Fish and chips had their origins in working class districts. It was cheap, nutritious and ready for immediate consumption after a hard day's work. Cooked foods shops had been around for hundreds of years but it was not until the nineteenth century that fish and chips appeared. Even then, at first, it was just fried fish that was sold. A fried fish warehouse is mentioned by Dickens in Oliver Twist. Fish was cooked in shallow pans and usually eaten cold. Next some shops added baked potatoes. Just who had the idea of serving them with chips is open to dispute. Londoners claim that it was Malin's in the East End, opened in 1868 but northerners say that John Lees set up a wooden hut in Mossley, Manchester, in 1863. Besides selling pigs' trotters and pea soup he added fish and chips to his menu.

Regional favourites

Haddock and hake are The favourites in the north and cod in the south. Beef dripping is used for cooking in the north, oil in the south. Early fish friars were not a popular group. In 1876 Dr Ballard, a health inspector, wrote in his report: it is a petty trade, but nevertheless, it is a source of considerable nuisance in some neighbourhoods, the offensive smell of the oil boiling and the fish frying spreading often through the whole length of the street where the shop is situated.

Harry Ramsden

Harry Ramsden set up his first establishment in Bradford after the First World War. The shop was open every lunchtime, tea-time and evening every day of the year, even at Christmas. When asked about the wisdom of such a step his reply was, 'Don't you get bloody fed up of turkey? In 1928 he bought a wooden lock-up at White Cross, Guisley, which is still to be seen in the car park behind the modern building. He was a man of great vision and at a time in the 1930s when the recession had left much poverty he planned and built his restaurant where customers could eat in luxurious surroundings. He had thermometers put into the frying pans and metal rulers to check the level of the fat. He used stainless steel long before it became commonplace: for special buckets to take the correct measure of chips and for worktops that were easier to clean than the old wooden ones. Batter ingredients were measured with the utmost precision and the scales checked every day. He had non-drip teapots specially designed and bought bottles which dispensed exactly the right amount of vinegar.

Wider still and wider

In the Fifties the business became a company. Harry died in 1963 and it was taken over. It changed hands again in 1988 and besides other branches in the UK, including Heathrow Airport, there is now one in Hong Kong. But fish and chips went overseas long before that. Wherever the British went, so did their favourite fast food. Kiosks sprang up outside overseas army and air force bases and settlers took the tradition with them to all parts of the Empire. When the Yorkshire Society of Singapore had a party it imported not only the fish and chip ingredients but also copies of the Yorkshire Evening Post to wrap them m. In Toronto food fairs sell halibut and chips whilst in Seattle uncoated halibut or salmon is cooked outdoors over smokey wooden stoves and served with what they call chips but which are really quartered jacket potatoes. Belgium's answer is mussels and chips, served with mayonnaise whilst in the Mediterranean the fish may well be squid.

Food for all

Fish and chips must be one of the most classless dishes in Britain. Eaten anywhere and everywhere. In Yorkshire a fur-coated lady was seen stopping her chauffeur driven Rolls Royce to go into a take-away. Magnus Pyke cites it as an example of a traditional dish once jeered at by food snobs and even censured by health food devotees but now fully appreciated as a nutritious combination. But not everyone gets it quite right. A friend was invited to a lavish party given by some Singapore Chinese. The party went on all night and when breakfast was served the hosts honoured their English guests with (what they thought was) a traditional British breakfast - fish and chips.

Scotch whisky is a distillate made in Scotland from the elements of cereals, water and yeast, all of which nature will in due course replace. Not only is it a natural product, but Scotch whisky outsells every other noble spirit in world markets. Most distilleries produce Scotch whisky primarily for the purpose of blending, but many retain some of their production for sale as single whiskies. A single malt whisky is the product of one malt whisky distillery and a single grain whisky is the product of one grain whisky distillery. A blended Scotch whisky is a blend of a number of distillates each of which separately is entitled to the description "Scotch whisky". The period for which any blended Scotch whisky is regarded as having been matured is that of the most recently distilled of the spirits contained in the blend.

Most well-known dictionaries give both spellings of the word whisk(e)y; The Oxford English Dictionary points out that 'in modern trade usage, Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey are thus distinguished in spelling'. American-made whiskey is usually spelt with an 'e'.

Scotch whisky means whisky distilled and matured in Scotland and Irish whiskey means whiskey distilled and matured in Ireland. Whisky is distilled in Scotland from malted barley in pot stills and from malted and un-malted barley or other cereals in patent stills. The well- known brands of Scotch whisky are blends of a number of pot still and patent still whiskies. Irish whiskey distillers tend to favour three distillations rather than two as is general in Scotland in the case of pot still whiskies and the range of cereals used is wider.

As regards bourbon whiskey, bourbon whiskey must be produced from a mash of not less than 51 % corn grain. The word 'bourbon' is not used to describe any whiskey or whiskey-based distilled spirits not produced in the United States.'

Pronounce your whisky correctly

In the following the names in bold are the Scottish whisky names and underneath is the phonetic description for each name:

Bitter is traditional British beer (also known as ale). It is quite strong and leaves a bitter taste in your mouth after drinking. It is usually served at room temperature.

Light ales (or mild brews), contain fewer hops and are less alcoholic; these are popular in central and north-eastern England. Strong ales have a high alcoholic content and a strong flavour.

Real ale is a term used for a beer which brewed from natural ingredients (hops, malted barley, yeast and pure water) and stored in a wooden barrel (a cask) until it is served.

Stout is dark brown (almost black) and tastes a little bitter. The most popular example is the Irish drink called Guinness.

Lager is a lighter-coloured type of imported beer, and is normally served cold. Women will often drink lager with a dash of lime cordial in it.

Shandy is a mixture of beer and lemonade - you should ask either a lager shandy or a bitter shandy.
Cider is a traditional English alcoholic drink made from apples. It may be sweet or dry. You normally order a pint or half pint of cider. In the West Country a particularly strong form of cider is known as scrumpy

Snakebite.  The basic snakebite is a mixture of equal parts of lager and cider, typically served in pint or half-pint servings. Though it is often served mixed, some variants "float" the beer atop the cider in separate layers.

Alcopops are bottled drinks which may taste of lemonade but are actually alcoholic. Examples are a Smirnoff Ice or a Bacardi Breezer. Introduced in the 1990s, these drinks have been heavily criticised for encouraging underage drinking.

In summertime a popular drink is Pimms and lemonade and is a staple drink during Wimbledon fortnight. This is a traditional cocktail of either Pimms Number 1 (based on gin) together with ice, citrus fruits (lemon/orange/lime) and lemonade.

Spirits (whisky, gin, vodka etc) are normally referred to as shorts. People normally buy shorts towards the end of an evening’s drinking, and so late rounds can be more expensive than early ones.

Here is a list of the top 50 pub signs in Britain according to popularity:

Marks & Spencer sell 18 tonnes a week of it. Indian restaurants sell 23 million plates of it a year. A British food company produces 10 tonnes of it every day. Hundreds of schools in Bangladesh depend on money from sales of it. If all the plates of it sold in one year in the UK were put on top of one another they would build a tower 2770 times taller than the Greenwich Millennium Dome.

Incredible, isn’t it?

But in an article in The Daily Telegraph in November 1999, journalist Amit Roy called it “a dish which does not exist in Indian cuisine”. So just what, exactly, is “chicken tikka masala”? And where does it come from? Is it Indian? Or is it from somewhere else?

As Amit Roy says, the dish, in fact, does not come from India. It was specifically created by some very clever restaurant owners in order to meet British tastes.

Chicken tikka masala was possibly invented almost by accident. One story says that it was created when a Bangladeshi chef produced a dish of traditional Chicken Tikka only to be asked “where’s my gravy?” by a traditional British client. The chef responded by adding a can of tomato soup and a few spices - and the ‘masala’ element was born.

Several different chefs claim to have invented it, but none has any evidence, so the mystery remains. Sultan Ahmed Ansari, who owned the Taj Mahal restaurant in Glasgow, claims he invented it as long ago as the 1950s. Amin Ali, owner of The Red Fort and Soho Spice in London’s Soho, remembers serving chicken tikka masala when he first arrived in London in 1974. A waiter at the time, he remembers wondering what the dish was.

But what exactly is chicken tikka masala? “Tikkas” are the bite-sized pieces of chicken. These are marinated and cooked in the tandoor oven. The “masala” part is where things become difficult. “Masala” means “spices” but no exact recipe for these seems to exist. It can be yellow, red, brownish, or even green and can be very creamy, a little creamy, chilli hot or quite mild. In restaurants it tends to be a creamy sauce - not too hot, a bit tomatoey, very smooth and, all too often, quite sweet and very red.

Trifle

A dessert made of layers of cake, custard and cream.  It also has fruit and sherry (alcohol) in it.

Christmas cake

This is a rich fruit cake which represents the earth at winter time.  It is covered in marzipan and white icing (representing snow).
 
Syllabub or Fool or Mousse

This is a light bubbly dessert made of cream and alcohol.

Mince pies

These are small pies filled with a rich fruit mixture called ‘sweet mince’.

Christmas pudding

This is a rich traditional pudding  made of fruit and raisons soaked in alcohol.  It is often served with brandy butter (more alcohol).  Christmas pudding is usually round in shape.

Satsumas

These are small oranges that are eaten at Christmas time.

Marzipan sweets

These are sweets made of marzipan.  These sweets can be made in a variety of shapes and colours, e.g. shaped to look like fruit.

Turkey

A turkey or chicken is roasted for the Christmas main meal.

Trifle is a traditional English dessert and can be made in several different ways using different fruits and other ingredients.

Ingredients

1 pre-bought ordinary vanilla cake
330ml full cream milk
750ml double cream
6 large egg yolks
1 rounded tbsp cornflour
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp good-quality raspberry jam
6 tbsp sweet sherry

Method

1. For the custard, bring the milk and 300ml of the cream to the boil in a non-stick pan. Beat the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar together in a bowl, then gradually whisk in the hot milk and cream.

2. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, for about ten minutes.  Take care not to let it boil.

3. Transfer the custard to a bowl and leave to cool.

4. Cut the cake into slices one centimetre thick and put a single layer at the bottom of the bowl. Spread the layer with two tablespoons of raspberry jam and lay another layer of cake on top (you might not need to use all the cake).

5. Spread the second layer with another two tablespoons of raspberry jam and sprinkle the sherry over it.

6. Pour the custard over the cake and chill for at least three hours.

7. Whip the remaining cream into soft peaks. Uncover the trifle, spoon over the cream and return it to the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Here are a few examples of classic British sweets, loved by generations and can still be bought in traditional sweet shops:

Cherry lips – small, lip shaped sweet that tasted like cherry

Sherbet lemons – oval shaped, hard boiled sweet with lemon tongue tingling filling

Parma violets – very smelly, small candy type sweet

Floral gum – small gummy sweets, smelling of flowers

Sour plums – hard boiled sour tasting sweet

Rhubarb and custard – hard boiled half rhubarb, half custard tasting sweet

Fried egg – candy type sweet in the shape of a fried egg

Giant shrimp – candy type sweet in the shape of a shrimps

Flying saucer – melt in your mouth sweet paper flying saucer with sherbet in the middle

Cola bottle – translucent cola tasting stretchy gum shaped bottle

Chocolate mice – a chocolate moulder mouse

Jelly teeth – false teeth made out of a gummy jelly

Note: Sweets were sold and weighed in quarters and poured into small white paper bags. A quarter is the imperial equivalent to 113 metric grams.

You can buy them online at this website:

www.cybercandy.co.uk