Hortifruti, The Beatles and English Potatoes
Remember those great Hortifruti adverts? Well they are back with more! And this time they have touched on a couple of subjects close to my heart.
I try not to drop this into conversation too much (just enough that everyone knows about it and hopefully is impressed/envious) – but before I came to South America I worked at Abbey Road Studios in London. You know, that place where a little band called the Beatles recorded 90% off all their music (amongst a host of other legends). Well the latest offering from Hortifruti makes a reference to Liverpool’s finest and another, apparently, English classic:
I played in the Potatles. ‘Batata Inglesa’ and the world of flavours.
The joke here is that in Brazil, baked potatoes are known as Batata Inglesa (English Potato). And to Beatle-obsessed Brazil, one of strongest associations with England is the Beatles. So we have a potato who played in the Potatles!
To be honest, I’m not 100% sure why baked potatoes (also known as ‘Jacket Potatoes’ in England, on account of being unpeeled and so wearing a jacket) are so closely associated with England. But it’s quite a strong association. There is actually a chain of stores here in Rio called Batata Inglesa:
Everyone knows a soldier likes nothing more than a baked potato right? Slightly weird image from the Batata Inglesa website.
So I guess this is just one more thing to add to the list of English stereotypes – baked potatoes!
But going back to the tie wearing potato, I find myself wondering which Beatle they could have been thinking of when they came up with this idea. No, I can’t for the life of me think which one they must have had in mind…
Maybe Brazilians associate baked potatoes with England because they use Batatas Inglesas to make them. I don’t think those are the most suitable potatoes for the task though, and perhaps establishments serve them due to availability and price. I wonder what the mark up is on one batata inglesa just for baking it and sprinkling some ingredients on.
Yes, I think they’re onto an absolute winner – we used to have a very down-market fast food chain called Spud-U-Like which was basically baked potatoes with a choice of different toppings, but at least they had the decency to be cheap! The Batata Inglesa (shop) prices are actually quite high!