English food is kinda bland. (Sorry if you disagree, that’s just my opinion). You’ll find little fish-and-chips places all over the UK and Ireland, if you’re into the greasy newspaper-wrapped snack. In London, the most popular restaurants seem to be the Indian curry houses. There’s plenty of opportunity to sample the local brews all over the place.

If you’re really a foodie, though, hop on EasyJet and head to Paris for a few days.

There’s an old joke that goes along the lines of…

In Heaven: The French are the cooks, the Swiss run the trains, the Germans are the engineers, the English are the policemen, and the Italians are the musicians.

In Hell:
The English are the cooks,
the French run the trains,
the Italians are the engineers,
the Swiss are the musicians, and
the Germans are the policemen.

Sorry too, but I don’t really think of England when I think of great cuisine. Yeah I like Oxtail Soup, but I can’t really think of anything else. Pub Grub, plus Fish and Chip. Quite frankly, the best french fries I’ve had have been in Belgium and the Netherlands. If you are in England, definately stop in a few Indian restaurants. Definately the best place to get it outside of India.

I would think you would be better served staying in Paris and traveling from there for the food. Besides there, the Alsace region offers an interesting fusion between French and German cuisine. The Netherlands is a great place to find Indonesian food. Also, when in this region of Europe, get some Moules (mussels). My favorite bivalve (well, except maybe for oysters on the half shell) and you can normally find an all you can eat place somewhere that will make them in a variety of ways.

Of course Italian food is still my favorite…

I agree that a lot of English food can be bland. Even many of the "spicy" places there are bland by standards elsewhere. I do love the cornish pasties though. They are nice pastries filled with all sorts of things…from broccoli/cheese..to steak..to chicken tikka. If you’re going to have Indo-Pak food in London, go to Southall. Its where a huge portion of them live and have communities. The food tasted much better there than in the other places. I found a lot of the foreign food in London tastier than the actual English food. From Thai to Italian to Indian. Just ask around..because you’ll probably want to dodge the Englishified versions of those cuisines. In Ireland I found Guinness Stew to be quite good(beef, potatoes, vegetables..w/ a kick). I saw it at 3 places..but that was in the southern portion of the republic. In Scotland..they seemed to have a lot of places that served a variety of fried foods…even Mars bars. Interesting…but cant take too much of it. All and all, I thought London had the best food in the UK…but I had to sift through the blandness and find the gems. It should be of note that even many of the bland places still tasted very fresh…so that was good..the Englishification of the food wasn’t though. I also hung out in the UK last time after all the great stuff in Italy and France..so maybe my take was a result of the step down from those 2 famously enjoyable countries for food.

Ricecloudnine, I heard that joke slightly differently:

In Heaven:
The Swiss run the banks,
the Germans make the cars,
the British run the police,
and the French cook the food.

In Hell:
The French run the banks,
the Swiss make the cars,
the Germans run the police,
and the British cook the food.

Haw haw haw.

I’ve heard a number of different versions. Another is…

Heaven Is Where:

The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

The point is (to keep this within the topic of the thread) that the joke about the British, is always their cooking.

British food – or at least, food that you can get in Britain – has come a long way since the dark days of the 1970s (shudders at the memory).

You can get alot of good stuff – as others have said Indian food (most of which is acutally Bangladeshi/Bengali) is good here, generally accepted to be the best outside of the subcontinent.

Best stuff are ‘Sunday Roasts’ – esp. Beef and Lamb, but you can get these, good and bad, anywhere. Are you American? I never saw people eating Lamb in the US – you can get really good lamb in the UK, though mutton now tends to only be eaten in black and asian communities (and sometimes in curry houses as lamb), where it is often sold interchangeably as goat.

Puddings of course are great too – crumble, various kinds of sponge, jam roly poly, etc – all drowned in custard.

You can get particular specialities in the countryside or fishing communities, and it would be more traditionally British – speciality sausages, smoked fish, cream teas, stuff like that. High Tea is now a largely dead tradition (it has only died in the last generation though), outside of upmarket hotels.

Most of the cities will have a great selection of ethnic foods – chinese obviously, thai is now very common, vietnamese in larger cities. You can often get really good kebabs – especially where there are large cypriot communities – north london for example. You can get terrible kebabs on any high street.

However, unlike France or Italy, its not a culture built around cuisine – its food to keep manual workers alive. Fundamentally, ‘traditional’ British food emerged to feed an industrial population in a cold wet country – so its bread, meat, cheese, potatoes. Meditteranean food it ain’t.

So I would decide on what you actually want to see in the UK, and then eat as you go. It’ll be much of a muchness – whilst you could go to rural areas for trad food, you’ll often find that food there can be worse, as it doesn’t sustain good size supermarkets (where almost everyone shops now).

Why have you arrived in Belfast??

If you are ending up in London – you should check out bits of the east end. Brick lane is now home to Bengalis predominantly – loads of curry houses, good bad and indifferent – I like ‘Sweet and Spicy’ which is like a cheap cafe really. Probably not the very best Indian food, but really tasty and spicy, and closer to the food Bengalis eat at home, as opposed to what they serve up in restaurants.

It used to be a jewish area before the war, and you can still get good salt beef bagels at the top end of Brick Lane. Theres also a trendy organic type place on the site of the old Truman brewery.

You can get jellied eels and other dodgy cockney grub at the ‘Tubby Isaacs’ stall nearby at the bottom of Middlesex Street, I think (next to the Aldgate Exchange pub)

Check out the bengali market on Whitechapel Road – and have a pint in the Blind Beggar (where Ronnie Kray shot Albert Connell (?) for calling him a ‘fat poof’ – thereby leading to the arrests that ended the Kray Twins rule of the East End).

Tayyabs on Fieldgate Street is very highly rated (pakistani food I think) check out their website (google on tayyabs) – the street itself is interesting, with a tiny synagogue wedged into the back of a large mosque.

You can also get loads of different things nearby at Spitalfields Market, wedged between Bishopsgate and Commercial Street, near liverpool street station. Mostly city boys there, but fun and loads of choice. Check out the streets between Brick Lane and Commercial street – really old london housing that survived the blitz.

Further north in Hackney, you have Ridley Road market – which is a real mixture – mostly Afro-Caribbean, but lots of cypriot stuff there. The market is great, especially on Fri/Sat. Nearby, is one of the last surving ‘cockney’ pie and mash shops (on KIngsland Road/High Street – they also do jellied eels.

If you do go up to Hackney, try and get some West Indian or African food – jamaican patties, goat curry, fried fish, jollof rice, stuff like that.

For more Jewish food, try Stamford Hill, in the north of hackney – home to a large number of orthodox jewish sects. Good for salt beef and other kosher fare.

Nearby Stoke Newington Church street is trendy as you like, with some nice restaurants on it.

Stoke Newington is great for Turkish food too – try Ispanakli – a kind of filled flat bread – the spinach ones are spot on. Also great kebabs around here.
If its full of turks giving you bad looks when you walk in, it’ll probably be good – if it looks like it will be full of drunks soon, it’ll be crap.

Theres a great one on Green Lanes, where you can sit down, just south of the junction with Petherton Road. A 5 min walk from church street. If I’m not mistaken, you could enjoy freshly grilled sheeps testicles in there too. The pitta bread is superb, unlike the rubbish you buy in shops.

All these east end areas are in a broad band running north for about 3 miles from ‘the city’ i.e. financial district.

As others have said, Southall is great food indian food – I think this is indian too, rather than bengali (but I could be wrong). The sunday market is meant to be good too. Southall is out on the fringe of West London, though.

South of the River, lots of people love Brixton, and its market – though some more fragile souls can find it a bit intimidating at times. Its fine though, very trendy with arty types – and probably the only place in London with a truly West Indian feel. Expensive, fashinable and a bit rough – funny old place.

Ciao,

Thanks for all the great comments – even the bad jokes. Now that I know about food in London, what about the other cities I will be stopping in??

I get into Newcastle on a Sunday evening, around 7.30 pm. I now live in Italy and have been here for a year. Here, you get to a train station or airport and can find a cheap place to stay – no prob.

Is the UK different?? Should I worry about finding a bed to sleep in as much as what I will be eating??

From Newcastl I plan on going to Edinburgh. What about there? How would I get there from Newcastle?

Then to Glasgow. Same info needed on sleeping and getting there.
Then to Belfast. Same info needed on sleeping and getting there.
Then to Dublin. Same info needed on sleeping and getting there.
Then to London. Same info needed on sleeping and getting there.

If you think this is too much or to little starting on April 24 and ending on May 4 in London (for a flight), then say so. I need tips!

MANYAK

Six cities in 10 days? Yep, way too much.

I know it’s tempting to do all that but honestly, you could spend your entire time in London and not run out of things to do. If I were you I’d limit your trip to 3 stops and actually spend a couple of days in each place. Otherwise, the only food you’ll get to sample is whatever is sold at the train station.

what is it that you actually want to see? To be honest, I wouldn’t bother with Newcastle, Belfast or Glasgow (except as a way up to the Highlands).

If its a first visit to the UK – in 10 days, I would do a few days in london, a couple of day trips (Bath, Oxford or a couple of days in Edinburgh), and a couple of days countryside – cotswolds, lake district, highlands, or whatever.

Train times can be found on
http://www.nationalr…

you should definately go to newcastle! so many people dont venture any further north than oxford and bath and they really miss out…in the north we are friendlier, beer is cheaper and you get to see more of ‘real’ england outside london! you are definately trying to fit a bit too much in but i rerally think you should try and pick at least one northern city for a stay. i suggest leeds or newcastle as they are both direct express train rides from london ( kings x london to leeds only takes 2 and a half hours). check out www.virgintrains.com for trains. I live in leeds and would be happy to give more details! newcastle is also a brilliant city and a great place for a night out.

Newcastle is good for a night out, and the bridges over the Tyne look great – but you won’t find many people recommending it as part of your first 10 day visit to the UK.

Before giving myself up to a crapy itinerary – check this out…what do you think??

4/24 – arrive in Newcastle, spend the night.
4/25 – in the AM, walk around the city a bit. at 11.00 take a train to Leeds, eat at Anthony’s (i hear it is near the station). Spend the night in Leeds
4/26 – train to Edinburgh –
4/27 – edinburgh to dublin, spen the night in dublin
4/28 – Dublin
4/29 – Dublin to London stopping to eat at the Fat Duck
4/30 – London until May 4th with daytrips to wherever.

Too much cramming early on??

MANYAK

because your first priority is food, I really have not idea. But I am kind of agree with most of others people. The food in Britian is just like the food in America or Europe, haven’t found any spacial favorite.

But if i were you and been to Belfast, I will definitly visit Giant Causeway. You can go there with one-day bus tour from Belfast. There must be a planty of info in your hotel/hostel.

I think from Ireland to England, Plane is cheaper. To other islands, you may have to take ferries, and it would be cheap.

http://www.hostel.co…
http://www.hotel.com…

you can find all you want.

Dublin for only one night? Forget it. You’ll spend most of the time getting to and from. Even though the flight is short, the transportation to/from the airport, checking in, security, flight delays, lost luggage, etc… by the time you’re done with it all you’ll have exactly 15 minutes to see Dublin before going to sleep and heading back.

Dublin is a great city, it’s worth at least a few days plus a few more days seeing other parts of Ireland.