Wine and mead

Wine often accompanies formal meals. It was introduced to England, for both production and consumption, by the Romans. Wine has been imported ever since, although it has not always been accessible to the average person. From the middle Ages, the English market was the main customer of clarets from Bordeaux, France, helped by the Plantagenet kingdom, which included England and large provinces in France. In the 18th century, the Methuen Treaty of 1703 imposed high duties on French wine. This led to the English becoming a main consumer of sweet fortified wines like sherry, port wine, and Madeira wine from Spain and Portugal. Fortified wine became popular because unlike regular wine, it does not spoil after the long journey from Portugal to England. Fortified wines are used in dessert cookery, for instance sherry features as an ingredient in trifle. By the late, 20th century wines from around the world were available to the mass market. Viticulture was restarted in the 1970s after a very long break. England is currently a major consumer, but only a very minor producer of wine, with English and Welsh wine sales combined accounting for just 1% of the domestic market. Another form of domestic wine production is "country wines" or "fruit wines", which are made from wide variety of fruit and vegetables — elderberry, damson, parsnip and so on — other than grapes. Commercial varieties are available, but country wines are also often home-made, sometimes from garden produce or personally harvested wild fruit. Mead, fermented honey, was popular in the middle Ages, but is now a curiosity.

Spirits

Although gin itself is not a British invention, its most popular style, London Dry Gin was developed in England. Gin and tonic has historical roots going back to the British Empire, since the tonic was originally quinine taken to combat malaria in tropical climates. Rum likewise has historic associations for the English. Whisky production in modern England re-started in Norfolk in late 2006, and the first resulting single malt whisky was made available to the public in November 2009. This was the first English single malt in over 100 years. It was produced at St George's Distillery by the English Whisky Company. Previously Bristol and Liverpool were centres of English whisky production.

Mixed drinks

Although the English do not have a strong tradition of inventing cocktails, they did invent the mixed drink known as punch. It is typically made of water, fruit, fruit juice and spirits and served in a large bowl. Pimms is a company which has been selling ready-mixed drinks for well over a century. Pimm's associated with the British summertime and events such as Wimbledon, the Henley Royal Regatta, and the Glyndebourne opera festival. It is often used as the basis of further mixtures including fruit, lemonade, etc. Mixed drinks can also be based on beer (Lamb's wool) and cider (wassail).

Anglo-Indian cuisine

Indian cuisine is the most popular alternative to traditional cooking in Britain, followed by Chinese and Italian food. The chicken tikka masala is now considered one of Britain's most popular dishes. Indian food was served in coffee houses from 1809, and cooked at home from a similar date as Mrs. Beeton's cookbook attests. There was a sharp increase in the number of curry houses in the 1940s and again in the 1970s. In the Victorian era, during the British Raj, Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo-Indian cuisine. Kedgeree and Mulligatawny soup are traditional Anglo-Indian dishes. The word curry, meaning 'gravy', has been used since the medieval period. The word "curry" is not used in India. Instead, "masala" is used. Curry's tend to refer to light, often colored, spiced sauces on solid food. Curry does not usually contain meat (though it may be on it), unlike gravy. Anglo-Indian fusion food continued to develop with chicken tikka masala in the 1960s and Balti in the 1980s, although some claim the latter has roots in the subcontinent. Home-cooked curries by ethnically English people are often based on readymade curry powder sauces or pastes, with only a minority grinding and mixing their own spice masalas. The highly successful Patak's brand defines the taste of curry for many. Curries are sometimes home-cooked to use up leftovers. Chicken tikka masala, a modified version of Indian chicken tikka. It has been called "Britain's true national dish." In 2003, there were as many as 10,000 restaurants serving Indian cuisine in England and Wales alone. It is commonly mistaken that the majority of Indian restaurants in Britain are run by entrepreneurs of Indian origin, when in fact they are predominantly Bangladeshi and Pakistani. According to Britain's Food Standards Agency, the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom is worth £3.2 billion, accounts for two-thirds of all eating out, and serves about 2.5 million British customers every week. Pat Chapman's Curry Club has a membership of several thousand.

Indian restaurants typically allow the diner to combine a number of base ingredients — chicken, prawns or "meat" (lamb or mutton) — with a number of curry sauces — from the mild korma to the scorching phall — without regard to the authenticity of the combination. The reference point for flavour and spice heat is the Madras curry sauce (the name represents the area of India where restauranteurs obtained their spices rather than an actual dish). Other sauces are either prepared from scratch, or are variations on a basic curry sauce: for instance, vindaloo is often rendered as lamb in a Madras sauce with extra chilli, rather than the original pork marinated in wine vinegar and garlic. In addition to curries. All restaurants offer "dry" tandoori and tikka dishes of marinated meat or fish cooked in a special oven, and biriani dishes, where the meat and rice are mixed together. Samosas, Bhajis and small kebabs are served as starters, or can be eaten by themselves as snacks. English diners usually accompany their meals with basmati rice, bread being sometimes ordered in addition, and eat with spoon and fork. India's well-developed vegetarian cuisine is sketchily represented outside specialist restaurants. In recent years, some Indian restaurants have started aiming higher than the norm for ethnic food, two of them garnering Michelin stars in the process.