Things you rather like about this country

[KnittyNorah]

Chocolate in the UK tastes better than the muck you get in other places.

I think it depends on the other places, and price comparisons.

Cheap chocolate in the UK is miles ahead of cheap chocolate in the US - which tbf doesn't even count as chocolate in most non-USians vocabularies, tasting as it does overwhelmingly of 'gone-off' milk and having a vile, waxy mouth-feel.

Also chocolate is, I've found in general in my extensive travels over the years, cheaper in the UK for a specific standard than it is in much of the rest of the world for a similar standard. So spending X amount on chocolate in many places will get you a poorer chocolate than will spending X amount in the UK.

 

[Blue Hills]

Public parks.
The Victorians did some terrible stuff but should be celebrated for so many great parks.
For years many were pretty terribly neglected but the last couple of decades have been restored.
Much appreciated the last hellish year and a half of course.

 

[Blue Hills]

The seaside towns that are way past their heyday but full of charm , including the open shelters along the promenade and the piers etc.

Might be worth a thread start ming - favourite old seaside towns - I might learn about some,particularly smaller ones - I know many have terrible problems these days. In particular I have heard folk highlight Hastings' issues but I have always liked it.
The shelters I'm thinking you may have used on bikerides. Kipping even?
My Italian ex cycling buddy had a thing about British piers.

 

[Chris S]

Cheap chocolate in the UK is miles ahead of cheap chocolate in the US - which tbf doesn't even count as chocolate in most non-USians vocabularies, tasting as it does overwhelmingly of 'gone-off' milk and having a vile, waxy mouth-feel.

American chocolate was originally made with milk that had gone slightly sour because of the distance that it had to travel. Americans got used to the taste and they now put a chemical in the chocolate to replicate it.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662.article

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Newspaper?

We get them rapped in paper but not old Newspapers.

That would be a throwback.

Fish'n'Chips with some ghetto beats - novel!

 

[Edwardoka]

All this talk of chippies...

Chippy chips, in my opinion, are only useful as a vehicle for pickled onions. I don't know why, but I've never managed to find pickled onions that taste like the ones you get from the chippy. Even the ones that claim to be chip shop pickles... just no.

Chip shop pickles are a good thing about this country.

 

[Chris S]

Chinese curry sauce.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Conkers falling off the tree in Autumn are rather pleasing (as long as they don't land on your head! ), but they seem to be dropping rather early this year. I've just collected these from the local cemetery.

 

[Blue Hills]

The sheer number of children, of all sorts/backrounds/races whatever.
There must surely be some hope for the damn place while folks are still having so many?
(I'm in London - spend a lot of time walking/cycling/pubbing - sitting in spoons etc/on public transport)

 

[Blue Hills]

The fact that this joyous song and performance was such a big hit so so long ago.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=z8PN6CLnJXM


yes I know of course that we've had race problems.

(recorded I gather in Forest Hill, SE London - though I have no idea where)

 

[KnittyNorah]

American chocolate was originally made with milk that had gone slightly sour because of the distance that it had to travel. Americans got used to the taste and they now put a chemical in the chocolate to replicate it.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662.article

I think for me, the issue with most 'mainstream' US choc isn't just the rancid flavour, but the texture of it which means that it seems to not melt properly in your mouth.
US colleagues have often tried to excuse it by saying that its formulation must to deal with much greater temperature extremes, especially heat, and lengthy shipment times, than in Europe, but Aussie colleagues have always countered that with the fact that Aussie choc is perfectly nice. Mind you I have had some lovely choc from the US, just not the 'big brand' stuff.

 

[swee'pea99]

Bill Bryson, on first encountering 'real', which is to say Belgian, chocolate:

"I remember the first time I tasted European chocolate. It was in the central railway station in Antwerp, on 21 March 1972, my second day in Europe as a young backpacker. While waiting for the train I bought a bar of Belgian chocolate from a station kiosk, tore off a bite and, after a moment of startled delight, began to emit a series of involuntary rapturous noises of an intensity sufficient to draw stares from 20 yards away.​

​

You know how a baby eats a bowl of pudding - with noise and gusto and an alarming amount of gurgly drool? Well, that was me. I couldn't help myself. I didn't know that chocolate could be this good. I didn't know that anything could be this good." ​

 

[Reynard]

Bill Bryson, on first encountering 'real', which is to say Belgian, chocolate:

"I remember the first time I tasted European chocolate. It was in the central railway station in Antwerp, on 21 March 1972, my second day in Europe as a young backpacker. While waiting for the train I bought a bar of Belgian chocolate from a station kiosk, tore off a bite and, after a moment of startled delight, began to emit a series of involuntary rapturous noises of an intensity sufficient to draw stares from 20 yards away.​

​

You know how a baby eats a bowl of pudding - with noise and gusto and an alarming amount of gurgly drool? Well, that was me. I couldn't help myself. I didn't know that chocolate could be this good. I didn't know that anything could be this good." ​

Drat... Now I have a hankering for those Cote d'Or elephant-shaped praline things. The dark ones.

 

[DCBassman]

Drat... Now I have a hankering for those Cote d'Or elephant-shaped praline things. The dark ones.

Dammit, stop talking about chocolate, I'm trying to lose weight!

 

[raleighnut]

The fact that this joyous song and performance was such a big hit so so long ago.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=z8PN6CLnJXM


yes I know of course that we've had race problems.

(recorded I gather in Forest Hill, SE London - though I have no idea where)

Alledgedly Rod 'the mod' Stewart on harmonica.