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
http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com/
http://across-t-pond.com

STORYHEART SUNDAY UK BLOG - "FOOD" FOR THOUGHT

I've been away for a few days signing copies of my book at "The Big E" a massive four week fair for the North East states of America. One of the major items one finds at such events is the wide range of snacks available

Every country and location has it's own special and in many cases weird foods. Scotland for instance has it's Haggis as immortalized by Robbie Burns (who also wrote Old Land Zine) For those who do not know it is actually a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.



In London there is Pie, Mash and Liquor and of course Jellied Eels Pie and Mash is traditionally a mutton and cold water pastry pie and mashed potato. It is common for the mashed potato to be spread around one side of the plate and for a type of parsley sauce called liquor (although it is non-alcoholic) to be added. Liquor traditionally has a green color which is not from food coloring but the parsley. It is also traditionally made using the water kept from the preparation of the stewed eels.

Over the years strange foods have developed, for instance in Glasgow (sometimes known as the heart attack capitol of Europe) they have something totally different. A deep-fried Mars Bar. A mars Bar is very like the American Milky Way bar, which is confusing, as in England we also have a Milky Way bar but that is like an American Three Musketeers (are you following me so far?) The "delicacy" is an ordinary Mars Bar normally fried in a type of batter commonly used for deep frying fish, sausages, and other battered products, although a coconut batter is also used. The Mars Bar is typically chilled before use to prevent it from melting into the frying fat, though a cold Mars Bar can fracture when heated.

With all this it did not surprise me this week when appearing (signing copies of my book "Across the Pond" in the Connecticut Building) at the Big E. I heard about this years special "food". The Craz-E Burger, a bacon cheeseburger with grilled glazed doughnuts-for-buns.

Yes you read it right a cheese burger inside a glazed doughnut.

I did not manage to get to the location and try this heart stopper, but as I am back signing again this Wednesday on Thursday (do stop by if your attending the event) I'll make a point of trying it out.

Barry



Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
Across the Pond
http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com/
http://across-t-pond.com