Food in Britain

What do you think of as typical British food? Roast beef? Fish and chips? Tea and cakes? Or maybe there's more to British food than that? Check out this video to find out about what people in the UK are eating these days.

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then, watch the video and do the exercises. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

Preparation

Check your food vocabulary by doing this exercise before you watch the video.

Transcript

Carmen: The Chinese introduced oriental food to Britain. But before the Chinese, immigrants from all around the world came to live in London.

British people enjoy a huge range of food and flavours from other countries.

This is Borough Market, London’s oldest food market. Today, you can find food here from all over the world.

This is Italian cheese. Each group of settlers brought their own food and styles of cooking and people here embraced the exciting new flavours… maybe because British food wasn’t very good.

Restaurants from all around the world can be found on most British high streets. Indian, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Persian... the list goes on.

But just what are the UK’s favourite dishes?

On the Street: My favourite meal is Thai green curry.

On the Street: One of my favourite meals is... cottage pie with peas.

On the Street: My favourite food is... Chinese ... Chinese.

On the Street: What’s my favourite meal? Still full English breakfast.

......

Chef: This is a full English breakfast. Tomato, black pudding, sausage, bacon, egg, mushroom.

......

Carmen: A big fried breakfast might not be to everyone’s taste. But in Britain, there is something for everyone.

Celia Brooks Brown is a food writer and knows all about food and the future of food in the UK, today.

Mmm! It looks good. What have we got here, Celia?

Celia: Well, this is a British tomato salad with a Yorkshire-made sheep’s cheese. And here we have a Barnsley lamb chop with new potatoes and a mint hollandaise sauce.

Carmen: So is this a sign of developments in British cooking?

Celia: Yes, people want to know where their food comes from. Chefs in restaurants like these are reinventing classic British dishes. They’re using ingredients that are locally sourced and locally grown.

Carmen: So what about world cuisine?

Celia: Well, anything goes. Chefs love to experiment with ingredients from different cultures. And we live in a globalised society, it’s very exciting.

Carmen: OK, Celia, if you were cooking these dishes at home, what ingredients from different cultures would you use?

Celia: Well, I might use something like this. This is a Moroccan spice mix called Ras el Hanout. Have a sniff.

Carmen: Hmm. That’s really strong.

Celia: Lovely, isn’t it? Now, this might make a lovely spice rub for that lamb chop.

Carmen: I can’t wait to taste this.

......

Carmen: The food in Britain reflects the many different cultures here. But some of the old favourites are here to stay. I’m off for my favourite, fish and chips. Want a chip?

Discussion

What do you think about British food?

Average: 3.1 (17 votes)
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Comments

Profile picture for user FlowerQueen

Submitted by FlowerQueen on Mon, 04/24/2023 - 14:55

Hi!
I think British Food is very yummy, but there are some strange things too. I'd like to taste the Englisch Breakfast!
FlowerQueen~♡

Profile picture for user Angelev

Submitted by Angelev on Sat, 01/22/2022 - 11:48

I'm like British food. She enogh intresting

Submitted by Anonimus on Mon, 07/05/2021 - 11:56

Delicious cuisine! I love bacon very much, so English breakfast is my favorite)

Submitted by Pil_crvn on Wed, 07/22/2020 - 03:18

The food is quite diverse , and I think each one responds to different cultures , it would be interesting to try the English food , thanks for the video! :)

Submitted by Eduardo_Alvarez on Fri, 07/17/2020 - 23:49

I would like to try Italian food because I like cheese, but the British breakfast caught my attention because I love bacon.

Submitted by Yun_english on Fri, 07/17/2020 - 18:09

I want taste the English food, especially the full breakfast because it looks delicious. I will go to England to taste all that dishes

Submitted by LilianaMa on Fri, 07/17/2020 - 18:06

I have never eaten british foos, but i think it would be delicious

Submitted by DulcePaleta on Fri, 07/17/2020 - 18:02

It is delicious, everything looks very rich. I would like to be eating a full english breakfast. And visit that food market.

Submitted by Googleuser on Fri, 07/10/2020 - 12:12

I think British food is delicious! If I will live in Britain, I will try something .

Submitted by Rsmnoptfghu5699 on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 17:15

I think British food is amaizing and I definitely highly recommend it especially fish and chips.

In reply to by Googleuser

Submitted by BestAmigo on Tue, 05/26/2020 - 09:48

Of all British cuisine, I like baking and fish and chips.English Apple pie and mascarpone cheesecake are my favorites from baking.

Submitted by MikeKL on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 09:39

When I were in London I saw that all people just eat fast food. So, I dont think that British national food is well spread and iI dont have a chance to tast it. But I think that it can be really tasty;)

Submitted by beasam0109 on Thu, 04/16/2020 - 06:43

I think British food is good. I've only been to Britain once but I loved everything, even the food

Submitted by giorgia_marchetti on Wed, 05/06/2020 - 08:54

I don’t mind british food, but i don’t like fish and chips because i hate fry fish, I love hamburger and Rotbeef

In reply to by beasam0109

Submitted by JasmineD03 on Wed, 04/15/2020 - 20:56

I really like Italian food, but this doesn't mean that I don't like the food of other cultures. For exemple , I really like Japanese and Mexican food. British food I think is very good, for what I have tasted. There are many varieties of food, from fish and chips, soup of the day to jacket potatoes. One thing I really like about British food are scrambled eggs with bacon, very often on Sunday I have breakfast with these foods and they are really delicious.

Submitted by BttChiara on Wed, 04/15/2020 - 17:00

I don't mind British food. Food like sausages or fish and chips is really tasty. I don't like sweets or cakes with too chocolate. I prefer Italian food like pizza or spaghetti. They are really delicious!

Submitted by Desy on Wed, 04/15/2020 - 11:44

I've never eat British food, but I'm curious to taste it in the future. But I think it's not as good as Italian food.

Submitted by MatildePace on Wed, 04/15/2020 - 10:40

I tasted english food and i didn't like it. I think English cooking consists of putting many foods on one plate. I love italian food. Every time I travel abroad, I know new cultures and it is beautiful but I always miss my grandmother's pasta with the sauce.

Submitted by FedericoB8 on Wed, 04/15/2020 - 10:26

I think British food is good, especially I like British breakfast. But I also think that Italian food is the best.

Submitted by gattifederica on Tue, 04/14/2020 - 11:12

I really like Italian food, instead I don’t like most food from other countries for example Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Japanese… I have already been in England and I mainly ate street food but there were a lot of restaurants of all nationalities. I think I would like only some English food like Sunday Roast, bacon and sausages, because I like meat, chocolate cakes, chips without fish because I don’t like it. I’d like to try the Afternoon Tea with my friends.

Submitted by bea_mara on Mon, 04/13/2020 - 19:29

I've never eaten food in Britain, but every morning I drink tea for breakfast and my parents often make fish and chips and I love it!

Submitted by Ely on Sun, 04/12/2020 - 15:33

in my opinion english food is really good

Submitted by ABC_01 on Thu, 11/14/2019 - 13:16

great ! I don't know much about food in England. But after watching the video, I found it really interesting, very, very interesting, very delicious food. I hope to enjoy the food in England.

Submitted by lkngan on Tue, 10/08/2019 - 16:41

I really like this video, it make me hungry and my wish now is to eat, eat and eat

Submitted by blackwidow on Fri, 10/04/2019 - 03:24

WOWW the video makes me feel very hungry. Before, i don' t think the food in england is so diverse, but after watching this clip, i' m really amazed by the diversity of the food in britain, but wait hmmmm....... i don' t see the vietnamese food in the clip, it' s a shame that vietnamese cuisine is really delicious and fascinating but it' s okay because may be in the future i' m going to open a vietnamese food store in this culinary market =))))))

Submitted by Jennifer on Fri, 10/04/2019 - 03:10

We know that each person all has a different tasty.With food in Britain,we will not feel boring because here has a lot of tyles of food from all over the world.If you want to change your tasty you dont need think a lot.With different cuture food here,we will enjoy everything perfect and delicious.And i hope i can come Britain to taste food at here.But i wonder that food in Britain are expensive,arent they?

Submitted by Rosie on Fri, 10/04/2019 - 02:22

Hi everyone ! I'm from Vietnam and I am quite fat haha. Because I am voracious, sometimes I also envy with my younger sister's meal. So when I watch this video, I feel hungry and want to enjoy these foods immediately. I see that some chefs seem to be professional !

Submitted by phonguyen on Thu, 10/03/2019 - 10:23

The food in England has many characteristics of Eastern Countries. It's an interesting place to explore food from different countries and learn a lot from them. Therefore, I love food in Britain

Submitted by dntvan on Tue, 10/01/2019 - 06:38

Your video is so wonderful! I really like it! I haven't eaten British food yet but thanks for this video, I found that the cuisine here is extremely diverse with each dish bearing a unique feature of a cultural region. It also looks very delicious and fantastic. I hope that if I have a chance to go there, i will directly enjoy the taste of those dishes.

Submitted by Vonhuhao on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 02:37

Hi guys, I'm from Viet Nam, so I'm learning about your culture and cuisine so that I can easily study and understand the culinary culture. Your and my culinary culture is different a lot. I think my cuisine is more simple than your cuisine but i feel british food is very tasty and fantastic. British food looks very delicious and has got many different types of food. I will learn more and one day I would like to introduce my country's culinary culture.

Submitted by DDOMMA on Sat, 02/16/2019 - 19:47

Britain - mix of the culture from different countries and food is not an exception! So in Britain you can taste food of countries which are not well-known (but also very delicious). If you want to taste meals from other countries, you must to visit Britain
Profile picture for user Lenan

Submitted by Lenan on Fri, 05/04/2018 - 07:53

I like Turkish food.Beacuse its very tasty. TRTRTR
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