Food and cuisine

You can, of course, cook for yourself and keep connected with the food that you enjoy from your culture.There are supermarkets where produce and provisions of many countries are available. Around Southampton you can also find many international supermarkets.

British dishes are mostly consist of meat, potatoes, and other vegetables. Cooking for yourself or learning how to cook is the best option as it is more cost efficient and healthier in the long run – also the options available mighvt not be your “cup of tea”. 

Britain has four national dishes, which are Chicken tikka masala (England), Haggis (Scotland), Welsh cawl (Wales), and Irish stew (Ireland).

English dishes to try

Here is a list of popular dishes in the UK that you have to try: 

• Beef wellington – This dish is considered to be one of the hardest dishes to cook in the UK, but don't let that scare you! The beef wellington is a steak dish made out of fillet steak coated with pâté and duxelles, wrapped in puff pastry, then baked.
   
• Fish and chips – One of the most popular dishes among tourists in England, and it can be found almost everywhere in the UK. However, us Brits recommend trying fish and chips near the sea for the most delicious version. As the name suggests, this dish is served with a single piece of battered fish with chips on the side. We also recommend having this dish with salt, vinegar and some tomato ketchup!
   
• Chicken tikka masala – Initially cooked by a chef in Glasgow with Bangladeshi origins, this dish is one of the most popular home-cooked meals in the UK. This dish is made of marinated boneless chicken pieces served in a subtly spiced tomato-cream sauce. Add pilau rice and naan to finish.
   
• English breakfast – The full English breakfast, or a 'fry up' is famous all over the UK, especially on the weekend. This popular breakfast includes bacon, fried eggs, sausages, baked beans, toasted bread, tomato slice, mushrooms, black pudding, hashbrowns, and anything else depending on your personal preference.
   
• Yorkshire pudding – The Yorkshire pudding is usually served as a side dish on a Sunday dinner/roast dinner. It is served in different ways depending on the place and customer preferences. The name may fool you since it is not actual pudding, on the contrary - it is made of eggs, flour, milk, and fat, and usually served with gravy.
   
• Pie and mash / bangers and mash – If you are a carbs fan, this is the best dish to try in the UK. As with many traditional English dishes. You can have any pie, but the most popular is steak and ale or stake and kidney, with mashed potatoes. For bangers and mash, you need pork sausages and mashed potatoe. Both are typically served with peas and gravy.
   
• Black pudding – Once again, the UK dishes confuse the rest of the world with their food names. To everyone’s surprise, the black pudding is a sausage made out of beef or pork blood. Yes, you read it correctly. Even though it sounds bad, it is one of the most delicious dishes in the UK. They are usually served on a English breakfasy or 'fry up'.
   
• Toad in the hole – Another dish with sausages. It is very easy to make, and all you have to do is add sausages to the Yorkshire pudding mixure, cook in the oven and serve it with gravy and vegetables. Simple.
   
• Shepherd’s pie or cottage pie – The recipe is the same for both these pies with only one difference: use lamb meat for shepherd’s pie and beef for cottage pie. Both consist of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. Typically served with cooked vegetables and gravy.
   
• Sausage roll or Scotch egg – Yes, more sausages, but in this case the sausage rolle is sausage meat wrapped in a savoury pastry and cooked in the oven, and a scotch egg is a hard boiled egg covered in sausage meat and coated in a breadcrumbs, then deep fried. They're commonly both served as snack.
   
• Trifle – This traditional English dessert is made by adding layers of pudding on top of one another —no beef included unless you are Joey from the “Friends” series. Brits like to top it with whipped cream and other toppings of their choice and serve it in a glass dish. 
   
• Jam roly poly – Another traditional British dessert served as a cake, filled with any type of jam. It is rolled up and sliced so there is a spiral shape, and served with ice cream. 
   
• Scones – This is one of the UK’s biggest debates - jam first or cream? You can try both and decide for yourself what you like more!
   
• Roast dinner or Sunday roast – It has been established that the British love to include Yorkshire pudding in almost every meal. The roast dinner is one of them. The roast dinner includes roasted meat (of choice), roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, and cooked vegetables, topped with gravy.