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Glorious Food of England
By Glynn Burrows, English Historian,
Family History Buff and Owner of
Norfolk Tours in England

Mention England to anyone and the first thing most people will think about is Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, in fact, when I was in France, I was sometimes called “Rosbif” b
y my friend’s Dad!

Today, the culinary skills of English Chefs do include fantastic Roasts but also many other regional dishes that were not regularly eaten in restaurants a few years ago. Some foodstuffs that were once only seen on the tables of the poor, are now sought after delicacies in top London restaurants. During my researches into history, it is amazing how many things eaten by my peasant ancestors are now on the menus of the rich and famous.

Going off at a tangent, as I often do, the same can be said of lots of other parts of life. Thatched, stone-built and wooden framed houses were once the dwellings of the poorest of society, with the rich living in brick-built and tiled or slated houses. Today, the reverse is true. The rich are paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for little thatched, timber-framed cottages in the country and the poor are living in brick and tile houses!

Getting back to food, one of my favourite subjects as I trained as a Chef, eating out in England today can be and should be a major part of your vacation. Tasting local dishes has to be part of the experience and one of my pet hates are people who go to France or Spain and expect to eat fish and chips and roast dinners. When I travel, I eat what the locals eat and I am generally willing to try anything. I must admit here though, I did refuse to try horse-meat when I lived in France!

So, apart from Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, what has England got to offer?

Well, the other classic dish, as mentioned above, is Fish and Chips. We generally use Cod or Plaice which is filleted and portioned up. Floured and dipped in a thick batter, (like pancake batter but thicker) and deep fried. The chips are what you call 'fries' but ours are usually chunkier than French Fries. We usually eat Fish and Chips in the paper which it is wrapped in, with lots of salt and malt vinegar. Delicious!

Scones. Either Fruit or Cheese Scones are very popular as a snack in the afternoon with a cup of tea or coffee. I did send a recipe for Diane’s Cheese Scones a while ago and you would like to try making them for yourselves. Fruit scones are similar, but you leave out the cheese, mustard & pepper (duh!) and add 8 oz. floured dried fruit and some sugar. Cheese scones are eaten with lashings of butter and the fruit scones are eaten with jam and clotted cream. (Clotted cream is really, really thick cream.) …. Diet? What diet?

In Norfolk, we are very lucky as we are a farming community and very close to the sea; mind you, England is a small island so no-one is no more than a few hours away from the coast, so, we have lots of fresh meat and vegetables as well as lots of very fresh fish.

A lot of my favourite dishes include fish or products of the sea and Cromer Crab is one of those. It is a simple dish, just a boiled and dressed crab, which I eat with salt and vinegar and lots of Granary bread & butter. (Granary bread is very rough bread, with bits in, another case of eating what the peasants ate!) Another is Samphire, which is basically a sea-grass which grows on the mud, It has a unique flavour and can be eaten hot, with butter or cold, in vinegar. I always eat mine with salt and vinegar with lots of Granary bread.

As a farming community, game is also very popular. I adore Pheasant, Wild Duck and Venison are all available here, as are Trout and many other fresh-water fish. We do have farmed fish too and some farmers are diversifying into rare breeds, such as Wild Boar!

Many of our pubs are now only cooking food which is produced locally, with some dishes having very few food miles. One party of guests who were over from the USA were amazed at one meal they had in their Farm-House B&B because the whole meal was made with produce from within four miles of the farm!

If you would like to experience some REAL home cooking and some REAL local food, why not take a tour with me and I will be pleased to take you where I go to eat and I may even get Diane to bake you some Scones!

Glynn Burrows is the owner of Norfolk Tours in England - If you would like advice about tracing your family history, need someone in England to do some look-ups or take some photographs for you, or are thinking about taking a vacation to England, contact Glynn
at www.Norfolk-Tours.co.uk