It was never fashionable to praise our food here in the UK but 'times
they are a changing'. Back in the 1960s and 70s the food in our
shops was pretty poor. Cheap food was what was aimed for and we were
reputed to spend a smaller percentage of our income on food than
elswhere in western Europe. But that is certainly no longer the case
as has been brought home to my wife and me during the past three
weeks. 30-40 years ago we all complained that tomatoes no longer had
any taste, our bread was dreadful and the only cheeses we made were
varieties of cheddar (although I admit that it was pretty good cheddar
mostly).

Like many Brits. my wife and I are at our happiest when holidaying in
France - in fact, we get 'withdrawal symptoms' if away from France for
too long. We have just returned from a three week trip during which
time we rented a house right down in the south. This gave us the
chance to use the markets.

And I have to say that using bread, cheese, and tomatoes as a
yardstick, we in the UK came out pretty well. Bread in the UK is now
superb with enormous variety available even in our small village here
in the south of England. Whilst France probably leads the world in
its variety of cheeses it is often the case that only a limited range
is available in each area. But here at home we can buy a huge variety
of French, British and Irish cheese - and certainly no longer just the
hard cheese of yesteryear.

But it was the tomatoes that were the clincher. Wherever we bought
tomatoes in France they weren't a patch on what we have been buying
from our local store at home. Whilst ours are full of flavour the
tomatoes in France were all pretty tasteless things - and that was on
a journey from the very north to just short of the Spanish border.

So subscribers to this group will, I hope, forgive me for blowing the
British food trumpet for a change. I can't speak for elsewhere in the
UK but certainly where we live food quality is now paramount and our
recent trip has confirmed this. As a country we still don't have the
wonderful markets one encounters in France that we gaze on in
wonderment. But we found that 'all that glisters certainly wasn't
gold' - and I say that as a totally confirmed Francophile!