Let's start by getting our facts straight: England is a country situated on the largest island in Europe, called Great Britain. The island hosts three countries: England, Scotland and Wales. All the kingdoms of Great Britain were remitted into a union of kingdoms in 1707, and in 1801 it was united with its neighbouring island, Ireland. Ireland subsequently became an independent Republic (1921), except Northern Ireland opted to remain part of the United Kingdom. In short: England is not Britain (but on it), and it is not the United Kingdom (but part of it). Confused? Never mind...so are many.
When travelling, you fill your day with activities such as visiting museums and cathedrals, or hiking the mountains and admiring the natural riches of your destination. This is what you do in "the space between meals". Often the food and dining experiences of different countries are the most memorable part of a holiday. Apparently not so in England. A recent Lonely Planet survey deemed English food the worst in the world (by a landslide). Former French President Jacques Chirac famously quipped "one cannot trust the people whose cuisine is so bad".
Now let's take a closer look at this cuisine that is often described as boring, bland and boiled. Traditionally, English cuisine centred around bread, cheese and meats. Being surrounded by the Atlantic ocean, seafood also played its part - cockles, mussels, whelks and winkles. Oysters used to be the mainstay of the poor, baked in a savoury pudding with beef ...later replaced by kidneys. Meat pies date back to the middle ages, when the pastry was used as a container to serve meat (called a coffyn). And pasties were formed by simply wrapping the entire filling in pastry. Classic cottage pie (beef) and Sheppard's pie (lamb) are topped with mashed potatoes. Sausages (colloquially known as bangers) were traditionally made from low quality meat and offcuts, with beef and pork being the most popular - sometimes baked in Yorkshire Pudding batter, known as Toad in the Hole. Savoury puddings, like Black Pudding and White pudding contain pig's blood....in line with the famous adage "you can eat every part of the pig except its squeal". The Victorians sabotaged their own meals by boiling everything into a pulp because they were so obsessed with hygiene and afraid of raw food. Yes, English cuisine has had a bad rap. But where would us Anglo-Saxons be without a sandwich ( named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who asked his valet for "some meat tucked between two slices of bread", and others then ordered "the same as Sandwich"), or a Full English Breakfast, Afternoon Tea and The Sunday Roast?
And how different the profile of Australia would have been, was it not for the 80,000 English convicts that were transported here between 1788 and 1840. By 1859 there were 2.2million free settler immigrants from Britain. Today, people from England form the largest migrant group in Australia, with 14 million having an ancestral connection to England. We discovered a little bit of England last night. We travelled 19km south east of Brisbane City (pushing the boundaries of our Friday-Night -Out rules a bit...) to the bay-side suburb of Birkdale. Hugging the foreshore of Redlands mainland, Birkdale was so named in 1880 by local landowner William Thorne after his birthplace in England. Australians aside, the biggest percentage of the 13,800 residents in Birkdale comes from England.
Outside of England, fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, and sprinkled with salt and malt vinegar is the most popular and identifiable English contribution to the culinary world (surprisingly, inside of England, the most popular dish is chicken tikka masala). So it had to be Fish and Chips. It was just me and my two boys, joined by Martina and Kerry. We visited Chumley Warner's, a traditional fish'n'chippy in a dining precinct that reminded us of the huge English ex-pat community in the area. Urban street food is what they specialise in: battered and deep fried haddock, plaice or cod with hand cut fried chips, fried scampi, fried onion rings, fried mushrooms - we ended up with a number of "unidentified frying objects " in front of us. The menu also features pies and sausages, haggis and black pudding, mushy peas, gravy and baked beans. Chumleys must be the only place in Brisbane where you can order a couple of faggots (offal meatballs) and not be cited for verbal abuse. All the fish served at Chumley Warner's is caught in the North Atlantic Ocean, "wild" and not farmed, and frozen within 5 hours to preserve quality and taste. Their Frying Range was designed and built in Leeds, England and then shipped to Australia, together with a unique potato rumbler and chipper. If you are desperate for authentic English fast food fare, Chumley Warner's might just fit the bill.
(* Angles. The Angles are of Germanic tribal origin from the Baltic Sea, and settled on the Island of Britain in the early Middle Ages)
Assorted "frying objects" with pickled wallies
Pie and Pasty
Fish and chips
Restaurant to the right
Shop to the left
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