The yanks seem to be attracted to this meme like somebody desperate to paint a target and distract attention away from themself.
I saw this video recently where this guy tried every iconic local cuisine from every American state, and I swear to God half of them made me want to throw up.
Americans will act like British cooking its an abomination despite most of them never having even heard of steak and ale pie, or Lancashire hot pot, or Welsh rarebit. Meanwhile they’ll throw fucking marshmallows on a tray of mashed squash and declare it an ancient family recipe.
Funny, but sadly, I’ve seen my best friend sharing these memes (neither from the U.K nor the U.S.).
Since the first time I saw them, I thought they were kind of rude and probably inaccurate as no national cuisine is dull. I googled and read… What seems to have happened is that we’ve normalized British cuisine because it is part of many countries now. We think British dishes are regular dishes. Anyway, I don’t like these memes.
Watched Once Were Warriors last night and the dinner Temuera Morrison has in that is even more bland and basic than any of these memes. So it’s more of classist meme than anything.
Also, I think you’re right about loads of core British dishes just being ubiquitous now. My American colleague told me about the Shepherd’s Pie he made, which apparently came out a bit too rich.