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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

You Eat WHAT For Breakfast?!

Take a second to watch this video. (Major kudos to Sam for introducing me to the video in this post!)



Alright, now what did you learn?

"Biscuits and gravy" does not mean McVities and the stuff you pour all over your Sunday roast.

Biscuits and gravy is a southern style breakfast that looks a little something like this:

WTF is in that? Looks like a whole bunch of mush.

When I say "southern style", I mean that it's more common in the southern and stereotypically "country" states.

(Florida is a funny place. North Florida is more "southern" and South Florida is more "northern". Lot's of people move to South Florida from New York, New Jersey, Eastern Canada, and New England, therefore making it more northern. North Florida is closer to Georgia and Alabama, therefore making it more southern. My mom was from New Jersey and my dad/step mom's family is from North Carolina, making me a whole bunch of confused.)

I thought when I moved to England, that would be the end to some of my favorite meals. This one included. But that's definitely not the case!

First things first, we need to define some words for everyone in the UK. Yes, it's your turn to get an English lesson today!

Biscuit - I'd say this is a savory version of a scone. It's not sweet like they are for a cream tea. They're more buttery. Typically if you think of American fast food chains such as KFC or Hardee's, you think of these biscuits.

Before and after pics of the biscuits. Helpful hint: we used the rim of a pint glass to cut out the biscuit from the dough! Talk about getting crafty!

Gravy - There really is no British equivalent to this. Gravy is the result of mixing all the flavors of spiced breakfast sausage (but not the typical links of it like in a fry up), mixing it with milk, and thickening it with flour.

(The sausage we used was found in the frozen food section of Sainsbury's and was without the encasing normally found for sausage links.) 

Sausage made into patties before grinding it up and adding it to the "gravy"

We (and when I say "we", I really mean the Fiance. I'm useless in the kitchen.) based our recipe off of this one and my family's own southern recipe.

It just goes to show that with a little extra effort and some trial and error, "home" cooked food doesn't have to feel thousands of miles away!

(If you want me to do a full post on how to make UK-friendly biscuits and gravy, let me know and I will!)

What meals do you miss when you're not in your home country? Have you ever tried to make something "foreign" and succeeded? Or failed miserably?

6 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, but I'm with the Brits on this one - weird!

    I made savoury scones (with bacon and cheddar in them - yummmm) for some English friends a few years ago and it took like 20 minutes for me to explain to them what they were. they loved them in the end, but savoury scones are a foreign concept!

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    1. It always takes me a good long while to explain "biscuits".
      (But I heard that Sainsbury's or Tesco is going to carry the tinned biscuit like the Pillsbury... could be a rumor... could be truth!!)

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  2. I'm from Georgia and I don't like biscuits and gravy. [Hello, Gesci]
    But really, I'm from Atlanta (which is very different) and I do like biscuits, but I've never liked sausages, so no gravy. Give me cheesy grits any day, though.
    Let's see... I started making my own angel food cakes (from scratch; none of that box crap) a while ago, but it came in very handy where they don't exist in England. Plus I got to impress my English friends with my fat-free sponge cake.
    Oh, and I made mini ones for some guys at work once, and that led to a hilarious conversation via the statement "Nice buns, Gesci!"
    Now I'm just learning how to make all the British food I miss!

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    1. See now I'm not a fan of grits (both the cheesy and non-cheesy varieties)....
      I think that's the perk of not finding a lot of "convenient" things in England, it forces you to make things from scratch!!
      And speaking of making British things, I'm thinking of sending my parents a pack of Yorkshire pudding mix.... I think they'd be too confused to deal with it though!! haha

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  3. You're very sweet (like an English biscuit) :)

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  4. Yum that looks delicious though! Kind of reminds me of mashed potatoes? :)

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