Chinese Reigns For Takeaway-Loving Brits

On winter nights, it can be all too tempting to just sit on the sofa watching Corrie while someone else prepares your favourite crispy beef and egg fried rice or chicken tikka masala for you. But you can’t expect your partner to do this every night and your household budget probably doesn’t stretch to a live-in chef.

Yet according to new research from Deliveroo, many people’s budgets can accommodate £80 a month for takeaways, for those evenings when we can’t tear ourselves away from the never-ending drama of the Rovers Return.

Brits spend more than £1,000 a year on takeaways on average, with Londoners splashing out the most (£107 a month) on food that they don’t have to cook.

Edinburgh residents aren’t far behind, spending an average of £92 a month on take-out food, followed by Birmingham (£89), Leicester (£87), Oxford (also £87) and Manchester (£83).

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Chinese was named Britain’s favourite takeaway option by 58 per cent of poll respondents, with Italian coming in second place. We presume this is mainly pizza, but many food delivery services now allow you to order your favourite pasta or lasagne dishes too.

But is this taking laziness a bit too far? After all, how easy is it to stick some pasta on to boil and heat up some passata and mince for a super-quick spag bol? Put the pasta on during the first half of Corrie, give the mince a stir in the ads, then serve up when the credits roll – a quick, tasty, healthy tea and you won’t have missed any of the Barlow family’s latest scrapes.

Indian came in third place, followed by relative takeaway newcomer Mexican, as our love for tacos, fajitas and chilli-smothered enchiladas grows.

Overall, 86 per cent of Brits said they felt their tastes were pretty international, while 73 per cent classed themselves as ‘quite or very knowledgeable about foreign food’. This is great, but it suggests there’s still a fairly sizeable proportion of people who aren’t willing to try any grub that isn’t British.

Fish and chips, cottage pie and beef stew are staples, sure, but there is literally a whole world of other tastes and flavours out there for you to explore. And you don’t even have to get to grips with working out how to chop pak choi or fret about which spices you need for a jalfrezi, as someone can deliver it to you.

Cooking your own food allows you to keep on top of exactly what’s going in it though, so if you know you’re not a fan of ginger or would rather have crispy chicken than crispy duck but it’s not on the menu, you can please yourself.

#Fakeaways are a big trend right now, so get experimenting. You’ll end up eating healthier and – dare we say it? – tastier grub, and you can put that £1,000 of takeaway money away for a rainy day. And remember, with a bit of careful planning, you never have to miss an episode of Corrie.