Category: Food

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A nation of tea drinkers?

We have a friend who wants to go to the USA but will not because, as she says, she only drinks tea, and you can’t get tea in the States, only coffee. We try to explain, with no success.

Of course you can get tea in the USA, and of course you can get coffee in the UK. We have some tea shops, but are overrun with coffee shops, the usual suspects, and more local ones like Costa. And nice independent ones with roasteries attached.

Just like everywhere else in the world, there’s good quality and not good quality. You can get what you want if you ask.

Find something you enjoy, and enjoy it.

The London water is a bit harder than in many places, which no doubt affects the taste. You tell us.

Don’t assume that what you see in old films and tv shows is the truth. In a recent survey, 63% of people asked said they regularly drink coffee and 59% regularly drink tea (and many both, of course).

By the way, the images were generated by AI. Just an experiment while we were having our afternoon coffee…

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Yorkshire puddings

Just a few words about Yorkshire puddings, a special UK delicacy.

Like most counties, Yorkshire is not pronounced York-SHIRE but is Yorksher.

People will tell you it is a county in the UK, but it isn’t. There is North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and so on, but not a county of just Yorkshire any more. Taken together the parts represent the largest geographical area in the country and include cities like York and Leeds and towns like Whitby and Harrogate.

The Yorkshire pudding is not a pudding ie not a dessert. You don’t have it after a meal with ice cream. It is a savoury dish, usually served with meat, probably beef but it could be anything.

It’s easy to make Yorkshire puddings (some people just say “Yorkshires”) but hard to do it right. You have a recipe for batter with eggs and flour and milk, put them in a small pan like a cake pan with some oil and cook in high heat.

The trend these days is to make the Yorkshires large, but smaller ones are the best. The outside should rise and be crisp almost to the point of burning, while the bottom is soft, almost soggy.

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