On English Cuisine

I made my first trip to the UK when I was 15 years old. I loved it. The Roman ruins, cold Welsh castles, and majestic cathedrals fired up my anglophile-imagination. At the time I could name the English kings and queens from the Plantagenets to the Windsors. English history–bloody, bawdy, and long in the beard–was fascinating.

English cuisine, however, was dismal.

I’ve blocked most of it out, but I have dim, nose-turning memories of greasy leg meats and vegetables boiled to pale and pasty textures. The best meal I had on that trip was in northern Wales in a tiny pub. Steak on toast. And that’s all it was. A thin slice of steak sandwiched between two toasted slices of white bread. Simple and unadorned. My brother and I wolfed the sandwiches down.

So when I returned to the UK for a conference in Hull nearly 10 years ago, I avoided English cuisine and dined exclusively on ethnic fare: Indian and Indonesian. I remember having a delicious Balti dish in an Indian restaurant in the West Hampton section of London. English architecture, art, history and theatre plus yummy Indian food. What could be better?

Brighton 2008.

I’ve not had one bad meal here except for the ones I’ve cooked up myself (erm, yes– there was that chili that was so spicy that even AC couldn’t eat much of it, and then lately a lasagne about which the less said the better).

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Brighton has better restaurants than the East Bay– more variety and cheaper eats.

The biggest surprise, however, is that some of the dishes I’ve liked best seem quintessentially English.

1. Fish and chips: I haven’t had a super scrumptious fish and chips yet, but what I’ve had is not bad. Love the vinegar.

2. Cornish Pasties: In Cambridge we discovered what seems to be the UK’s answer to hand-held street food. A pasty is a savory, flaky filled turnover that you can eat out of your hand or with a knife and fork. My favorite so far has a mushroom, cheese and onion filling.

3. Pie: again, savory. Yesterday Sam and I met AC for lunch at a pie shop around the corner from his office. I had a pie filled with chicken, butternut squash, apricot and topped with whole coriander seeds. You can get a single pie, or make it a plate with mash (mashed potatoes), gravy and peas. “Mushy peas or garden peas?” asked the man behind the counter. Good lord, garden peas, please! “Mushy peas” sounds too much like my 1980s fare. And yet mushy peas are a regular item in restaurants. Not even AC has braved them… yet.

The pie and the mash were delicious.

4. Sunday roast: We got back from Paris last Sunday afternoon and we were starving. Also Sam hadn’t napped much on the train and so we knew we wanted to put her to bed early. The pub around the corner from our flat advertises “Sunday roast from 12 to 5.” Most of the pubs do. The choices at the Regency Tavern were beef, lamb, pork, chicken and nut roast. We showed up at 4:30 and they had only chicken and nut roast left. We ordered one of each, plus an order of chips and peas (garden of course) for Sam.

Our roasts came with mash, roasted potatoes, roasted parsnips AND roasted potatoes. All smothered in gravy. When the server put my plate down she said, “You’ve got the Yorky, there was only one. So you’ll have to fight over it.”

Yorky? Ah Yorkshire pudding. Yay!

My maternal grandfather was from an English family and so my maternal grandmother, who was Italian, learned to make all his favorite dishes, including Yorkshire pudding with roasts. My mother learned to make it as well and my taste buds have fond memories of sharing Yorkshire pudding with her, as my father and brother didn’t care for it.

I very much enjoyed my Yorkshire pudding (not as good as my mother’s) and nut roast. Maybe it was how hungry we were. Maybe it was the raw chill and rain we’d stepped out of. Maybe it was the warmth and glow of the pub and the convivial laughter of folks all around us. Maybe that’s the secret to English cuisine– anything hot and thick and filling will taste delicious after the wet cold.

Whatever the secret, it worked. We’ll be back for more Sunday roast with mash. Hold the mush, please.