Posted on 08/20/2004 1:39:00 AM PDT by BritishBulldog
Like 'Pushy' mother, like daughter By REBECCA ENGLISH, Daily Mail
08:30am 20th August 2004 Tall, Blonde and statuesque, Lady Gabriella Windsor has clearly inherited her mother's looks. In addition, Princess Michael of Kent appears to have passed on her tendency to rub the Americans up the wrong way.
Months after graduating from university and starting work as a writer, 23-year-old Gabriella has already run into a spot of bother.
In an article on food for the Spectator magazine, she describes British fare as 'bland' and consisting of 'warm beer, grey curries and unidentifiable soup'.
Her real venom, however, is saved for cuisine in the U.S., where she has spent the past four years studying. 'American food is overrated, unhealthy and revolting and the sooner my friends wean themselves off it, the better they will feel,' she says, writing under the name Ella Windsor.
The biggest purveyor of junk, she says, is the popular family restaurant chain the Cheesecake Factory. 'Grotesque' is the word she uses to describe its slices of dessert the size of bricks.
'It must put a strain on family life, having to watch your nearest and dearest eating this gunk,' she says. Ella singles out for attention the Tons of Fun Burger, described as: 'Double patties, double cheese, triple sesame-seed bun and secret sauce served with fries'.
She writes: 'A pastrami sandwich comes with a good six inches of meat in the middle - how do you get your mouth around something that is bigger than your head? After a few attempts, any appetite you might once have had is gone.
'Have you tried an American apple? They look perfect - enormous, red and shiny - but have the consistency of cotton wool. 'It's the same with the meat: huge, juicy-looking steaks and chops, perfectly grilled, pink inside, but tasting of wet paper.'
Back in the UK, however, Lady Gabriella, who is 30th in line to the throne, still isn't happy. 'I flew back from America looking forward to shepherd's pie and pints of beer only to be confronted by an upsurge in American fast food in London.'
It is not the first time that the outspoken royal has risked the wrath of her friends in the U.S.. Shortly before graduating from Brown University on Rhode Island she wrote a 'searing exposé' of her fellow students' alcohol abuse, drug taking, sexual licentiousness and all-round bad behaviour.
And recently her mother - dubbed Princess Pushy for her regal airs - caused a storm on both sides of the Atlantic when she allegedly told a group of black American diners to 'go back to the colonies'. In an interview to rebut the claims she stirred up even more trouble by using the world 'half-caste' and referring to black South Africans as 'these adorable people'.
Ella's attack on U.S. food was greeted with disdain by experts.
Sally Clarke, of Clarke's restaurant in London, credited with bringing Californian-style cooking to London, said: 'Fast food is bad food wherever you go in the world and unfortunately she seems to have lumped it together with every other type of American cuisine.
'I can honestly say that I have learnt more about food in America than anywhere else. In terms of quality, freshness, seasonality and taste, the restaurants there are second to none.'
I've had the same experience with tomatoes but as of late I've been getting some good ones. I have had luck with the vine ripened variety with some of the vine still attached.
Hell, my Iowa grandfather used to eat pickled pigs' feet. UGH.
"Jelly" is preserved fruit juice: juice, sugar, pectin. It is clear, all traces of fruit solids have been strained.
"Jam" is unfiltered jelly. Small particles of fruit remain; the whole is cloudy rather than clear.
"Preserves" contains nearly whole fruit, in an otherwise jelly-like or jam-like substance.
"Marmalade" is made from citrus fruits, and contains pieces of both fruit and rind in a jelly-like substance.
In the USA. Other English speaking countries no doubt use the terms differently.
One of my Texas buddies who went to Britain in the '90s theorized that "room temperature" seemed cooler there, so having a RT beer wouldn't be as hideous an imposition as it would here, with our 100-degree heat and 98% humidity.
What IS lemon curd, anyhow? You're not the first to note that it lacks something by way of delectation.
Wow you guys are reminding me of all sorts of things my mom used to eat. I think she put the mint sauce on her brussel sprouts. I don't know why she quit being so British the last 20 years or so--seems like she kept up a lot of her traditions for a long time.
I remember those sitting in the fridge in a jar. My dad was always getting those. His other big thing was eating corn bread soaked in buttermilk. Now he just lives on Banquet TV dinners--one of the worst prepared meals out there.
Probably because for the past month or so they have been "in season" in much of the country.
I've been overrun with them from my garden. I have quarts and quarts of them canned and frozen too.
On another subject: I drink milk but my wife does not. Many times I have to throw away some when I buy a gallon, so I thought why not buy it by the half gallon? I went to the dairy section only to discover that a half gallon was exactly one cent less than the gallon, same brand.
What's that all about?
Milk has really gone up. I'm not sure why the half-gallon would be so close in price to the gallon. I have to buy the a couple of gallons at a time the way we go through it. Even that's not enough. We've been getting it delivered. The price is $4.99/per gal--kind of expensive but the convenience of having it delivered is nice. We got two gallons on Tuesday and it was gone by Thursday. I have to admit, I'm a big milk drinker too.
I always let my dad cook it. But he died a few months ago. I'll have to try and remember how he did it, and it was a slow cooking method is all I know... I'll wrack my brains
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