BRITISH MEALS

We have three main meals a day:

• Breakfast - between 7:00 and 9:00,
• Lunch - between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m. and
• Dinner - anywhere from 6:30 at night to 8:00 p.m.

On Sundays the main meal of the day is often eaten at midday instead of in the evening. This meal usually is a Roast Dinner consisting of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and two kinds of vegetables.

Breakfast

 

Most people around the world seem to think the typical English breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, mushrooms and baked beans all washed down with a cup of coffee. Nowadays, however, a typical English breakfast is more likely to be a bowl of cereals, a slice of toast, orange juice and a cup of coffee.

The "traditional" British breakfast is cereal with milk and sugar. Then fried bacon and eggs, or scrambled eggs on toast, or boiled eggs and toast. Lastly, toast and butter with marmalade or jam. Tea or coffee is usually drunk. The "continental" breakfast is becoming more popular. This is just toast and butter with marmalade or jam. Tea or coffee is drunk.

Lunch

 

This may have two, three starters, e.g., soup; a main course, e.g., meat or fish with vegetables; then a pudding or dessert, e.g., apple pie and custard sauce; then perhaps cheese and biscuits. Lunch may also be a snack, e.g., some soup, a salad or some sandwiches. In some parts of Britain, the midday meal is called "dinner" especially if it is a big meal. Many children at school and adults at work will have a 'packed lunch'. This typically consists of a sandwich, a packet of crisps, a piece of fruit and a drink. The 'packed lunch' is kept in a plastic container.
 

Tea

 

The "traditional" 4 o'clock tea is usually bread with butter and jam, scones, cakes (small and large) Country preserves (Know as a cream tea) . Afternoon tea sandwiches often thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Assorted pastries and biscuits. Tea is drunk with milk and sometimes with sugar. Some people do not have milk. They have a slice of lemon instead.

Nowadays many people do not eat much at teatime, but they still drink a cup of tea in the afternoon. "High tea" (The traditional 6 o'clock tea) in the north of England and Scotland especially, is the big meal at about 6 p.m. There is usually a meat or fish course, then a pudding or dessert. Tea is drunk throughout the meal.Traditionally eaten early evening, High tea was a substantial meal that combined delicious sweet foods, such as scones, cakes, buns or tea breads, with tempting savouries, such as cheese on toast, toasted crumpets, cold meats and pickles or poached eggs on toast. This meal is now often replaced with a supper due to people eating their main meal in the evenings rather than at midday.

Tea in Britain is traditionally brewed in a warmed china teapot, adding one spoonful of tea per person and one for the pot If someone asks you if you would like a cuppa, they are asking if you would like a cup of tea. If someone says 'let me be mother' or 'shall I be mother', they are offering to pour out the tea from the teapot

Dinner / Supper

 

Dinner is the big meal in the evening and it is like a large lunch with two, three or four courses. People who eat a big meal at midday often have only a small meal in the evening. This is called "supper", and there may be only one course, e.g., cauliflower cheese. Dinner is eaten at anytime between 6 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. A typical British meal for dinner is meat and "two veg.” A gravy covers the meat, and one of the vegetables is almost always potatoes. However, this meal is rarely eaten nowadays, a recent survey found that most people in Britain are eating curry! Rice or pasta are now favoured as the 'British Dinner'.

The working day in Britain is usually 9 am to 5 pm with a one hour break at about 1 o'clock. People in Britain don't eat out very often. They usually go to restaurants on special occasions. Restaurants are quite expensive. Young people eat out more often than older people.

There are four kinds of eating place in Britain:



Take-aways. 
You buy your food here and you take it home. The most common take-aways are fish and chip shops. The food here is quite cheap. Take-away meals are very popular and most towns have a selection of Indian, Italian, Chinese and Greek Restaurants. Fish and chip is the classic English take-away food. It became popular in the 1860's when railways began to bring fresh fish straight from the east coast to the cities over night. Traditionally, the fish and chips are covered with salt and malt vinegar and, using your fingers, eaten straight out of the newspaper they were wrapped in. Nowadays small wooden forks are provided and the fish and chips are wrapped in more hygienic paper. Fish And Chip is traditionally England's national food.

 

Fast food restaurants. 
You order your food at the counter and then take it to your table to eat it. Hamburger and pizza restaurants are the most common fast food places.

 

Pubs. 
Most pubs serve food. But you must be 16 to go into a pub and you can't buy alcohol until you're 18



Restaurants. 
A waiter or waitress serves you. There are many different kinds of restaurant in Britain. Chinese, French, Indian and Italian are the most common

Typical traditional English dishes

 

The staple foods of England are bread, meat, cheese, pies and puddings. Many of our dishes are based on these foods:

• Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (roast meat, two vegetables and potatoes with Yorkshire Puddings). This is England's traditional Sunday lunch, which is a family affair.
• Yorkshire Pudding (made from a batter of flour, eggs and milk, and cooked in the oven)
• Fish and chips (fish is deep-fried, and the "chips" are fried potatoes)Ploughman's Lunch (a piece of cheese, a bit of pickle and pickled onion, and a chunk of bread)
• Shepherds Pie (made with minced lamb and vegetables topped with mashed potato and grated cheese.)
• Roast chicken
• Roast lamb
• Hotpot (beef/pork/chicken stew)
• Toad-in-the-Hole (a sausage covered in batter and roasted.)
• Pie and Mash
• Bubble & Squeak (typically made from leftover potatoes and cabbage fried together)
• Bangers and Mash (mashed potatoes and sausages).
• Black Pudding (a thick sausage made from the blood and fat of a cow).
• Lancashire hotpot
• Cumberland sausage

Pies



Pies are very popular in England. Favourites include:

• Pork pie,
• Steak and Kidney pie (stewed steak and kidneys topped with crisp puff pastry) 
• Cornish pastries (a semi-circular pastry case stuffed with meat, potatoes and vegetables

Cheeses

 

English people have a great love for cheese and many different types are produced in England. They all have unique flavours and textures. The most common are the harder varieties such as Cheddar, Stilton, Red Leicester, Cheshire and Double Gloucester.

Cakes, biscuits and puddings (desserts)



There are hundreds of variations of sweet puddings in England but each pudding begins with the same basic ingredients of milk, sugar, eggs, flour and butter. Many of the desserts involve fresh fruit such as raspberries or strawberries, custard, cream, and cakes. Favourites include:

• The Victoria Sponge
• Trifle
• Bakewell pudding
• Shrewsbury biscuit
• Custard
• Bread and butter pudding
• Semolina.
• Spotted Dick (sponge pudding with sultanas and raisins)
• Jam roly-poly (rolled up sponge with jam)  
• English Crumpets (tasty "muffin" that goes great with tea, and spread with butter and preserves).  
• Mince Pies (Pastry shells filled with mince meat, and sometimes brandy or rum).  
• Treacle pudding (a steamed pudding with a syrup topping).