English Breakfasts and Afternoon Teas

The quintessential British gastronomic experience!

BREAKFASTS

"To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day."
W. Somerset Maugham

Perhaps the most telling evidence of the pervasiveness of American culture throughout the world is the fact that in most hotels outside the UK the traditional English hearty meal that starts the day is known as the American Breakfast.

Personally, I prefer the continental approach, but you will still get a full English Breakfast served to you in most UK hotels. Usually, this will consist of fried bacon and egg, mushrooms, sausage, grilled tomatoes, fried bread and, especially in the north, black pudding (blood sausage). It was also traditional to serve grilled kippers (salty, oak-smoked herrings), but this is more rarely found nowadays. These dishes will be accompanied with white toast, butter and marmalade (Frank Cooper Vintage Oxford or the original Keiller Dundee Marmalade are best) and of course, tea with milk.

Len Thorne's Swansea Market Traditional Welsh Breakfast If you're in Wales, look out for Laverbread, a dark concoction made from seaweed which is often served with bacon, grilled tomatoes and buttered toast. It has been called an acquired taste.

Warning: Coffee

This may be a good time to warn you about coffee in Great Britain. If you are an afficionado and particularly partial to good italian espresso (see, I'm already showing my prejudices) YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED in the UK. If you like the US style of weaker filter coffee you may survive, but for the most part abandon all hope of hotels producing the real deal. Starbucks are creeping in, but apart from a few small cafe outposts in the wilderness waging a lonely campaign that's about as good as it gets.

AFTERNOON TEA

Tea at the Peninsula , Hong Kong

This quintessentially British tradition is alive and thriving throughout the world (the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong does it especially well) and nowhere more so than in England, where it began.

The tea is usually black tea from India or Sri Lanka, with milk or perhaps a slice of lemon. Earl Grey is a particular favourite. Politely small sandwiches with the crusts removed, usually filled with cucumber, cream cheese or salmon paste are followed by a selection of freshly-baked cakes and/or scones with butter, jam and clotted cream (a heart-stopping speciality of the west of England). Welsh Tea Bread or Barra Brith is a sweetish bread containing dried mixed fruit.