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French vs American vs Modern British


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Look, as I have said on this board and many other boards in the past, and I have heard many a moderator say the same thing, if you have nothing to add to a thread, move on.

As I have said elsewhere on this board, I find that the quintessentially British arts of satire, lampoon and caricature do not travel well across the Atlantic  ;)  but I don't believe this should confer any special protection to our American cousins.

And the point about those arts, Steve, is that behind the sometimes barbed comments lies a serious point. In this case, in direct response to your question about the differences between A, B and C, it is absolutely valid for me to say that there is no real distinction, and to suggest that the process itself of attempting to pigeon-hole cuisines is detrimental to discussion of cuisines. I don't stipulate that I am right, but my view on that is valid, and it positively is a proper contribution to the debate.

I also believe that this habitual pigeon-holing process by food writers is an example of their inadequacies, in that rather than tax themselves by having to describe and evaluate food, they fall back on these (in my view) meaningless categorisations and try to sound as though they know and understand what they're talking about.

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I think so, macrosan.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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OK, I had a hard time following this thread, but from what I gather Macrosan differentiates "American" cuisine from that of France and Britain as the former's lacking the ability to appreciate satire.

Now taking this point to its next logical conclusion, I would argue that France's love of the comedy of Jerry Lewis would similarly take it out of the realm of satire, leaving that genre solely to British and Modern British cuisine.  Therefore, in conclusion one could postulate that American and French cuisine are closely related and that British cuisine is distinguished by its ability to separate a remark's literal meaning from its intended one.  Or is that irony?

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OK, I had a hard time following this thread

No you didn't, Ron, your exposition is perfect and demonstrates a consummate grasp of both the fundamental hypothesis and its logical and inevitable conclusion. Brilliant.

Or is that irony?

No....or yes....it's a bit difficult for me to tell if you don't use the smilies  :p

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