We don’t want to slag off the British too often, even though it’s always a good time, but they aren’t exactly known for the culinary prowess.

Italian, French, Greek, Spanish – all cuisines that are lauded around the world, but the British not so much.

I tell you what they sure as hell don’t want credit for – mince on toast. Just ask eater.com, who called the grub “a quintessential British comfort classic”.

Not happening, as the Guardian reports:

There was an immediate backlash from Brits on social media, with most claiming they’d never heard of it, let alone tried it, and deriding it as a “monstrosity” and an “abomination”.

“For god sake @eater what are you on?” posted Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner. “Apart from mince on toast, something I have never eaten.”

“Never ever ever ever ever, ever ever,” wrote musician Neil Claxton, “in a month of Sundays ever ever has anyone in Britain eaten this mess.”

That’s actually Jay Rayner being nice – you might recognise his name from that scathing takedown of a Parisian restaurant (HERE).

Amidst all the drama, New Zealand stepped up to the plate and sung the humble meal’s praises:

…mince and toast is a common meal around the country, both at home and in homely cafes.

“To me it is something that has been around for ever: we had it as children and I would say generations of people on farms have eaten it in New Zealand,” said Helen Jackson, a food writer and former food editor at the New Zealand Women’s Weekly magazine.

“It is an absolute rural classic. Rural people used to have meat for pretty much three meals a day and you could heat leftover mince up for lunch or Sunday night dinner with buttered toast…

“I haven’t seen it anywhere else in the world,” says Jackson.

“I hadn’t really thought about people not eating it anywhere else because to me, why wouldn’t you? To me it is a logical and delicious thing to do.”

Mmmmmm, mince on toast.

I think it’s funny how a culture that eats jellied eel, haggis and blood pudding is so offended by the idea of mince on toast.

[source:guardian]