Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
182
Please accept that this answer comes from someone who never had the benefit of a college/university education and certainly has minimal grasp of UK constitutional law…
…Neither the Isle of Man , nor the Channel Islands are part of the UK. They do not elect Members of Parliament and have their own legislatures. Their technical designation are as “Crown Dependencies”. This is similar, but different, to the UK’s “Overseas Territories” (like Gibraltar, Bermuda and Pitcairn). The legislatures of the Dependencies are responsible for all internal home affairs - taxation, justice, immigration, etc - but the UK government (on behalf of the Crown) has responsibility for defence and foreign affairs.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
183
There is a similar sort of regional affinity in the UK. If I was visiting a foreign country and I was asked where I was from, I would generally reply that I’m northwest England. I have some pride in the region - it’s history, geography, culture, food, etc.
I don’t think that’s particularly unusual in Europe. I guess that, depending on the circumstances, Barca may well describe herself as being Spanish and Catalan. Someone else might self describe as Italian and Sicilian. And so on.
By the by, recent surveys in England have shown that, generally speaking, people who voted for Brexit self-defined as English, whilst people who voted to remain in the EU generally self-described as British. It’s the sort of subject that, if we discuss it further here, we will quickly cross into political and cultural matters such as I suspect are very similar to those being discussed in America over recent days/weeks.
Puerto Rico not being a US state but being a US place anyway, is similar, in at least a vague superficial way, to the dependencies and overseas territories of the UK.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
185
David - a quick Google suggests the US Virgin Islands may be the nearer example - not least as the British Virgin Islands is yet another of our Overseas Territories. I’ve never quite understood the legal relationship between the US and Puerto Rico - it’s always confused me.
Realize that our (US) states’ lines are often arbitrary in terms of residents’ self-identity. California, for instance, it definitely at least two states, NoCal and SoCal, and more finitely, the Central Valley and Far North are totally different from either of these.
@Harters, also, another difference between PR, and the US Virgin islands vs the Channel Islands, is that the Channel Islands also function as tax shelters afaik. I see the Channel Islands as something distinct from any US protectorates (or whatever Americans call their islands that are not States)
Menu del dias are popular with workers of all fields and levels.
They are historically popular in every hamlet, village, town and city in Spain for a long time.
Imagine: 10 € a day - Monday through Friday = 50 € and you have a 3 course meal, wine and bread, café or dessert …
Now, if you were to go to a place without a Menu del Dia ( many foreign restaurants do not do a Menu del Dia at that price ) – you would be spending double or more …
So, it is a true gem of an idea, even though it was created by a Dictator !
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
191
As does the Isle of Man. Years back, I had a friend who worked as a contractor in the Middle East. Much of his pay, and bonus, would be paid into an account he had in the Channel Islands. Once home, he would visit the island and withdraw large sums of cash. I suspect money laundering laws have put paid to things like that for individuals, but perhaps not for major companies.
I was working from 40 year old memories.
Still, the idea of North America as several wildly different regions rather than 3 monolithic entities holds true.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
195
Half a million deaths during the war and the dictatorship. But, you could get a cheap lunch.
France has a lunch scheme that provides workers of certain categories with a lunch ticket. Workers are forbidden/certainly discouraged from eating at their desks or immediate place of work. Restaurants show signs/stickers on their doors saying they accept the tickets which will cover a menu du jour which is also, I believe, law.
-ish, at least, yes. It could probably do with some refining, partly because it labels some areas according to functions or characteristics, but doesn’t follow that through with the others. (A “breadbasket” is a thing, but a “New England” isn’t.)
(Maybe “cash box” didn’t seem complete, and “place where people talk funny” applies to all of them and therefore wouldn’t be distinctive.)
While it’s not a law in Quebec, the table d’hôte is often the best value on a small independent restaurant’s menu.
Of course, in English speaking parts (in Canada and everywhere else), we also have today’s special and soup of the day.
I like the seasonal menus that are posted in many parts of Germany and Austria, with a list of dishes. I’ve visited Bavaria during asparagus season, pfifferlinge /chanterelles season, game meat season and kale season (grünkohl = January- can’t remember what else was on the January seasonal menu).
I’ve also ordered from seasonal menus in the UK- Wye Valley asparagus and Jersey Royals on a visit in May, grouse on a visit in the fall .
Where I live, the seasonal menus are more limited: asparagus and fiddleheads, then strawberries, then a window of raspberries, blueberries, and cherries, tomatoes, corn, peaches, new crop apples and pears.
Tangential, but reminded by seasonal menus, we very much enjoyed a restaurant in Languedoc area of France which featured an encyclopaedic menu of wines from the area, all the top names in many vintages. We visited once in winter to find the wine list entirely Burgundy and Bordeaux. Heartbroken, we asked the owner who smiled and told us that locals came to his restaurant for a special night out. In summer, his trade was heavily tourists who, like us, wanted to sample local wine, but locals wanted “something special”, ergo he brought out a different list for them.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
200
Seasonality is pretty much the essence of modern British restaurant food. Most neighbourhood bistro places, that we go to, will change their menus four times a year, with the seasons. Whereas my experience in France is that in similar type places, menus can stay unchanged for, literally, years.
