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Eating and Drinking in Britain

Roast dinners, fish and chips, curry, and the diversity of modern British food.

Traditional British food includes the roast Sunday lunch (often roast beef with Yorkshire pudding), fish and chips, the full English breakfast, and pies such as the Cornish pasty and steak and kidney. Welsh cawl, Scottish haggis and Ulster fry are regional specialities. Tea — usually black tea with milk — is the national drink and is consumed at any time of day.

Further reading: an editorial guide on this topic opens in a new window for additional context.

Modern British food is intensely diverse. Curry — particularly chicken tikka masala, often described as a national dish — has become as British as fish and chips, reflecting the influence of South Asian migration. Italian, Chinese, Caribbean and Middle Eastern cuisines are also part of everyday life in most British towns and cities.

You may be asked which dish is sometimes called the national dish (chicken tikka masala), or what is traditionally eaten with roast beef on a Sunday (Yorkshire pudding).

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