Expats doing it for themselves
In contrast to scaremongering right-wing politicians, I believe that immigrant communities make big cities better. Imagine London without its rich pockets of immigrants from the Caribbean, China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey, and so on. It might still be a good city, but would it be a great one? I doubt it.
As an immigrant myself, I have first hand experience of some of the challenges and emotions faced by people living in a new country. Of course some of the classic economic difficulties that immigrants face have been easier for me because I have the advantage of a good education, but I’ve felt homesick, lost, confused and isolated at times and I’ve even had people tell me to go back to where I came from. Once I was even on the receiving end of that classic accusation: You’re stealing our jobs and our women! (“women” plural? Don’t tell Mrs Eat Rio!). Happily most of my interactions with the locals have been far more positive!
But however much we enjoy our new life, I’m sure all immigrants/expats miss things that they can’t get in their new home. To be honest with you, I never bothered that much with Marmite back in London, but once I moved to Rio I found myself longing for the stuff. And what do we do when we can’t have something from home? We fill our suitcases or we make those things ourselves!
Sadly I haven’t succeeded in formulating my own Marmite (Mrs Eat Rio would probably leave me if I did!), but recently I decided to have a go at making another British favourite – crumpets!
Crumpets
Not one of mine, but a great example of a crumpet the way it should be – toasted and smothered in butter.
When I posted a photo of my home-made crumpets on Facebook, I realised that quite a few people had never heard of these delicious things. Therefore, I have decided to do my own little bit of ‘immigrant introduction’ and tell anyone who’s interested how to make these things that Wikipedia describes as “griddle cakes”.
Ingredients
350ml warm water
350ml warm milk
450g plain flour
5g dried yeast
10g salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Vegetable oil
- Put the water and milk into a large mixing bowl and then whisk in the flour and yeast. Cover the bowl with cling-film (PVC/saran wrap) and leave at room temperature for 1-2 hours for the yeast to do its thing.
- Uncover the bowl and mix in the salt and baking powder. It should now look nice and bubbly.
- Put a heavy frying pan or skillet on a medium heat. Very lightly grease it with oil (put the oil on some kitchen paper and then rub it around the pan).
[Now the slightly tricky bit – last time I was back in England, I picked up some things called crumpet rings. As most of you won’t have these, you’ll need to improvise. One possibility is to use a tin opener to take both the top and bottom of a can/tin – something like a tuna fish tin could work well (clean it really well before using!). Alternatively you could try making rings from drinks cans.]
- Grease the crumpet rings with butter and then place one in the pan. Now pour some of your bubbly batter into one ring – aim for a depth of around 2cm (1inch). This will be your first, tester crumpet which will help you adjust the consistency of the rest of the batter in your bowl. If the batter leaks out under the bottom of the crumpet ring then mix in a little more flour. If you find that no/few bubbles appear in the following steps then mix in a little water.
- Cook the crumpet for 5-7 minutes. The batter should start to set and small bubbles should appear on the upper surface.
- When the top is just about set (see above), flip the ring over so that the upper surface (now facing down) gets a good browning. The base (now facing up) should be a deep brown but not burnt. This final step should take another 2 or 3 minutes.
- Put your crumpet onto a cooling rack. Now adjust the consistency of the batter (if you need to) and cook the rest of the batter in batches. You can eat the crumpets straight away or let them cool and toast them later. They also freeze very well.
In an ideal world I would like my crumpets to have a lot more holes, but these weren’t too bad for a first try.
The classic way to eat crumpets is toasted with a generous spread of butter – the holey, honey-comb inner structure means that they soak up loads of melted butter and that’s probably why they’re such a treat. Believe it or not, someone actually went to the trouble of making a “How to choose a topping for your crumpet” Wiki (seriously, sometimes I worry about the human race…).
So that’s my immigrant gift to any of you who’ve never heard of crumpets – if you make them right, you’ll thank me for it! If you have your own favourite recipe from home, I’d love to hear it!
First, I completely agree that immigrants make a place better, whether it’s a big city or a small town. The xenophobia that has gripped so many people in the US, whose own ancestors were immigrants not that long ago, is appalling. Hopefully it will diminish as the economy improves.
Second, your crumpets look delicious! They resemble what we call an English muffin in the US, but I’m quite sure they are not the same. I don’t even know if “English muffins” are called that in the UK, or if they are eaten there. If they are, can you explain the difference in taste or texture, as well as appropriate toppings? Thanks!
(On a totally separate note, have you tried DuoLingo yet? There is an app and a website. It is a great way to improve Portuguese skills, not that yours need improving, of course. It is free, but easily as good as a pricey commercial course).
Hi Phil! Sadly this short-memory xenophobia seems to be common all over the place at the moment – certainly I hear of it a lot in the UK and Europe. Very sad but seems to be common when times are hard.
I’ve had a few people from Northern America ask if these were English muffins and although they look kind of similar, they’re not the same. I actually made English muffins just a few weeks ago (picture below) – we certainly do eat them in Britain, though as far as I remember we just call them muffins. Muffins have a much more ‘bready’ texture than crumpets. Crumpets have a very open texture with all those holes acting a bit like a sponge(see the second image in this post).
The classic topping is butter (always) – some people stop there, but many of us love to then add a nice spreading of my beloved Marmite too. Also, check out that Wiki link – peanut butter, jam, honey, melted cheese – any of these would work well, but probably not all mixed together! ;)
After seeing all the photos, I just want baked goods of any kind. On looks alone, I’d grab one of the English muffins first. They even look more bready, and for me, that’s a good thing.
By the way, before you bemoan the state of the human race (even in jest) over the existence of a site devoted solely to crumpet toppings, re-read your own words in this very post:
“In an ideal world I would like my crumpets to have a lot more holes.”
Now, *that* is a lofty goal for the human race, and if we ever achieve it, it would indeed be an ideal world. :)
Ha ha! You got me Phil – bad choice of words there. :D Of course in the perfect world I was thinking of, hunger and world peace would be respectively eradicated and achieved – did I forget to mention that? Still, I think after the hunger and world peace situations were sorted, the holes in my crumpets would be pretty high on the list ;)
I am sorry, but your characterization of the mood in the USA as being ‘xenophobic’ is either intentionally misleading, or you just do not understand the issue. There is no xenophobia in the USA, the same as their is no ‘war on women’ going on in the USA. Those two characterizations are inventions of the political left, designed to divide people up into opposing groups. Xenophobic means anti-immigration. North Americans (USA, Canada, México) are not anti-immigration. North Anericans are in fact pro-immigration. What North Americans ARE against is ILLEGAL immigration. Several European countries have also experienced signifcant illegal immigration, and the problems it creates, so I do not have to go into the reasons why people are against ilegal immigration. Conclusion, being against ilegal immigration is not being xenophobic.
It is one thing to be opposed to illegal immigration. It is another to use terms like “wetbacks, beaners, and spics” to describe Latinos, “towel heads” to describe Middle Easterners, “Japs, Chinks, and slopes” directed at Asians, and a number of other offensive terms which I won’t repeat here.
The anti-Islamic sentiment in this country is worse than it was, and much of it is directed against US citizens whose families have lived here for several generations. It has nothing to do with illegal immigration.
If you have never heard comments like these coming from Americans, you have been fortunate. However, they do exist, and they are not some myth created by the political left.
I’m kind of disappointed. Growing up in the US, I knew the word for crumpets, but never knew what they looked like. Now, I see that they look like really thick pancakes. Thanks for ruining the magic! :)
I may have to try making these sometime.
Stacey – the only time I’ve heard the words “crumpet” and “disappointment” in the same sentence is when someone has run out! ;) I guess they do look a bit like thick pancakes (of the North American variety – in the England our pancakes are what you guys would call crepes). I think crumpets are better than just thick pancakes because they have a bit of crunch to them – the base and the top should have a bit of bite to them, especially after they’ve been toasted.
Pikelets (crumpet’s half brother) on the other hand – well, they pretty much are the thick pancakes you mention and although they’re nice, crumpets definitely win! :D
Tom,
In the USA, they simply call these ‘English Muffins’. They first became popular in the late 1960’s, mostly as an alternative to toast, but also as a quick and easy snack a person can eat any time of the day. A bit later on, McDonalds took the basic English muffin as a breakfast food concept, and created the ‘McMuffin’, probably the most commercially successful breakfast item ever conceived. There you have it, how the crumpet became the mcmuffin.
Hey Carlos – it’s a funny thing this, because the McDonald’s muffins that I know (and avoid!) are just like what we in England call muffins – not crumpets. Take a look at this McMuffin – this is clearly much closer to what we in England call muffins (see my photo in the comments above):
So my question is, are the McMuffins you guys get in the US made with different bread (i.e. crumpets, with all those holes)?
Originally they were. The first few generations of McMuffins, which goes back to around the mid 1970’s, had all the holes. I can’t say when for sure, but at some point the muffin part of the Mcmuffin morphed into what you show in the Picture, kind of a cross of a muffin and a biscuit. The egg mcmuffin with ham and cheese, loaded with saturated fat, sodium, artificial flavorings and preservatives, in other words a first class ticket to health problems and probably premature death, but in spite of all that, it’s price is surprisingly high.
Crumpets are the best!! We eat them in Canada too, which is no surprise given our connections to England. But… in addition to heaps of butter we pour on amply syrup. Mmmmm SO good. Your crumpets looked great. I had no idea that you could make these in a home kitchen. Good job!
opps… *maple* syrup…
Or “ample maple syrup”? :D …actually that sounds lovely.
Yes, ample maple syrup!!
I’ve had mine with golden syrup in the past too (I’m not sure if you have that in canada but it’s kind of similar) and I can confirm that it is lovely.
Hmmmm, golden syrup! That takes me back to my youth. Something else for my shopping list for my upcoming trip back to the UK! Thanks for the reminder :)
When are you going back? I’ve got flights booked for end of June and have already written a huge list of foods I need to bring back with me. Amazing how after 18 months you can miss things that you didn’t even know you liked that much!
I’m going back at the end of next month and I know exactly what you mean – my list is growing by the day. I used to think about stuff I wanted and go “Hmmm, I must remember to get that when I go back…”. Then when I got back I would always forget all the things I wanted. So now I make a list as soon as I think of it. Lucky the luggage allowance is so generous! :)
I think many of early conflicts caused by waves of immigration are due to the new arrivals mixing with native working class folk, since usually that´s where they can first afford to live and send their kids to school. These blue colar natives feel uneasy because they are the ones that most interact with the new arrivals and their foreign customs. The school districts that cater to native working class pupils are also the ones that usually need to start the process of assimilation of said foreign pupils. This requires resources, and expertise. I am not excusing racism and prejudice, it just seems fair to point out that natives who celebrate immigration and criticize working class people of their own nationality are usually white colar workers, hence not really exposed to many of these issues. For example: it is one thing to go to a weekend ethnic market and celebrate diversity, another to attend PTA meetings and council meetings to find strategies and resources in order to accommodate new arrivals that are unable to speak the language in which education is provided. And let´s not forget that idiotic economic policies which force people to leave their homeland in the first place are more often than not the work of left-leaning parties, not those on the right. Case in point: Brazil has experienced meager growth in the past 4 years and this will probably increase the number of Brazilians which will once again seek a better life in other countries. Is this caused by a right wing goverment – I don´t think so.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21579007-how-squander-inheritanceand-how-easily-it-could-be-restored-fall-grace
I don’t want to turn this food-related post into a political debate, but there are so many inaccurate generalizations and assumptions in what you wrote, Gritty, that I have to reply.
1. “Natives who celebrate immigration,” as you call them, do not by definition “criticize working class people of their own nationality.” I have no idea where you got this idea. I celebrate the contributions of immigrants as well as the working class. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
2. Do you have any data to support your implication that working class people are inherently more hostile to immigrants than white collar workers?
3. My experience with people from diverse backgrounds is by no means limited to the sort of weekend outing you describe. My paternal grandmother was born in Mexico, my paternal grandfather was born in Texas of Mexican parents, and I have relatives who live in Mexico. I am well aware of the challenges that immigrants face, which is one reason why I have strong feelings about the subject.
4. I have also had extensive experience with what I suppose you would call “white collar” immigrants, whom I know both as neighbors, and through my career as a public school teacher. I have taught students from Saudi Arabia, Viet Nam, Korea, China, Iran, Pakistan, India, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, as well as most of the European countries. I have worked closely with their parents, all of whom want the best education for their children. Most of them came to the US to pursue their own higher education and their careers, some of them fled repressive regimes, and some came for religious freedom.
5. Not all immigrants are uneducated or poor, but all of them face a certain level of discrimination, some of which is the result of the kinds of generalizations and stereotypes you included in your post. Don’t get me wrong: I know that your intentions are good, but with all due respect, you have oversimplified a very complex situation.
6. If you have data to back up your assertion that “economic policies which force people to leave their homeland in the first place are more often than not the work of left-leaning parties, not those on the right,” I would be very interested to see it.
7. I re-read the Economist article that you linked. I didn’t find anything in it about immigration in the US, nor did I find anything that supports your warnings about a future exodus of Brazilians due to dangerous leftist economic policies. I did see the reference to the 30 million Brazilians brought out of poverty by those same policies you find so abhorrent.
Phil,
You wrote
“I re-read the Economist article that you linked. I didn’t find anything in it about immigration in the US, nor did I find anything that supports your warnings about a future exodus of Brazilians due to dangerous leftist economic policies. I did see the reference to the 30 million Brazilians brought out of poverty by those same policies you find so abhorrent”
I do not recriminate the policies that brought 30 million Brazilians out of poverty, I actually celebrate them and abhore the people who did everything to keep them from happening (The PT party). Now Lula, from PT, kept these policies in place when he took office – at least during his fisrt term – to later abandon them. Dilma Rousseff dismissed them altogether and hence came the downgrade in economic activity Brazil faces today. Anyway please read this part of the article once more:
“Fernando Henrique Cardoso was named as Brazil’s 13th finance minister in as many years, a seemingly hopeless job in a country trapped in hyperinflation, debt and an anachronistic economic statism. Mr Cardoso’s Real Plan swiftly tamed inflation and took him to the presidency. There he laid the foundations for a new Brazil, of stability and liberal economic reform. This success was reinforced by his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a left-wing former union leader, whose government saw 30m Brazilians get out of poverty. The trouble is that in Lula’s second term (2007-10) and especially under his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, the formula behind Brazil’s success has been slowly abandoned. The policy secret was simple: inflation targeting by a Central Bank operating with de facto independence; transparent public accounts; a rigorous fiscal target, which brought down the public debt; and a much more open attitude to foreign trade and private investment”.
As for my observation that working class folk tend to face a larger exposure to waves of immigration than their white collar counterparts you should take that as anacdotal – as I should take your claim to the contrary or that is is neutral. Regarding your claim that not all immigrants arrive due to poverty I think that is true, but it seems that most of them do move because of this condition.
Btw I also believe that you hold the best intentions.
Oops, I meant to write anecdotal in the previous message.
Oh, and regarding the image which headlines this post: I have concluded that marmite not only sucks but also relies on profanity as a sales pitch (“Toasting The Queen´s Diamond Jubilee”). Repent sinner Tom!
I thought you would have enjoyed the pun Gritty – toasting the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee… ;)
I agree Tom: it is a great pun; but you can´t expect me to focus on subtext nor captions when the headline is advertising marmite. I recognized evil, and went straight to her throat.
I don’t know if this is a coincidence, or deliberate (since I’m not sure if I’m the only one or not) but I used to eat crumpets with Marmite when I was a kid.
Hi GFE – me too! For me, Marmite is the classic topping for a crumpet, though as time goes by I am becoming more and more partial to Bovril instead. Mrs Eat Rio hates them both with a passion! :)
They’re both so good! *drool*