I vividly recall arriving at university in the late 1980s and casually mentioning needing to buy a bread cake. Little did I know that this term, which has nothing to do with cake, is highly regional. It's a South Yorkshire and, with a bit of stretching, East Midlands thing. If I had a Tracey Emin-style neon sign on my head saying "I am from elsewhere, possibly another planet," my regional identity would have been made clear. But I wasn't embarrassed; old habits die hard. On Sunday mornings, when making bacon sandwiches, the soft, floury baps I love are still bread cakes to me, and they always will be.

Reflections on the Past and Present of Regional Food

This experience was a long time ago. Now, as I think about making pease pudding for dinner (just kidding; we're having pasta), I find myself pondering regional differences in food. Do they belong only to the past? It's still hard to find parkin in London; Gail's Bakery looks to Europe rather than Leeds. However, Eccles cakes and Cornish pasties are now widely available. I've even seen haslet at the Islington branch of Tesco; it's a herby meat loaf that goes well in bread cakes, especially when they're thickly buttered. Neal's Yard Dairy sells Staffordshire oatcakes. Leave the capital, and you'll notice a sourdough-and-rocket-inflected monotony spreading outward from the M25.

Deliveroo's Impact on Regional Food Tastes

Nature abhors a vacuum, and Deliveroo's latest sales data has provided a new map of the nation's tastes. Some are predictable, like in the north where people are more likely to order chips with curry sauce. But others are strange, like the person in Glasgow who panics and orders scones. Geographically, York is now the capital of bubble tea, Brighton of oat milk, and Tunbridge Wells of champagne. The media swallowed Deliveroo's press release without question, and I was able to study its findings while eating a sandwich. While some neighbors adopted delivery apps quickly, with a liveried bicycle arriving at their house almost every day, I've never used Deliveroo and have no plans to. Even if I did, I wouldn't order a latte from Costa Coffee in Blackpool or a rice bowl from Leon in Bath. These seem like last resorts rather than the ultimate in a good night in.

The Dispiriting Phrases of Modern Food Culture

There are many dispiriting phrases in the English language. I've mentioned before how much I dislike hearing "I'm not having a starter." But "eight pieces boneless from Wingstop" is right up there. According to Deliveroo, the trending food of the past year was chicken, and this easy-to-eat octet from Wingstop, an American chain with 55 outlets in Britain, took the top spot. These words seem to encapsulate something: an unstoppable blandification and a refusal to recognize the value of difference and the danger of ignoring it. As I hold onto cheese, which has improved beyond imagination in my lifetime, I worry about what we're losing. All we can do is continue to perform our small acts of resistance. Bread cakes forever, and down with the bicycles carrying oat milk.