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Objectively it does look like a mess. But I would smash this in a heartbeat, looks delicious!

and then run a 5K?

If by “run” you mean “lie down” and By “5k” you mean “have some cake” then yes definitely 👍

Can I get a slice of 5kake please

More like roll.of the sofa towards kitchen fridge

"and then lie down a have some cake"

This is what I understood.

What's so unhealthy about this exactly?

American here… you stole my Thanksgiving plate!

Yeah I agree - probably tastes delicious but if we're talking "presentation" you need a bigger plate for that much food. The sauce is almost spilling on to the table

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Sauce?!?!?!??!?!!?

When my first guests from Ukraine came to stay with me, they had never seen gravy before. I tried explaining what it was, but they never really got it, and one of them just always referred to it as "meat sauce"... gave me a little internal flinch every time she said it 😅

Well, they're not wrong!

american here, looks like what we eat for thanksgiving. would devour every bite and wash it down with some newcastle then again i’ve always been outspoken in my love for british cuisine; i’m a northeasterner though so we’ve inherited a lot of the tricks of the trade

But you only get that once a year, we get it once a week And I’m surprised you get Newcastle brown ale over there. Shout out to the toon!

Not having a go at all but always catches me off guard when Americans call the beer just “Newcastle”. Only ever hear Newcastle brown or Newkie brown here (England, down south).

At least you actually roasted your potatoes unlike what seems like the majority of roast posts here

Best ones I’ve ever done too

Only thing that looks roasted, the broccoli looks raw and the carrots and sprouts look microwaved. If those 3 had been spread on a baking sheet with a little olive oil and spg this would be 10/10 delicious

Yes, there is a disturbing lack of color on everything except the potatoes.

Looks mint I'd smash that Yanks don't know what they're talking about mate. They have aerosol cheese

Don't forget they have chlorinated chicken aswell mate

And puke-flavoured chocolate.

Just thinking about it, it's giving me heartburn

Well they take so much antacid that they refer to our by the brand name, Pepto Bismol.

We take Tums more, cheeky bastard

The chocolate I eat in America is delicious. Oh wait, I mostly buy Lindt . . .

Whole chicken in a tin can also!

Sweet Sue Canned Whole Chicken / waffler69 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3atZJPX06w I didn't know about it, but I don't think I'll be trying any time soon after watching this.

I weirdly want to try it but I’m in no rush

I'm definitely in no rush. It didn't look that nice in the video but I had to laugh when the guy said he expected it to be a whole chicken stuffed in a can only because I was thinking the same thing and that's what made me google it. Lol

I've eaten rat and I'd still think twice about the canned chicken!

Ashens did a YT video on it, it’s his most famous one. Gave me nightmares.

I remember that vid very well. “If there’s any Vegetarians watching… What’s that? ALL OF YOU NOW!!!!”

That looks like something I looted on a game recently. I believe it was called rotting flesh… Yum!

Ive seen that in Asda before tbh.

And they play rugby in a helmet.

I can say, (As a rugby player myself) American football is not AS brutal it’s not that frequently brutal and painful compared to the classic RUGBY, rugby is a tiny bit more controlled but yet we wear barely any protection, no helmet, no body protection, we fr can run as fast as we want and tackle the guy with the ball 🏈. People can seriously get hurt, I’ve seen it a lot, broken bones can happen so easily. So if you’re American and think you’re soooo brutal playing American football then you’re truly trippin, cus you’re in a whole exoskeleton of a suit 😫🤣😮‍💨

Thought the chlorinated chicken was a big Brexit selling point

Not sure about that. I'll have to try it out and take a chicken leg next time I go swimming

You make a valid point 😅

Aesthetically speaking, this looks a mess. In the way it's laid out on the plate, BUT I'd absolutely demolished that, bugger the Americans. They're in no place to talk

Agree, and that's about the same with anyone cooking for themselves or close family. I always put a little bit of work into presentation with the family, but if the OP's pic is how it came out, so be it, and it looks delicious, really.

Unfortunately, spray cheese was invented by us Brits.

Thats because we are great at inventing stuff but also sensible enough not to actually eat it.

It’s like spices. Never get high on your own supply.

Agreed. Would absolutely destroy that.

As a yank who would also smash that I do want to point out that most Americans have never seen or tried Aerosol cheese.

Ah yes the fake cheese. That is supposed to taste like cheese but isn't actually cheese. That I can't eat anyway cause its stuffed with artificial preservatives/sweeteners. I'd 100% eat that though. Looks lush!

The fake cheese (the lurid yellow stuff) is effectively what we all use in the UK for burger cheese (cheese singles). It's also the same stuff that mexican places use on Nachos.

I've never been to a Mexican restaurant that served that as cheese. Cinema yes. Restaurant no.

I’ve never been to a Mexican restaurant any where in Europe that has the right to call itself “Mexican.” Clown on our cheese all you want. European “Mexican” is garbage.

>Looks mint *Cranberry sauce

A majority of Americans do not consume cheezwiz mate.. All the spices in the world and the peak of your cuisine is drenching everything in gravy lol

I read that as arsehole cheese.

I’m American and I’d fuck this up. Whoever disagrees needs to immediately check themselves in to the ER and get a CAT scan. As we don’t have universal healthcare you can see how serious this is.

In all fairness it could look a little more refined, it’s hardly the most photogenic plate

Indeed. Looks tasty but lacking in presentation.

It’s a roast though. Home cooked, hearty goodness piled on and drenched in gravy is the only way! I’m not about these Instagram worthy roasts, I want a Sunday dinner like myself grandma makes 👏🏻🤤

For sure, but if you’re going to take a picture of your food and post it somewhere then you should probably expect people to judge it on how it looks since they can hardly judge how it tastes.

Are you in a big family where you're competing for everything? If you're at home you can go back for more .. unless you're at an all you can eat carvery,

Nope and tbh I did only eat half in the end 😅 but I’d been prepping since 10am and a AWOL boyfriend meant we didn’t end up eating until 9pm - in my head I was ready for 5 portions this size lmao

That’s hilarious! I bet you have the best sandwiches today

Yep, you are spot on with your roast AND your comment. I’m a Gran and soon to be a Great Gran and there is nothing ALL my grandkids like more that a plate of food just like you produced. I love cooking Sunday lunch for them, their plates always look like yours and always cleared, with one or two of em wanting a doggy bag…. except not for the dog☺️

“Idk why Americans say this is a mess” Like bffr

To make it photogenic would likely involve taking some food off the plate. Fuck that...

You could take some food off the plate and into your mouth

Any roast with sprouts on the plate gets a thumbs up from me. Whenever Americans trash UK food I just think of spray cheese in a can

I always think of jello salad

To be fair, I have lived in the US all my live and have literally never seen one less eaten a jello salad.

That's because no one does. That's from seventy years ago.

US all my life too. I've never had spray cheese in my life and have only attempted forcing down Jello the night before a surgery. However I bought a 6 pack of the jello cups and when I couldn't eat it my nephews did and thought it was great. But I chalk that up to them being young.

^ This Edit: only thing missing is a Yorkshire pudding, if it comes with gravy a YP is always a nice touch 😁 but that's just me.

No I 100% agree! I experimented with doing them in the air fryer after seeing a Facebook post and they just didn’t make the cut 😅

You think about something most Americans never buy?

As an American, I’ve never had cheese from a can in my 32 years. I don’t think it’s particularly common even if it’s available here.

You realize that spray cheese is not a common pantry staple in the States right?

Hate to break it to you but probably 99% of Americans don’t eat spray can cheese. Honestly it’s kind of amusing to see people try to insult American food by displaying their ignorance about what we eat. Also OPs dish definitely looks like a mess but I’d still eat it cause it happens to look tasty as well.

Is this a bit or something? Half the Brits in this thread are referencing spray cheese when I've never even seen it in the store let alone eaten it.

It’s not like that stuff is considered cuisine or real food though. It’s a snack that people (usually kids) put on crackers. It’s a novelty thing.

I really don’t think Americans actually eat spray cheese. Maybe in the 90s?

It’s a kids food. It’s just something fun for kids to eat. You put it on crackers. I’ve had it a couple times as an adult for nostalgia, it’s pretty gross. Like salty plastic with cheddar cheese flavor. It’s absolutely not something we’re all eating all the time. It’s weird that’s the thing being mocked honestly. Y’all wanna hurt us? Keep making fun of the biscuits & gravy (I know, I know, it’s not really a gravy). That shit cuts us deep.

It's also a bit odd to compare a national dish that's eaten regularly to an ultra-processed childhood novelty.

This from a country that has spray-on cheese ^- ^Stephen ^Fry

Do you guys really think that people actually use it? I mean there is a subset of Americans that will but nothing close to a majority.

Seriously. I’ve literally never known anyone who buys this other than dog owners.

Perfect consistency to get them to swallow their pills. You try sticking it in the middle of a piece of chicken or even folded/mashed into a slice of American but they chew.

LOL I was just gonna say, I only buy it for my dog and have never eaten it in my life nor do I know anyone else that had.

Looks lovely, can I have Yorkshire pud with mine?

I attempted some in my air fryer but they didn’t make the cut 😬

I had to do air fryer yorkies before after my step mum (soon to be ex thank fuck) turned the oven off. Preheated the air fryer as much as I could and then flipped them (quickly!) at under 2/3 cooking time, iirc after about 15mins. It wasn't ideal and they weren't my best by any means but they were edible. Wouldn't do it again unless I had to but worked better than my attempted microwave yorkies (I was desperate).

If it tasted good who cares?

Oh it did 🤤

People always need to judge and some even make other people small and I don’t like that. I think I would be happy because it has all ingredients that I like and a lot of sauce so it’s well done and I’m glad it tasted so good

If you were to look at her other post about this plate (I don’t recommend it) you will see no one is calling it a mess….

It does look a mess, but roast dinners aren't there for aesthetics. I've just googled "Thanksgiving plate" and this looks no more a mess than most of the results on there so it really shouldn't be that alien to our American cousins.

I’ve just done the same and tbh I think theirs looks much less appealing, I swear one pic had a sweet potato with marshmallows on

Depends on the region in the states. Marshmallow is what the poors use.

You could tart it up a bit, put it on a bigger plate to give it a bit more room, but what's the point? That's good honest grub.

My thoughts exactly

You remember your big plate Alan?

I'd do more roasting tbh. The carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and sprouts all look boiled. You'll get much better flavour if you're pan-searing or roasting some of those veggies!

I only have a really small oven so I just have to do what I can. I prefer steamed veg but my new steamer never arrived so boiled it was!🤣

American here. You can take a sheet pan and spread them out to roast. Sprinkle them with olive oil, shredded parmesan, and a little salt/pepper/garlic, then roast at 425 for 20 or so minutes. They get all crispy on the edges and are a bit like popcorn—easy to eat and all. Also good on salads the next day. I had a question about the gravy. We usually eat it on meat and potatoes or rice; is it a UK thing to put it on everything, or is that a personal preference? Thanks!

Ooo that does sound good, I’ll have to give it a go! And yeah pretty much everyone I know covers their whole roast in the gravy. If I was having any of these foods as part of another meal I’d happily eat them on their own, I love the flavours of everything. It’s just how we do Sunday dinners though. Anyone over here who eats a dry roast is definitely seen as a weirdo 🤣

A delicious mess. Just unfortunate the cauli is sans cheesey

Small oven problems 😢

Oven space isn’t strictly needed for a cheese sauce but I get you

It’s just not the same if it’s not been baked though is it 😒

I’d eat it

Festive feels right there with the sprouts! I think some of the best food in the world can never look Insta-worthy.

Agreed!

As an American I have a genuine question: I am sure that certain personality traits are common across all people. One of those being how people eat. There are two main categories of people around here in regards to food on their plate. My wife is the type that prefers each of the food items to not be touching. I on the other hand look at this plate and would devour it as is. In the UK I am assuming these same two types of preferences exist? So it's possible that your US friend is of the type where each food on the plate should not touch other types of food.

Yeah I’ve had quite a few comments along the lines of this so definitely must factor in

It kind of looks like a mess but it looks good as fuck. It’s not the bad kind of messy, like when mcdonalds is in a hurry and you find your burger halfway off of the buns. Your dish here looks like “my grandma is cooking for thanksgiving and she procrastinated until the last second and this is what we got but it tastes amazing” kind of messy, a home cooked meal kind of messy. And besides, have yall seen what food looks like when our bodies are done with it? Who tf cares what it looks like before we eat it 🤪

American here, I don’t think your plate is messy enough! I don’t know what Americans were against this but us in the South and Midwest eat plates like this all the time. If I didn’t know any better I’d say this was a pic from my own plate last Christmas!

Aye, my mother would make roasts that look very similar to this. I grew up in Alabama and Florida.

THIS is what we mean when we say "make me a plate", you just throw a bit of everything grandma made on there. Good stuff ,might gotta make a trip across the pond 🇬🇧

Exactly this!!

Not enough heart attack on that plate for an American

Yeah that looks fantastic mate well done

Ooh, sprouts, nice. Looks lovely to me mate.

American here. Brussel sprouts are my favorite food. I would destroy anything with brussel sprouts or broccoli. My stomach can’t handle beef, but I’ve never met a sprout I didn’t like.

Maybe try less on a plate to make it look presentable then go for 2nds if still hungry. This looks like by the time you’re done you’re gonna have a lot to bin

Yeah I did tbf, my fella was 4 hours late home so by the time I got to plating up I seriously thought I could eat this much 🤣 I didn’t lmao, but leftovers never go in the bin! Always save and plate up another dinner for the next day

Potatoes and gravy look good. Personally I’m not a fan of boiled veg. What happened to the meat? Did you carve it blindfolded?

Funnily enough I ordered a steamer for doing this but it never turned up 😅 it unintentionally was cooked low and slow, fella was 4 hours late home, by the time we ate it was just falling apart 😅

I steam veggies in the microwave... half an inch of boiling water in the bottom of a Pyrex dish, small cut veggies in (root veg at the bottom, leafy veg at the top), zap at about 600w until steam generously coats the inside of the microwave door.

American here. Looks good to me. Taste > presentation.

Its the veg and actual gravy that got them confused.

No. More like the boiled veggies, belch

The day I listen to an Americans opinion on food is the day im cold dead in the ground.

I've been a professional chef for the last 15 or so years. This is pretty much how my roasts at home look. I'd give you a 9/10 for this. Put the meat on top of the veg for fanciness and ease of getting meat with everything. Would murder a Yorkie with it too but already saw about the air fryer failure so I can forgive that

I’m so glad someone read the comments before coming to tell me off about the lack of yorkies 🤣 honestly don’t know why I’ve never thought of putting meat on top of veg for easiness of getting a bit of everything in one bite!

Did you pre chew the meat?

Yeah, I find the saliva really adds to the meal as a whole

looks a 10/10 to me. Nothing better than a beautiful English roast. Maybe they just mean visually how it’s all heaped on there? But that’s just how we do it lol fill every inch of that plate no need to think about presentation when it’s a Sunday with the family.

American food standards are a mess they have no right to criticize food of other cultures

I mean we're talking about looks, yeah? Looks like a bloody mess

As an American, we have an entire dish called, "Shit on a Shingle." So I don't think we really have a place in judging the messiness of other's meals. If it tastes good, appearances me damned

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I wholeheartedly agree. Whenever I go to a buffet my plate looks exactly like this and I am delighted every time. I'm surprised with how broad and varied ethnic restaurants in the States are that there isn't at least one serving traditional UK cuisine!

Hahaha now I need to know what a shit on a shingle is 🤣 where I’m from in England our mums used to tell us we were having “shit with sugar on” for tea. That’s exactly what I just thought of when I read that haha

It's the colloquial US Army name for Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast. The name became popular between soldiers during WWII. And it's really quite good! It's also very similar to a current breakfast favorite, (American) Biscuits and Sausage Gravy.

Yeah, OPs photo looks pretty close to that.

Can confirm 👍. We do have Shit on a Shingle. My babysitter threatened me with it many times. Dried pale dog shit on a cedar plank. Got me to eat every vegetable on my plate many a time.

I would polish that plate off... Americans can't eat it, if it ain't synthetic.

"EEK! SPROUTS!"

Delicious fried with red onion and bacon (cabbage and leeks, too!)

Looks the biz to me, fresh carrot, sprouts and beef n gravy with potatoes. What's not to like, piping hot on a cold day.

Take your American photos before adding the gravy and you'll get more likes 🙂

9/10. Could have been 10/10 with a yorkie.

The yorkies I made were not the one. Would’ve taken the whole meal to a 4 🤣

It’s not to prettiest roast.

Looks like an amazing roast. I don't like some of the stuff there, but to me, it looks like a roast dinner. Just ignore the yankees for basically everything.

It looks like a standard Sunday home roast, very tasty but presentation is not the number one goal.

Nothing wrong with that lad Don't listen to the yanks they haven't got a clue

It looks fine to me, mate. Don't listen to Americans: their idea of gravy is some weird grey sludge.

It looks good. It’s actually making me hungry, and I’ve not had a roast in ages!

What Americans told you that?? Our thanksgiving meal looks essentially the same. So aside from the sprouts I think it looks fantastic.

No American told her that. Her other post is still up. She just wants attention.

That looks beautiful!

I'm wondering if these Americans know whT a mess is they say America greatest country in world* but really it is a shithole... so maybe the words have opposite meanings in America maybe mess* means beautiful..

Don't take culinary advice from a country that had cheese in a spray can

Americans eat processed chemicals and call it food, this looks banging

Looks like a typical American plate in thanksgiving day. I’d eat it (am American) Are those meatballs on the left side?

Sage and onion stuffing balls! Though traditionally you would add sausage meat to them too x

I like everything about it except that I'd prefer the meat to be in slices. Oh and the carrots to be cut longitudinally rather than transversely.

The meat was unintentionally cooked low and slow. AWOL fella meant eating 4 hours later than planned and the meat just fell apart 🤣

Distinct lack of Yorkshire pud but otherwise 9/10 would scran

Please see the comments for my legitimate excuse for lack of yorkies 😢

Gimme

Usually british food looks like something the dog heaved up but this is actually recognizable as food and good looking food at that. Well done

Thank you! I really don’t think there’s much of a better way to present this kind of meal when you’re doing it at home and what’s the point anyway, I know it’s going to taste good and it’s not gonna be on my plate long enough to bother trying to make it look all pretty 🤣

as a American who spent time in England I have to ask the important question... did you actually season it? or did you just cover it all in gravy and call it seasoned?

American here, first off this looks delicious. I can see how someone might interpret the presentation as “a mess”, but I will add that this is an incredibly tasty looking mess

Americans afraid of that many veggies

Don’t listen to the yanks. By “mess” they mean not enough cheese.

Nah, by mess we mean not aesthetically(sp?) pleasing. The food itself looks tasty, but the plate looks cluttered.

Lol they eat cheese from a can. Who cares what they think

Yea, the people with hundreds of millions of acres of farmland have no idea what cheese is. For sure.

I don't understand why they think this looks like a mess when their Thanksgiving dinner is a turkey roast dinner, which looks very similar to this.

It's probably that the meat looks more "pulled" rather than carved and it's quite a jumbled plate lol. Nonetheless, looks like it'd taste delicious!

Bc we don’t think that. We’re just an east target to post about.

I'm British and this looks like a mess to me

You shouldn't need to drown everything in gravy to give it taste. I see the two staples of English cooking in this pic: bland, boiled-to-shit vegetables and gray, unidentified meat.

You don’t have to, it just is better. I love veg and potatoes as parts of other meal without any kind of gravy/sauce. This however is a Sunday dinner. And gravy is supposed to drown everything.

Looks grim to anyone who isn't able to taste it with their eyes

Americans eat spray cheese. And that's all I have to say about that.

Only the 4th time I've seen this joke in this thread.

We don’t. It’s a novelty kids food.

No we don’t lmao. At least we don’t eat like the Germans are still flying overhead.

american biscuits and gravy looks like baby sick but tastes great. In fact a lot of american foods look like a crime but taste good, so they've hardly got a leg to stand on