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.'
She is pretty--looks healthy enough.
see last post =o)
"My mom is from Southall--not sure what part of London that is--south??"
Southall's on the western edge of London, not near me. I used to go there a lot for business a few years ago. Large Indian/Pakistani population there now.
"Ham sandwichs on trains? They are a national joke here! Everyone hates them!
Well when I was a kid visting in the 70's I loved them. Guess I'm the only one. Maybe they are waiting for me to come back?!?"
It was in the 70's that they the joke thing started I think. TV comedians would compare things to British Rail sandwiches, "curling up at the edges" and suchlike. I think things have improved since then but I don't do trains so I wouldn't know.
Anyway, gotta run, breakfast time!
Where do you get them from? We don't get very good fruit here. I don't know if it's a Colorado thing or what. I do remember visiting Virginia as a kid and I ate the best watermelon I've ever had in my life. Come to think of it, I've got a lot of good food memories from my kid days--train station ham sandwiches in England and watermelon in Virginny.
Some people but Marmite on it but you always get weidos don't you.
Speaking as an Aussie - and hence a resident of a country that is culturally pervaded by both US and UK culture, I would just point out that while we do have occasional American restaurants here, I've never encountered a British one.
On the other hand, we do have a lot of English style pubs.
I honestly think these two facts reflect the reality here. Whatever good food the British had - and they did have some nice ideas - has been so rapidly incorporated into Australian food (and I suspect American as well) that nobody really thinks of it as British anymore.
The same has occurred with a lot (not all) of the best American dishes, meaning the only stuff that most people see as explicitly American is the stuff that nobody wants to claim for their own - ie, McDonalds (-8
British beer is worth drinking, so the English style pubs do well enough.
Also, as an Aussie, I feel I must point out that vegemite is better than marmite - but I confess to saying that out of patriotism and nothing else. Having been forced to consume massive amounts of vegemite while at boarding school as a boy, followed by nearly as massive amounts while in the RAN, I can no longer stand to look at more than the tiniest amounts.
I've heard. The influx was just starting when my mom was a kid--1940's/50's. She remembers them scaring the heck out of her. Enjoy breakfast. Let us know what good food you are having.
We've got the Outback restaurant chains here in the U.S.--wonder what the Aussies would think about that food. The Outbacks here in Colorado are always busy.
Speaking of the Outback, here's an article about the chain feeding a bunch of the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1182607/posts
I'm going to have to check those out next time I'm in the States.
Looking at a menu that I've seen online, it looks like the type of tucker I'd enjoy.
It does seem to have some Aussie flavour - lot of American influence as well, which makes a lot of sense.
Really Aussie food is a lot like American - we eat a bit more beef, and a bit less pork, I'd say - but not by huge amounts. And a lot of the stuff we eat is stuff we've taken from other countries too - pizza, pasta, chinese, all that type of thing.
The traditional barbie is the Aussie way - but even that is hardly unique.
We have good beer and wine, though, and it's nice to see that the Outback places are serving at least some of that.
No Pavlova on the desert menu. OK - that's a mistake! Gotta have pav.
Boy howdy that's the truth!
No Pavlova on the desert menu. OK - that's a mistake! Gotta have pav.
What kind of dish is that? What does it taste like? Sounds like a Russian word. Maybe you can send an e-mail to Outback and tell them to get the pav on the menu.
"I will give the Brits credit for some very good beer. "
They had to create something decent to wash down the jellied ells.
"Enjoy breakfast. Let us know what good food you are having."
Big beef sausages (that's "bangers"), bacon, fried eggs ("sunny side up" as you say), mushrooms, tomatoes & a big chunk of white bread.
Plenty of salt & saturated fat but life's too short for museli.
"We've got the Outback restaurant chains here in the U.S.--wonder what the Aussies would think about that food. The Outbacks here in Colorado are always busy. "
Got em in the UK now too. Been a few times. Very good I thought, particularly the steaks.
"Well, she is right about apples and steaks. Especially steaks.
If you never want to know how tasteless American beef is..."
Odd. I've had some excellent steaks in America, can;t say I've ever had a bad one there now I come to think of it.
As for pavlova. It's a type of meringue desert, covered with cream and slice fruit. It's either Australian or New Zealand - both countries claim it, and nobody has really been able to sort it out. What is known is that it was made in honour of the Russian Ballerina, Anna Pavlova during a tour of Australia and New Zealand, and was named after her. It's become the ultimate Aussie desert. It is genuinely nice, though it crumbles easily.
Well apparently the governor of New Jersey isn't a gay American after all...
...he just enjoys British cuisine.
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