• Fast food chains
• Smoking
• Breakfast
• Hygiene
• Myths about fish and chips

There was a time when outside a large city it was almost impossible to find a restaurant. Now however they are growing in number and many small towns now have at least a few.

FAST FOOD CHAINS.

There are a few fast food chains, McDonalds is now insinuating itself in almost every town in Britain but be aware that the prices are MUCH higher than you would expect to pay here. Last check was $6.45 (approx. exchange rate) for Big Mac (11/29/97). The local burger chain is called Wimpy and they do some nice burgers but also have platters and other more usual food too. Of course the most famous is the fish and chip shop, some of which produce excellent fried fish and chips. Be aware however that if you are in the north of England you will also be served with a scoop of peas as part of your meal. Its the tradition there, and some areas apparently have local by laws that require the shops to serve peas whether you want them or not. This can be very local or more widespread. Some areas I visited the shops insisted this was the case, others just omitted the peas if requested.

Other American chains like Pizza Hut have places there too, but they don’t serve the same items as they do here and the prices are much higher. Local restaurants are often much better and serve a more varied fair. For the best local food around pubs are by far the best bet. Many now have large dining areas and serve very good food, smaller ones serve local and traditional dishes and may be the only place you can get to try them. Restaurants can be very expensive and are not as well patronized, they may be non existent outside large towns and tourist areas.

SMOKING

Many restaraunts do now have non smoking areas. However since many most of the best food is to be had in the Public Houses you need to take care where you sit. In many pubs they now have a separate section for non smoking but it can be quite close to the smokers. This is something that many pubs can do nothing much about since they are quite small and have limited space.
If smoke is a problem to you check the place out before you pick or assigned a table.
Most Public houses also have an outside garden, or at least a few tables outside somewhere. Many gardens are really nice and if you are visiting in better weather this is always the best place to be. English Gardens are so wonderful its better to be outside when you can. Tables are not usually very close together so smoke from one table should not bother you. Bear in mind that England is usually quite windy or breazy so pick a table upwind of any smokers and you will be fine.

BREAKFAST

Getting breakfast in Britain can be a problem. Now it is becoming slightly less so in larger towns and cities but in outlying areas there is usually nothing open to feed you. This is why bed and breakfast is so popular as you do get the meal that is most difficult to come by. Most hotels have a restaurant serving breakfast but they usually do not expect people other than the hotel guests to eat there, often in the smaller hotels you cant even get into the dining room unless you are staying there.

At one time the only other place you could get breakfast was the motorway stops but there are a few places opening now that will serve it.

HYGIENE

Hygiene standards in Britain are not as stringent as they are in America so care should be taken where you eat. Some of the roadside cafes and smaller ‘burger’ style bars can be quite unsanitary. Hygiene inspections are carried out but not as often and the penalties are not as great as they should be. This means that things can be lax in some places so care would be taken in choosing where you eat. Most people who have lived there all their lives get at least one case of food poisoning, it’s just taken as part of the way of life and the offending place is usually (although not always, some people are stupid) avoided in future. It is not a common occurrence but it can happen and you should be aware of it. In the 26 years I lived there I recall one very bad bought and maybe two others, most people who live there have about the same experience so don’t worry unduly just take care.

Be wary of the small vans and trailers parked at the roadsides offering food. These places are often the only places in some areas that serve breakfast outside the hotels so if you are not in a package to get breakfast you may not have much choice. However these are the most likely culprits for bad hygiene although some of them are really nice. This does not include the vans found at the seaside which serve the fresh seafood winkles and whelks. True you can get bad shellfish but that’s usually due to the shellfish itself rather than the van. These places are very popular and their turnover is so high that there is usually very little problem with them. If you love seafood and can get yourself to eat marine snails, give it a go, the British love them!

Worse still are the mobile vans which serve fish and chips or other fast food which move around like ice cream vans. A large proportion of the food poisoning cases I have heard of come from these vans, so they should be avoided at all cost. If you want fish and chips go to one that has a fixed store. There are some very good ones. If you ask the locals they can usually tell you who makes the best Fish and Chips in town. Often people will drive all the way across town to the best fish and chip shop, its a British tradition after all.

MYTHS ABOUT FISH AND CHIPS

If you have never had take out fish and chips you have probably hear that they are served in newspaper. This was true. However the food was not placed directly on the newspaper but on a greaseproof paper sheet then wrapped in newspaper for insulation. Newspaper is one of the best insulators around and kept the food wonderfully hot until you reached your destination to eat it. This was usually the river bank or some other nice spot where you could enjoy the countryside and eat. Your food never got black with newsprint unless you pushed it on the paper.

In some ways newspaper wrapping could be a nuisance since there is a portion of the population that READS their newspaper wrapping. However since the articles are usually continued on more than one page and the newspaper is split up they then start bothering everyone else in the party to find the rest of the article. This is considered annoying at best and wrapper readers are viewed as unusual or old fashioned ‘nerds’.

Today most of the fish and chip shops have stopped using newspaper instead using plain white sheets rather like the fish counter wraps your fish in. It’s a sad loss of an old tradition but the servers like it since their hands don’t turn black any more.