The traditional meal is known as ‘meat, potatoes and two veg’ (vegetables), but these days people in the UK are just as likely to eat Italian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, or junk food (including hamburgers and döner kebabs). In fact, the nation’s current favourite is Indian food, which has been adapted for British tastebuds and is served in thousands of Indian restaurants all over the country. There is also a growing number of vegetarians - people who do not eat meat, poultry or fish on either health or moral grounds.

take-away chips

Fish and chips is another well-known meal - it is usually bought from special shops where the cooked food is wrapped so that customers can carry it home to eat with salt and vinegar or, in Scotland, with lemon juice. There are lots of traditional regional specialities, including haggis - the Scottish national dish which is made of sheep’s stomach stuffed with oatmeal and spices. Haggis is eaten with 'neeps and tatties' (root vegetables and potatoes).

Other regional dishes include Yorkshire pudding (made with flour and water) and roast beef, toad in the hole (sausages in Yorkshire pudding), and a meat or vegetable soup called cawl, which is eaten in Wales. The Cornish pasty comes from Cornwall, in the south-west of England. In times of poverty, the pasty might just have been filled with potatoes or turnips, rather than meat. Pasties were traditionally a favourite lunch for miners, school-children and fishermen. Sometimes the owner’s initials were marked in the crust, which was used as a handle (useful when there is nowhere to wash your hands) and thrown away once the rest of the pasty had been eaten.