Make the Most of Your Time in Britain

• Verlag: Rough Guides
• ISBN:
  9781405388597
• Thema: Développement personnel
• Thema: Voyage

Make the Most of Your Time in Britain brings you the very best of Britain with 500 great things to do, see and experience. Discover that many of the best travel adventures are right here on your doorstep; from Britain's unparalleled concentration of historic houses and gardens to the staggering beauty and dramatic diversity of its landscapes - not to mention the colour, dynamism and downright eccentricity of its festivals and traditions. Celebrate how the country has changed for the better - from cutting-edge new (and reinvented) museums and galleries to the glorious culinary revolution including all the best farmers markets, restaurants and spots for afternoon tea. Make the Most of Your Time in Britain celebrates all that Britain has to offer in this inspirational travel book that not only looks good but is great to read.

Wave goodbye to the misery of airport queues and baggage fees and Make the Most of your Time in Britain.

Now available in ePub format.

Once upon a time – in the culinary Dark Ages of prawn cocktail and Black Forest gateau – who would have believed that cooking in Britain would be the new rock and roll, that one day you wouldn’t be able to move for Michelin stars in Shropshire and Cumbria? A current generation of British chefs is rocking the world, from Heston Blumenthal and his ethereal “molecular gastronomy” to the nose-to-tail philosophy of meat-and-offal enthusiast Fergus Henderson. True, not quite everyone in Britain slow-roasts their own vine-grown tomatoes before heading out to pick hedgerow herbs for dinner. But there’s no denying the dramatic shift in attitude over the last twenty years that has led to better, more nourishing British food in both homes and restaurants – whether it’s higher welfare, sustainably sourced, locally grown or artisan-made. But there’s a deeper, hidden truth too, which is that – despite the glib jibes from foreigners and past culinary horrors – Britain has always had fantastic food and drink. It’s easy to forget that once upon a time all markets were farmers’ markets. It wasn’t fashion that led Cornish tin miners to knock up a tasty meat-and-vegetable pasty for their underground lunch, and it wasn’t Jamie or Nigella who suggested that the Wensleydale monks might like to try their hand at making amazing cheese. There’s been a sensational fish market in London for as long as there’s been a London – the Romans were bringing in salted anchovies two thousand years before the River Café started banging on about them – and whisky has been distilled in Scotland for centuries. So in our regional celebration of British food we give you the unsurpassed Melton Mowbray pork pie, oysters from Whitstable and Herefordshire cider. We want you to eat chips made from potatoes in God’s own Lancashire potato belt, tuck into Somerset eels and flavour your meals with Isle of Wight garlic. Across the nation there are fantastic food festivals, cookery masterclasses and gastropubs galore, and whether you’re into eating fry-ups or Fat Rascals, tracking down Slow Food or wild food, you can guarantee Britain is the place to find it.

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY food and drink |

073 Guzzling garlic on the Isle of Wight

In 1948, Angelo Pellegrini, the great Italian food writer, claimed that garlic “blesses and ennobles everything it touches – with the possible exception of ice cream and pie”. And he was right: the pungent plant tastes far better with bolognaise than banoffee. But more than sixty years later, at Britain’s smelliest food event, garlic-flavoured puddings are snapped up by the bowlful.

The Isle of Wight Garlic Festival, which makes a corner of the island hum with the sour, buttery pong of garlic for two days every August, began as a local school fundraiser in the 1980s. Nowadays it’s a much bigger deal, attracting around 20,000 visitors a year and giving locals a chance to showcase the island’s best produce – including great husk-covered bulbs of garlic that taste so good, even the French have started importing them.

There are stalls selling tongue-tingling garlic beer, sickly-sweet garlic fudge and yes – Pellegrini would be turning in his grave – even sugary garlic ice cream. But you can also get your chops around dishes that make use of the stinky allium in much more conventional ways. From striped blue and white tipis, apron-clad vendors serve up barbecued ears of sweetcorn, smothered in butter and infused with delicate garlic. Nearby there are chefs sautéing seafood over bright-blue gas flames, causing wonderfully heady clouds of garlic smoke to billow slowly over the crowds of foodies. And everywhere you look, there are bundles of purpley-white cloves waiting to be thrown into pots and pans of deliciously piquant sauces.

With the best will in the world, however, there’s only so much garlic you can eat in one day. So when you feel it seeping through your pores and out into the warm summer air, take a walk through the rest of the festival site. Here you’ll find plenty of garlic-free food to enjoy, like locally produced fruit juices and award-winning meat and dairy. Away from the food stalls altogether, there are live bands, magic shows and circus acts to keep you entertained, plus huge marquees full of local arts and crafts.

After all that exertion, you may feel your garlic breath is beginning to fade away. But honestly, even if you only sampled a few of the garlicky treats on offer, you’re going to smell bad for at least twenty-four hours.

The Isle of Wight Garlic Festival (www.garlic-festival.co.uk) takes place every August at Fighting Cocks Crossroads, Bathingbourne Lane, Sandown. Tickets cost £7.50 for adults, £4 for children. The showground is open from 10am to 6pm. Wightlink (www.wightlink.co.uk) runs ferries and catamarans from Portsmouth to Fishbourne. Map 2, D6

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY food and drink |

074 Tea with a Rascal

A dozen pairs of shining, ruby-red eyes peer out from among the neat rows of creamy chocolate éclairs, glistening fruit tarts and crumbly Yorkshire shortbread. On closer inspection, the eyes turn out to be sticky, glacé cherries atop a large raisin bun and are accompanied by a toothy, blanched almond grin. This cheeky face belongs to the celebrated Fat Rascal, the best-known and arguably most delicious cake served up at Harrogate’s – and Yorkshire’s – most famous tearooms, Bettys. A cross between a rock bun and a scone, the Rascal is made with a tempting concoction of dried fruit, nutmeg, cinnamon, orange and lemon zest. Washed down with a steaming cup of tea, it’s the ultimate teatime treat.

Bettys Tearooms was established in 1919 by Swiss confectioner Frederick Belmont, who, after arriving in London from his motherland, lost his document with the address of his destination. After remembering that the place sounded like “bratwurst”, and with the help of many a station controller, Frederick managed to find the correct train to Bradford. He decided to stay in Yorkshire, and went about realizing his dream of setting up his own confectionery business. The fashionable spa town of Harrogate became the location for his flagship store, and nowadays Yorkshire is blessed with six tearoom outlets.

It’s rare to see Bettys without a long queue of tourists and locals, who flock to indulge in its unusual, hybrid menu of Swiss–Yorkshire cuisine – expect anything from raclette rösti and Gruyère-cheese omelettes to Yorkshire sausages or Wensleydale and watercress quiche. Inside, the café oozes Art Deco elegance with its pretty, etched- and stained-glass windows, smooth marble tables and modish wood panelling. To a backdrop of gently chinking glasses, the soft hum of conversation and hot tea flowing from china teapots, uniformed waiters and waitresses in crisp, high-collared white shirts and spotless aprons flit efficiently from table to table. Those with a particularly sweet tooth should drop by for a genteel afternoon tea on Sunday afternoons; as the smart pianist in white gloves tickles the ivories in the background, you can tuck into soft, currant-filled scones with lashings of cream and sweet strawberry jam. And if you can’t bear to tear yourself away from the tearoom’s tasty treats, why not take part in their regular cooking classes, where you can learn how to rustle up your very own Fat Rascal.

Bettys’ flagship branch is at 1 Parliament St, Harrogate, North Yorkshire (open daily 9am–9pm), and there are outlets in Ilkley, Harlow Carr, Northallerton and two branches in York. Details of cookery classes at Bettys can be found at www.bettys.co.uk. Map 3, C9

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY food and drink |

075 Underneath the arches at Britain’s best food market

A half-wheel of gooey Somerset Ogleshield cheese bubbles on the griddle, its rich, tangy aromas clogging the air; smeared over a plate of crumbly Charlotte potatoes it makes for a sublime raclette. Across the way at Baxter’s, a dozen or so amply sized bangers – venison, ostrich, wild boar – brown gently, spitting and smoking their way to perfection. Or how about half a dozen of Richard Haward’s native oysters – they sit so temptingly on a bed of bladderwrack – freshly harvested from the shallow creeks of Essex’s Mersea Island, where they’ve been gathered since Roman times? It’s lunchtime, you’re starving – but never has decision-making proved so difficult. And you haven’t even reached the serious part of the market yet.

Nowhere demonstrates Britain’s new-found passion, zest and confidence in food and drink better than Borough Market. A market has existed on this site, nestling beneath the footings of London Bridge, since the twelfth century, and the distinctive green wrought-ironwork of its current buildings is unmistakeably Victorian, but it wasn’t until the market’s renaissance as a retail outlet in the late 1990s that Borough established its reputation as a foodie haven. Today, alongside its wholesale role – the bustling fruit and veg market continues to operate during the early hours every weekday morning – it stands as the finest source of exceptional produce in Britain.

It’s also a superb repository of food knowledge and expertise. Passionate stallholders will enthusiastically discuss provenance or cooking techniques, all the while – like all good market traders – gently coaxing your purse strings open. Some of the stalls of the labyrinthine Middle Market are works of art in themselves, from the huge fishing-net-garlanded stone counter at Furness Fish & Game, to the irresistibly French Le Marché du Quartier, where a full-size 2CV provid...