You haven't eaten in the UK in over a decade but you are always good at googling . . . .

Some of the best places to eat in the UK are country pub/restaurants. If you want to travel in the countryside and travel to eat, as you put it, I assume you've got hold of the Good Food Guide and the Michelin guide.

We're not some backward nation that only eats beef.

Go away and do some proper research, if food is that important to you, and tailor your trip around special places to eat. There are very many of them in beautiful country settings.

The Good Pub Guide is also a great reference, especially in the countryside. Reservations are a must for most of the pubs, at least on weekends. There is an app that is very helpful in finding great pubs nearby.

You haven't eaten in the UK in over a decade but you are always good at googling>

I watch Coronation Street where this came up.

You think watching Coronation Street makes you an expert on British food? Or anything else, for that matter? Dream on.

Read this this morning http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-...gordon-ramsay/

Not that TA is the be all and end all (I seldom read the reviews) but just another indication.

(PQ is enamored of Coronation Street, the London Dungeon, and Blackpool - 'nuff said)

I'm fortunate to live in Yorkshire, and also fortunate to have eaten (and stayed overnight) at the Black Swan. Wonderful experience (aided by the four poster bed and the huge copper bath tub).
Up here in Yorkshire we have what are known as the Super Six - six fantastic Michelin starred restaurants. Think they have all held onto their stars this year.
However, beyond the Super Six we have some fabulous pubs and restaurants. You'd be spoilt for choice if you holidayed up here. Plus the people are famed for their friendliness and the scenery is superb.
Have a look at the Yorke Arms for instance, in a tiny village in Nidderdale and looking like something out of a picture book - serving the best food I have ever eaten. It has rooms so you can stay over (and I can vouch that the breakfasts are brilliant too).
http://www.yorke-arms.co.uk/
It might be having a change of management soon though.
The Hardens Food Guide is also a very reliable source for the best food in the country. I use it more than the Good Food Guide.
http://www.hardens.com/

LOVED the Yorke Arms - went thanks to Morgana's recommendation.

Hope to make it to the Black Swan sometime next Spring(?)

Meant to add - whilst no one should ever take culinary advice from Coronation Street (LOVE that programme), Bettys Hot Pot made slowly from lamb can be a wondrous thing to eat!
Deirdre's Stuffed Marrow was a long running joke in the programme too.
Janis - Tommy Banks is all over the TV and newspapers here, best book way in advance.... And if you are in this area next Spring it would be fab to meet up and cook for you!

Meant to add - whilst no one should ever take culinary advice from Coronation Street>

Obviously but they mentioned it once in context of being so so popular itintrigued me so asked folks here in a thread about it and many Brits said yes it was very popular - so yes it is good to mention something so so popular in UK to folks who Travel for Food- right? Rather than be met with denigrating disdaining comments about doing so.

Spag Bol is another very popular British dish they talk about on Corrie!

Nice when you go abroad to taste the delicacies but also IMO very popular foods with common Brits- everyone knows about fish and chips but foreigners may not have heard of tikki masala.

Chicken tikka masala is the lowest common denominator of Indian food, and Indian food was already mentioned upthread. For foodies there are MANY more interesting Indian dishes available. Ditto Italian. Would you send a foodie visiting the US to Olive Garden? (And if the answer is "yes", please quit commenting on foodie threads.)

<<I wouldn't rave about the food that we had in our 10-day trip to Cornwall last fall, though we did have one of the best meals ever with annhig outside of Penzance (maybe she can refresh our memory of the name of the place). >>

I can of course, St C - it was the Old Coastguard Hotel and Restaurant , at Mousehole - though there is another equally good restaurant in the same village plus a pub serving pretty good pub nosh.

http://www.oldcoastguardhotel.co.uk

http://www.2forestreet.co.uk

https://www.shipinnmousehole.co.uk

Back in Penzance there are probably 6 or so decent restaurants where anyone could be happy with what they are served plus a number of decent pubs.

It seems to me that you have two possible ways of approaching this - either work out a route that you fancy and then research decent places to eat nearby, or research what you think will be good eateries, and plan a week accordingly.

Chicken tikka masala is the lowest common denominator of Indian food>

And also the most popular - a food person may want to try one of the most popular dishes in EU?

Wili: It is among the United Kingdom's most popular dishes, leading a government minister, Robin Cook, to claim in 2001 that it was "a true British national dish".

If I were a foodie I'd want to try one of the most popular dishes in a country - why not mention it?

And hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza are probably the most popular dishes in the US. Popular does not mean good or interesting.

Morgana: I'd LOVE to meet up. That would be great. Injured my knee in Peru in August and it is very slow getting back to normal so I'm not making plans yet -- I'll know more this winter. I am going to London at the end of Nov . . . but there I can use taxis and buses to get around if needed.

PQ: Give it a rest, will ya. please. The OP is pretty obviously not thinking of Chicken tikka - that ain't a 'foodie' thing.

But honestly >>but foreigners may not have heard of tikki masala.<< Really? Maybe not in northern Michigan but anywhere else it is pretty common.

I think some people here are unaware of the usual BRITISH definition of a 'foodie'.
Describing yourself as such over here would define yourself much more as a gourmet or lover of refined food.
That does not include our version of a spag bol, or tikka masala or hot pot, however lovely such dishes might be when cooked well!

Morgana - interesting. I would have defined it the same way (I grew up in England but have lived in the US for many years) but Merriam-Webster defines it as: "a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads". However, other online sources disagree.

In any case, I can't imagine describing tikka masala, spag bol or hot pot(!) as a "latest food fad". And in the US I imagine it is referring to the most recent "in" ingredient, or technique, like molecular cooking or food foam.

Webster is very much an "American" dictionary :-)

That is why I cited it.......! See the "but"?

I'm agreeing.