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by YeGoblynQueenne 1103 days ago
Well that is very unreasonable. First you say that Ribena et al. are "childhood tastes". Then when I say that's sad, you say "not my childhood!" and accuse me of making assumptions. Well, by that token, you're making assumptions too: I never said I think your childhood was spent in the UK.

There is an XKCD for that style of communication, you know:

https://xkcd.com/169/

About the cheese, you should check out any supermarket in France, Italy or Greece. In Italy or Greece, chances are you'll find 30 different kinds, including a couple of locally-made ones. In France it's more like 130. In the small Auchan at the corner of Tolbiac and Rue Barrault, near where I stayed in Paris, there were six or seven refrigerators dedicated exclusively to cheese- cheese of every type (bloomy rinds, washed rinds, pressed, cooked, hard, soft, blue, white, ... ), and from every corner of France (little goat's cheeses from the Valee de la Loire, Corsican sheep's milk cheese, tommes from all over the place...). The larger Carrefour in the Italie Deux mall, at the center of the 13th arrondissement had about a dozen. My friendly neighbourhood cheesemonger stocked an even greater variety and at a much better quality. I swear I have never seen so much cheese, of so many different kinds and from so many different places all together in one place. Of course, he was "Meilleur Ouvrier de France". Try to imagine the British DWP handing out medals to the best cheesemongers, or bakers!

Stilton? Well that's a good cheese, no disagreeing. But then, you go to a Sainsbury's, or a Tesco's, and what authentically British cheeses do they stock? If they stock Stilton, that's lucky. Then it's cheddar, cheddar, cheddar... oh, and even more cheddar. Maybe a bit of Wensleydale, and that only thanks to Aardman. And you know why? Because the average Brit only knows three kinds of cheese: haloumi, mozzarella and cheddar. Did I mention cheddar?

Sorry, but the variety and quality of cheese in the continent is just not something that the UK can compare with, and the Europeans know what they are and how to appreciate them.

P.S. Olive and garlic sourdough... why? Why put things in bread? Unless you're making pizza that is. See, I don't know if you're British but that's just such a British thing to do. The British have no understanding of why bread is good, because it sucks when they make it, so they stuff it with... stuff. Because they think that makes it somehow magickally better. It doesn't! It just makes it bad bread with stuff in it.

1 comments

I didn't say they weren't the tastes of my childhood, I said they weren't the tastes of my childhood, with that emphasis. Perhaps it wasn't obvious what I meant if English isn't your first language. I was saying that they are childhood tastes (of my childhood, and loved ones!) but some among many and not defining ones. There's no semantic trickery involved. The insult I was responding to was the implication that because I enjoyed these drinks as a child it meant I had a limited diet and crude tastes.

The rest of it isn't worth responding to as I'm pretty sure I've had the exact same conversation with you before. You won't change your mind. Why you choose to live in a country you're so convinced is a shithole is a mystery to me, but next time I see you whinging about it on hn I'll know to walk on by.

The olive and garlic sourdough was wonderful. I don't care a jot if it doesn't conform to some arbitrary food rules you've invented.

>> I didn't say they weren't the tastes of my childhood, I said they weren't the tastes of my childhood, with that emphasis.

https://xkcd.com/169/

>> Why you choose to live in a country you're so convinced is a shithole is a mystery to me, but next time I see you whinging about it on hn I'll know to walk on by.

It's like I say in another comment: great food, beautiful weather, wonderful people.

You seem to be a bitter person. I hope you find a more effective solution to your unsatisfactory circumstances than insulting strangers on web forums.