British Traditional Foods

Eating in Britain

 The staple foods of Britain are meat, fish,

potatoes, flour, butter and eggs. Many of

British dishes are based on these foods.

These three platefuls of food were served

up in a pub. I would say that they are
enormous portions and not what a typical
British person would eat in one sitting:
Steak and Kidney Pie with chips and salad
Cornish Pastie with chips, baked beans
and salad Chicken Salad

 Cottage Pie

(made
with minced beef and
vegetables topped with
mashed potato.

Shepherd's Pie and

Cottage Pie are very

similar. Shepherd's Pie
is made from lamb
whereas Cottage Pie
uses beef.

 Public Houses (Pubs)

The word pub is short for public
house. There are over 60,000
pubs in the UK (53,000 in
England and Wales, 5,200 in
Scotland and 1,600 in Northern
Ireland). One of the oldest pubs,
Fighting Cocks in St. Albans,
Herts, is located in a building
that dates back to the eleventh
century.

Pubs are an important part of British

life. People talk, eat, drink, meet their
friends and relax there.

Pubs have traditional names which date back over 600 years. Some

typical names are The Chequers, The White Swan, The Crown, The
King's Arms, The Red Lion and The White Horse. People often refer to
the pub by its name when giving directions: Turn left at the Rose and
Crown. There is usually a sign outside the pub showing the pub's name
with a picture.

In British schools, children can

usually choose between a hot or
cold dinner provided by the school
or a packed lunch taken from
home. Some children are entitled
to a free school dinner, but most
children pay for theirs.
Lunch break is from 12.15 at noon
to 1.15 p.m. and children may
have a school meal or bring a
packed lunch.
School lunches are priced at 1.60

 Pasta

twirls
Mince
beef
Lasagna

MEALS and MEAL TIMES

Some people have their biggest meal in the middle of the

day and some have it in the evening, but most people
today have a small mid-day meal - usually sandwiches,
and perhaps some crisps and some fruit.
British have three main meals a day:
Breakfast - between 7:00 and 9:00,
Lunch - between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m.
Dinner (sometimes called Supper) - The main meal,
eaten anytime between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. (Evening
meal)
Traditionally, and for some people still, the meals are
called:
Breakfast - between 7:00 and 9:00,
Dinner (The main meal) - between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m.
Tea - anywhere from 5:30 at night to 6:30 p.m.

BREAKFAST

Most people around the world seem to think a 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 English Breakfast without the fried bread. The
traditional English breakfast consists of eggs, bacon,
sausages, fried bread, baked beans and mushrooms . Even
though not many people eat this for breakfast today, it is always
served in hotels and guest houses around Britain.
The traditional English breakfast is called the Full English and
sometimes referred to as The Full English Fry-up.
Many people, especially children, in England eat a bowl of
cereal. They are made with different grains such as corn, wheat,
oats etc.
In winter many people eat "porridge" or boiled oats.

LUNCH
What is a

typical English lunch?

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.
Sandwiches are also known as a butty or
sarnie in some parts of the UK.

DINNER

The evening meal is usually called 'tea', 'dinner' or

'supper'.
What is a traditional English Dinner?
A typical British meal for dinner is meat and "two veg".
We put hot brown gravy, traditionally made from the
juices of the roast meat (but more often today from a
packet!) on the meat and usually the vegetables. One of
the vegetables is almost always potatoes.
This traditional meal is rarely eaten nowadays, a recent
survey found that most people in Britain eat curry! Rice
or pasta are now favoured as the 'British Dinner'.

TEA

Tea in Britain is traditionally brewed in a

warmed China teapot, adding one spoonful of
tea per person and one for the pot. Most
Britons like their tea strong and dark, but with
a lot of milk.
Years ago, the milk was poured into the cup
first, so as not to crack the porcelain.
The traditional way of making tea is:
Boil some fresh cold water. (use an electric
kettle to boil water)
Put some hot water into the teapot to make it
warm.
Pour the water away
Put one teaspoon of tea-leaves per person,
and one extra tea-spoon, into the pot.
Pour boiling water onto the tea.
Leave for a few minutes.
Serve

AFTERNOON TEA

AFTERNOON TEA (The traditional 4

o'clock tea)
This is a small meal, not a drink.
Traditionally it consists of Tea (or coffee)
served with either of the following:
Freshly baked scones served with
cream and jam (Known as a cream
tea)
Afternoon tea sandwiches - thinly sliced
cucumber sandwiches with the crusts
cut off.
Assorted pastries

HIGH TEA

HIGH TEA (The traditional 6 o'clock tea)

The British working population did not have Afternoon Tea. They had
a meal about midday, and a meal after work, between five and
seven o'clock. This meal was called 'high tea' or just 'tea'.
(Today, most people refer to the evening meal as dinner or supper.)
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.

Did you know?

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.
Tea Words and phrases
Tea break, High tea, tea time, tea party, tea towel and
many more terms have derived from the tradition of
drinking tea.
Tea breaks are when tea and biscuits are served. The
traditional time for tea breaks are at 11:00 am
(Elevensee) and 4 pm in the afternoon.
If something is not quite to your taste, its probably not
your cup of tea.

Traditional Foods of Scotland and

Wales
Scotland
Scotland is famous for its game
and salmon, the national dish is
haggis and neeps (innards and
offal chopped up with spices
and cooked in a sheep's
stomach, served with mashed
turnip). Glasgow is the home of
the deep-fried Mars bar.

Wales
Traditional Welsh foods include:
Laverbread - It's basically
boiled seaweed (Laver is a kind
of edible seaweed).
Laverbread is often served
rolled with fine Welsh oatmeal
into little cakes and fried into
crisp patties with eggs, bacon
and cockles for a traditional
Welsh breakfast.
Bara Brith - A rich cake
Welsh Rarebit - melted cheese
on toast.

Take away food in England

Take-away meals are very popular and

most towns have a selection of Indian,

Italian, Chinese and Greek Restaurants.
Fish and chips is the classic English
take-away food and is the traditional
national food of England. It became
popular in the 1860's when railways began
to bring fresh fish straight from the east
coast to the cities over night.

Fish (cod, haddock,

plaice) deep fried in
flour batter with chips
(fried potatoes) dressed
in malt vinegar. This is
England's traditional
take-away food or as
US would say "to go".
Fish and chips are not
normally home cooked
but bought at a fish and
chip shop ("chippie" ) to
eat on premises or as a
"take away"

The fish (cod, haddock,

plaice) is deep fried in flour
batter and is eaten with
chips. Traditionally, the fish
and chips are covered with
salt and malt vinegar and,
using your fingers, eaten
straight out of the
newspaper which they
were wrapped in. Now-adays small wooden forks
are provided and the fish
and chips are wrapped in
more hygienic paper.
In the north of England,
fish and chips is often
served with "mushy peas"
(mashed processed peas).

What food was "invented" or discovered in England?

1762: The sandwich

was invented in
England.
We have a town
named Sandwich in
the south of England.
John Montagu, the
Earl of Sandwich
invented a small
meal that could be
eaten with one hand
while he continued
his nonstop
gambling.

 1902: Marmite

was invented in England.

Marmite is dark brown-coloured savoury
spread made from the yeast that is a byproduct of the brewing industry. It has a
very strong, slightly salty flavour. It is
definitely a love-it-or-hate-it type of food.

 Did you like?

Lets go in England to taste the delicious

food I ve told you about!

 Grupul colar

Tehnologic Ion
Mincu , Tg-Jiu

the 9th E grade

Iulia Nnu,

Teacher of English
2007