Let's Talk About Food

 Me and some friends sitting down for a meal

          Everyone loves food, and one of the best parts of traveling is trying new cuisines. Today I am going to teach you all about English food in all of its greasy goodness. First though, I should quickly talk about England's agriculture so that you can get an idea of why people eat what they do. Britain is made of islands which means that it's expensive to import food. This meant that, through out history, the British had to eat what they could grow/catch on their own. This means a lot of fish, potatoes, and beef or lamb. You get tired of meat and potatoes pretty fast, so someone at some point discovered how to fry foods in oil to make them taste better. Although the British empire conquered the world for spices, they chose to use exactly none of them in their cooking. Traditional British food pretty much only has salt and maybe some pepper for flavor. With all that in mind, lets talk about food!

 Breakfast:

          When you first wake up, you would need to start your day with a cup of nice black tea. Pretty much every kitchen comes with an electric kettle for you to be able to heat up water quickly. Once you've woken up, it's time for breakfast. On most days, people just eat cereal or maybe an omelette. Sometimes though, you'll want a full English breakfast, or a "fry-up" as it's called here.

 

 This fry-up would normally consist of eggs, thick cut bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, and sometimes black pudding (pig's blood)

          Another popular breakfast/snack is baked beans on toast. It sounds weird, but I actually really like it. The British will put anything on toast or will place it between two pieces of bread and call it a "butty"

  

Baked beans on toast

 Chip butty

          On a Sunday, however, meals change. Many people will go out for a Sunday roast. You usually eat a Sunday roast as a sort of late breakfast/early dinner. They are usually served in the early afternoon and stop being served at around 4. 

 

          A normal Sunday roast is usually served with beef, but you can also choose to have it with lamb. It comes with potatoes, veggies, and a nice warm Yorkshire pudding on the side (the bowl-looking thing in the photo). Normally "pudding" here is a word for dessert, but a Yorkshire pudding is more like a pancake but it's not sweet so you cover it in gravy and eat it with the beef. 

 Lunch:

          I'm sure that you've all heard of fish and chips. It's made of cod (or some other white fish) that has been battered and fried and is then paired with chips (thick cut french fries). What we would consider a "chip" in the U.S. is called a "crisp" here.  Fish and chips can be purchased from a chippy (a shop that sells chips) and is usually served with a side of mushy peas and topped with either lemon/vinegar or ketchup. I like mine with lemon and tartar sauce.

 

           It's a common misconception that all french fries are called chips here, but that's not true. What we would call "steak fries" are what the British call "chips". Thin cut fries are still called fries here and you won't find them at a chippy. You can also get lots of toppings for your chips at a chippy. Some people like to get just vinegar, but you can also get them with melted cheese, gravy, or curry. I personally like mine with melted mozzarella or a mix of mayo and ketchup. How do you like yours?

 

These are chips

 

These are fries

          Another popular lunch item is a pasty (the a is pronounced like "ah" as in "ah! a spider!"). A pasty is a pastry with meat inside. Usually beef or chicken and then mixed veggies. The most popular place to get a pasty on the go is Gregg's. They're also famous for their sausage rolls. I personally love their chicken bakes which are basically the hot pocket form of a chicken pot pie.

 

a variety of Gregg's pasties

          The British love potatoes (in case you hadn't noticed), so the last lunch item I'll discuss are jacket potatoes,  or baked potatoes as we know them. At a jacket potato shop you can choose your toppings just like you would at subway or any other build-your-own style restaurant. Tuna is a very popular topping for pretty much everything here, including jacket potatoes (and even pizza). You can also get them with meat, cheese, veggies, sour cream, etc... Or if you really want to be British you can just load them full of baked beans. 

 Dinner (Tea):

          A common term for dinner here is "tea". Tea is usually eaten pretty early in England (around 5pm) which took some getting used to. England is a huge cultural mixing pot so people eat a wide variety of things for dinner here. There are a couple British specific foods, and there are also many widely eaten dinner foods that weren't invented here. 

         Two foods that are British specific are meat pies and toad in the hole. Meat pies are like pot-pies but most of the time they're filled with either beef or lamb. A popular filling is beef and onion. Toad in the hole is also a meat-based dinner item. It's sausages that are baked in a pan with Yorkshire pudding batter and then covered in gravy. 

 

Toad in the hole

 

Meat pie 

         Like I said though, England is a mixing pot so there are many other foods that people love here. Middle Eastern, Indian, Portuguese, and Chinese are all examples of the types of foods that people  frequently eat for dinner. It's not all beef, potatoes, and pastry dough every day. Indian food is incredibly popular here due to England's colonization there. Butter chicken is actually England's national dish! 

 

Butter chicken with rice and naan (a type of Indian flat bread)

Desserts and Sweets:

          Desserts are just as, if not more,  important than dinner, and the British have many. I had my friends tell me their favorite desserts and I've listed them out below:

 

Rice pudding is made of rice, milk, and usually cinnamon and raisins. It's sweet but not overwhelming

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding is a type of cake that is covered in toffee syrup and eaten with ice cream

 

Eton mess is made of crumbled meringue, strawberries, and whipped cream

 

Jaffa cakes are a type of cakey orange flavored cookie. They're best when dunked in tea and are popular snacks

         There are many many other English desserts and snacks, but I don't have time or space to list them all  out. I'm making myself hungry by just writing this post. Which food looked the best to you? Have any of you tried these English foods before? Are there any foods on this list that you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole? Let me know what you think!


          By popular demand I've decided to end my last four posts with photos of my cat Potts (see my photo of the week from two weeks ago for more info). Potts is helping me make it through this exam season. Here he is, hard at work, helping me study: