If you are a foodie, a trip to England is going to be a savory treat. English people know how to grow taste for food rather than just gorging on them. The British boast of their family kitchen a lot. Most of the famous British cuisines are just out of their traditional family kitchen. Simple ingredients are cooked in the simplest manner and then put together on a platter maintaining simple rules of aesthetics. This makes British cuisines markedly different from that cooked in other European countries.
English people prefer home cooked food with simple color to the fancy food in the posh restaurants. This does not mean that influence of cuisines from other countries have not reflected on their platters.
Stews and soups are the staple diet of people in England. These two have largely been influential in beating the biting cold in that country. Let us focus on the influences that have changed British food to a large extent, over the time.
Impact of the Invasion: From time immemorial, England is becoming a melting pot of culinary practices of the French, the Vikings and the Romans. The Franco-Normans also brought in spices like, mace, saffron, nutmeg, ginger, pepper and sugar to enrich English cuisines. If you want to get a genuine feel of the Franco-Norman impact on the English platters, try out some of the hot cross buns, plum puddings and Christmas cakes. In fact, the British aristocracy kept on having French food for years after the invasion.
Influence of the British Colonies: The colonies in East Asia brought tea to England and England introduced India, another colony of the British Empire to that beverage. India, in return got the English obsessed with spicy sauces, curry and condiments which later got embraced with much affection by the English chefs.
Effect of War: The two World Wars damaged English cooking in a big way. During the 2nd World War, rationing of basic food ingredients like sugar, butter, eggs and meat spoiled British cooking a lot. This phase of bad cooking went on till the 1950s. Since then, English cooking earned a bad reputation worldwide.
Favorites Among the English Cuisines:
There are a number of dishes created by the British, which are savored all over the world. This list includes, fish and chips, roasted beef, Yorkshire pudding, steak with kidney beans, etc. British puddings are much liked by the tourists as well. They are not always sweet, but are steamed and baked. Sometimes they are served with custards.
If you always plan to tour countries that have foods famous all over the world, you should come to England. English food is markedly different from the other cuisines in the world and you will simply savor its taste.
