British Food: 10 Things You Should Actually Try
British food has a reputation, for some people, it involves boiled vegetables, mysterious puddings and an alarming amount of gravy. For others, it means fish and chips eaten beside the sea, a proper Sunday roast or discovering that a sausage roll is considerably more satisfying than its modest appearance suggests.
The truth is rather more interesting.
Britain has a long and varied food culture, shaped by its landscape, farming traditions, trade, immigration and centuries of people arriving from elsewhere and bringing their own cooking with them. Some dishes are ancient, some relatively modern and some have become so thoroughly British that nobody thinks twice about where they originally came from.
So if you're visiting Britain for the first time, what should you actually eat?
Here are ten good foods to start.
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1. Fish and Chips
Let's begin with the obvious one.
Fish and chips is probably Britain's most famous contribution to the international takeaway, and there is a good reason it has survived for so long. A piece of fish is coated in batter and fried until crisp, while thick-cut chips are cooked until golden outside and soft inside.
Cod and haddock are the usual choices, although the fish varies around the country.
The traditional accompaniments are salt and vinegar, with tartare sauce and mushy peas often joining the party. In some parts of Britain, particularly around the north, you'll also encounter gravy or curry sauce.
And where should you eat it?
Ideally somewhere near the sea, although this isn't essential. What matters more is finding a good fish and chip shop rather than simply choosing the one with the largest photograph of a fish outside.
If you're eating on the coast, keep an eye on the gulls. They have developed an extraordinary talent for recognising a bag of chips at fifty paces. (Language tip: a pace means a step.)
2. The Full English Breakfast
The full English breakfast is not really breakfast in the light, hurried sense of the word. It is a considerable undertaking.
A traditional version might contain bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast, with fried bread or black pudding sometimes making an appearance. Every café has its own interpretation, and arguments about what constitutes a proper full English can become surprisingly serious.
Black pudding is worth trying if you're feeling adventurous. Despite its pudding-like name, it is a type of blood sausage made with pork blood, fat and oatmeal.
The full English is a meal to take your time over. Bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast isn't something you really want to eat while watching the clock before an early train.
3. Sunday Roast
A Sunday roast is one of those British traditions that is difficult to appreciate fully from a menu.
Roast meat, roast potatoes, vegetables, gravy and Yorkshire puddings make up the familiar combination, although the meat might be beef, lamb, chicken or pork.
Yorkshire puddings deserve particular attention. Despite their name, they aren't puddings in the dessert sense. They're made from a simple batter of flour, eggs and milk and baked until risen and crisp around the edges.
A good roast is about more than the food. It is a long lunch, usually eaten slowly and often enjoyed with family or friends. Pubs have become particularly associated with Sunday roasts, and a good country pub on a Sunday afternoon is one of the better ways to experience one.
Gravy is generally considered essential.
4. A British Pie
Britain has been putting things inside pastry for a very long time, and has become rather good at it.
Steak and ale, steak and kidney, chicken and leek, pork pies and countless regional variations can all be found around the country. Some are completely enclosed in pastry; others have pastry only on top.
A steak and ale pie, for example, usually combines pieces of beef with onions and a rich gravy, often made with ale, beneath a golden pastry crust.
Pies have long been practical British food: filling, portable and made from ingredients that were readily available. They also happen to be very good.
5. Bangers and Mash
Otherwise known as sausages and mashed potato, this is one of Britain's familiar comfort foods.
The sausages are usually pork, although there are now countless varieties, and they're served with mashed potato and gravy. Onion gravy is particularly good.
It is simple food, but that is rather the point. British cooking has a long tradition of taking inexpensive, filling ingredients and turning them into satisfying meals.
Bangers and mash is a good example, particularly on a cold evening.
6. The Cornish Pasty
The Cornish pasty comes from Cornwall in southwest England and has a distinctive folded shape, with a thick crimped edge.
The traditional filling contains beef, potato, swede and onion, seasoned before being enclosed in pastry and baked.
The pasty is strongly associated with Cornwall's mining history. One traditional explanation for the thick edge is that miners could hold the pasty by the crust with dirty hands and discard the edge afterwards.
Whether every miner actually did this is harder to establish, but the story has become part of the pasty's history.
Today, you're expected to eat the crust.
7. A Ploughman's Lunch
The ploughman's lunch is wonderfully straightforward: bread, cheese, pickle and various accompaniments such as salad, apple or onion.
It became particularly associated with British pubs during the twentieth century, although bread and cheese as a meal obviously goes back much further.
The beauty of a good ploughman's is its simplicity. Find a decent loaf, a good piece of British cheese and some proper pickle and there isn't much else needed.
It is particularly good with a pint in an old pub.
8. Afternoon Tea
Afternoon tea is one of the more misunderstood British traditions.
It isn't simply a cup of tea at three o'clock.
A traditional afternoon tea usually involves tea served with small sandwiches, scones and cakes, often arranged on a three-tiered stand.
And then there are the scones.
In Devon, the traditional method is generally cream first and jam afterwards. In Cornwall, it is generally jam first and cream on top.
This small difference has produced some remarkably strong regional opinions.
9. Shepherd's Pie
Shepherd's pie consists of minced lamb cooked with vegetables and gravy, topped with mashed potato and baked until the surface is golden.
If the meat is beef, it is generally called cottage pie.
The distinction is simple enough, although you'll occasionally find the names used rather loosely. For anyone exploring British food, it's a useful difference to know.
10. British Curry
A British food list that doesn't include curry would be missing something rather important.
Britain's relationship with Indian food stretches back centuries, but Indian restaurants became a major part of everyday British dining during the twentieth century. Over time, dishes were adapted to British tastes and new dishes emerged, some of which became closely associated with Britain itself.
Chicken tikka masala is the famous example, although its exact origins remain disputed.
Whatever you make of the debate, curry has become an important part of British food culture. Today you can find Indian restaurants and curry houses in towns and cities across the country, from inexpensive local restaurants to sophisticated regional Indian cooking.
It is a good reminder that British food has never been a sealed box.
So, What Exactly Is British Food?
Perhaps that's the best thing about British food. It doesn't really belong to one tradition. It has been borrowed, changed, improved, argued over and occasionally renamed along the way.
Some dishes are ancient. Some are relatively new. Some have travelled halfway around the world before becoming something Britain now considers its own.
So try a few and make up your own mind.
Just don't tell anyone that you don't like gravy.
