Brit food is great, or not

One of the great treats of Britain is the Sunday Pub Roast. Many pubs on Sunday afternoons put on a special meal with all the trimmings just like your mother used to (or maybe still does) make it. Roast beef is the most traditional but there can also be lamb, pork or turkey. One meal I had included beef, turkey and small sausage and bacon rolls. You'll get at least a couple of roast potatoes, a medley of delicious vegetables - think turnips, carrots, broccoli and/or mashed sweet potatoes - and giant Yorkshire pudding of which it seems pubs compete who can make the biggest. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else though I've noticed a few places in Toronto starting to offer. But let's leave the traditions to Britain or your mom/mum. Maybe I should take that statement back when it comes to fish and chips. It's blasphemous but I just can't find the quality fish and chips I can get back home. Yes, they may be fried fresh but usually what you get is one long flat slab not the meaty bulbous filets of Canada. And the storied chips? Big tick for cholesterol. I know fries (never call them French Fries here!) are starch-plus but their thickness makes you want to stop eating calorie overload. Then there's the trad English breakfast or "Full English." Okay, a couple of fried eggs and some flavourful back bacon and bangers. The half cut fried tomatoes fine. But I draw the line on the baked beans and mushrooms. In fact, when it comes to breakfasts - and this applies not only to the UK but Europe in general - if there's anything I miss about food back home, it's the typical North American breakfast, with bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes and various combinations thereof. Meanwhile for fast food in the UK there's always Greggs, the Tim Hortons equivalent of Canada. For an island nation of high prices Greggs is relatively cheap, their regular coffee excellent and besides doughnuts they have a UK favourite of mine, sausage rolls. One dismaying aspect of the decline of traditional British life is the lack of English beer. Basically everybody here drinks foreign. Even pub beer on tap is laden with logos for any country but the UK. "Estrella?" (Spanish) I was automatically asked yesterday as if it's the common serve. One time I asked for "something English" and the server looked at me puzzled. Indicative was a story last week in The Daily Telegraph. Old Speckled Hen (not named for an animal) has just been sold to that same Barcelona brewer. And its the latest of a long line: "Boddington’s, Bass and Camden Town have bought by AB Inbev, Belgian owner of Budweiser; London Pride by Japan’s Asahi. But there are thank goodness still traditional pubs. In which to cry into your suds.