Cornish pasty

Author Fraser McAlpine, who must explain Britain to foreigners as editor of the BBC’s Anglophenia blog, and answers more in new book Stuff Brits Like: A Guide To What’s Great About Great Britain.
弗雷泽·麦卡尔平是BBC的Anglophenia博客的编辑，也是新书《英国人的喜好：向你介绍大不列颠的伟大之处》的作者，他在新书中中向外国人诠释了英国，并加以说明。

So here are some of the best bits about being British ...
现在让我们来看看英国特色的的最佳代表吧。

Cornish pasty
康沃尔馅饼

The Cornish pasty, staple of the West Country county, was created as a handy lunch for the tin miners.
康沃尔馅饼是英国西南部各郡的主食，是由几个锡矿工人发明出来当做简易午餐的。

They often ended up with arsenic on their fingers, and the pasty allowed them to hold the thick crust, which they could then discard at the end of their lunch.
这些工人经常因吃到他们指头上的砷（也就是砒霜）而丧命，而康沃尔馅饼有着又厚又硬的边，工人们可以抓着边吃馅饼，吃完后再把这些边扔掉，就可以避免吃到砷了。

Joe Orton

Joe Orton
乔·奥顿

The playwright, who wrote Loot, and his lover Kenneth Halliwell used to sneak books from libraries and replace their dust jackets with homemade versions, complete with a fresh – and scandalous – blurb and the odd naked man, too.
乔·奥顿是名剧作家，《人赃俱获》是他的主要作品之一，他和他的情人肯尼斯·哈利维尔过去常常把图书馆里的书偷偷带出来，然后给那些书换上自制的书皮，书皮上还带有令人震惊、夸张古怪的年轻裸男的图案。

Pantomime Dame

Pantomime Dame
话剧中的女性角色

The British love of cross-dressing originates with Shakespeare, who had males playing females. But in Victorian times both the main female and male lead were traditionally played by women.
自从莎士比亚提议由男性来表演女性角色之后，英国人对易装表演的喜爱一发不可收拾，不过在维多利亚时期，话剧中的男女主角都是由女性来扮演。

Marmite

Marmite
酵母酱

Loved and hated in equal measure, Marmite is made from the breweries’ boiled-down leftovers, known as beer scum.
让人们又爱又恨的酵母酱，是从啤酒厂的残余物中浓缩提取出来的，还被称为啤酒泡沫。

Despite being a quintessential British condiment, it was actually created by a German scientist called Justus von Liebig.
尽管酵母酱是英国调味品中的典型代表，但它实际上是由一位名为尤斯图斯·冯·李比希的德国科学家发明的。

Phone boxes

Phone boxes
公共电话亭

The original design of the iconic red British phone boxes were actually green to blend in with the grass and trees. But they blended in so well people started walking into them, so the colour had to change. As Royal Mail also ran telephone services, they were painted the classic red colour.
英国公共电话亭一开始并不是那个经典的红色形象，而是绿色的，很容易和草木混为一体，正因如此，人们常常会不小心撞到电话亭，所以后来就改了颜色，改成了经营电话业务的英国皇家邮政的标志性红色。

Tikka masala

Tikka masala
烤鸡咖喱

Chicken tikka masala is a Glaswegian invention thought up in 1971, while the Indian balti dishes were first created in Birmingham restaurant Adil’s in 1977.
烤鸡咖喱这道料理是格拉斯哥人在1971年发明的，而印度干锅菜则是由伯明翰一家饭店里叫阿迪尔的人于1977年首创。

Rugby... league & union

Rugby... league & union
橄榄球联盟&联合

The divide between rugby union and rugby league goes back to the late 1800s.
橄榄球联盟和橄榄球联合之间的划分可以追溯到19世纪晚期。

In the industrial north, amateur players were losing too much paid work in order to play so they decided to go professional. But players from clubs in the south refused to join them in their rugby league, which developed in parallel to rugby union, each with their own rules and customs.
在北部工业地区，业余橄榄球员因为橄榄球赛而失去了很多有偿工作，所以他们决定成为职业选手。但是来自南部地区橄榄球俱乐部的球员们拒绝和他们一起组成橄榄球联盟，后来这些南方球员们发展为橄榄球联合，与联盟并驾齐驱，双方都有各自的规则与习俗。

Lord Rokeby

Lord Rokeby
罗克比勋爵

The eccentric 18th century peer loved water so much he ate dinner in his pool and it was believed he wanted to be a fish.
这位古怪的18世纪贵族无水不欢，他甚至连晚餐也要在泳池里享用，以至于大家都觉得他想成为一条鱼。

Doctor Who

Doctor Who
神秘博士

The Doctor Who theme tune, recorded at an experimental BBC Radiophonic Workshop, was one of the first widely popular electronic songs.
神秘博士的主题曲是在BBC无线电音乐工场录制的，当时这场录制只是作为一个实验。这首主题曲是早期广为流传的电子歌曲之一。

主题曲听这里：

Eddie the Eagle

Eddie the Eagle
飞鹰埃迪

Eddie Edwards became a household name after losing the 70m and 90m ski jump in the 1988 Winter Olympics. It was the first time Britain had entered a competitor in the event and Eddie had to borrow his ski boots, which were so big he wore six pairs of socks to make them fit.
埃迪·爱德华兹是在1988年冬奥会上输掉70米和90米的跳台滑雪比赛后才变得家喻户晓，在当时，英国第一次有人参加这个项目，埃迪甚至没有自己的滑雪靴，而他借来的滑雪靴太大了以至于他要穿六双袜子才能使靴子变得合脚。