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You are here: Home / Britishness / British Food / Eating British in America: Dining with a Dose of British Attitude

Eating British in America: Dining with a Dose of British Attitude

June 17, 2019 By Colleen Sehy 11 Comments

Editor’s Note: Let’s give a big Anglotopia welcome to Colleen Sehy, who is going to write about British food in America for Anglotopia.

Welcome to my new monthly column, Eating British in America. I’ve spent more than 35 years traveling across the United States exploring places with links to the British Isles. My travels increased significantly while I was conducting research for my upcoming book, Finding Shakespeare in America, a guide to connecting with the Bard in the US.

During my travels, I’ve visited restaurants, pubs, tearooms, and shops across the country that serve wonderful English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh foods. Eating British in America will highlight some of these businesses, and the people behind them, to help you find authentic tastes of Britain in the United States.

Are you interested in making British food at home? I’ll also share some of the recipes I’ve collected over the years, along with advice on preparing British recipes in American kitchens.

THE GROWING POPULARITY OF BRITISH FOOD

British food had a questionable reputation in America during much of the 20th century. This reputation overlooked the wealth of unique, delicious foods that can be found across the British Isles. Fortunately, Americans have learned more about the quality and diversity of British food in recent years.

Chefs such as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, and Gordon Ramsay have helped raise its profile with their popular television shows and cookbooks. Shows like Downton Abbey, Outlander, and Poldark have also sparked interest, generating cookbooks such as A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes; Outlander Kitchen: The Official Outlander Companion Cookbook; and The Poldark Cookery Book.

Then there’s The Great British Bake Off, which airs in the US as The Great British Baking Show. This popular show has produced a host of tie-in cookbooks, including The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking and The Great British Bake Off: Perfect Cakes and Bakes to Make at Home. Books from the show’s judges and contestants have also sold well in the US.

These and many other options make it easy for today’s Anglophiles to learn more about British food, but it hasn’t always been so easy for Americans to add British flair to their meals.

I started collecting British recipes after my first visit to England in 1979. Back then, I couldn’t just open a laptop and look up recipes online or order cookbooks from Amazon. Instead, I combed through library books and magazines to find recipes for things like Scotch eggs, toad-in-the-hole, Madeira cake, and other mysterious foods I encountered in the English books I was reading. I was in heaven when I stumbled across my first English cookbook in a used bookstore!

Today, I have more than 100 cookbooks on English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish cooking. They’re filled with recipes for historic dishes, regional specialities, pub grub, afternoon tea treats, and much more. I’ve tried quite a few of these recipes over the years. Some of my efforts have fallen flat, while others have become a welcome sight in our house.

ENDLESS CHOICES

The foods of the British Isles are as varied as its peoples. Each country has its own culinary traditions, and within each country, regional specialities abound.

Anglophiles are probably familiar with English foods like bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, and fish and chips. But what about bubble and squeak, Lancashire hotpot, Eton mess, and treacle tart? Wales is known for its national vegetable, the leek, and for Welsh rarebit, but have you ever tried laverbread, Glamorgan sausages, or bara brith?

Scottish specialities such as smoked salmon, haggis, and shortbread, and Irish specialities like soda bread and Irish stew are widely recognized in America. But Scottish specialities such as Cullen skink, Scotch collops, bridies, and black bun, and Irish specialities like boxty, champ, coddle, and barmbrack are almost unknown.

Many regional recipes are based on local bounty and have evolved over hundreds of years. For example, cider is closely associated with the English counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire in western England, where a wide variety of apples have long flourished. Britain’s long stretches of coastline yield popular delicacies like Whitstable oysters, Manx queen scallops, and finnan haddie, a cold-smoked haddock from Scotland.

A cream tea served with traditional Cornish clotted cream

Distinct versions of clotted cream developed on the dairy farms of Devonshire, Cornwall, and Somerset in England. Regional baked goods include Dundee cake and Selkirk bannock in Scotland; Northumberland singing hinny, Bakewell tart, parkin (claimed by both Yorkshire and Lancashire), and Eccles cakes in England; and Waterford blaa in Ireland.

Some regional specialities have earned protected status from the European Union, including Stilton and Wensleydale cheeses, Welsh lamb, Cornish pasties, Jersey Royal potatoes, Cumberland sausage, and Scotch whisky. Protected status recognizes and safeguards unique foods and agricultural products, and helps increase awareness of these culinary treasures.

Meat pies come with a variety of fillings

Organizations and programs such as the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the Red Tractor Assured Food Standards program, and Love British Food are also helping to promote and preserve local foods and beverages.

There have also been many international influences on British cuisine. Some of those influences date back hundreds of years, such as the introduction of the potato from South America in the late 16th century. India’s influence is reflected in foods like kedgeree, chicken tikka masala, vindaloo, and chips smothered in curry sauce. Turkey contributed the popular doner kebab, and Italy’s influence is found in dishes like spaghetti Bolognese (sometimes called spag bol) and lasagna, which is often made with bechamel sauce in England.

IRISH TEA AND ENGLISH TEA DIFFERENCES

Many of the businesses I’ll be highlighting in this column were started by British expats or the descendants of British immigrants. They take pride in bringing an authentic taste of their homelands to America.

An example of this pride can be found in Loraine Dalton Gist, who regularly presents a program called An Irish Celebration of Tea at the Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Loraine developed the program to highlight the differences between Irish tea traditions and the more widely known tea traditions of England. In addition to learning about the history and customs of tea in Ireland, participants also sample some popular Irish teas and practice making a proper Irish ‘cuppa’ under Loraine’s expert guidance.

Enjoying Irish tea and soda bread with Loraine Dalton Gist

Most importantly, the presentation highlights the spirit of hospitality that’s deeply ingrained in Irish culture, and the important role that tea plays in that hospitality. This spirit is evident as Loraine shares a wealth of anecdotes about her life in Ireland, while participants sip their perfect cuppas and sample her delicious Irish soda bread.

JOIN ME EVERY MONTH

Loraine is just one of the many people I’ve met who are eager to share their culinary and cultural heritage with America. Be sure to join me each month as we meet more of these individuals on our great British food odyssey across the United States.

I’m also looking forward to hearing about your favorite recipes and your favorite places to eat British in America.

I’ve collected pictures of some of the foods we’ll be exploring on the Classic British Food board on my Pinterest page. I hope these pictures and my upcoming columns will inspire you to add some British flair to your dining experiences!

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Filed Under: British Food, Eating British in America

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About Colleen Sehy

Colleen travels America exploring places with links to the British Isles. Her writing helps other Anglophiles enjoy rewarding encounters with England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in the US. Learn more about her book, Finding Shakespeare in America, and her other writing at www.colleensehy.com and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium & Pinterest. Note: Colleen does not accept payments, goods, or services in exchange for featuring businesses and organizations in this column.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nick Davies says

    June 17, 2019 at 10:43 am

    You’ve got a paragraph about “An Irish Celebration of Tea” underneath a strap saying “British Food in America”.

    That’ll go down well in Dublin.

    Reply
    • Jonathan says

      June 17, 2019 at 10:55 am

      Thanks for pointing that out, we’ve updated it.

      Reply
  2. Marvin Gray says

    June 17, 2019 at 12:14 pm

    You did not mention my regional favorite, Welsh Cakes.

    Reply
  3. DoctorRose says

    June 17, 2019 at 2:40 pm

    You said you’ve been ALL over the USA checking the British, Scottish, Welsh, Irish foods but you don’t say what states you visited that had these foods. So, which states are they? You mentioned Phoenix, Arizona but no place else.

    Reply
    • Jonathan says

      June 17, 2019 at 4:49 pm

      This is an ongoing column, she will be highlighting the specific places in the coming weeks!

      Reply
  4. Dale Hill says

    June 18, 2019 at 5:01 pm

    I’m hoping she’ll tell us the best places to order things like bangers and pork pies…

    Reply
    • Andy McGugan says

      June 18, 2019 at 10:39 pm

      Yes – we need good british sausages – not that Saag travesty!

      Reply
  5. Barbara Idzerda says

    June 18, 2019 at 8:42 pm

    My favorite British restaurant is Tea & Sympathy in NYC. It’s just nextdoor to their shop which sells tea, food & sweets from the UK????????

    Reply
  6. Graham says

    July 1, 2019 at 2:13 am

    Add a plate of Panhaggerty (or Pan Haggerty) from Northumberland too! Delicious.

    Reply
  7. Colleen Sehy says

    October 25, 2019 at 12:17 pm

    Thank you for all comments! I’ve enjoyed my first five months as an Anglotopia columnist and I’m looking forward to covering many of your suggestions in the coming months. For those of you looking for British sausages, the Queen Vic Pub (featured in my August column) makes authentic bangers that are worth the trip; Myers of Keswick in NYC (featured in my July column) makes excellent British sausages, pork pies, and other savories; and October’s column on autumn favorites includes more places to find bangers. I’ll be including more sources for sausages and meat pies in the coming months. It may take some time to find Welsh cakes and pan haggerty, but I’m willing to do it in the name of research!

    Reply
  8. Jean | Delightful Repast says

    November 25, 2019 at 5:45 pm

    Colleen, I missed your first column! Here’s my own recipe for Waterford Blaas https://www.delightfulrepast.com/2016/03/waterford-blaas-irish-blaas-yeast-buns.html – and when you can lay your hands on some good Irish back bacon, they make THE most wonderful bacon sandwiches.

    Reply

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