03/27/2004 Entry: "British Regional Food and Drink Guide"

The Best of British Food
Although it is a small country on the world map, Britain has a remarkable range of regional foods. To help the British, and visitors from overseas, sample all these delicacies, the Guild of Fine Food Retailers has produced a 200-page guide "Eating British", sub-titled "the eating in, eating out guide to regional food and drink".

The guide divides the country into 12 regions, and gives details of a wide variety of establishments - restaurants and inns, hotels and tea rooms, farm shops and delicatessens, dairies and cheese shops - where you can find interesting and unusual foods to eat on the premises, or to take home. The guide offers a mouth-watering choice throughout the country.

For example, in London there is Paxton & Whitfield in Jermyn Street, cheesemongers since 1797, with a vast range of classic British cheeses; and the Rex Whistler Restaurant in Tate Britain, which serves traditional fare such as Loch Duart salmon, Welsh lamb and Norfolk duck.

Away from London, Emley Woodhouse Farm Shop in West Yorkshire boasts 25 varieties of hand-made sausages; Gordon & MacPhail in Elgin, Scotland, stocks 750 different whiskies and 50 bottled Scottish beers; Blas Ar Fwyd Delicatessen at Llanrwst, North Wales, claims the fullest selection of Welsh cheese anywhere, plus Welsh mead and wine; while Browns Hotel, a former coaching inn at Tavistock, Devon, offers dried cured Cornish bacon, Devon beef, wild Tamar salmon and Cornish Yarg cheese.

The guide is available at many of the listed establishments and at tourist information centres, or via mail order for £8.99 (including postage and packing) from the Guild of Fine Food Retailers - phone 01747 822290, or e-mail tortie.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk

Website: www.finefoodworld.co.uk