Picture choosen by: MissKan Kongsom British Food&Drinks Despite jokes and stereotypes, internationally orientated British cuisine has improved greatly over the past few decades. Unlike their continental neighbours, many Britons still eat to live rather than live to eat, and as a result, food quality is variable at the budget end of the market. The United Kingdom can be an expensive place to eat out compared to, say, the more southern European countries. Generally, a three-course meal without drinks will cost the traveller anywhere between £10 and £15. Chicken tikka masala with rice is sometime claimed as the UK's most popular dish, though roast beef is a more traditional national dish. Street markets are a good place to pick up fresh fruit and local cheeses at bargain prices. Bakeries (eg Greggs) and supermarkets ( eg Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose and Asda) usually sell a good selection of pre-packed sandwiches, pasties and cakes along with a range of soft drinks, juices and mineral waters. Many larg shops, especially department stores, will have a coffee shop or restaurant.

Take-aways
A 'take-away' is either a shop supplying prepared meals for people to eat elsewhere, or the meal itself. A very British take-away is the Fish and Chip shop; the sandwich shop is a popular choice at lunchtimes; they often also sell pies and cakes. Alternatively, most towns and many main routes have a selection of fast-food chains. Various types of take-aways are present in nearly all towns, ranging from fish and chips to "Indian", which can often be operated by non-Indians like Bangladeshi, and Chinese shops. Thai and Indonesian takeaways are becoming quite common, and lots of others in bigger towns. Generally the standard of take-aways is good, but the best guide is, as always, to observe what the locals are doing. In towns and cities these places tend to open late (sometimes till about 1am) to cater for the so called after-the-pub crowd. At this time they tend to be busy and rowdy so to avoid the queues the best time for a takeaway is between 7pm and 11pm after the teatime rush but before the supper crowds.

Restaurants
Larger towns have a range of restaurants to suit most tastes and you will find a very broad range of different cuisines, including Indian, Chinese, Thai, French and Italian. Waiters generally expect a 10% tip (but all too often do not get it from the native population) and in some places this is automatically listed on your bill. However, if you are dissatisfied with the service in any way, you are under no obligation to pay the service charge. Generally British people are not great tippers. As a visitor the 10% rule is more than generous and worth sticking to. Visitors from The US and Canada are seen as very generous tippers and even a bit of a soft touch by some.

Curry
One of the most popular types of restaurant in the UK is the Indian restaurant. They can be found in every city and most towns large and small. There are now more and more upmarket Indian restaurants in the larger urban centres. Indian restaurants serve cuisine commonly
known to their customers by the generic term "curry". Common Indian restaurant dishes include Chicken Tikka Masala, Prawn Biryani and the incredibly spicy Vindaloo. A popular version of curry is known as balti, possibly named after the metal bowl the food is cooked and served in. Balti cuisine, and a number of other commonly served dishes such as the ubiquitous chicken tikka masala, originated in the UK though it is clearly based on food from the Indian subcontinent. Birmingham in the Midlands is considered the balti capital of the UK as this dish was conceived there. Curry Mile in Manchester is well worth a visit if you are in the city.

Regional specialities
Fish&Chipps - Deep-fried, battered fish (usually cod or haddock, though with a wider selection in some areas) with rather thick chips, always made from real chunks of potato rather than thin tubes of extruded mashed potato.
Black Pudding - a sausage made of congealed pig's blood, rusks and sage, cooked in an intestine. Available all over the UK but a speciality of the North of England, in particular from Bury, the Black Country, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In actual fact, it tastes much better then it sounds.
Cheese - Well-known examples include Stilton (named after Stilton but produced elsewhere) - a blue cheese to rival Roquefort or Gorgonzola, Cheddar (named after the village of Cheddar in Somerset), Lancashire (which may be "creamy" or "crumbly"), Wensleydale (a valley in North Yorkshire) and Cheshire. The quality varies tremendously, depending on where they are bought; the best place is probably a local market – e.g. buy your Lancashire cheese in Lancashire. Supermarkets will offer a wide range of cheeses but are often of inferior quality.
Cornish Pasty - beef and vegetables baked in a folded pastry case. Originally a speciality of Cornwall, but now available throughout the UK. Usually very good in Devon and Cornwall, but can be of variable quality elsewhere. The variety sold in a plastic wrapper in places like petrol (gas) stations and motorway service stations are well worth avoiding.
Deep Fried Mars Bar - Originally from Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, but now available in other parts of Scotland and sometimes by request in fish & chip shops elsewhere in the UK. Not usually available in south-east England, where it is sometimes believed to be an urban myth.
Haggis - a mixture of sheep innards, minced meat and oatmeal boiled in a sheep's stomach. Available widely, but a speciality of Scotland. Also available in many supermarkets, where it appears that many sheep have plastic stomachs - although the contents are often quite reasonable - sometimes mildly spicey.
Lancashire Hotpot - a hearty vegetable and meat stew. A speciality of Lancashire, but available throughout the UK. In Lancashire, it is often accompanied by pickled red cabbage or pickled beetroot.
Laverbread - a puree made from seaweed, rolled in oatmeal, lightly fried and generally served with bacon rashers, though can be prepared as a vegetarian dish. Available in Swansea and West Wales.
Oatcakes - this speciality of Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire and Derbyshire is a large, floppy, oat-based pancake, eaten hot, in place of bread at breakfast time, or with a savoury filling. Not to be confused with the Scottish oatcake, a sort of biscuit.
Pastie - recipes vary, but generally a pasty is minced pork with onions, potato and spices, shaped into a thick disc, covered with batter and deep fried. Pasties are unique to Northern Ireland and well worth trying from a Fish & Chip shop.
Pork pie - a pie made of pork, with an outer of a particularly crispy sort of pastry. Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire is their spiritual home but they are available across the country. They are served cold or room temperature as part of a cold meal.
Potato Bread - a mixture of potatoes, salt, butter and flour. A speciality of Northern Ireland which, alongside Sodabread forms one of the main ingredients of an 'Ulster Fry'. Similar to, but not quite the same as potato bread, are Potato Cakes as sold in
England and Tattie Scones in Scotland.
Sausages - Europeans will be surprised to discover that the filling contains breadcrumbs as well as meat (Britons think of frankfurters and similar solid-meat sausages as German). Generic sausages are nothing special and very much a 'mystery meat' experience,
but regional speciality recipes such as Lincolnshire and Cumberland are well worth trying in a pub.
Sunday dinner/Roast dinner - this meal is common throughout the UK. Traditionally eaten on a Sunday, the meal consists of some combination of sliced pot roast, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, peas, carrots, and thick brown gravy. In England sometimes
Yorkshire Puddings are added to the plate.
Welsh Cakes - scone-like cakes studded with raisins and dusted with sugar. Available in bakeries throughout Wales and served hot off griddle at Swansea Market.
Yorkshire Pudding - a savoury side dish made from unsweetened batter. Squat and round in shape - often served with a roast dinner (consisting of roast potatoes, roast beef and Yorkshire puddings). Originally a speciality of the former industrial cities of Yorkshire, but a popular side-dish throughout the UK.

Drink
The legal age to buy and consume alcohol is 18 (16 for a glass of beer, cider, shandy, or perry with a substantial meal and an adult present).
Try English tea which is well-known all over the world. One of the specialities is cream tea.A Cream tea, Devonshire tea or Cornish cream tea is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream (or in some instances whipped cream), and jam.
Cream teas are offered for sale in tea rooms throughout England (especially the South West).