English cuisine has been influenced by dishes and flavours from many countries and therefore offers a wide range of flavours and cooking styles. A ‘full English’ breakfast includes sausages, bacon, baked beans, toast, tomatoes, mushrooms and eggs, and sometimes extras like hash browns and black pudding; a sure-fire way to remain full for the rest of the morning, if not the day!

Traditional English meals are typically filling, comforting and often quite stodgy. Staples like fish and chips (battered cod or haddock and thick-cut chips), roast dinner with all the trimmings (often roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and large helpings of vegetables and gravy), pasties (folded pastry casing with savoury fillings of various combinations), bangers and mash (sausages with mashed potato), and pies (steak and kidney pie and pork pies being particularly popular) are what would be deemed ‘English’.

However, curries are also hugely popular in England, as are Italian, Thai, Chinese and Indian cuisine. Much like main courses, English desserts are hearty too. Hot puddings are usually served with custard, cream or ice-cream, such as crumble, apple pie, sticky toffee pudding, jam roly-poly pudding, and bread and butter pudding (consisting of layers of buttered bread covered with a mixture of eggs and milk, seasoned with nutmeg, cinnamon or vanilla, then baked). 

England also knows how to do cakes exceptionally well; Battenberg (with pink and yellow squares of sponge held together with jam and wrapped in a marzipan blanket), Victoria sponge cake, Chelsea buns (a currant bun drizzled with icing), and Eccles cakes (a flaky butter pastry cake filled with currants) being a few examples.

Have we mentioned tea yet? Since the first import in 17th century, tea has been a big hit with the Brits and continues to be the go-to beverage. Tea can simply be just a cup of tea, or it can be an event in the form of: cream tea – often involving a mid-afternoon outing at a café where the tea comes with scones, covered with generous helpings of rich cream and jam; and afternoon tea, where said drink is accompanied with a delightful selection of finger sandwiches and exquisite cakes that are beautifully displayed. The latter is a great way of indulging with loved ones or celebrating special occasions and depending on where it is consumed, can be anything from a low-key outing catching up with a friend to a rich indulgence that you get dressed up for.

Just to confuse matters, many Brits will talk of cooking or eating their tea and in this context, they are referring to their evening meal. Aside from tea, another faithful soft drink is squash (or cordial); it has nothing to do with squash the vegetable and instead consists of a sweet, concentrated fruit-flavoured liquid that is diluted with water before tasting (available in multiple flavours). Ginger beer also has a misleading name as it is in fact a carbonated soft drink.

When it comes to alcohol, you will have a vast array of beers, ales and ciders to choose from. Gin is also popular and the base ingredient in Pimm’s, another well-loved British drink that in the summer, is often mixed with traditional lemonade or ginger beer and pieces of fruit, then served as punch. 

Out in natural landscapes like England’s many forests and open countryside, rabbits, badgers, foxes, hedgehogs and deer are some of the animals that can be found. In places like the New Forest, wild ponies roam freely (they are owned by the New Forest Commoners but given the freedom to wander through the forest as they please).

Bird life is rich in both natural and urban areas, with examples including kestrels, gulls, sparrows, magpies, doves, starlings, blackbirds, swallows, herons, quails, pheasants, and a variety of species of owl. England’s coastline is similarly rich in wildlife, given that it offers vibrant habitats within its sand dunes, beaches, cliffs and rocky outcrops. Otters, seals, harbour porpoises, basking sharks and dolphins can be spotted in British waters at various times of year.