Local Dishes

1. Fish and chips

   Fish and chips — battered fried white fish with thick-cut fried potatoes

   Usage

   A fixture in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The takeaway shop is a "chip shop" ("chippy" in British slang). The fish is usually cod or haddock. Season it with salt and malt vinegar; northern England adds mushy peas. Note that British "chips" are thick fried potatoes, not the bagged potato chips Americans mean (those are "crisps")

   Grammar Note

   Treated as a single dish, so it takes a singular verb ("Fish and chips is on the menu"). Order by naming the fish: "Cod and chips, please"

2. Full English breakfast

   Full English breakfast — the large cooked British breakfast plate

   Usage

   England. Bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms and toast on one plate, sometimes with black pudding (a blood sausage). Colloquially a "fry-up"; a cheap café serving it is a "greasy spoon". Regional versions differ: the Full Scottish adds tattie scones and Lorne sausage, the Ulster fry adds soda farls and potato bread, and the Welsh version adds laverbread (seaweed paste) and cockles. Many cafés serve it all day

   Grammar Note

   In a café you normally shorten it: "a full English, please". The same pattern gives "a full Scottish" and "a full Welsh"

3. Sunday roast

   Sunday roast — the Sunday midday roast-meat plate

   Usage

   Britain and Ireland. Roast meat (beef, lamb, pork or chicken) with roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables and gravy; beef comes with Yorkshire pudding. It is the Sunday lunchtime centrepiece in pubs, and popular ones need booking. A self-serve version where the meat is carved to order is called a "carvery"

   Grammar Note

   Here "roast" is a noun meaning the whole plate. The cut of meat is called "a joint" in British English, which Americans rarely use this way

4. Yorkshire pudding

   Yorkshire pudding — a savoury baked batter served with roast beef

   Usage

   Named for northern England. A batter of flour, egg and milk baked in very hot fat so it puffs into a bowl shape. It is not a dessert: it is a savoury side for roast beef and gravy, part of the Sunday roast

   Grammar Note

   "Pudding" in British English is not only a dessert. It also covers savoury steamed or baked dishes (steak and kidney pudding, black pudding), and colloquially it means the dessert course in general ("What's for pudding?")

5. Shepherd's pie

   Shepherd's pie — minced lamb baked under a mashed-potato topping

   Usage

   Britain and Ireland. No pastry: a stew of minced meat and vegetables is covered with mashed potato and baked. If it is made with beef the correct name is "cottage pie" — "shepherd" points to the lamb. Some menus confuse the two, so ask which meat it is if that matters to you

6. Bangers and mash

   Bangers and mash — sausages with mashed potato and onion gravy

   Usage

   A British and Irish pub staple: sausages with mashed potato and onion gravy. "Banger" is colloquial for sausage, and many menus write "sausages and mash" instead. You can often choose the sausage — Cumberland (coiled) or Lincolnshire (sage-flavoured)

   Grammar Note

   "Mash" is uncountable — never "a mash". "Banger" almost always appears in the plural

7. Toad in the hole

   Toad in the hole — sausages baked in Yorkshire-pudding batter

   Usage

   An English home dish: sausages laid in the same batter as a Yorkshire pudding and baked together, then served with onion gravy. Despite the name there is no toad in it — the sausages just look like animals poking out of holes in the batter

8. Cornish pasty

   Cornish pasty — the D-shaped filled pastry of Cornwall

   Usage

   Cornwall, in south-west England. It has held EU Protected Geographical Indication status since 20 July 2011. The specification allows only beef, swede (called turnip in Cornwall), potato and onion with salt and pepper, kept chunky; the shape is a "D" and the crimp runs along the side, not across the top. It must be prepared in Cornwall. It is said to have begun as a hand-held meal for tin miners

   Grammar Note

   The noun "pasty" (the pastry) and the adjective "pasty" (pale, sickly-looking) are spelled the same but pronounced differently — the food has a short "a", the adjective a long "ay"

9. Ploughman's lunch

   Ploughman's lunch — a cold pub plate of cheese, bread and pickle

   Usage

   A lunchtime pub plate in England: cheese (usually Cheddar), bread, butter, pickle (the brown Branston kind), pickled onion, apple and sometimes ham, all served cold. The rustic name is misleading — the pub dish was popularised in the mid-20th century, not inherited from medieval farm work. Nothing is cooked, so it arrives quickly

   Grammar Note

   British spelling is "plough", American "plow" — but the dish is British, so it is never written "plowman's"

10. Scotch egg

    Scotch egg — a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and fried

    Usage

    Britain. A boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, breadcrumbed and deep-fried — sold as a pub snack, picnic food and convenience-store item, sometimes with a runny yolk. Despite "Scotch" in the name, a Scottish origin is not established; Fortnum & Mason in London claims to have invented it in 1738, but the attribution is disputed

    Grammar Note

    Modern English does not use "Scotch" for people or the country — that is "Scottish", and the people are "the Scots". "Scotch" survives only in fixed product names such as Scotch egg, Scotch whisky and Scotch broth

11. Haggis, neeps and tatties

    Haggis, neeps and tatties — the Scottish offal pudding with mashed swede and potato

    Usage

    Scotland. Haggis is sheep's heart, liver and lungs mixed with oatmeal, suet, onion and spices and boiled in a sheep's stomach (usually an artificial casing today). "Neeps" is mashed swede and "tatties" mashed potato. It is eaten on Burns Night, 25 January, with a dram of whisky. Note that the United States has barred imports of food containing sheep lung since 1971, so British haggis cannot be brought in; American haggis is made domestically without lung

    Grammar Note

    "Neeps" and "tatties" come from Scots and correspond to standard English "swede" and "potatoes". You will rarely see them on a menu outside Scotland

12. Chicken tikka masala

    Chicken tikka masala — the British curry-house staple

    Usage

    Britain. Marinated roast chicken pieces in a creamy spiced tomato sauce, served with rice or naan. It is one of the most-ordered dishes in British curry houses, and in 2001 Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called it "a true British national dish". The often-repeated Glasgow origin story is disputed, and several competing accounts exist. In Birmingham the local speciality is the "balti", served in a metal bowl

    Grammar Note

    In Britain, eating out for Indian food is "going for a curry" and the restaurant is "the curry house". Heat is ordered as mild, medium or hot

13. Irish stew

    Irish stew — lamb or mutton simmered with potatoes and onions

    Usage

    Ireland. Lamb or mutton simmered slowly with potatoes, onions and carrots in very little liquid, seasoned with little more than parsley and thyme. A pub standard, usually served with soda bread

14. Welsh rarebit

    Welsh rarebit — savoury melted-cheese sauce grilled on toast

    Usage

    Wales. A sauce of melted cheese with ale, mustard and Worcestershire sauce poured over toast and grilled until it browns — served as a light or late meal. There is no rabbit and no meat in it: the older name "Welsh rabbit" was rewritten as "rarebit" and that spelling stuck

15. Cream tea

    Cream tea — scones with clotted cream and jam, served with a pot of tea

    Usage

    The south-west of England (Devon and Cornwall) is the home of this. A split scone is spread with clotted cream and strawberry jam and eaten with a pot of tea. The order of spreading differs by county and people are proud about it: Devon puts cream first, Cornwall jam first. Do not confuse it with "afternoon tea", which is a larger tiered spread including sandwiches and cakes

    Grammar Note

    The pronunciation of "scone" is split within Britain — some rhyme it with "gone", others with "bone"; both are understood. Separately, in northern England "tea" can mean the evening meal, which is not the same thing as a cream tea

16. Sticky toffee pudding

    Sticky toffee pudding — date sponge under hot toffee sauce

    Usage

    A British dessert standard: a steamed-baked sponge studded with chopped dates, drenched in hot toffee sauce and served with custard or vanilla ice cream. It appears on almost every pub and restaurant dessert list. Note that "custard" in a British restaurant means a warm pouring sauce, not a set custard

17. Bubble and squeak

    Bubble and squeak — leftover potato and cabbage fried together

    Usage

    A British home dish: leftover potato and cooked greens (usually cabbage or sprouts) from the Sunday roast are mashed together and fried until browned on both sides. It turns up at Monday breakfast or as part of a full English. The name comes from the sound it makes in the pan

18. New England clam chowder

    New England clam chowder — the creamy clam and potato soup

    Usage

    New England in the north-eastern United States (Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and neighbours). A white soup of clams, potato, onion and salt pork in milk and cream, topped with oyster crackers. Other styles exist under the same name: the Manhattan version is red and tomato-based, and the Rhode Island version has a clear broth — so what arrives depends on where you order it

    Grammar Note

    You usually choose the size as "a cup" (small) or "a bowl" (large); some places serve it in a hollowed-out sourdough "bread bowl"

19. Biscuits and gravy

    Biscuits and gravy — soft quick-bread biscuits under white sausage gravy

    Usage

    A breakfast of the American South. The "biscuit" here is not a British biscuit (that is a cookie or a cracker) but a soft leavened quick bread close to a scone. It is split open and covered with a white sauce made from pork sausage drippings, milk and flour — this "gravy" is white, not the brown meat gravy of Britain, and is also called sawmill gravy. A diner staple, and the portions are large

    Grammar Note

    "Biscuit" is the classic British–American trap: a British sweet biscuit is an American "cookie", a savoury one is a "cracker", and an American biscuit does not exist under that name on a British menu

20. Grits

    Grits — boiled coarse-ground corn

    Usage

    A breakfast side in the American South: coarsely ground corn — often alkali-treated hominy — boiled into a porridge and stirred with butter, salt or cheese. It is close to Italian polenta. On the South Carolina and Georgia coast, shrimp and grits is the local speciality. Southern diners may put grits on your breakfast plate without asking

    Grammar Note

    The word is plural in form but refers to one serving, and takes either a singular or plural verb ("Grits is / are on the side"). Outside the South, many American restaurants do not serve it at all

21. Gumbo

    Gumbo — the thick Louisiana stew served over rice

    Usage

    Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular. It starts from a roux of flour and oil cooked until it darkens, with the "holy trinity" of onion, bell pepper and celery, then shrimp and crab, or chicken and andouille sausage. It is thickened with okra or with filé powder (ground sassafras leaf) and ladled over rice. City-style Creole gumbo may include tomato; country Cajun gumbo uses a darker roux. Jambalaya is a different Louisiana dish, in which the rice is cooked with the other ingredients

    Grammar Note

    Uncountable — you order "a bowl of gumbo". The word is generally traced to a West African term for okra

22. Buffalo wings

    Buffalo wings — fried chicken wings in cayenne hot sauce and butter

    Usage

    Buffalo, New York. They are generally credited to Teressa Bellissimo at the city's Anchor Bar in 1964. Unbreaded wings are deep-fried and tossed in a vinegar-and-cayenne hot sauce cut with melted butter, then served with celery and carrot sticks and a blue cheese or ranch dip. A sports-bar fixture — and there is no buffalo meat in it; the name is the city

    Grammar Note

    Heat is ordered as mild, medium or hot. Wings come as "drumettes" and "flats", and some places let you choose

23. Philly cheesesteak

    Philly cheesesteak — thin-sliced beef with melted cheese in a long roll

    Usage

    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thin-sliced beef griddled and topped with melted cheese in a long roll. The cheese is your choice of Cheez Whiz (a pourable processed cheese), provolone or American. Ordering has a local shorthand: "wit" means with onions, "witout" means without — as in "one whiz wit"

    Grammar Note

    The name of a long sandwich roll varies across the US: "sub" nationally, "hoagie" around Philadelphia, "hero" in New York, "grinder" in New England, "po' boy" in Louisiana

24. Barbecue

    Barbecue — meat cooked low and slow over wood smoke

    Usage

    The United States. American "barbecue" does not mean cooking outdoors on a grill — it means meat cooked slowly over wood smoke, and the restaurants that serve it. Grilling in the garden is "grilling" or "a cookout". Both meat and sauce vary by region: Texas does beef brisket with only salt and pepper, North Carolina does pulled pork with a vinegar sauce, Kansas City does ribs in sweet tomato sauce, Memphis does dry-rubbed ribs. Sides are coleslaw, cornbread, baked beans and macaroni and cheese. In Britain and Australia, "barbecue" (Australian "barbie") does mean grilling, which is a different thing

    Grammar Note

    "Barbecue" is the standard spelling; you will also see BBQ, bar-b-q and barbeque on signs, but the full spelling is barbecue

25. Macaroni and cheese

    Macaroni and cheese — pasta in a cheese sauce, baked or stovetop

    Usage

    The United States. Macaroni in a cheese sauce, either baked or served straight from the pan. It is children's food and at the same time a serious side dish at barbecue joints and soul-food restaurants, and it appears on Southern Thanksgiving tables. Britain calls it "macaroni cheese", without the "and"; the everyday American name is "mac and cheese"

26. Pumpkin pie

    Pumpkin pie — a spiced pumpkin custard baked in a pastry shell

    Usage

    The United States and Canada. Pumpkin purée mixed with egg, sugar and spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg, poured into a pastry shell and baked, then served with whipped cream. It is the Thanksgiving dessert (fourth Thursday of November in the US, second Monday of October in Canada) and is often hard to find outside autumn. The spice blend it uses is sold as "pumpkin spice" and floods autumn menus in coffee and sweets

27. Poutine

    Poutine — fries with cheese curds under hot brown gravy

    Usage

    Said to have appeared in Quebec, Canada in the late 1950s; several establishments claim it. Fresh cheese curds are scattered over French fries and hot brown gravy is poured on top. The curds should squeak when you bite them — that is the freshness test — and the gravy is poured so as to warm them without melting them fully. Quebec is francophone, but the dish appears under this spelling on English menus right across Canada

28. Meat pie

    Meat pie — the hand-sized minced-beef pie of Australia and New Zealand

    Usage

    Australia and New Zealand. A single-serve pie that fits in the hand, filled with minced beef in gravy — sold at bakeries, petrol stations (Australian "servo") and sports grounds, and treated as a national food. The "tomato sauce" squeezed on top means ketchup in Australia and New Zealand, not the American cooking sauce of that name. South Australia has the "pie floater", a pie sitting in pea soup

    Grammar Note

    "Tomato sauce" refers to different things by country: in Australia, New Zealand and Britain it is the sweet red condiment (ketchup); in the US and in Italian cooking it is the cooked sauce for pasta

29. Pavlova

    Pavlova — a meringue shell topped with cream and fruit

    Usage

    Australia and New Zealand. Egg whites and caster sugar are whipped with vinegar or lemon juice and cornflour and baked slowly, giving a thin crisp shell over a marshmallow centre, then topped with whipped cream and kiwifruit, passionfruit or berries. It is a summer Christmas fixture. Which country invented it is unresolved: in 2010 the Oxford English Dictionary traced the earliest recorded "pavlova" recipe to a 1927 New Zealand book, but that recipe was a jelly, not this dessert. It is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured both countries in the 1920s

30. Lamington

    Lamington — sponge squares coated in chocolate and coconut

    Usage

    Australia. Squares of sponge cake dipped in thin chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut, sometimes with a layer of jam or cream in the middle. Schools and community groups mass-produce and sell them as a fundraiser known as a "lamington drive". A bakery and supermarket standard

31. Vegemite on toast

    Vegemite on toast — buttered toast with a thin layer of salty yeast spread

    Usage

    An Australian breakfast or snack. A black, very salty paste made from brewer's yeast, spread very thinly on buttered toast — spread it thickly and it is inedibly salty, which is how most first-timers get it wrong. Marmite, sold in Britain and New Zealand, is a different product with a different recipe, and the New Zealand Marmite differs from the British one as well

    Grammar Note

    Vegemite and Marmite are trademarks and are capitalised. In Australian speech you can also just ask for "Vegemite toast"

32. Beans on toast

    Beans on toast — tinned baked beans in tomato sauce on buttered toast

    Usage

    Britain and Ireland. Tinned baked beans — haricot beans in tomato sauce — are heated and poured over buttered toast, often with grated cheese. It is cheap home food that also appears on café and pub snack menus. British baked beans are tomato-based and barely sweet; American baked beans are a different thing, cooked sweet with molasses and pork and served as a barbecue side

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