In Praise of Food - England

The poor Brits have been the butt of culinary jokes for years. They’ve been accused of eating food that’s bland, boring and as soggy as the weather.

At left is their version of a chili dog (eaten on Inaugeration Day last year). And, believe me, it tasted really good ... just not like a chili dog.

My family wasn’t from British stock but I grew up with boiled beef, boiled chicken and fresh vegetables boiled until they were a sodden mass. Even canned peas were boiled as if to make sure there wasn’t a trace of taste or nutrition left!

I didn’t know I liked eating at all until after I left home. Moving to California in 1973, I discovered the delights of avocados, bagels, and Mexican food that didn’t come from Taco Bell. Even later, delicacies from Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, and the Middle East were added to my list of favorite foods. My love affair with food is here to stay – although I wish it didn’t love me back quite so much!

In any case, it was with a bit of trepidation that I planned my move to the UK. I knew that London was cosmopolitan and would have at least as many ethnic restaurants as Los Angeles … but I was moving up North.

I needn’t have worried.

For one thing, Yorkshire has so much farmland that fresh ingredients abound. For another, I had access to all kinds of amazing English dairy products – local artisan cheeses, golden cubes of fresh butter, Cornish clotted cream, et al - which delighted my palate if not my arteries or my waistline.

While living in Skipton, I had milk delivered to my door in glass pint bottles. It was a little more expensive than buying it at Tesco but I lived on a hill and it was great to not have to haul milk home, in addition to groceries. But hill or no, the delight I got out of having milk in bottles was all out of proportion to the little added expense.

Even getting a pre-made sandwich (something I pretty much avoid here in the States) was a yummy adventure…although I still can’t quite fathom why they always put corn in their tuna salad. (It doesn’t really taste bad … it’s just a bit odd.)

Three things to try:

Cornish clotted cream ice cream. (OH.MY.)

Bacon. Theirs is closer to Canadian bacon, really. But it’s raw and thinly sliced. And absolutely delicious! They do have our kind of bacon but it’s called “streaky bacon.”

Cakes. Not as sweet as ours and with a coarser crumb. But just the ticket with a cup of tea!

Crisps. Crisps are what they call potato chips. (“Chips” are what we call French fries.) They come in amazing flavors like ‘Lamb and mint’, ‘Flame-broiled steak’, and ‘chicken and thyme.’ Not any healthier than ours but definitely yummy!

Things to pass on:

Black pudding. Not really black - and most definitely not a pudding. It's a sausage-type thing and a part of any respectable fry-up.

Dandelion & Burdock soda. Why someone decided to make a soft drink flavored by a weed is beyond me. I can't stress how much this is an acquired taste. Other odd sodas are orange squash (like a bunch of chemicals pretending to be oranges) and Shandy Soda which is, basically, beer-flavored soda. Not too bad - but definitely strange. (This is different from actual shandy, which is beer and Sprite or lemonade mixed half and half. Honest.)

Marmite. A black-brown spread that's a byproduct of brewing. It's terribly healthy but if you didn't grow up eating it, you probably won't like it. (It's pretty much the same as the Vegemite Australians are so crazy about.)

Things that might surprise you:

Haggis. If you can get over what it is (sheep's stomach stuffed with oatmeal and other unmentionable sheep bits), it tastes pretty good! (The haggis is the brown stuff at the bottom - the white and yellow are 'tatties and neeps' - potatoes and turnips respectively.)

Mashed swede. Basically, swede is rutabaga … and the times I had it in the States I wasn't impressed. But mashed with cream and butter (and possibly carrots or potatoes), it's quite good.

Warm ale. If you like beer at all, try a local ale pulled from casks in the cellar of the pub. Lager (light-colored beer, like Bud) is served cold but ale really is best at room temperature so, you can really taste all the different flavors mingling. Treat it like you would a glass of nice wine - breathe in the scent before you taste it. Then take a sip and let it roll around your tongue. Ahhhhh…!