English Meals
The English proverb says:
every cook praises his own broth. One can not say English cookery is bad, but
there is not a lot of variety in it in comparison with European cuisine. The
English are very particular about their meals. The usual meals in England are
breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.
Breakfast time is between
seven and nine a.m. A traditional English breakfast is a very big meal. It
consists of juice, porridge, a rasher or two of bacon and eggs, toast, butter,
jam or marmalade, tea or coffee. Marmalade is made from oranges and jam is made
from other fruit. Many people like to begin with porridge with milk or cream
and sugar, but no good Scotsman ever puts sugar on it, because Scotland is the
home of porridge. For a change you can have sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, cold
ham or perhaps fish.
But nowadays in spite of the
fact that the English strictly keep to their meals many people just have cereal
with milk and sugar or toast with jam or honey.
The two substantial meals of the day are lunch and dinner. Lunch is usually
taken at one o'clock. For many people lunch is a quick meal. Office workers
usually go to a cafe at this time. They take fish, poultry or cold meat (beef,
mutton, veal and ham), boiled or fried potatoes and all sorts of salad. They
may have a mutton chop or steak and chips, followed by biscuits and a cup of
coffee. Some people like a glass of light beer with lunch. Pubs also serve
good, cheap food. School children can have a hot meal at school. Some of them
just bring a snack from home.
Tea is very popular among the
English; it may almost be called their national drink. Tea is welcome in the
morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. The English like it strong and
fresh made. The English put one tea-spoonful of tea for each person. Tea means
two things. It is a drink and a meal. Some people have afternoon tea, so called
«high tea» with sandwiches, tomatoes and salad, a tin of apricots, pears or
pineapples and cakes, and, of course a cup of tea. That is what they call good
tea. It is a substantial meal.
Cream teas are also popular.
Many visitors, who come to Britain, find English instant coffee disgusting.
Dinner time is generally between six and eight p.m. The evening meal is the
biggest and the main meal of the day. Very often the whole family eats
together. They begin with soup, followed by fish, roast chicken, potatoes and
vegetables, fruit and coffee.
On Sundays many families have
a traditional lunch consisting of roast chicken, lamb or beef with salads,
vegetables and gravy.
The British enjoy tasting
delicious food from other countries, for example, French, Italian, Indian and
Chinese food. Modern people are so busy that they do not have a lot of time for
cooking themselves. So, the British buy the food at the restaurant and bring it
home already prepared to eat. So we can conclude that take-away meals are
rather popular among the population. Eating has become rather international in
Britain lately.
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