FLOG

Ooh Ooh! The second one is of French origin.

Also, they don't seem that weird. I guess frozen bangers and mash is kind of strange, but given that the English have a propensity for eating sausage and mashed potatoes together it isn't all that weird. Now, the whole bangers/mash concept is pretty fucking strange, honestly.

Tim, why do you have to be such a pain in the ass?

Finding sausage and mashed potatoes is not common in the U.S. Therefore, finding it overseas is interesting. This is why we travel: to find differences and consider them interesting.

So now my readers give me a choice. Brandon, on the one hand, considers any slight difference interesting and demands posts on all of them. Tim, on the other hand, dismisses all differences as inevitable (even as he posts pics of what downtown San Antonio looks like for the edification of us Oregonians). To whom should I blog? Answer: NEITHER OF YOU SHITHEADS.

But I'll keep doing it anyway.

Also, I notice no comment on the Jacket Potato. So that's weird, right?

I never thought eating sausages with mashed potatoes was odd, though, it's just the name.

Jacket potato? TOTALLY weird. Weird name, weird item. Weird. Did you eat it?

Eesh, FLOG was a little cranky last night, huh? Spent the day among French drivers, you see.

Anyway, the Jacket Potato: It's a weird name but not so wierd an item. It is a baked potato stuffed with assorted fillings. Or, in the frozen food version, a baked potato cut in half and submerged in assorted glops. Yes: the frozen food jacket potato isn't a jacket at all, despite the package's implications.

But the pictured "jacket" potato was quite tasty. Imagine a chili dog, except instead of a hot dog and bun, it's a potato. There.

Flog: Those pictures were for my own amusement, not Oregon's edification.

Re Bangers/Mash: Yes, it is odd that they exist...very, very odd, but not all that surprising that they come frozen as they seem to be a common food item for Brits.

Jacket Potato: Yeah, now that you've described what it is, that's fucked up. I also can't figure out why it's so important that they're gluten free, but I guess that's good to know. It is also good to know that they're tasty.

I still wonder what the hell this thing is. It looks like some sort of pastry covered in butter and jam, but it could be an egg from an alien species as far as I know.

And I'll agree that you shouldn't blog for us shitheads, blog for you, blog for love, but don't blog for me, Argentina.

Am I the only one who thinks sausage and potatoes sounds pretty good? (The jacket potato, too.) I'm not sure about the French item, though... are they waffles? And do they really need granola?

If you're ever at the Horse Brass Pub in SE Portland on a Saturday, they do a fine bangers & mash special.

(Hat tip: Sho.)

Thanks for the food report, Flog. I was expecting somehing far crazier though. Where's the haggis? The eels? Don't they sell that stuff on every street corner in the UK?

Brandon: Well, no, not really. What they do sell on ever corner in the UK is kebabs and gyros.

WWB: I thought bangers and mash were fucking fantastic. Got them a couple times in a pub and even that frozen version was marvelous. The key, though, is not the sausages or the mashed potatoes. No, it's the gravy and onions that make it.

You've hit the nail on the head, Flog - the whole point of the mash is to soak up the gravy. It's fashionable for restaurants to serve "crushed" potatoes these days though, which is just half-arsed laziness, if you ask me.

Timothy - that thing is a scone, often eaten in the south west of England with jam and clotted cream. Delicious. Only women and people on diets eat jacket potatoes though. Pointless things.