The english gastronomy | London guide

London Guide

1. What to do before setting off for London: prepare your travel
2. London airports: how to get to the centre
3. Accommodation in London: the best options
4. What to see in London
5. Public transport in London
6. The English gastronomy
7. London's nightlife
8. Places surrounding London: a city not to be missed

London's multi-ethnicity allows for diversified gastronomic options. From Chinese restaurants in China town to french bistros, Italian pizzerias, Thai restaurants and tapas bar. Despite this variety English food is hard to find.

In opposition to what is commonly believed, english culinary tradition isn't that limited (although it needs to be recognised it couldn't compete with the Italian or French). The origins of this tradition are nearly as ancient as the Italian's culinary traditions and some of its dishes famous or not, are delicious to my personal taste.

I have to say that I really enjoy english cuisine as well as the Londoner. The latter is a mixture of several cuisine, tastes, ingredients, cultures and therefore perfect for me that I like to vary and try out new things. Just think about the fact that as an Italian I barely eat pasta (and not because of a diet) and I like basmati rice much better.

London is for sure full of oriental cuisine, the second biggest ethnic group in London is in fact the Indian. Although, before discussing of the variety that is possible to find in the city, and my personal advice on where to go to eat, I would like to make a list of typical english dishes that aren't well known aboard but that I think are worth trying once here instead of eating everyday fish and chips, pizza, and junk food.

The English tradition

I'm sure that one of the first things that comes to mind when I'm saying England is the famous "Fish and Chips", although English food isn't just that (the dish is simple and nice, but it isn't something that could be eaten everyday like pasta). English cuisine includes a multitude of meat and fish dishes with veggies and pastries as a side, and jams and sauces to complete it all. There are also several types of sandwiches, the famous tea with butter biscuits (coming from Scotland) or with English pastries (as scones), the bacon and don't make me started on the "English Breakfast".

Being a salty food lover my mouth is already watering, and if you still have some doubts you should try anyway. Especially because if you don't know how they taste you can't do not try it, maybe you might fall in love with one of those generally forgotten English delicacies. In northern Europe people know much more of this dishes compared to what we Italian know about it (for French and Spanish the same could be said, probably because our cuisine is much tastier).

The keywords of English cuisine are many, among them:

(English breakfast/Brunch)

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• Roast (arrosto)
• Pie (pasticcio, tortino, torta salata)
• English breakfast
• Mash (purè)
• Pudding (sanguinaccio i salty, budino if sweet)
• Gravy (salsina, sugo di carne)

Sure the expert will say that this list isn't inclusive at all, although the purpose of this list isn't to be exclusive, but to add few (but good) information to the reader before describing English dishes in detail. The one listed above aren't dishes themselves but a list of ingredients common in the English cuisine. In fact meat and fish are often roasted hence "roast", another option is to fill in a a pie hence "pie", and so on.

Now lets start with the actual dishes, that are typically English but could be presented in Italian kitchens as well (I'm sure if you are interested that searching from the name of the plate on google you'll be able to find a recipe even in Italian).

This are the dishes that I think you should try:

Salty

(Toad-in-the-hole)

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• English Breakfast (beans, sauce, sausage, eggs, bread, "hash brown" ie potato pancakes, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, but the side dishes vary, in the image for example there is also black pudding and is a very good dish also to make the "brunch")
• Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (typical Sunday lunch)
• Toad-in-the-Hole (sausages covered with butter and roasted, resting on pasta cooked like a container)
• Black Pudding ("blood pudding", black and good, to try absolutely)
• Scotch Eggs (eggs covered with meat, the recipe doesn't matter)
• Cornish Pasty ("delicious piece of" pie filled with what you want, generally salty and follows a unique recipe in its style)
• Pork Pie (pork pie, but the variations are many, "apple pie", "mince pie", "fish pie", ecc... )
• Beef Wellington (beef meat covered with pasta and roasted baked with lots of surprises inside)
• Fish and Chips
• Steak and Kidney Pie (meat and kidney pie)
• Jacket potato

(Wellington Beef)

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Every dish with added Gravy, Chutney or Cranberry sauce.

The latter is really common during Christmas when is served next to the roasted turkey and the veggies. The sauce is amazing with turkey, Brussels sprouts, pastinaca, sweet potato, etc... Mashed potato are also a common side, next to grilled salmon for example. To drink generally English people prefer English or Irish beer, wine and "Cider", but it varies a lot depending on taste. You might also find them drinking soda, water, tea or milk.

Where to eat those dishes in London

(Mince pie)

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It's hard to find a place to do such typical things, it's much easier to find an Indian or chicken restaurant, but if you're looking for something else, you'll find it. Fish and Chips can be found everywhere, do not worry. I state that I will not give names of places, but zones, then arrived there you will choose what attracts you most. The areas where you can eat other types of cuisine are many, there are fast food everywhere, Burger King, McDonald and my favourite KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and the Hard Rock Café for fans, then there are Asian restaurants in Soho (but also elsewhere), of oriental cuisine I would opt for the area between Marble Arch and Marylebon (but also for this there is not a single area, good oriental restaurants are also found in other parts of London, just look), for Italian or French or Spanish cuisine, there really is not a particular area, perhaps it is more difficult to find French restaurants in the centre, easier in areas more rich and in residential areas. Spaniards, however, I have caught several in the London Bridge area, excellent tapas. Finally, the best area is Camden Town, because the Camden markets are not just junk food but also food. There are two food markets, one outdoors, with small stands for every type of cuisine in the world, you got it right, there really is something for everyone. The second one is inside the market (indoors) and we find more Asian cuisine (try it because it is very good and cheap), but there are also Italian pizzerias and sweet stands. Finally there are the markets of Brixton and Brick Lane, Portobello (Notting Hill) and so on, especially you find them on weekends.

If you want to try traditional cuisine, the central areas (expensive) offer many options. I have never gone and I prefer to try to create dishes myself, or it happened that some friends made me taste some dishes at home, so I did not have to pay the restaurant, but I would have done it if I had not had other possibilities, because knowing a language, a culture, is never a complete knowledge without having tried the local cuisine, cooking that tells traditions, history and tastes.

Where to go

• The Wolseley – 160 Piccadilly
• Rules – 35 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden (1798, the oldest restaurant in London)
• Simpson’s-in-the-Stranf – 100 Strand
• Brady’s – 513 Old York Road
• Brick Lane – East London
• Albion Café – 2 Boundary Street, Shoreditch
• Canton Arms – 177 South Lambeth Road
• The Windmill – 6-8 Mill Street, Mayfair
• Vanilla Black – 17-18 Tooks Court
• The Three Fishes – Mitton, Lancashire
• Porters English Restaurant – 17 Henrietta Street Covent Garden (prezzi più accessibili)

(Scotch eggs)

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The tea

Tea represents the best known stereotype in the world about the English. The tea, however, does not have English origins, but was imported by the latter during the colonisation period from India and China, then became a completely English cult. With all the possible and imaginable variations that you find in England you can really indulge yourself in drinking tea. Even a non-tea lover becomes a succubus. With lemon or milk, accompanied or not accompanied by desserts or accompanying dinner (I love it when I eat rice for example), tea is certainly something that you must try.

(English tea style)

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Where to go for traditional tea

• London Afternoon Tea Bus Tour on Vintage Double Decker – Belvedere Road (Jubelee Gardens, lato opposto del London Eye)
• The Orangery Kensington Palace – Kensington Gardens
• The Ritz - Palm Court 150 Piccadilly London
• Claridge’s – Brook Street, Mayfair
• The Lanesborough – Hyde Park Corner
• Camelia’s Tea House – Carnaby Street
• The English Restaurant – 50/52 Brushfield Street
• Albion Café – Boundary Street 2/4
• High Tea of Highgate – Highgate High Street
• The Orange Pekoe – White Hart Lane 3
• Bea’s Bloomsbury – Theobalds Road 44
• The Vintage Emporium – Bacon Street 14

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(Tea bus tour)

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And then, take it where you want this tea, the important thing is to drink it! I would choose the first place, it's cool and is a novelty of this year, in fact I have not yet tried and prices are exorbitant eheheh, but it's worth it, a trip back in time is expensive, not for free! So what does English tea accompany, apart from milk or lemon?

Desserts, sweets and desserts. Hunger, hunger and hunger.

A very important part of the English culinary tradition, are the desserts. Apart from all the wonders that can be found in all supermarkets, there are desserts that you can try to do at home, or rather opt to go and try them in a restaurant. But before going to the list of goodness for sugar lovers, here are some of the desserts that I would buy at the supermarket:

(Trifle)

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(Battenberg Cake)

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• Reese (barretta di cioccolato, stile Mars, con dentro burro d'arachidi, bontà)
• Aero (chocolate with orange or mint inside, the latter is more particular and typical, the English often use mint as a taste)
• Milkyway and many other (really good)
• Magnum or Cornetto mint (very good, but if you do not like mint, do not try them, because the taste of mint is strong enough)
• Trifle (you can find it in the fridge of all supermarkets, cream on cream and jam, then on custard and even cream, it is absolutely worth it)
• Muffin with berries and white chocolate
• Brownie (I'm sure you know all the Muffins and Brownie, generally chocolate, but you also find other variations, try them)
• Mr. Kiplings (apple pie or minced meat, the first is a wonder on the palate, the second a little less)

Enter a shop (24h) and start to turn in the area sweets and ice cream, there are always news and strange things, now I do not remember all the wonders that I ate over the years, but I assure you that you can indulge. But now we move on to the real "deal", the traditional English desserts that you can find at the supermarket, but which I recommend eating in one of London's pubs or restaurants.

(Areo mint chocolate)

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• Apple (o mince) pie
• Banoffee pie
• Custard
• Carrot cake
• Crumble
• Pudding (Rice, Christmas, ecc... )
• Victoria Sponge
• Crumpets (almost never with tea, but in the morning I would eat them in spades, they are savoury muffins, superb)
• Scones
• Buns (Chelsea Bun)
• Trifles
• Pastries
• Muffins
• Stilton and Walnut pie
• Rhubarb pie
• Jaffa cake
• Treacle pie
• Battenberg cake
• Jam roly-poly pudding (o dead man's arm, un roll di marmellade)
• Bread and butter pudding

(Christmas Pudding)

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Where to eat these delicacies

• Market - 43 Parkway, Camden town
• Roast - The Floral Hall, Stoney Street, London Bridge
• Canteen - 2 Crispin Place, Spitalfields

I certainly do not forget the savoury lovers (appetizers), also because I am one. For the savoury there is really a lot of variety, from the bites of fast food (nuggets, but also chicken popcorn, that is the chicken balls that can be found at KFC, etc... ) to chips from more varied tastes (bacon, barbecue, chicken, apple and thyme, cheese and onion, shrimp cocktail that I adore), the best known are the Walkers (small packs) and the Tyrrell, because of their origins English, but you will find many other brands. Among the best packs of potato chips are those with a Thai flavor (spicy).

But now let's move on to the dishes that are considered the most popular in London. By saying this, it does not mean that the dishes are of English origin, although many are. It is right that everyone respects their culinary traditions, but at the same time being a multi-ethnic city London it is easy to fall in love with the foods of others traditions. But my favourite places I'll tell you at the end of the article.

(Eccles cakes)

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13 most popular dishes in London

1. Chicken Tikka Masala
2. Scotch Eggs
3. Onion Bahji
4. Pork Pie
5. Kedgeree
6. Chelsea Buns
7. Bacon Butty
8. Deviled Kidneys on Toast
9. Steak Kidney Pie
10. Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding
11. Bacon-Wrapped Toads in a Leek-Filled Hole
12. Reform Lamb Cutlets
13. Lemon Cardamom Syllabub

When eating there is always a drink (or almost always) therefore...

What to drink in London

• Beer
• Cider
• Milk
• Water
• Tomato juice (yum yum, it's delicious, it's done with the addition of black pepper, celery seeds, ready-made smoothies in a bottle and of tabasco, it accompanies the divinely burger, also used to create cocktails like the Bloody Mary which includes the addition of Vodka)
• Soda
• Juices
• Tea

Where

Well, the pubs in London are never lacking, so you can find cute little places on all sides, in any area, at any price. I like the O'Neils pub located in Clapham Common, right outside the subway station, next to a Starbucks, the latter loved by me as much as the "Peanut butter " :) Try the frappuccino with cream and caramel, with some chocolate and eat a "Cinnamon roll " a delicious cinnamon flavoured washer. Sip yourself with calories, do not worry, if you walk the calories you burn them.

(Cinnamon Roll)

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And finally here is a list of my favourite foods and then places where I go to eat them or where I book them. Oh yes, in England (even in Spain and France exists) there is an online home delivery service, from the name Justeat, in practice shows which restaurants deliver in the evening or day and they are close home, choose which type of food to eat, they will offer you the options of the restaurants, choose, wait and eat! Let's go to the list:

• Basmati rice (in all supermarkets)
• Oriental rice (ditto, but better in specialised restaurants)
• Sushi (I love sushi, you can find it from Yo Sushi, a chain that you can find everywhere even at the train station)
• Grilled chicken (better if from Chicken Cottage)
• Fried chicken (KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken)
• Burger (Bukowsky at Brixton Market, it's all very good, I recommend The Mother's with the caramelised onion or the meat platter)
• Hot pineapple (in any Portuguese restaurant)
• Meat (Steak House, Bukowski, Brazilian or Argentine restaurants)
• Pizza or Pasta (Vapiano, Swiss restaurant chain, very good, one can be found at Oxford Circus, try the Hawaiian pizza, with ham and pineapple)
• Potatoe Wedges (alternative to french fries )
• Cheesecake (better home-made, maybe I'll write my recipe soon)
• Peanut butter (if possible the "Crunchy", I spread it on the bread and then I put the banana in slices, it is said to be the sandwich that most liked to Elvis Presley and that really like also to Joe Bastianich (Masterchef).

(Chocolate and Peanut butter cake)

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The gastronomic guide ends here, I hope you've had a great desire to try some new dishes, if not at the restaurant, at least try to make them at home, and to finish bon appétit:)

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