Food and Drink in Britain

Jackie Maguire

Potatoes： a staple food

Although potatoes are one of the most important， or staple， foods in the British diet， they first came from South America. Farmers in Peru grew them from the thirteenth century on， and then the Spanish brought them back to Europe in the mid-sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century potatoes were introduced to the British Isles from mainland Europe and they became a very important crop in Ireland. Potatoes were so important in fact， that when the crops failed because of disease in 1845， 1846 and 1848， thousands of Irish people died because they did not have enough food to eat. Many other people moved to North America or Britain; and there are still many Irish people in Liverpool and other British cities today.

During the First and Second World Wars （1914-1918 and 1939-1945）， it was difficult to bring fresh fruit and vegetables into Britain and so farmers grew a lot of potatoes. They still do.

Today the British grow six million tonnes of potatoes every year and most people eat over a hundred kilograms a year. Some potatoes have red skins， some white; sometimes they are eaten with the skin， sometimes without. There are many different kinds and many ways of cooking them， for example： boiling and mashing （with milk and butter）， baking， roasting， and frying （using oil， for example chips）.

You can also make potato soup， potato bread， potato salad， or use up extra cooked potatoes in a dish with the strange name of “bubble and squeak”. To make this， take the cooked potatoes left over after a meal， mash them， mix them with some cooked cabbage and any other vegetables， and fry them with a little oil until golden brown. This is popular the day after a big roast dinner. The dish gets its name from the noises it sometimes makes when frying， and is often served with cold meat.

We cannot talk about potatoes and not talk about one of Britain's favourite snacks： crisps. Over seven million packets of crisps are eaten in Britain every day！ The first potato crisps were fried in the USA in 1852 but they were not made in Britain until the early 1900s. A food shop manager called Frank Smith started selling them in open paper bags from his bicycle in London in 1920. Then he found people liked salt on them so he put a small blue paper packet containing some salt in each bag of crisps.

Crisps became more popular during the Second World War because although it was difficult to get many kinds of food， potatoes could still be bought. Most supermarkets today sell many different types， like salted， salt and vinegar， cheese and onion， Worcester sauce， beef， and chicken.

A sweet tooth

Cakes， chocolate， ice-cream... the British love them all. A meal is not a full meal without some kind of dessert and sweet things are very popular as a snack too. Every shopping street has a baker's shop selling bread and cakes， and a newsagent's shop selling chocolate and ice-cream as well as newspapers.

Chocolate is the most popular sweet snack， and the British eat more than eight kilograms per person per year of it. Christopher Columbus， the Italian traveller （1451-1506）， brought chocolate from Central America to Europe at the end of the fifteenth century but it was not really eaten in Britain until the mid-nineteenth century. The Cadbury family began to make drinking chocolate in Birmingham in 1831 and by 1878 they had 200 workers. They needed a bigger factory so they bought some land and built a new one. They also built a whole village for the workers， which they called Bournville. By 1881 they were selling chocolate as far away as Australia， and by 1899 they had more than 2，600 workers. Chocolate is eaten almost anywhere， any time， but is very popular at Christmas and Easter. Dark chocolate， milk chocolate， white chocolate... there are many kinds to choose from， and British chocolate products are today sold all over the world.

Ice-cream is eaten as a snack， a dessert， or with another dessert （like a piece of hot apple pie）. Traditionally it is made from milk， fat， sugar and things like fruit， nuts or mint， but today vegetable oils are often used instead of milk. In the 1920s ice-cream was sold from three-wheeled bicycles called trikes， ridden by the ice-cream seller who shouted “Stop me and buy one！” Then vans were used — they drove around the streets playing music so people would run out and buy some ice-cream.

Ice-cream is often eaten in cinemas and theatres， and children still go running for money when they hear the music played by the ice-cream van on a hot summer's day.

There are three main kinds of cooked desserts （also called puddings）： baked puddings （cooked in the oven， for example， fruit pies）， boiled or steamed puddings （cooked over boiling water， for example Christmas pudding）， and milk or cream puddings （for example rice puddings）. Cream is the fatty part of milk， it is darker in colour and tastes richer.

One of the most famous British desserts is the sherry trifle， served cold and usually made in a big glass bowl. On the bottom is some fruit， then some cake with sherry — a kind of strong wine — poured over. Then there is some red jelly， on top of that yellow custard， then cream， and finally nuts on top.

One of the most popular British summer desserts is also one of the simplest： fresh strawberries with thick cream on top.