More"Food" for thought

Yesterday on my Sunday UK Blog I wrote about some of the strange foods, including the new "Craz-E Burger" being sold at this years Big E. A bacon cheeseburger with grilled glazed doughnuts-for-buns.

I have been asked to write about some more foods from England so here goes.



When people think English food they thing "Fish and Chips"


Fish and chips is the classic English take-away food and is the traditional national food of England. It became popular in the 1860's when railways began to bring fresh fish straight from the east coast to the our cities over night. The fish (cod, haddock,plaice and huss...the later is perhaps better known as rock salmon) is deep fried in flour batter and is eaten with chips. Traditionally, the fish and chips are covered with salt and malt vinegar and, using your fingers, eaten straight out of the newspaper which they were wrapped in. Now-a-days small wooden forks are provided and the fish and chips are wrapped in more hygienic paper. Up in the North of England fish and chips is often served with "mushy peas" (mashed processed peas). The title of number one take-away is now though the property of the "Curry"

Items like "Bangers and Mash" (Sausages and mash potato), "Sunday Roast" , and the "Full English Breakfast" all play their part in English eating habits.


Along with such items as "Kippers" (a whole herring, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.) and Pickles which includes chutney as well as Branston or "brown" pickle, piccalilli, pickled onions and gherkins.

There are many foods which tie there names to certain locations, Lancashire Hot Pot, Bath Buns, Eccles Cakes, Welsh rarebit, Cornish Pasty, the list goes on and on.

Let's face it even the humble Sandwich England gave to the world. Named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat, although he was neither the inventor nor sustainer of the food. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and because Montague also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order "the same as Sandwich!" It is said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage, while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.

There are many more items one of English food I could talk about, and perhaps I will in a future blog. The wonderful Tripe Beef tripe is usually made from only the first three chambers of a cow's stomach) and Onions.




Of course not forgetting the wonderful Spotted dick... A steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants) commonly served with custard, and a standard part of English cuisine.







Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
Across the Pond
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