Rude Food

I always thought I had very low standards when it came to food. To be sure, I have a healthy appetite, but I am not very picky about how it is satiated. I would make a rotten food critic because I couldn't tell the difference between decent, good, great and mind-blowing food. 

After moving to England, I have realized that I am not that indifferent to the taste of food. I quite dislike the ready-to-eat meals in most supermarkets, most of the food in my university cafeteria, and the food in most restaurants I have been to is quite mediocre as well. 

I have also discovered that bad food can ruin my mood. Today, I had cooked lunch to carry to uni, but as fate would have it, I forgot to pack it. So around lunch time, I ambled over to the only restaurant within walking distance of uni and ordered some pancakes. The sun was out and I was in a chirpy mood, notwithstanding the fact that I was eating alone in an almost full restaurant, which could have been grounds for awkwardness and melancholy. 

The pancakes took their time arriving and I wish they hadn't bothered. They were dry, tasteless and the toppings were a joke. To make matters worse, they were tiny. Most people would be glad to have small portions if they  don't like the food. But my logic is different. If you are not going to tickle my taste buds the least you can do is leave me feeling full (unless the food is rank terrible, of course). So ordinary or bad food in small helpings is a double fail.

I have actually started believing that  British people hate food and would dispense with it completely if they could. If only humans could survive on wine and ales. Nowhere have I seen so many people have a sandwich for lunch. Just a sandwich, and some chips and a soda maybe. Even college boys who ought to be at the pinnacle of  their pigging days. When I was their age, I had to wolf down mountains of food to feel even half full.

I have actually started preferring food that I have cooked myself to outside food, and I am by no means a good cook. I have some talent but still need years of practice to hone it. The only times I eat outside is when I am too bored to cook, or squeezed for time.