The must-haves of British cuisine
There's no denying that breakfast is more important in England than lunch. To convince yourself of this, there's nothing better than to treat yourself to a gargantuan English breakfast, the ideal way to start a long day of sightseeing. It consists of eggs - fried, poached or scrambled - accompanied by grilled sausages, pan-fried tomatoes, roasted mushrooms, baked beans in tomato sauce and black pudding. All served on toast with butter and marmalade. Of course, such a feast takes time to prepare and is best enjoyed by Londoners at weekends.
Among the most common dishes, it's impossible to miss the famous fish & chips. While this street food, traditionally sold from chippy stalls, may seem simple enough, its preparation is taken very seriously. So much so, in fact, that in 1913 the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF) was founded, offering training courses in how to prepare this dish to perfection. Cod and haddock are the most commonly used fish. They are coated in a thin batter, then deep-fried and served with large fries drizzled with vinegar, which the English call chips - unlike the Americans, who call them French fries. Another London street food speciality is the Cornish pasty, a large turnip from Cornwall in the south-west of the country. Filled with minced beef, potatoes, onion and rutabaga, it is symbolic of the cuisine of the working and poorer classes. Cornish pasty , on the other hand, has a protected geographical indication (PGI) in the European Union. Another typically London snack, the Scotch egg, consists of a hard-boiled egg in the middle of a ball of breaded and fried sausage meat filling. It's eaten hot or cold, often at picnics. Despite its name, this recipe was invented in London in 1738.
More refined, though heartier, Beef Wellington is symbolic of a bourgeois English cuisine that's a little old-fashioned, but delicious. It consists of roast beef, usually garnished with sliced mushrooms and wrapped in crispy puff pastry. Much more rustic, shephard's pie is the equivalent of our shepherd's pie, but here the beef is replaced by lamb or mutton. In a similar vein, bangers and mash is the quintessential rural dish, made with pork sausage, usually from Lincolnshire or Cumberland, and mashed potatoes, topped with a rich onion gravy. The more solemn Sunday roast is a family lunch consisting of a piece of roast meat, usually leg of lamb, roast pork or roast beef, but also chicken, served with steamed vegetables, gravy - a thick meat juice - and the famous Yorkshire pudding, which resembles a puff pastry.
While wine is becoming increasingly popular with our neighbors across the Channel, beer remains inseparable from British cuisine. Unlike the Germans, Great Britain produces mostly top-fermented ales. There are many varieties, such as pale ale, with its delicately amber, refreshing color, or slight ale or amber bitter ale, with a strong hop flavor. Brown ale or mild ale is brown or coppery, with a less bitter taste than the previous varieties. Christmas ale, brewed and consumed during the festive season, is red in color and very strong, with a yeasty taste that stands out in the mouth. Indian Pale Ale (IPA), for its part, had to withstand transport to the colonies, and usually contains more alcohol and hops than the others, giving it a tangier taste. For those more reluctant to drink beer, it's worth noting that England has a long tradition of cocktails, with many creations based on gin, an alcohol scented with juniper berries, some varieties of which are still produced in the London area. Pimm's is a liqueur derived from gin and flavored with orange. Add lemonade, pieces of fruit, mint leaves and a few slices of cucumber, and you've got a Pimm's cup, a cool cocktail that's very popular in summer.
On the sweet side, there are a large number of entremets such as the delicate Eton mess, made with strawberries, whipped cream and meringue, named after the prestigious Eton private boarding school where this dessert was traditionally enjoyed during cricket matches. The richer trifle is made up of successive layers of liqueur-soaked sponge cake, custard and red fruit compote, then crowned with whipped cream and sprinkled with flaked almonds. Perfect for those with a big appetite. The nourishing sticky toffee pudding is a spongy, melt-in-the-mouth cake made from date paste and topped with caramel. The fresher syllalub was originally made from curdled cream with the addition of an acidifier: fruit juice, cider or sweet wine. Today, this ancient dessert resembles a light mousse, often flavored with lemon. London is also home to many other typically Anglo-Saxon pastries, such as cupcakes, muffins and carrot cake flavoured with walnuts and cinnamon.
A royal tea time
Nevertheless, it's impossible to continue this list of treats without mentioning a living tradition:afternoon tea. Tea plays a major role in British culture, and the English are among the world's biggest tea drinkers. Although tea has been known to the Chinese for over 4,000 years, it was imported to Europe by the Portuguese when they founded the Macao trading post in southern China. In the 17th century, tea arrived in England, where its use spread thanks to Queen Catherine, wife of Charles II, who got into the habit of drinking it in Portugal. Two different ways of drinking tea soon emerged. Low tea, an aristocratic practice in which presentation and tasting play an important part in the ceremonial, and high tea, more akin to a real meal. For a long time, tea was served in Coffee Houses, private clubs reserved for men. Another custom adopted by the English is that of the tea garden. It's common to visit tea rooms in London's public gardens. People stroll around, have tea, listen to music played in the gazebos and, in the evening, come to admire the fireworks. At the end of the 19th century, some of London's grand hotels began offering tea rooms where Victorian society could converse.
There are several types of tea, the best known being English Breakfast, a black tea attributed to Robert Drysdale, who served it at Edinburgh Castle, then known simply as breakfast. In the 19th century, it became very popular thanks to Queen Victoria, and spread to the Tea Houses of London, then eventually to the USA, where it took on its English name. Usually served neat, it can also be drunk with milk or lemon, or even iced. Earl Grey owes its name to Charles Grey, Prime Minister of King William IV, who is said to have brought back the recipe from one of his diplomatic trips to China. Initially marketed by the Twinings company, it is in fact made from Indian and Sri Lankan black tea, flavoured with bergamot, as Charles Grey never set foot in China. Finally, Darjeeling, named after an Indian town in West Bengal. This mountainous region produces a tea with a unique taste, served plain or with lemon, but never with milk. But beware of counterfeiting: only 11,000 tonnes of Darjeeling tea are produced each year, whereas worldwide consumption is estimated at over 40,000 tonnes a year...
And to serve tea, of course, there is an infinite variety of sweet and savoury snacks. Scones are the very emblem of afternoon tea. These compact, barely sweet cakes are generously spread with butter, jam and clotted cream, an extremely rich cream similar to mascarpone. You'll also find shortbreads, a kind of crumbly shortbread, lemon bars filled with lemon cream and English madeleines. On the savoury side, fingersandwiches made from sliced bread are usually topped with fromage frais, cucumber slices, smoked salmon or even Coronation chicken, made from cold chicken sliced with mayonnaise and curry. Other snacks on offer include quiches or, more simply, cheese - cheddar, stilton, Sage Derby, flavored with sage, for example - with crackers.
A full afternoon tea is rarely inexpensive, but it's always a refined experience. Famous addresses include Claridge's, the Lanesborough, Brown's Hotel, the Ritz and the Savoy. And for the die-hard tea aficionados who absolutely must return home with some excellent English teas in their luggage, we can only recommend a detour to the capital's two most prestigious delicatessens. Fortnum & Mason and Harrods, opened in 1707 and 1849 respectively, are places of infinite refinement where you can find everything you want in the way of quality English products. So much so, in fact, that both are Royal Warrant holders, i.e. official suppliers to the British royal family.
A multicultural London
Despite the many local specialties to be sampled during a stay in the British capital, the curious wishing to experience something different will not be disappointed. London offers a vast choice of cuisine from all over the world. The city brings together millions of people from all communities, creating a veritable culinary melting pot. The most famous places to eat are certainly the Indian and Chinese restaurants in Brick Lane, Euston, Chinatown and Bayswater, but there are also excellent Thai, Japanese, African, Polish, Greek and Middle Eastern restaurants. Unlike many continental European countries, which are very attached to their terroir, the British are more uninhibited when it comes to foreign cuisines, making London an ideal place to discover exotic specialties. Not forgetting the vegan and vegetarian restaurants that continue to grow in popularity.
Among all these cuisines, there is one that is both typically English and profoundly exotic. Anglo-Indian cuisine developed during the British Raj in India, when the British crown dominated the Indian subcontinent, between the mid-19thcentury and 1947. However, it was not introduced to England until the 1930s, thanks in particular to the Veeraswamy restaurant, the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in England. Located on Regent Street, a stone's throw from Picadilly Circus, Veeraswamy introduced a number of dishes combining British and Indian know-how.
These include kedgeree, a cold or hot haddock and rice salad flavored with curry and topped with hard-boiled eggs and raisins. Mulligatawny is a lentil soup with coconut milk, while pish pash is a kind of rice porridge with chicken. Unlike real Indian cuisine, most of these recipes are delicately spiced to appeal to an English public unaccustomed to chili at the time. Chutney is one of the few Anglo-Indian foods still popular today. This condiment, often prepared with mango, onion, lime or cucumber, is similar to a lightly spiced jam, but with the sweetness mitigated by the addition of vinegar. The more recent chicken tikka masala is very similar to an Indian dish, but was actually created in Great Britain in the 1960s.
The trend, however, is towards a return to more authentic cuisine, and even Veeraswamy has diversified its menu, offering specialties from the four corners of India, including Punjab, Lucknow, Kashmir and Goa. An ideal place for those who would like to immerse themselves in all the culinary diversity London has to offer.
