what do the british usually do with pretty ornamental trees like the kumquat, which they introduced to europe (via a botanist travelling scotsman in the mid-1800s)? they include them in their very pretty gardens, a very un-Greek feature of gardening, mainly due to a lack of irrigation in the summer months. oranges could not survive the cold of northern greece – but the kumquat could, and there, in the desolation of a starved people in kerkira due to the warring rulers, the kumquat began to be eaten – and why not? after all, it was edible.

one thing the British left behind in the island we call Kerkira in greece (aka Corfu in the english-speaking tourist trade) was good marketing strategies for tourist development – the kumquat is clearly a commercial venture by the corfiots: it is highly unlikely that they consume as many themselves as they sell to their tourists – the kumquat (jellied, as a spoon sweet, or used in making a liqueur) is the ‘something different’ that tourists often seek when they visit a foreign place: http://organicallycooked.blogspot.com/2009/11/kumquat.html

greek gastronomy outside of kerkira does not include any other examples of kumquat being used as an ingredient in a food item – it is not even known as a food item outside of corfu. the corfiots, greek at heart (with great pride in their regional character, just like the locals of any other part of greece, except perhaps athens), decided to make something out of it, in a similar manner to the way they once embraced the english bread and butter pudding – poutinga uses up stale bread. but they could never convince any other greeks to take up their food habits – and hence, adam, in corfu they stayed…

lest i forget, in answer to your question, adam, the last thing i had on mind was to discriminate against the corfiots or their food habits, and i apologise to them if they think that this is what i was implying; as a person who has herself attempted to describe as accurately as possible the food scene of one particular region of greece (roughly a quarter of the island i live on), i am only suggesting that the kumquat is perhaps another oddity that never became accepted in the world of greek gastronomy, in the same way that, say, the french bechamel sauce (under the influence of the anti-ottoman celebrity chef tselementes) became a recognised feature of greek cuisine

Thanks for all the clarifications. And please, good discussions are the way to move food history ahead. We need to sharpen so many of our ideas and assumptions.

I realize that you did not say it was your opinion that English food was dull. What you did do, if I am right, was to take this reported attitude as a starting point for explaining why/asserting that Greeks rejected British food. My reply is that thhis can’t be asserted as a reason for the rejection of the food because people accept plenty of food they dislike (the Japanese court accepted French food in the early 20th century for reasons that had nothing to do with taste). They also accept foods of people they dislike.

On the English preparing their own foods–this was standard operating procedure whenever traveling abroad for anyone who could manage it from Antiquity more or less until WWII. See response to Laurie.

The British Empire did have a big influence on modern Greek history. And while British philhellenes were under every bush in the early 19th century, much of that influence can easily been seen as negative from a modern perspective. On a basic level Greek independence and the Greek people just didn’t matter as much as obstructing Russian influence and territorial expansion in the Balkans. If this required supporting the Ottomans then it happened, and when this empire looked unable to block Russia then the British (and French and Austrian Hapsburgs) supported Greek independence (to a point). All part of the Great Game played out on many fronts.

But, what influence did it have on these peoples food is what I am interested in and what I have asked about.

Laurie that is very interesting information. In some ways it parallels developments in another area I have a personal interest in, the British Raj and the way both British and Indians responed to each others foods. The period of the British Protectorate would correspond well with the development of a strong strain of cultural arrogance in the British. Many people don’t realise that while curry was wildly popular at the begining of the 19th century, it was largely rejected by the British population by the end of that century. Rather then go ‘native’, which would have been the case at one point, Expats were importing canned lobster and all sorts of “home” comforts, not that disimilar in some ways to the items that Rachel posted about recently.

On the other hand the rejection of Poudinga by a younger generation of Corfiots is also very interesting. Objectively there is nothing horrible about the food item itself, pretty much the same thing is eaten planet wide by many different cultures with quite different tastes. Rejection of a food item is just as interesting as its uptake and spread (think of Reconquest Spain and various poscribed food items). Rejection of food perceived being “British” is pretty universal. Even here in Melbourne (third largest greek city in the world?) most young Aussies will tell you how bad British food is, without the faintest hint of actual experience. I must look into the spread of pudding a bit more. My hypothesis would be that if introduced to a new location prior to 1850 it would be accepted as a dish and ultimately its British origins forgotten, after this period more likely to be rejected. Thanks again for the very interesting information.

Many thanks for your long and thoughtful reply. Yes Mariana’s post is full of facts and all the more appreciated for those facts.

I am also sure you are right in reporting that most Greeks do not perceive that the British had an important role in their past. But is that the relevant question? If I ask most Mexicans if the French had an important role in their past they will say no even though historians are agreed that there was a very important role and that it is reflected in the food.

And I am quite willing to believe that when you look at Greek food, British influence is very limited. I am not enough of an expert to say yes or no to this. But that doesn’t mean the question is not worth asking.

I know very well that the British traditionally did not like Greek food. Nor did most northern Europeans. Politeness made me refrain from saying so. Our present openness to foreign foods is something very new in history. In the past, on medical advice if for no other reasons, it was believed that it was positively dangerous to eat foods different from those you had grown up with. I could post lots and lots on this. May be I will.

So as not to repeat myself, please also look at the comments on other posts.

I will leave Adam to defend himself. But after ten years studying food history I would say that the single most important predictor of the history of food of a given place is the series of empires that ruled the area. This is an inductive conclusion, true of the Han empire, the Mongol Empire, the successive Persian empires, the Ottoman empire, and, yes, the British empire too.

So when I try to figure out the culinary history of a particular region, my first question is always: what was the political history?