British cuisine is best described as the great British flair for the pageant of the meal- High tea served in an richly furnished oak-paneled room, amidst antique porcelain, and mountains of cakes and where clotted cream sparkle in reflection from the polished side of a sterling silver tea pot. Traditional British food is built on beef, lamb, pork, chicken& fish and generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable. Some of the main dishes bear strange names like Bubble & Squeak, Spotted Dick and Toad-in-the-Hole.
 The most common fare eaten in England are sandwiches, fish and chips, pies like the Cornish pasty, trifle and roast dinners and of course the Yorkshire pudding. The Isles are famous for their creams, butters and sturdy cheeses: Stilton, Cheshire and its rare cousin blue Cheshire , double Gloucester, red Leicester, sage Derby , and of course cheddar. Game has always had a central role in the British diet. In the past, formal feasts were built around venison, rabbit, and game birds. The British attach a lot of importance to dining etiquette. Even young children are expected to eat properly with fork and knife.
Scotland is noted for its game and salmon , the national dish of Scots being haggis and neeps (innards and offal chopped up with spices and cooked in a sheep's stomach, served with mashed turnip).Typical Welsh foods include laverbread, which is essentially boiled seaweed, Bara Brith, Welsh Rarebit and Cawl a rich stew made with bacon, lamb and vegetables, and cakes called Griddle Scones. Right from the days of the Empire, the Brits have been enamored of the spices of the East; that love affair has continued, and can be glimpsed in the caraway-, ginger-, and mace-laced cakes that grace the tea table. And the English are also quite adept at making condiments: strong mustards, horseradish, chutneys, vinegars, marmalades and jams, curries, even Worcestershire sauce.
 Britain is a tea-drinking nation. Tea is traditionally brewed in a warmed china teapot by adding one spoonful per person and one for the pot. Coffee is now as popular as tea is and people either drink it with milk or have it black.
“There is nothing so fine created by man as an English pub", declared Dr. Samuel Johnson, compiler of the first dictionary in English ... The British food experience is centered around its ubiquitous pubs ; they are popular meeting places where people drink ale/beer, eat and relax and socialize. British ale is generally darker and heavier than lager, and is termed ‘bitter’. A growing number of British vineyards are now producing sparkling white wine as well as full bodied red wine. |
