they hate toast.. I am the toast eater.. but everything has the wonderful full butter on it at their house.. bread not toasted

Being redundant but as I said at the bottom of my post, you are lucky indeed if that is the worst thing anyone can say about you is that you have cold toast


"Now if that is the worst complaint anyone can ever say about you, then pat yourself on the back.. and you will get through this Brexit hell.. love you too pieces you wonderful islands of cold toast and hot tea.."

[pennylane100]

12. Thanks for the kind thought.

However I have lived in California for the last thirty odd years (with visits home, of course) but I definitely remember the annoying habit of serving cold toast with butter on the side. (Why on earth would any one expect it to melt on cold toast?) I remember thinking that often when going back.

[csziggy]

54. Not only is the toast cold, the butter seems to have been frozen!

Seriously, many of the places I've had breakfast while in the UK for the last two + months, the toast comes in those little racks, which is bad enough, but the butter is so cold, if the toast wasn't already cold, it would be as soon as the butter hits it.

The best places to get toast were at the hotels with a buffet breakfast where you put your bread through the conveyor toaster. If you plan it right, you can thaw out the butter while the toast is traveling through the toaster. Then you can have hot toast with softened butter. Add a good amount of marmalade, and breakfast is good!

[Boomerproud]

9. Had the dream of visiting for 2 weeks in 1984

Best 2 weeks of my life!

[Peacetrain]

15. I just smile every time I think of another visit

Granted we always try and do it in September after the crowds have left and it is usually dry.. (not always, I got soaked to the skin the last time I was in Cardiff)..I always come back on the plane, already planning my next trip back in my head. Places I want to go back to, and places not yet seen. My first trip was 1978 and my last trip was 2018.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Oh, dear lord.

The last time I was there was nearly 40 years ago. I'd have thought they'd stopped that ludicrous way of serving toast in restaurants.

[Peacetrain]

17. Some things are a tradition I think..

and cold toast is one of them

[OnDoutside]

52. Yes, that's a very 70's way of serving toast, to be fair.

[abqtommy]

11. I was in London many years ago and I don't remember the toast. However, as far as it concerns

Brexit, when we say that Bo "ya doesn't have to call me Johnson" Jo is "toast" I think it's appropriate to
think of him as a "dry little triangle of bread" and feed him to the ducks. If I were anybody thinking about
taking advantage of the Brits I'd remember that many of the people there eat cucumber sandwiches.

[pennylane100]

14. God how I hated cucumber sandwiches,

and that was long before I realized how much fun there was being made in the world about our food. Luckily my mother was Italian so we had had a very mixed diet. My dad, being Welsh, served Welsh Rarebit. That "Toad in the Hole" were among the few items he cooked well.

[dewsgirl]

30. I love toad in the holes.

[Paka]

13. I'll pass on the whole breakfast deal in Britain.

Over cooked eggs and greasy under cooked sausage. Not my cup of tea. The toast may be the most edible part of all. I do like stewed tomatoes and I love baked beans, just not for breakie. I'll take the French version any day--espresso and croissant. That's my idea of how to start a day.

[Peacetrain]

19. I love the tomatoes and fish for breakfast.. yum!!!!

And some of the best curries in the world.. put them up against anyone, will be found in London.. bar none.

[Paka]

33. They are good, but better at lunch.

The basic truth is that breakfast isn't my meal. I don't wake up hungry, so lunch and dinner are my better meals. Give me good coffee and I'm ready to go in the morning.

[Blue_true]

53. I skip breakfast about 98% of the time.

But your description of an English breakfast was interesting.

[csziggy]

55. It has been pretty good for our trip

Eggs cooked any way you like (I like soft poached with nice runny yolks), sausage cooked so the outside is just short of crispy. Too bad there was no 'real' bacon, but I got used to the British version on BLTs.

What I could never adjust to was baked beans for breakfast. That is just wrong on so many levels!

My go-to breakfast (when someone else is cooking) is a poached egg, one sausage link, cooked mushrooms, and one slice of toast with marmalade.

[Aristus]

18. It is through the eating of toast that the English attempt to atone for their

national sins.

They may not be quite sure what those sins are, but whatever they are, they can be amply atoned for by eating English toast.

But the toast is as nothing compared to the sausages. Joyless tubes filled with gristle, sitting in a puddle of something hot and sad.

The sausages are for those who know what their sins are, and wish to atone for something specific.




- Adapted from a piece by Douglas Adams.

[Peacetrain]

20. ROFL.. that is great.. do not eat sausage, so I have missed that one..

I love everything about the place, the food included.... well except for the cold toast.. and maybe not the sausage.. sausage is disgusting in any country..

[AdamGG]

23. Kielbasa with saurkraut and mustard can be great, not a fan of breakfast sausage

[Mme. Defarge]

29. Always wondered if rationing during WWII

was a dietary improvement that aided their efforts.

[dawg day]

39. MMm.... real cumberland sausage is wonderful.

And for a cheap eat, Waitrose (the grocery store) has some wonderful sausage rolls for about a pound a piece.

[Kablooie]

21. Same thing here.

I hated the little silver toast coolers they always used.
It’s as if warm toast is something to avoid.

[RobinA]

35. Toast Coolers!

Perfect.

[Grokenstein]

22. Yeah Toast!!

[Lonestarblue]

24. English breakfasts are not my favorites, but high tea--oh yes!

Scones, clotted cream, lovely fruit jam—oh my. Quite a wonderful experience.

[IronLionZion]

25. They put beans on them instead of avocado

why not just get fresh toast, or toast it yourself? It doesn't have to be cold.

Here's Gordon Ramsay burning toast like a boss

[skypilot]

26. The Welsh have an impossible accent?

Who have thought?

[Peacetrain]

49. Wales... write this down.. is going to be the next big breakthrough in tourist interest

Gentrification of Cardiff is impressive..it is beautiful country

[Doodley]

28. As a Brit - lived there for my first 45 years - I confirm the food sucks - one reason I'm veggy.

[dawg day]

38. A lot of the pubs and restaurants are getting into "local" food-

And celebrating great British food traditions like the meat pies and the root vegetable soups. I think the food is definitely improving. (The price is going up along with the quality, of course.)

[Peacetrain]

48. Things have mightily improved over the years.. especially for vegans and vegetarians

Mildred's... If I remember correctly its about 5 or 6 blocks from Piccadilly Circus... we really love to go there

[peacebuzzard]

31. Hot toast is so hard to find when you travel....

Nothing better than hot toast with butter and jelly to go with coffee in the a.m.
When I travel anywhere its always the most difficult find. U.S. and abroad, you really have to plan the breakfast thing. And that dilemma is a difficult one!

[Wounded Bear]

32. I think you're supposed to dunk it in your tea...

[Peacetrain]

47. You could soak that toast in

hot tea or coffee for an hour, and you could still hammer a nail with it...

[RobinA]

34. Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

I thought it was me! Or I was being inflexible and intolerant. What’s with the cold toast? Why, why, why?

[Peacetrain]

46. It is a running joke in our family

I have family living in England.. its the one thing that starts and ends our conversations. One of those wonderful odd traditions that just makes you smile..

[roamer65]

36. The best food for breakfast is leftover Chinese.

With some scrambled eggs on the side.

[Peacetrain]

45. Hence.. fried rice!

[dawg day]

37. Well, as long as we anglophiles are complaining--

I love the English breakfast, but their bacon is more like stringy ham. I like our bacon better.

[Peacetrain]

43. ROFL!!

Complaining in a fun way

[NightWatcher]

40. Sure the toast isn't edible but they have the best cabs in the world.

After my trip back this summer, I really really want to have one sent stateside. Oh, the cabbies are cool too, but I want that car.

[Peacetrain]

44. I have taken a cab once I think

Usually I take the bus in London, not even the Underground.. its so easy to get around with the bus system and you get such a great feel for the place from the bus..

[TheBlackAdder]

41. Everything is good, if not great, with clotted cream.

[Peacetrain]

42. +1000

yes it is!

[jcboon]

56. Anyone want any toast?

[yewberry]

58. Ugh, the toast rack.

I always assumed the cold toast sliver was meant to be dipped in egg yolk, something I don't indulge in and so never really appreciated.

May I add my teeny-tiny pet peeve about Britain, in case anyone hasn't experienced it and could use the advice?

Never ever ever turn on the hot water spigot without tempering it with cold--YOU WILL BURN YOURSELF. The hot water straight from the spigot will scald your skin.

Wonderful place to travel, and beautiful. My Scottish ancestors came to the US from Lewis, and my husband's family still lives near Edinburgh and up northeast of Inverness. I hope to return someday.

[Peacetrain]

60. I have gotten such a kick out of what unites us as Democrats... cold toast

Love Inverness.. 40 years ago we walked the River Ness to Loch Ness.. I have no idea if that walk is still there but wild blueberries grew everywhere and we picked our lunch all along the way..The scariest thing that happened to me on that Scotland trip was a hike up into the Cairingorms National Park, a smaller hill. and the sea fog rolled in, .. hubby was way up in front of me, and I literally could not see 2 inches in front of me.. I just sat down on the trail and waited for the fog to blow out.. Hubby was stuck at the top..bu when it did blow off.. I could see all down into 4 valleys, I think three of them had their own loch or a tributary of not sure.. but it was beautiful beyond description..