West Country food

Do you enjoy eating local food? If you do, you will like the West Country.

Most people who visit Devon look forward to having a cream tea. This consists of a pot of tea (of course!) and scones served with strawberry jam and cream. The cream is not the same as that found in the rest of the country. It is called clotted cream, and it is much thicker and yellower than ordinary cream. What are scones? Well, here is a recipe which you can try yourselves. By the way, in Devon they are called 'chudleighs'.

If you are still hungry you could try a Cornish pasty!

Pasties used to be the main food of Cornish miners and fishermen about 150 years ago, because they provided a convenient meal to take to work. They were made of pastry which had either sweet or savoury fillings, and were marked with the owner's initials on one end. This was so that if he did not eat all his pasty at once he would know which one belonged to him!

Now a visit to Somerset, which has always been famous for its cheeses. The most popular variety is probably 'Cheddar', which is a firm cheese. It usually has a rather mild flavour but if it is left to ripen, it tastes stronger, and is sold in the shops as 'mature Cheddar'. It takes its name from a small town which is also a beauty-spot well- known for its caves, which contain stalagmites and stalactites.

Finally, a West Country drink. No visit would be complete without a pint of Somerset cider, or 'Scrumpy' as it is called. Cider is made from apples and is sold all over the United Kingdom, but scrumpy is much stronger, and usually has small pieces of the fruit floating in it. Most people find that they have to be very careful about how much they drink!

Susan Sheerin, Jonathan Seath, Gillian White: Spotlight on Britain; Oxford University Press, 1985, page 72