An ode to chips on a deep fried pizza

When the subject of me having lived in Scotland comes up in Finland, usually the first things people want to know is wheter I do have a Scottish accent and is it always raining in the UK. Closely after that follows the food. Britain's known around the world for having terrible cuisine. I strongly disagree - but for some reason I have never managed to convince anyone. So let me try you.

I thought about giving this a soft start and tell about lovely Sunday roasts, but well, that's not interesting really, is it? Fish and chips is something they also offer here in Finland so that might not tell anyone anything new about my subject.

So I'll start with haggis.
As every Scot knows, a haggis is a small animal that runs up and doon the hills of the highlands. A general misunderstanding is that the dish is made of smashed sheep stuff that nobody else wants to eat, such as liver, stomach and heart. This belief did make my visiting relatives rather suspicious and nobody dared to try it. Talking about experiencing the country you're visiting...

Well, while I was happily enjoying my haggis-neeps-and-tatties, those so-called open-minded people promised me to try something local so I decided to take them where everybody tends to go for a simple but nice meal - the local chippy. For some reason the open-mindness didn't kick in. I got weird looks from them while I was trying to explain the joys putting all the best culinary items together - deep-frying, pizzas and chips. I had forgotten that the idea of chips on a deep fried pizza might sound peculiar to those funny tourists. After trying to persuade them for a while I managed to get them to order chips & curry - whoever decided to mix those things was a genius.


They survived their chippy experience just fine, and even admitted I was sort of right about the deliciousness of a proper chips & curry portion.

So inspired from that I tried explaining how you can actually put anything on a toast while in the UK. For some reason the idea of salt and vinegar flavoured crisps on a toast didn't sound too delicious to them. Neither did they get excited about beans on toast (seriously, who wouldn't love anything with tinned beans? Almost every meal missing them is a meal that is not complete - so why would you not put them on a toast aswell?)

Weird people those Finns, I thought and came to realisation that must have been gone for too long. The relatives thought the same about me.

I thought that fixation to this funny food would wear off after leaving the country (months later). But no. This blog post started from a huge cheesey pasta craving that got replaced by the craving for Farmfoods freezer stuff. Where else do they sell you frozen £2 pizzas weighting 30oz? And why they don't have curly fries or chicken pop-pops here in Finland?
Oh, and how can people actually survive without sausage rolls? This is just messed up.


I am not entirely sure if you have to be British to enjoy the food that you'll come across in there, but there's one thing I know for certain: it's been too long since I've had steak&kidney pie, sticky toffee pudding, home made trifle or coronation chicken sandwiches.

Neither am I sure if this post will work as I meant it to and convince a Finnish reader about the deliciousness of British food. But I gave my shot.