British culture taxes good food
Today I had 担担面, 不糖汤，成都是, in Manchester Chinatown (DanDan Noodles without soup1 - a staple of Chengdu). I have a lot of work to do with my tones, but they understood what I was looking for, and I got the full-bodied Sichuan experience. This had to be of the best meals of my life, yet also the hardest to eat. The spice cumulates (although I probably skimped a little on stirring in the chilli oil and peppers). Eating it was almost like a trip.
I see now why many Chinese restaurants have an unofficial menu, or off-menu (versions of) items, for natives and Chinese speakers. Most Brits wouldn't (be able to?) finish it.
On a broader note the Western attitude to food stinks. China's culture takes food incredibly seriously, to the extent that the experience of their meals are often on par with drug highs. Our tastes are optimised more for comfort and convenience, but at a cost of blandness.
This nonchalance is also reflected in the beverages we consume. Yesterday I had Ethopian coffee (roasted on charcoal, with the full ceremony and incence) for the first time2. It will be tedious drinking regular coffee again. It is to barista-prepared coffee as vodka is to beer or wine. The best way to describe the experience is that the feeling is more akin to a mild euphoric stimulant rush than the bitter “pick-me ups” we gulp down in the morning, that often leave us jittery. On some level, Ethiopian coffee feels more similar to cocaine than your filtered Starbucks brew. It’s that good. I might make the coffee ceremony a fortnightly event.
The restaurants I frequent tend to be somewhat scruffy and overlooked. I never spend over £20 ($27) for a meal and drink at any of them. We select for places to eat poorly, and our critics rank relatively bland yet pretentious menus as highest in status. There's a pooling equilibrium though (at least in Bradford) with grimy takeouts that often double up as rat dens. So the best family-run venues get mistaken for peddlers of grease. This is a shame.
If I had enough followers up in Northern England, I'd write a list of my food recommendations. One of the best places to eat in the world if you know where to look.
UPDATE (25/07/2026): Increasingly I don't regard our deficiency in food quality (at least for the modal Brit) as cultural but rather economic (as with most things: “culture” tends to act as a residual for a deeper process). The problem with British home cooking is that it's centred on meat + starch (usually potatoes) + veg. You either need to be really good at seasoning or it requires fresher ingredients than typically available in supermarkets to work. Modern logistics optimises for filling the shelves, and does an incredibly good job at this, but this means that cuisines oriented around fresh local produce suffer in quality given the refrigeration and processing required. A consequence of market economies is that market clearing will occur via quality as opposed to quantities.
Indeed, the closest farmers' market to me is an hour away. Most Brits don't have the time or money to get the freshest ingredients. This is where Jamie Oliver's doctrine (and that of other food commentators) is flawed: his recipes rely on ingredient quality that is expensive.
One might also have to travel for restaurants doing anything other than just meat + veg + starch with minimal seasoning. If one decides to cook, one must invest time in learning alternative methods. Simply put: eating well in Britain is expensive. This is also an underrated reason for our pub culture, as drinking is cheap in initial costs.
The common use of the microwave and UPFs, and other unhealthy diets, is because they're cheap and convenient. Paternalism is usually misguided, and especially so on something as widely consumed (so close to perfect information, and the basic rational competitive model) as food.
For those curious, it was served with Zha Cai (mustard stem).
Piassa Bar in Leeds - highly recommended!