Well, I am a bit slow of the mark...I have just realised that it is British Food Fortnight and we are already in the last week! The goals look worthy with an emphasis on good, locally-sourced food and to cultivate an interest in British food. Well, I am not going to find time to try any of their local events unfortunately.
Today they published the results of a survey about children's awareness of regional foods. The results were not particularly encouraging for British food
What are we to make of this. Are kids only familiar with junk food like deep pan pizza, chicken nuggets and junkburgers? Or have we simply moved on in the UK and have adopted a lot of food from abroad? My kids would certainly know about haggis, pasties and hopefully cheddar cheese, however they have only rarely had Lancashire hotpot and probably have never had Eccles cakes.The study reveals a worrying gap in children's grasp of home-grown delicacies.
One half (54 per cent) do not know that pasties come from Cornwall
Eighty per cent do not know that hotpot hails from Lancashire
Most surprisingly, over half (57 per cent) do not know that haggis is a Scottish dishChildren do not even seem to know about foods originating in their own backyards.
Thirteen per cent in the North West believe hotpot originated in London
One in five (19 per cent) children in the South West believe that cheddar cheese comes from the Midlands, rather than its Somerset base
Only 39 per cent in the North West know Manchester gave birth to Eccles cakes.
I have fed my kids plenty of things from abroad like pasta, chinese and indian dishes. Perhaps though they have not been exposed a lot to traditional British fayre at home. However, I think it is more important to use fresh, seasonal food regardless of cooking style than simply to cling to tradition for the sake of it.
2007-10-02 @ 15:58