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A Brit of alright

Posted at 11:50AM, 19 September 2008 by Graham Holliday - Blogger

The Brits are coming. Well, British Food Fortnight that is. The idea is that from tomorrow until October 5 restaurants across the land celebrate home-grown produce, homespun recipes and good ol' traditional British food.

The fortnight has been running for the past seven years. The official website lists a number of reasons to buy British food. Although I' m not sure many of the reasons to buy British are unique to Britain,

"Eating British fruits and vegetables in season is good for you. Foods in season contain the nutrients, minerals and trace elements that our bodies need at particular times of the year."

I'm not sure the French diners I talk to would fully agree with other parts of the argument

And I'm not sure the French diners I talk to would fully agree with other parts of the argument. You see, a lot of the world is still not quite over the whole BSE crisis,

"Britain's beef and sheep industries are the envy of the world; breeding livestock and genetics from our native breeds are much sought after by farmers in other countries. Protect our great native livestock industry by buying the real thing, not an imported substitute."

The site does list a stack of British recipes and, not to be outdone, so does BBC Good Food with its own British recipe collection to celebrate the week.

However, neither of these two sites delves quite as deeply into the sweeter, less explored baked end of the British food spectrum, more often reserved for grandmas in the Cotswolds and aunties in Angelsey, as the excellent Baking for Britain blog.

Since 2005, food blogger Anna has blogged an exhaustive course around lesser known British bakes. If you're looking for something a little bit old and a little bit different, explore her archives to uncover classics like Coventry Godcakes, Herefordshire Cider Cake, Welsh Harvest Cake and Banbury Cakes.

As for me, I think I'll start off with a Toad in the Hole, just hope I can get the thing to rise properly. Not a big fan of the flat toad.

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