Why is it that the proprietors of Chinese and Indian takeaway establishments have the strange notion that the staple food of this green and pleasant land is the 'omelette'?

Every menu I have seen seen in one of these places has had an extensive and varied list of this particular form of food in the English section - including Spanish Omelette???

Strange or what?

Why not:

Lamb chops with mint sauce
Steak and Kidney pudding
Bacon, egg and tomatoes
Meat and Potato pie


I mean, come on: omelettes aren't even English!

Does anyone else find this alarming?

why would you go to a chinese or indian and order anything other than chinese/indian? :?

anyways, gotta dash... off down to the chinese to get a pizza :P

very good point!!!

I have no idea why and im not going to loose any sleep over it but good point!!!!

The point is: if I were wanting an English meal and there was only, say, the Balti Dragon Outtake open, why should I have to put up with an omelette: I mean, it's just not cricket, is it?

It's like a hot dog van having an Indian section to their menu which only offers a range of cous-cous dishes, say.

No wonder this is such a sore point at the moment.

The Red Lion on, i think, London Road do quite a good range of english dishes which i think you'll be impressed by Sam.

Sadly though the Red Lion seems to be closed for... ahem...'holidays' quite often.

I'll tell you why, It's because there are still a few miseries around like my dad and brother who refuse to try things which they don't know. And if dragged to a strange resteraunt for a meal would not order anything if it wasn't English and familiar sounding.
And it probably makes the resteraunt owner's lives much simpler if they have a variety of plain english type food on their menus as well, than put up with the carping from pig headed people who refuse to try anything new.

Originally posted by ole1
The Red Lion on, i think, London Road
The red lion, on london road is a pub, do you mean the Golden Dragon, the chinese resteraunt and takeaway next to highfields library?

No, there is a Chinese takeaway called the Red Lion opposite LLoyds Chemist. We've had deliveries from them. They are very good.

Not omeletes, you understand.

You want to come to India and see what they think English food is like... I've seen some VERY interesting interpretations during my past 4 months of travel! What they bring out is never quite what you imagine it to be when you first order it!

The local food here is pretty amazing though, and varies enormously from state to state. And cheap - a full meal, for less than a quid. Nice! :)

Probably an urban myth but the eating of dogs in certain exotic places such as Hong Kong, Singapore etc is illegal. So as the Chinese word for dog and number 9 is almost the same, dog meat is on the menu as anything with 9 in it. Just thought you may be interested, for anyone who had a chinese meal last night.