British Food

To live in Britain there are three main stereotypes that have to be overcome once you've arrived. The first is that they drink loads of tea, well that's mostly true but don't forget the alcohol. The second is that it always rains, this is not true, it does not rain all the time. It is however very cloudy many days of the year. And thirdly is that the British food is bland and boring, well let me correct that stereotype right away, baked beans, potatoes and peas are not bland and with some variations on a theme several meals can be created.

Let's start with potatoes which have a special place in the British heart. Potatoes in Britain, as in American, are very versatile, in fact I've only found one use for a potato here that I never heard of in the States. There is a dish called a Chip Butty, chip being British for fries, and butty is a sort for bun. Now this may make those Atkin's Diet followers of you cringe, but the idea is very simple, you take some fries and eat them on a sandwich. Great. It's filling, it's warm, inexpensive and can be dressed with either butter or ketchup (or tomato sauce as it's called in Britain).

Now let's move on to Baked Beans, they're so versatile that the British eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Baked beans do not usually contain weenies or sausages they're just beans alone. You can buy beans and sausages but they're on a different aisle at the grocery store from the regular baked beans aisle. Heinz is the king of baked beans as is noted in their own ad campaign that has been running for roughly fifty years, "Beanz Meanz Heinz". There are other brands and even, GASP, store brands. Beans, like potatoes go good with bread, usually toasted, or combined with potatoes in a form called a jacket potato (stuffed baked potato). Heinz even makes a cookbook for their Baked Beans where one can find interesting ideas like Baked Bean Sushi.

Finally onto peas which are sold separately in the frozen food section from the other vegetables. I'm assuming this is so regular pea consumers who don't like all other vegetables won't be dissuaded by their affiliations. Peas are the number one green vegetable on British plates. But to make plain old English peas (now you know why they're called that) more interesting, sometimes they're mushed up and called mushy peas. See not boring in the least.