English Food
English food is unfairly labelled as being bland. However, there are many delicious examples of English cuisine. Check some out below!
Sunday roast
Every day should be Sunday!
The Sunday roast is the traditional main meal eaten on Sunday. It is also called Sunday lunch, Sunday dinner, roast dinner, or simply ‘a roast’. Roasted meat (usually beef, lamb, pork, chicken, or turkey) roasted potatoes, vegetables, and a Yorkshire pudding. Vegetables include roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts, peas, carrots, broccoli and others. It is then topped with gravy, a sauce made from juices from the meat and vegetables as they are cooked. When cooking birds such as chicken or turkey, “stuffing” is put inside the bird before cooking. Stuffing is usually dried breadcrumbs, sausage meat, onion, celery, salt, pepper and other herbs such as sage.
Christmas dinner is very similar, but usually uses turkey, is generally bigger and has more trimmings.
Many pubs in the UK have Sunday menus that have Sunday roasts available.
Fun fact: 8% of British people have roast dinner more than twice each week.
Christmas dinner is very similar, but usually uses turkey, is generally bigger and has more trimmings.
Many pubs in the UK have Sunday menus that have Sunday roasts available.
Fun fact: 8% of British people have roast dinner more than twice each week.
Watch Tom give an animated explanation of Sunday roast in this video.
Fish n' chips
Not the same without the newspaper...
It is a well known fact that deep-frying makes everything delicious. Fish and chips (most often pronounced “fish n’ chips”) is a dish from England of deep fried battered fish and hot potato chips. White fish such as cod and haddock is most often used. It first appeared in England in the 1860’s, and is a still popular takeaway food today.
It is commonly served with salt and vinegar sprinkled on top, and with a choice of tomato ketchup or HP sauce (often referred to as red sauce and brown sauce). The fish n’ chips at the British Hills pub is excellent!
Fun fact: John Lennon enjoyed his fish n’ chips covered in ketchup.
It is commonly served with salt and vinegar sprinkled on top, and with a choice of tomato ketchup or HP sauce (often referred to as red sauce and brown sauce). The fish n’ chips at the British Hills pub is excellent!
Fun fact: John Lennon enjoyed his fish n’ chips covered in ketchup.
Beans on toast
Simple is best!
Beans, beans, good for your heart, the more you eat the more you fart, the more you fart the more you eat, the more you sit on the toilet seat. A simple, cheap and easy classic that anyone can make. Baked beans in tomato sauce are very cheap and easy to buy in tins.
Fun fact: 69% of people in Birmingham, England, eat beans on toast every week (nice!)
Fun fact: 69% of people in Birmingham, England, eat beans on toast every week (nice!)
Cottage/Shepherd's pie
Cottage and/or Sheperd's pie
Shepherd's pie or cottage pie is a meat pie made with mashed potato on top. The recipe varies a lot. However, it must have minced meat. When beef is used it is named cottage pie, when lamb is used it is Shepherd's pie. The minced meat is cooked in gravy sauce with onions and other vegetables such as carrots and peas, before being covered on top with mashed potato.
Marmite
It tastes like it looks!
“You either love it or hate it”. Marmite is dark, sticky and has a very strong flavour. Marmite is made from yeast, a waste product from beer. Marmite is usually eaten spread on toast or crackers, sometimes with cheese.
Marmite’s strong and powerful flavour is so famous that the Marmite advertising slogan “You either love it or hate it” is now an expression in British English.
There is a similar spread in Australia called Vegemite, but it is much worse, and has a very bad smell!
In 2015 a British English teacher in Japan made a video of his friends trying Marmite for the first time, and the video went viral in the UK. The reactions of the Japanese people are hilarious! Watch it here.
Marmite’s strong and powerful flavour is so famous that the Marmite advertising slogan “You either love it or hate it” is now an expression in British English.
There is a similar spread in Australia called Vegemite, but it is much worse, and has a very bad smell!
In 2015 a British English teacher in Japan made a video of his friends trying Marmite for the first time, and the video went viral in the UK. The reactions of the Japanese people are hilarious! Watch it here.
The Marmite Panini! Yum!
Fun fact: Starbucks in the UK has a cheese and Marmite panini on the menu!
Football stadium food
A chilli con carne pie on a cold wet night in Stoke.
Football (or soccer) is a national obsession in the UK, and so are the foods that are eaten at the stadiums. Football matches are played in the autumn and winter in the UK, so having a hot meaty pie while standing in the cold is extra satisfying. There are a huge variety of pies available at stadiums across the UK, and they are by far the bestselling foods at football matches. Varieties include the traditional such as steak and kidney pie, and also the modern, such as chilli con carne pie and vegetarian pies. There are also some football clubs that have special holiday menus such as Christmas turkey and cranberry pies.
Popular drinks include (of course) beer and hot tea, but also bovril. Bovril is a meat based soup that is a deliciously warming and tastes like you are drinking a beef rib for the coldest nights.
Popular drinks include (of course) beer and hot tea, but also bovril. Bovril is a meat based soup that is a deliciously warming and tastes like you are drinking a beef rib for the coldest nights.
Full English breakfast
Mmmm...so many calories!
A full English Breakfast has several other names such as ‘full monty” or “fry up”, or “all day breakfast”. It is a classic example of a traditional unhealthy English meal. There are lots of variations all over the UK, and everyone cooks their own breakfast how they like it. Bacon, sausages, and eggs are generally always in a full english. There are a long list of variations which include: baked beans, fried bread or toast, hash browns (a kind of fried potato), scrambled eggs, tomatoes fried or sometimes not, mushrooms, tomato sauce or brown sauce, and also an English specialty, black pudding. Black pudding is a type of blood sausage, made from pork blood, fat and cereal and then fried.
In many pubs and cafes in the UK you can buy the “all day breakfast” at any time of the day. Vegetarian full English breakfasts are now widely available.
A 2010 study of 10,000 people found the perfect breakfast was made of a fried egg, two slices of fried bread, two pork sausages, two rashers of smoked bacon, fried mushrooms, one hash brown potato, baked beans and tomato ketchup. This adds up to 1,190 calories and a gut busting 95.7 grams of fat.
Fun fact: In 2014 62% of adults in England were classified as overweight (a body mass index of 25 or above) or clinically obese (World Health Organization).
In many pubs and cafes in the UK you can buy the “all day breakfast” at any time of the day. Vegetarian full English breakfasts are now widely available.
A 2010 study of 10,000 people found the perfect breakfast was made of a fried egg, two slices of fried bread, two pork sausages, two rashers of smoked bacon, fried mushrooms, one hash brown potato, baked beans and tomato ketchup. This adds up to 1,190 calories and a gut busting 95.7 grams of fat.
Fun fact: In 2014 62% of adults in England were classified as overweight (a body mass index of 25 or above) or clinically obese (World Health Organization).
