Whatever part of the country you’re from, there’s always a local dish you’re proud of. We take a look at the favourite foods where you’re from.
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00:00The French might be renowned for their haute cuisine, the Italians for rich, hearty family
00:14meals, be it in pizza or pasta form, and the Japanese might be famed for their clean, healthy
00:19meals, but in Britain we're very proud of our regional dishes. Whether it's puddings
00:23from Yorkshire, pork pies from Melbourne or pasties from Cornwall, every region is fiercely
00:28proud of their local cuisine, so our team have been out and about across the country
00:32finding out more, starting with Emily in Liverpool.
00:35Scouse is many things to many different people. Shaping the identity of the city and still
00:44served across Merseyside and at home, ever popular with endless variations. The classic
00:50dish has been an enduring staple here at Marlboyles. They've proudly served it for years and for
00:57Global Scouse Day, they're offering a range of succulent Scouse dishes for an entire month.
01:04With the space we've got, we can feed everyone. In one day, we can probably feed about 100
01:09people, but making it in a month, we're giving a chance to everyone to try it. Our lads in
01:14the kitchen, Kitchen Brigade, come up with the Scouse menu. So there's all different
01:18versions of your classic Scouse, so you can do a veggie, vegan version, you can have it
01:23as a pie, as a cottage pie, we do even a spicy one with the chorizo, or a vegan one
01:29with some lentils and beans. On the menu is classic Scouse, as well as blind, Scouse cottage
01:36pie and spicy Scouse, both of which can come veggie. I've gone for the Mars Scouse pie.
01:42Look at all that gorgeous meat in there, wow. I think this is interesting because people
01:49often eat Scouse with some bread and butter, this is a bit of an alternative to that, although
01:54I have got this with chips today, you can get it with spring onion mash or chips. I
01:57think I might try the Scouse first without the pile-a-don just to get right in there.
02:03You can see the big chunks of meat and veg, look at that. Ooh, it's piping hot as well.
02:14If you haven't had Scouse before, or you just haven't had it with either beetroot or
02:19brown sauce, the point of it is, is it's quite a rich dish, really unctuous flavours, and
02:26the pickled elements of either the beetroot or the cabbage, or the vinegary-ness of the
02:33brown sauce is there to cut through that dip. Scouse is a dish born out of Liverpool's
02:46history of hardship, creative endeavour, and it harks back to the bustling port days. Scouse
02:51was originally a dish whose ingredients were a mix of cheap and filling food, originating
02:57from the word lobscouse. This was a dish commonly eaten by sailors travelling across
03:03northern Europe who frequented Liverpool. Over the decades, the name was ultimately
03:08shortened to the version known across the world today, Scouse. To this day, it remains
03:16a hearty stew, generally consisting of meat, either lamb or beef, with potatoes, carrots
03:22and onions. Of course, you can have blind Scouse, which has no meat in it, and it's
03:26served on the side with pickled beetroot or pickled red cabbage, some crusty bread
03:30and some brown sauce. I've never even heard of Scouse before, let alone tasted it, but
03:39Emily's got me sold now. It's very much a dish I'll have to try very soon. Now over
03:44to Jack, who's looking at the many options of tasty and alternative foods in London's
03:48Borough Market. London's Borough Market, one of the most popular tourist destinations
03:56in the capital, and also a hotspot for locals working nearby to grab some lunch. When you
04:03enter the Borough Market from the London Bridge station side, you're greeted by almost artisanal
04:08stalls from bagel shops to sweet stands selling all kinds of licorice. It's difficult to get
04:14past all the amazing looking pastries and looking at all the amazing kinds of fudge
04:19on offer, but all these stands don't even scratch the surface of what's on offer in
04:24Borough Market. As you venture deeper into London's version of a bizarre market, it's
04:31a sensory overload. Everywhere you look, you see different food stands, the aromas are
04:36almost overwhelming. One of the first places you see is the world famous fish and chip
04:43stall, an award winning stand selling a British staple. Definitely more popular with people
04:49on holiday, but opposite is a new stall taking the market by storm selling mushroom risotto.
04:55The mushrooms are cooked in a large skillet and slowly added to another huge pan filled
05:01with risotto. It really did look incredible. Talking of big skillets, a little further
05:08in is the ever popular paella stand. Huge batches of sweet crusty rice being cooked
05:15and queues down an entire row for this one. It's definitely one of the most in demand
05:20dishes in the market. But back next to the mushroom risotto is a bakery and the donuts
05:26here are supposed to be the thing to try, so I had to. There really were just too many
05:33choices from creme brulee donuts to Nutella, but I decided to try a lemon curd donut. An
05:38underrated flavour in my opinion and it was amazing. The bread was really light, the curd
05:44was sweet and sharp. It was definitely spot on. I'd recommend it. But coming out the other
05:49side of Borough Market, you see fruit stands, veg stands, salt beef sandwiches and butcher
05:54shops. But as you follow the windy paths outside, you approach the iconic seating stand. Out
06:01here is where the savoury options come into their own, with anything from Iraqi dishes
06:07to small plates of Japanese food like gyozas and ramen. There's also Indian street food,
06:14a Tel Aviv market and sandwich shops. This particular stall is a big favourite for Londoners
06:20on their lunch breaks. Borough Market is a staple of London's culture, so much so that
06:26records of the site date back to around the 12th century and over 800 years later, it's
06:32still going strong. But up until a few decades ago, it was purely a wholesaler's market and
06:38these days it's open to the public. There you have it, London's most famous spot when
06:43it comes to food, Borough Market. And we'll be exploring some of the capital's most iconic
06:48spots right here on London News. But it's not just markets and street food that make
06:54London's food scene. High-end restaurants recently won prizes at the Good Food Awards
07:00in the capital earlier this year, including Most Beautiful Restaurant in the UK.
07:06A special mention for the handwritten reservations book and the mouthwash in the toilets.
07:14The winner of the Most Beautiful Restaurant is the Dover!
07:20I was lucky enough to speak to the winners celebrating the Dover's incredible achievement
07:32of Most Beautiful Restaurant in the UK this year.
07:36Well, first of all, I'm speechless because to win an award in the UK is a big prize.
07:44So as you can see from my voice, I'm still emotional. And this is a big win for the team
07:49that helped us to make Dover happen. I was happy for that. So it's very emotional.
07:54It's so important. I think part of the Dover success is all down to design. It's all about
08:00the setting in which people can enjoy their food and enjoy the time. And the whole experience
08:05comes from walking into a beautiful restaurant and immediately feeling at ease and being
08:10somewhere that you want to spend time. And the design of the Dover is totally, totally
08:16part of the success of where we are today.
08:20Wow, so many different options and so close to the heart of the city. Next time I'm in
08:27London, I'll have to pop along, although I think I'll be spoiled for choice. Now it's
08:32over to Ellie to see what foods the Geordies are shouting about.
08:37I'd say the Greggs sausage roll, definitely. 100%.
08:40Why is that?
08:41Because anywhere you go there's a Greggs and that's what you always see in people's hands,
08:44a Greggs sausage roll. Definitely.
08:47I think I'd say a Greggs. It's one of the places nearly everybody uses.
08:53Oh, Ridley Place. Everything was it. The three at the end, Zapatista's, Dover Days. Those
09:01two are probably my favourites. Other than that, probably Greggs. I mean, there's one
09:07over there, there's one there, there's one just over there. I love Greggs.
09:12While there are so many amazing food venues and signature dishes, they're actually not
09:15wrong. Over 80 years ago, a man called John Gregg delivered fresh eggs and yeast to families
09:20around Newcastle by pushbike. Ten years later, he opened his very first store on Gosforth
09:25High Street in 1951, which is still there today, with around 2,300 stores across the
09:33country. It's indeed of the city's origin. There's a modern-day phenomenon in Newcastle
09:38called Deep North. I headed to Tymouth, to the first store that they opened, to catch
09:42up with owner Phil to find out about Deep North's success.
09:47We're a specialty coffee and artisan doughnut business. Yeah, so we started here in Tymouth
09:52in August 2022. So we've kind of had the idea of wanting to do something in hospitality
09:59and create kind of a brand around something quite niche, if you like, focus on one or
10:05two products. We do it really, really well. So we found this spot in Tymouth, great location
10:09next to the coast. We moved the kitchen a couple of times because we make all our own
10:13doughnuts from scratch every day. So they're made fresh, we make the dough kind of today
10:18for tomorrow's doughnuts. So we prove the dough for kind of 24 to 36 hours and then
10:24make all the fillings, the glazes, everything like that from scratch. So we really put a
10:28lot of focus on kind of developing that kitchen and growing that so we can grow our kind of
10:32capacity. So we probably started here in Tymouth, I don't know, making something like 500 doughnuts
10:38a week and now we're up to kind of four or five thousand a week. So we've got a shop
10:43now at Dean Street in Newcastle, which we opened just over a year ago, and then a shop
10:50at Sheepfolds in Sunderland, which we opened about six months ago. We do a lot of events
10:54and markets and kind of pop ups. We had a pop up in Newcastle Airport last summer, which
10:59was great. We didn't just want to open up one coffee shop. You know, we wanted to build
11:03something and grow something. And we're really passionate. Like my backgrounds, I've done
11:08a little bit in hospitality, but in sport as well, but actually on that community side
11:11of sport. So we've done things like we've partnered with an organisation called Dip
11:16Club to do a monthly dip in the sea. So we call it Dunk and Doughnuts. So basically,
11:20we go and have a dip in the sea and then coffee and doughnuts on the beach afterwards. We
11:24want to open new sites and we're in the process of actually looking at a new site to move
11:29our kitchen to, but actually open up another shop there as well, which hopefully we'll
11:33kind of come through in the next couple of months.
11:38It seems the locals up north are very proud of a certain bakery that started out there,
11:42as well as their burgeoning coffee and doughnut offerings. So no matter where you go in the
11:46country, it might be worth asking a local for their recommendations. You might just
11:50find a local hidden treasure amongst all the chain restaurants.
11:59you