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.