Food...

In comparison to the well-deserved fame of Mexican food around the world, British food has suffered a terrible reputation over the years, perhaps with good reason if you go by stories from the past. Nowadays, however, British food can be defined by its globalism. If you visit London, you can eat some of the best food you have ever eaten in your life, whether it's British or food from different countries all over the world. And elsewhere, there are wonderful British foods that have influenced foods in the most unexpected places, just look at Cornish pasties to be found in Hidalgo!

Reflecting on British, French and Mexican cuisines, what can lift a meal from a pleasant, nutritionally restorative experience to something quite sublime is often the sauce we add. In France, this can take the form of a finely curated jus. And a jus is really not that far from a good old British gravy. In Mexico, we have salsas verde and roja, moles, salsa macha... It can feel like cheating, to be honest.

And now something completely British

Something most Brits do well is the making of a nice cup of tea. There is an art to making tea, so here is a recipe to ensure you can all make a proppa cuppa.

• Ideally use a teapot.
• Warm the pot by pouring a touch of boiling water into it, swill it around, and pour it out.
• Pop the teabags, or ideally loose-leaf tea, into the pot: one bag/teaspoon per person, plus one for the pot.
• Fill the pot with freshly boiled water, still at boiling point (which makes me wonder if we can make a good cuppa at altitude, with water at only about 90°C).
• Allow the tea to brew to taste, 3-5 minutes is ideal for me.
• Pour a splash of cold milk into a cup. I prefer semi-skimmed, or even skimmed although this has proved to be controversial.
• Pour the tea onto the milk, add sugar to taste if you must.

If you don't have a teapot and are making your tea directly into a cup, do not put the milk in first. This is wrong. The tea needs to brew as close to 100°C as possible. So, warm the cup with a touch of boiling water, teabag into the cup, add freshly boiled water, allow to brew, then remove the teabag (very important if you want us to stay friends!) and add milk and sugar to taste. Serve with a chocolate digestive.