7-Day United Kingdom
Itinerary

Fish and Chips

Britain's greatest contribution to street food: thick cod or haddock fillets in a beer batter that puffs and crisps in beef dripping, served with fat chips cooked twice, salt, malt vinegar and mushy peas; wrapped in paper and eaten on a seafront bench in Whitby, Aldeburgh or Brighton; 10,500 fish and chip shops operate across the UK.

Cornish Pasty

Cornwall's protected working-class masterpiece: a D-shaped shortcrust pastry crimped along the top (not the side) encasing raw beef skirt, sliced potato, swede and onion, seasoned with white pepper; baked until the pastry turns from gold to pale amber; the thick crimped edge was historically held by tin miners with arsenic-stained fingers then discarded.

Sunday Roast

Britain's most sacred meal: a joint of beef (with Yorkshire pudding), leg of lamb (with mint sauce), pork (with crackling and apple sauce) or chicken (with stuffing), roasted in a hot oven and served with roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables, gravy and all the trimmings; eaten at 2 p.m. every Sunday; the meal around which British family life organises itself.

Haggis

Scotland's national dish and its most misrepresented: sheep's heart, liver and lungs minced with oatmeal, suet, onion and spices, encased in a stomach and simmered; the flavour is earthy, peppery and deeply savoury with none of the challenge implied by the ingredients; served with neeps (turnip) and tatties (mashed potato) and a dram of whisky on Burns Night.

Afternoon Tea

Victorian England's greatest social invention (finger sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon, egg and cress), plain and fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam (cream first in Devon, jam first in Cornwall) a genuine conflict), and a tier of pastries and cake; served with Darjeeling or Assam at 4 p.m.; the Ritz, Claridge's and The Savoy set the gold standard.

Full English Breakfast

The most ambitious breakfast on earth: back bacon (not streaky), fried eggs, grilled sausages, baked beans, grilled tomato, black pudding, sautéed mushrooms and fried bread or toast; each element cooked separately and plated with the weight of national identity; the post-pub cure, the hotel morning anchor, the British right.