English Disease
Go read the following things, all of which seem to hinge upon a certain dialectic of grimness and escape in dear old blighty: IT has a brilliant photo-essay on the aforementioned journey through the ruins - the eventual purpose of this trip will be explained presently.
The Impostume staking its claim as Maze Hill's answer to David Thomson, with an excellent discussion of Sexy Beast. Someone give the man a contract for a book extending his British film posts.
End Times on Roxy and a (sartorial) nation of no imagination, with a response from Ms Hennings;
And a rare but welcome K-Punk post, this time on the class conflicts necessitated by middle class gastronomic pieties. I admit I had a slight tinge of class pride when the burgers were being pushed through the school fences...
posted by owen hatherley at 3:04 pm
4 Comments:
Here's an american question for you: what is that green substance in IT's picture of breakfast? I've never seen that before. Is it good?
The substance is known as 'Bubble and Squeak'. It is made up of leftover vegetables, mashed and subsequently fried. It was very, very good.
its interesting comrade hatherley in the working class districts of london i felt completely at home - the breakfast is greasy, unhealthy and fat, the men are good looking and they also seem to look you in the eyes, at you, instead of through you, which is something i never experienced in the City
Dejan---the 'CITY' is the City of London, the financial district. There is also the City of Westminster, and there are all those rich areas outside the City of London like the ones in the West End, Chelsea and Belgravia, etc., that are part of Greater London. The men in most of these districts are good-looking, also the working-class ones, I never can stand the financial districs too long, although I used to work in low jobs in various Wall Street firms--deadly.
I was introduced to Bubble and Squeak in Liverpool, then made it at home, in a version with Mashed Potatoes and Cabbage. yes, very good. The problem with English food is not the breakfasts, even if they're greasy they're good and are like American ones with the addition of Broiled Tomato; it's the lunches and dinners in restaurants. If English take time and care, the food is wonderful--but they don't take the kind of care that French and Italians do in all classes, so that you even get mostly undrinkable coffee and sometimes food that is even inedible due to ingredients that had needed to be thrown out sooner. This is another thing--homely things like Lancashire Hot Pot and Bubble and Squeak ARE very good if you just do a minimum of preparation--but at Liverpool Lyme Street Station I once had a breakfast of Shoe Leather Collop and Canned Tomatoes that were not even heated. Nothing soulful about this sort of thing.
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