Indian cuisine is the most popular alternative to traditional cooking in Britain, followed by Chinese and Italian food. The chicken tikka masala is now considered one of Britain's most popular dishes.
Indian food was served in coffee houses from 1809, and cooked at home from a similar date as Mrs Beeton's cookbook attests. There was a sharp increase in the number of curry houses in the 1940s and again in the 1970s.
In the Victorian era, during the British Raj, Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo-Indian cuisine. Kedgeree and Mulligatawny soup are traditional Anglo-Indian dishes. The word curry, meaning 'gravy', has been used since the medieval period. The word "curry" is not used in India. Instead, "masala" is used. Curry's tend to refer to light, often colored, spiced sauces on solid food. Curry does not usually contain meat (though it may be on it), unlike gravy.
Anglo-Indian fusion food continued to develop with chicken tikka masala in the 1960s and Balti in the 1980s, although some claim the latter has roots in the subcontinent.
Home-cooked curries by ethnically English people are often based on ready made curry powder sauces or pastes, with only a minority grinding and mixing their own spice masalas. The highly successful Patak'sbr and defines the taste of curry for many. Curries are sometimes home-cooked to use up leftovers.
In 2003, there were as many as 10,000 restaurants serving Indian cuisine in England and Wales alone. It is commonly mistaken that the majority of Indian restaurants in Britain are run by entrepreneurs of Indian origin, when in fact they are predominantly Bangladeshi and Pakistani. According to Britain's Food Standards Agency, the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom is worth £3.2 billion, accounts for two-thirds of all eating out, and serves about 2.5 million British customers every week. Pat Chapman's Curry Club has a membership of several thousand.
Indian restaurants typically allow the diner to combine a number of base ingredients — chicken, prawns or "meat" (lamb or mutton) — with a number of curry sauces — from the mild korma to the scorching phall — without regard to the authenticity of the combination. The reference point for flavour and spice heat is the Madras curry sauce (the name represents the area of India where restauranteurs obtained their spices rather than an actual dish). Other sauces are either prepared from scratch, or are variations on a basic curry sauce: for instance, vindaloo is often rendered as lamb in a Madras sauce with extra chilli, rather than the original pork marinated in wine vinegar and garlic.
In addition to curries. all restaurants offer "dry" tandoori and tikka dishes of marinated meat or fish cooked in a special oven, and biriani dishes, where the meat and rice are mixed together. Samosas, Bhajis and small kebabs are served as starters, or can be eaten by themselves as snacks.
English diners usually accompany their meals with basmati rice, bread being sometimes ordered in addition, and eat with spoon and fork. India's well-developed vegetarian cuisine is sketchily represented outside specialist restaurants.
In recent years, some Indian restaurants have started aiming higher than the norm for ethnic food, two of them garnering Michelin stars in the process.
Other.
Chinese food is well established in England, with large cities often having a Chinatown district. Predominantly derived from Cantonese cuisine, it may be so adapted to Western tastes that Chinese customers may be offered an entirely separate menu. Spare ribs in OK sauce is an example of crossover cuisine. Other South-East Asian cuisines, such as Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese are catching up in popularity.
Italian cuisine is the most popular form of Mediterranean food, vying with Chinese and Indian food as the most popular ethnic food. Greek and Spanish restaurants are well established. Turkish tends to be associated with the take-away sector in particular late night kebab shops. Whilst Middle Eastern cooking in particular Lebanese has grown in popularity from its traditional enclaves in London.
Apart from beef burgers and hot dogs, food from the Americas tends to be represented by Mexican or Tex-mex cuisine, although there a few Creole and South American restaurants.
Caribbean and Jewish cuisine can usually only be found where there is a concentration of the community in question.
In England, French cuisine stands somewhat apart from other generally less expensive cuisine, although there are some inexpensive French bistros.
Drinks.
Hot drinks.
Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese wife of Charles II, took the Portuguese habit of tea to Great Britain around 1660, subsequently to the introduction of coffee. Initially, its expense restricted it to wealthy consumers, but the price gradually dropped, until the 19th century, when tea became as widely consumed as it is today.
In Britain, tea is usually black tea served with milk (never cream; the cream of a "cream tea" is clotted cream served on top of scones then normally strawberry jam on top, a tradition originating from Devon and Cornwall). Strong tea served with lots of milk and often two teaspoons of sugar, usually in a mug, is commonly referred to in jest as builder's tea. Much of the time in the United Kingdom, tea drinking is not the delicate, refined cultural expression that the rest of the world imagines—a cup (or commonly a mug) of tea is something drunk often, with some people drinking six or more cups of tea a day. Employers generally allow breaks for tea and sometimes biscuits to be served. A mug of tea is the standard accompaniment to a meal in an inexpensive unlicensed eatery, such as a café or "caff".
Earl Grey tea is a distinctive variation flavoured with Bergamot. In recent years, tisanes and speciality teas have also become popular.
Coffee.
Introduced in the 17th century, coffee quickly became highly popular by the 18th century. The coffee houses of London were important literary, commercial and political meeting-places, and in some cases paved the way for the great financial institutions of 19th Century London.
Coffee is now perhaps a little less popular than in continental Europe, but is still drunk by many in both its instant and percolated forms, often with milk (but rarely with cream). Italian coffee preparations such as espresso and cappuccino and modern American variants such as the frappuccino are increasingly popular, but generally purchased in restaurants or from specialist coffee shops rather than made in the home. White sugar is often added to individual cups of tea, or brown sugar to coffee, but never to the pot.
Other.
Hot chocolate and cocoa were promoted by temperance campaigners in the 19th century, and remain fairly popular. The major brands are manufactured by the quaker-founded businesses such as Cadbury's. They are typically drunk late at night, as are Ovaltine and Horlicks.
Apple juice in its fresh pressed form, and varying stages of fermentation would be drunk, warmed and spiced in the winter time. Locally growing fruits and berry extract would also be used to flavour water with their juices. Roast dandelion root and the fresh leaves would be made into teas and tinctures and drunk for good health. Other tisanes such as rose-hip, raspberry leaf and nettle, amongst others, would also be drunk in this way.
Soft drinks.
For much of the 20th century Britain had a system where fresh milk was delivered to the doorstep in reusable glass bottles in the mornings, usually by electric vehicles called "milk floats", though it has now been largely replaced by supermarket shopping. Some areas of the country still, however, enjoy door to door fresh milk to this day.
Dandelion and burdock was originally a lightly fermented beverage similar to root beer. Later versions were more artificially made and alcohol free. Soft ginger beer was popular from the late 19th to mid 20th century. Tizer and Lucozade are British carbonated drinks, the latter marketed as an energy drink. Lemonade generally refers to a clear, fizzy beverage in the UK. International brands of cola and energy drinks have become popular since the late 20th century.
Barley water, usually flavoured with lemon or other fruit, is a traditional British soft drink. It is made by boiling washed pearl barley, straining, then pouring the hot water over the rind and/or pulp of the fruit, and adding fruit juice and sugar to taste, although ready-made versions are usually consumed.
Squashes and cordials are an alternative to carbonated beverages. They are a non-alcoholic concentrated syrup that is usually fruit-flavoured and usually made from fruit juice, water, and sugar, which needs to be "diluted to taste" before drinking. Some traditional cordials also containherbal extracts, most notably elderflower and ginger.
Alcoholic drinks.
Beer and cider.
England is one of the few countries where cask conditioned beer is still a major part of the market. Lager or Pilsener style beer has increased considerably in popularity since the mid 20th century, and is often used as an accompaniment to spicy ethnic food. Any kind of beer may accompany a meal in a pub. English beer cookery includes steak and ale pie and beer-battered fish and chips.
Stout is a globally known style of beer which originated in England, although it came to be associated with Ireland. It has a culinary association with oysters; they can be used to flavour stout, or it can be drunk with them.
In Britain, "cider" always means an alcoholic drink of fermented apple juice and is served by the pint or half pint like beer. It is traditionally associated with certain regions, such as the South West, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, but commercial brands are available nationwide. The cloudy, unfiltered version is called scrumpy and the related beverage made from pears is called perry. In England it is sometimes distilled into apple brandy, but this is not as widespread as with Calvados in France. Culinarily, cider is sometimes used in pork or rabbit dishes.
Wine and mead.
Wine often accompanies formal meals. It was introduced to England, for both production and consumption, by the Romans. Wine has been imported ever since, although it has not always been accessible to the average person.
From the Middle Ages, the English market was the main customer of clarets from Bordeaux, France, helped by the Plantagenet kingdom, which included England and large provinces in France. In the 18th century, the Methuen Treaty of 1703 imposed high duties on French wine. This led to the English becoming a main consumer of sweet fortified wines like sherry from Spain, and Port wine and Madeira wine from Portugal. Fortified wine became popular because unlike regular wine, it does not spoil after the long journey from Portugal to England. Fortified wines are used in dessert cookery, for instance sherry features as an ingredient in trifle.
By the late, 20th century wines from around the world were available to the mass market. Viticulture was restarted in the 1970s after a very long break. England is currently a major consumer, but only a very minor producer of wine, with English and Welsh wine sales combined accounting for just 1% of the domestic market.
Another form of domestic wine production is "country wines" or "fruit wines", which are made from wide variety of fruit and vegetables —elderberry, damson, parsnip and so on — other than grapes. Commercial varieties are available, but country wines are also often home-made, sometimes from garden produce or personally harvested wild fruit. Crème de cassis is made in Herefordshire.
Mead, fermented honey, was popular in the Middle Ages, but is now a curiosity.
Spirits and liqueurs.
Although gin itself is not a British invention, its most popular style, London Dry Gin was developed in England. Gin and tonic has historical roots going back to the British empire, since the tonic was originally quinine taken to combat malaria in tropical climates. Rum likewise has historic associations for the English.
Whisky production in modern England restarted in Norfolk in late 2006, and the first resulting single malt whisky was made available to the public in November 2009. This was the first English single malt in over 100 years. It was produced at St George's Distillery by the English Whisky Company. Previously Bristol and Liverpool were centres of English whisky production.
Mixed drinks
Although the English do not have a strong tradition of inventing cocktails, they did invent the mixed drink known as punch. It is typically made of water, fruit, fruit juice and spirits and served in a large bowl. Pimms is a company which has been selling ready-mixed drinks for well over a century. Pimm's associated with the British summertime and events such as Wimbledon, the Henley Royal Regatta, and the Glyndebourne opera festival. It is often used as the basis of further mixtures including fruit, lemonade, etc.
Mixed drinks can also be based on beer (Lamb's wool) and cider (wassail).
Vegetarianism.
Since the end of World War II when their numbers were around 100,000, increasing numbers of the British population have adopted vegetarianism, especially since the BSE crisis of the 1990s. As of 2003 it was estimated that there were between 3 and 4 million vegetarians in the UK, one of the highest percentages in the Western world, and around 7 million people claim to eat no red meat. The majority of restaurants will have at least one vegetarian meal on the menu.
International reputation.
English cuisine may suffer from a relatively poor international reputation when compared to that of Italian cuisine or French cuisine. However, for many English people this perception seems outdated, for the poor reputation of industrially produced urban food in the twentieth century did not ever really represent the quality of food cooked in the home. Traditional English food, with its emphasis on 'meat-and-two-veg' falls squarely into the north European tradition extending from Northern Germany to the Low Countries and Scandinavia, albeit with a French influence.
During the Middle Ages and Enlightenment, English cuisine enjoyed an excellent reputation; its decline can be traced back to the move away from the land and increasing urbanisation of the populace during the Industrial Revolution. During this process Britain became a net importer of food. British food suffered heavily from effects of rationing during two World Wars, and the end of food rationing in 1954 was followed an increasing trend toward industrialised mass production of food. However, in Britain today there is a renewed interest in the culture of food, popularly led by celebrity chefs who seek to raise the standard of food understanding in the UK.
In 2005, 600 food critics writing for the British Restaurant magazine named 14 British restaurants among the 50 best restaurants in the world, with the number one spot going to The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire and its chef Heston Blumenthal. In particular, the global reach of Londonhas elevated it to the status of a leading centre of international cuisine.[42] Meanwhile the heavy promotion of gastronomy as a post-industrial economic solution has led to a proliferation of very fine quality producers across the country (See Illustrations).
Illustrations.
| 1. Popular names in England and Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Top 100 names for baby girls in England and Wales:
Top 100 names for baby boys in England and Wales.
Boys Names:
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| Popular Girls Names in England and Wales. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Top 100 names for baby girls in England and Wales:
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| 2. How much do things cost in England? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Woodlands Junior School is in the south-east corner of England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(Page last updated April 2008)
The cost of living varies from one part of the UK to another. Generally it is more expensive to live in London and the south-east of England, and cheaper up north. Britain's currency is based on the pound sterling (£) which is divided into one hundred pence (100p). The coin denominations are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. The most common bank notes are £5, £10 and £20, though they do go higher.
Below is a rough estimate of how much things cost in England.
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Carrots (1kg)
Bananas (1kg)
Sausages(1kg)
Traditional British Beef Mince(400g)
Chicken (Approx 1.75Kg)
Milk (568ml/1pint)
Eggs (carton of 6)
Butter Spread(250g)
Fresh Apple Juice (1 litre)
Can of Coco Cocola(330ml)
Fanta (500 ml)
Bread (800g loaf)
Sugar(1Kg)
Raspberry Jam (340g)
Kit Kat chocolate bar (48g)
Shampoo (400ml)
Toothpaste (100ml)
Cost of Living in London.
London is not a cheap place to live. House prices are high and it even costs you more to rent a room or house there.
Here are the average cost of renting in and around London per week:
| Central London | Outer London | |
| Rooms, bedsits, sharers | £118.89 | £ 84.79 |
| Studios | £187.50 | £123.80 |
| 1 bedroom house/flat | £265.12 | £160.36 |
| 2 bedroom house/flat | £375.70 | £212.26 |
