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.'
If a 6-inch sandwich is bigger than her head I think I understand her problem
""'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?"
If a 6-inch sandwich is bigger than her head I think I understand her problem"
You'll have to make allowances, she's a memember of the aristocracy & they're very inbred ;o)
Sounds like a hearty breakfast. A little bit rude of you not to share though.
"And lets not forget faggots...
Well apparently the governor of New Jersey isn't a gay American after all...
...he just enjoys British cuisine."
No...I think you'll find that he is, in fact, a grade A sausage jockey.
"Sounds like a hearty breakfast. A little bit rude of you not to share though."
Well, the dog did try to pinch a bit of sausage but I chased him down the garden with the butter knife.
No she's not. They range in quality. She just doesn't know where or how to shop properly.
(As for Kobe beef, it comes from special cows that are fed beer, massaged, and kept sedentary, all to increase the fat marbling in the beef. Fat equals taste. Of course it tastes great, if you can afford it. It has the wrong consistency for really good hamburgers, though.)
When did Pavlova tour Australia? I'm not too familar with ballet. Looks good. I like kiwis.
Princess Michael of Kent and her ilk are where peasant revolts come from.
Regards,
Upon further consideration, I have to admit that I concur with the accuracy of your assessment.
Been nice talking about food with British, Aussie, and American folks. It's almost 5 in the morning here. Time to go to bed and let the morning shift take over. Have a good one.
"American Muffins." That sounds so cute...like debutantes or something! My parents toured England a few years back and had an awesome time. Lovely people; beautiful countryside. "Castles to die for!"
Yep, that's what I remember, though the bread was always fried, and saturated with grease. I always thought the bread was used to soak up the excess lard, as it was the last thing fried up.
I spent 1 1/2 years in East Anglia in the early '90's, around the American RAF bases up there, Mildenhall mostly. Rural farming area, small towns and villages. Horrible food. Everything boiled to death. One restaurant owner even admitted he sometimes got his carrots off the side of the road where the farm tractors went around a corner, spilling carrots off the wagon.
Some very good restaurants, though, such as Tuddenham Mills, a restaurant converted from a 15th Century water mill. In 1992 the water wheel still worked, and the food was very good indeed.
One of the main reasons we were there was tourism (well, we did work long hours, as well). One Saturday morning I and some friends took off to see Warwick Castle.
After passing West through Cambridge on an A route we stopped at what looked like a country truck-stop for breakfast. That was indeed what we had, as the menu consisted of a blackboard behind the front counter that only said in big letters, "BREAKFAST". Breakfast consisted of exactly what you described, all fried in lard, except in that region at that time I only got one egg. Liked the bangers, even though they most reminded me of spicy, greasy, sawdust.
My experience was that if I ate in small town, cheap, restaurants I mostly got cheap, bad food, except for this one Mexican restaurant near one of the U.S. bases. If I ate in better, more expensive restaurants I got better food, sometimes very good indeed.
My vote for worst overall experience with British chain restaurants is the Motorway so-called restaurants.
You're killing me! (drool)
Actually, this is a known issue with a specific variety (unforutnately my favorite, this is why I know this), Red Delicious. For some reason, they have gotten to be like a big bag of sand with seeds in the middle. I read an article in the WSJ a few years ago about this, and why the Fuji apple has grown so popular over the last few years, because they still have flavor. Although I have been getting more and more Fuji "bad ones" as well.
Fujis are very good. You pay more but they're better. THere are other fine apples. One just had to look. I bought some very good Braeburns the other day. I don't go nuts about the diff tastes apples have like some kind of wine connouseur.
I just want a good solid apple.
Talk about mush... peaches are awful these days. I rarely buy them. I had plenty of great cherries this summer. They ship well.... I'm in FL, far away from where cherries are grown.
Mangos are homegrown and delicious down here.
She should have tried the Shepards Pie at the Cheesecake Factory! YUM!!!!
My only complaint about the CF is that if you don't go there knowing what you're in the mood for, you're in some serious trouble! They've got about 947 different items on the menu!
Hey, here's an idea for a thread... "What's your favorite menu item at The Cheesecake Factory!" (and no, cheesecake is NOT a correct answer!)
Here's mine... While I was on Atkins (and I plan to go back on this week), I found an herb encrusted salmon filet, with a side of brocolli (subbed for the wonderful potatos!). But I think that my favorite item is their parmesan cheese encrusted chicken breast!
Mark
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