Look, I get it; the perennial joke is that British food is bland or terrible or, at the very least, just supremely questionable, and it can be fun to keep piling on that joke whenever possible.
This is true even (nay, especially) if you don’t have particularly strong opinions on British food one way or the other; the desire to dunk on British food simply exceeds one’s desire to potentially enjoy it. I don’t make the rules.
That being said, a pal of TikTok‘s @gabrielleebaker may (but also may not) actually have a legitimate case for her newfound disdain for British food courtesy of her uninformed consumption of black pudding.
The 25-second video consists of Gabrielle and her unwitting American friend enjoying an English breakfast, complete with scrambled eggs, beans, a sausage, a hash brown, and other such British delicacies. Eventually, Gabrielle’s friend takes a bite of the black pudding that’s sat in front of her; a move that’s followed up earnest nods and a cheerful “it’s good!” Then Gabrielle gets a bit educational on the nuances of black pudding.
For those of you not in the know, black pudding is primarily made of coagulated animal blood, as Gabrielle puts it to her friend, who promptly trauma-giggles and gives her tongue a wipe. Gabrielle declines to mention the pork fat and cereal also involved in the dish, likely to devilishly maximize her friend’s disgust.
Now, it’s very easy to find great humor in this person’s newfound aversion to black pudding, considering that there’s a sausage sitting right there on her plate as well. Indeed, if this revelation about black pudding was enough to turn this person off of it for good, one can only imagine how she’d react to the contents of her hometown’s deli, or most items in the average American supermarket, at that.
According to Sentient, for instance, hot dogs tend to be made of the head, feet, liver, muscles, fat, and blood of such animals as cows, pigs, and turkeys. And that’s just the core meat trimmings; depending on the type of hot dog, it may also contain a dash of snout, lips, eyes, and even brains. By the implied logic of Gabrielle’s friend, then, the thought of digesting just about any meat should make her sick to her stomach.
But hot dogs are not primarily considered British food, hence why she has probably left them off the hook just like the rest of us. Again, I don’t make the rules; I just shake my head at them.
Published: Jul 23, 2024 09:40 am