They were encouraged to be hard and pure, not soft and sensual ‘Too much enthusiasm for food was seen as decadent (and, indeed, ‘foreign’). In addition, British people have been mostly urban, with little contact with ‘the land’, for longer than the people of other countries. They are therefore rather ignorant of the origins of what arrives on the dinner table or in their lunch boxes. In 2004, a poll of children aged eight to eleven found that half of them thought that margarine came from cows, a third thought that ham came from chickens and a quarter reckoned bread was made from potatoes or rice, Perhaps this is why the range of plants and animals which British people eat is rather narrow. There are plenty of enthusiastic British ‘meat eaters who feel quite sick at the thought of eating horsemeat. To most people, the idea of going out to pick wild plants for the cable is exotic. Itis pethaps significant that when the British want to refer to the people of another country insultingly, they often allude to their eating habits. Because of the strange things they do with cabbage, for example, the Germans are ‘krauts’. Because of their outrageous taste for frog’s legs, the French are ‘frogs’. in Spain not only insisted on eating (traditionally British) fish and chips but also on having them, as was traditional, wrapped up in specially imported British newspaper! A lot has changed since that time, Items which $0 years ago were thought exotic and viewed wich suspicion, such as peppers, garlic, and olive oil, are now to be found in every shop selling food. The country’s supermarket shelves are full of the ingredients needed for cooking dishes from all over the world (the increasing multicultural mix has helped in this respect). In fact, the package holidaymakers seem to have ‘imported’ some European dishes, For example, as well as various traditional British dishes, an extraordinary number of pubs now offer dishes such as moussaka and lasagna. The latter dish is reported ro be the country’s most popular ‘ready meal’ This claim is also sometimes made for chicken tikka masala, which can perhaps claim to be the modern British national dish because it was invented in Britain by a Bangladeshi chef who adapted chicken tikka to British tastes, British people are also showing increasing interest in the pure enjoyment aspect of food. There are numerous cookery and food programmes on TV, all of them watched with close enthusiasm. It is possible, chen, chat che negative reputation of British food will eventually become a historical hangover. Attitudes have changed, but the quality of food in everyday life is still poor because these changes have nor had enough rime ro change habits and expectations, One final example: In 2008, the buffec bar of che Eurostar train had a special offer. If you hought a sandwich, you could buy a soft drink and something sweet at an especially low price. There was a poster in the bar advertising the offer. It showed a Coca-Cola and a chocolate bar, with a slogan written in Dutch, EATING HABITS AND ATTITUDES 185 When people eat what: meals ‘Again, generalizations are dangerous. Below is described what everybody knows about ~ but tis is not necessarily what everybody dos! Broalfastis usually 2 packeted ‘cereal’ (e.g. cornflakes) and/ or toast and marmalade. People do not usually eat a ‘traditional’ British breakfast (see chaprer 5) Elevanses is, conventionally, a cup oftea and biscuits at around ‘1am. In fact, people have tea or coffee and biscuits whenever they fee ike it. This is usually quite often, (There is a vase range of biscuits on offer in even a small Lunch is typically at 1 p.m. butivis often a bicearlier for schoolchildren and those who start work at 8 a.m, Traditionally, Sunday lunch is an important ‘meal when the family sts down cogether. Bucin fact only ten per cent ofthe British population now does tis. ‘Tea for the urban working class (and a wider section of the population in Seotland and Ireland) isthe evening meal, eaten ‘as soon as people get home from work (at around 6 p.m.). Far other classes, it means a cup of tea and a snack at around 4 p.m, Supper is a word for the evening ‘meal used by some of the people whe do not calle ‘tea! Dinner isthe other word for the ‘evening meal. lesuggests a larer time than ‘tea’, The word is also used in connection with a special meal, as when friends are invited for a‘dinner party’ Many people talk about ‘Christmas dinner’, even if they have tin the middle ‘ofthe day. The same ward is also sometimes used to refer to the midday meal in schools, which is served by ‘dinner ladies.16 FOOD AND DRINK The modern story of toa in Britain ‘Tea made its first appearance in Britain some 350 years ago and by the end of the seventeenth century tea-drinking was wel established However, duting the eighteenth century, its growing popularity was halted by the breweries who, concerned by this competition, successfully lobbied for 3 series ‘oF tax rises on all tea imports. It was only in ninereenth-century Britain that polite society’s ritual of afternoon tea was born. For most of the twentieth century, tea reigned supreme in Britain. To this day, ‘standard? (black) tea, served strong and with mill, remains an indispensable aspect oF ‘most British households. However, itis in slow decline. This started in the 1970s, when it first saw serious competition from fizy soft drinks. Itcontinueé in the 1990s, when bottled water became popular, and continues today with the increasing popularity of green tea and herbal reas. And through all this time, coffee has been gradually on the rise. In town centres, the number of ‘tea rooms’ has fallen while the number of cafés specializing in coffee has risen, These days, sales of coffee are larger than those of standard tea. However, the British tea industry can proudly point to the fact that tea still accounts for a third of all liquid refreshment taken in Britain - far more than any ather drink, Infact, there is a sense in ‘which the industry’ problem is a result of standard black tea’s absolutely central place in British habits. leis regarded a8 a basic staple, so that British consumers expect to be able to buy it in supermarkets very cheaply. French and English. The Dutch and French versions of the slogan translated into English as ‘A litele something extra’. But the English version was ‘Make it a meal’. Only in English could a can of fizzy drink and an industrially produced chocolate bar, when combined with a sandwich, be described as a ‘meal’. Eating out Not so long ago, going to a restaurant was a rare event for most British people. Regular eating out was confined to the richest section of society. By now, a far larger number of people do it. But because of this history, there remains an element of snobbery attached to it, Merely being in an expensive restaurant sometimes seems to be more important to people than the food eaten in it. And in such restaurants, and even some less expensive ones, in a country where few public notices appear in any language other than English, you find a unique phenomenon - many of the dishes have non-English names, most commonly French (reflecting the general high regard for French cuisine). The only exception to this rule is the puddings, which is the one course of a meal that the British have always been confident about. ‘There is another reason for this lack of English nomenclature. Very few restaurants in Britain could be described as British; that is, they do not serve distinctively British food, so the names of the dishes are not in English. History may also help to explain this face. Because they did it so rarely, people wanted something different when they went out to eat. By now, people have got used to several kinds of ‘ethnic’ cuisine and Britain's towns and cities are almost totally dominated by restaurants offering them, A survey in 2006 found that fully a quarter of all restaurants in Glasgow were Italian, that in London there were no less than 87 kebab outlets per square mile (2.6 km?) and that in Nottingham (population 270,000) you could visit a different Italian restaurant every week for half year and a different Indian one every week for nine months. Evers the smallest cowns have at least one Indian restaurant, one Italian, and probably a Chinese one as well. Thai restaurants have also become numerous in recent decades. Larger towns and cities have restaurants representing cuisine from all over the world. Apart from pubs, only three types of distinctively British eating places exisc. One offers mostly fried food of the ‘English breakfast’ type (see chapter 5) and for this reason it is sometimes known as a ‘greasy spoon’. Traditionally, itis used principally by manual workers, and is therefore also sometimes called a ‘workman's café’ (pronounced ‘caf?”). But these days (when there are fewer manual workers) it is also used byanybody who wants a filling meal and likes the informal atmosphere. Many of them ate ‘transport cafés’ ar the sides of main roads. Second, there is the fish and chip shop, used mainly for takeaway meals, Again, the fish is fried. Finally, chere are establishments in the centre of towns which are commonly referred to as ‘tea rooms”. They are open only luring che day and cater for a different kind of clientele with waitress service. They serve scones and other light snacks (and, of course, tea). Fast food outlets are probably more common in Britain chan they are in most other countries. Cynics might claim this is because the British have no taste. However, their popularity is probably better explained sociologically. Except for greasy spoons, other types of restaurant still retain echoes of social pretension, so that some people feel uncomfortable in them. A fast food place does not have these associations. And they are cheap! Alcohol The British attitude to alcohol in Britain is ambivalent, On the one hand, ic is accepted and liked as an integral, deeply-rooved patt of the national culture. And che prevalent atticude co getting drunk is that, provided this does not lead to violence, there is no shame attached. On the other hand, che puritan tradition has led co the widespread assumption that drinking is something dangerous which should therefore be restricted, with regard to both who can do it and also where it can be done. Most people, including regular drinkers, consider thar it would be wrong to give a child even half a glass of beer. Quite frequently, horror stories appear in the media about the shocking amount of alcoho! drunk by teenagers. By law, people cannot be served or drink any kind of alcohol in pubs until the age of eighteen. In fact, both teenage drinking and alcohol consumption generally are often regarded these days as major social ‘problems’, even though the British actually consume less alcohol per head of population than many other countries in Europe. Perhaps this is because for many people, drinking is confined to pubs. Most cafés are not allowed to serve beer or wine and these drinks are not as much a part of home life as they are in some other European countries. For most of the twentieth century, pubs operated under strict laws which limited their opening hours. These have now been relaxed ‘Moreover, many more types of shop now sell alcohol chan previously. However, this lessening of the negative attitude to alcohol has been balanced by increasing concerns about its impact on health and safety. Government-sponsored guidelines state the maximum amount of alcohol which it is advisable for people to drink in a week without endangering their health. Although millions of people pay little attention to these, the general feeling thar alcohol can be bad for you has increased. What people drink ‘As wall as large amounts of hot drinks such as tea, coffee and hot chacolate, British people ~ ‘especially children - drink squash (a sweetened fruit concentrate that has to be dilued with water) and brand-name ‘soft’ (non-aleoholic) drinks. They also expect to be able to drink water straight from the tap. Before the 1960s, wine was drunk only by the higher social classes and was associated in most people's minds with expensive restaurants, Since that time, ic has increased ‘enormously in popularity. Beer is still the most popular alcoholic drink. The most popular kind of pub beer is usually known as ‘bitter’, which is draught (From the barrel). A sweeter, darker version of bitter is mild’. Conventionally, these beers (which are often known as ‘ales') should be drunk at room cemperature, although many pubs now serve them chilled, They have a comparatively low alcoholic content. This is one reason why people are able to drink so much of chem! In most pubs, several kinds of bottled beer are also available Beer which is closer to continental European varieties is known as ‘lager’. During the 1980s, tong lager became popular among some young people who, because they were Used to weaker traditional beer, sometimes drank too much of itand became aggressive. They became known as ‘lager louts’.Nevertheless, alcohol, especially beer, remains an important part of the lives of many people. The occasional trip across the channel solely for the purpose of buying cheaper beer and wine in France or Belgium is such a regular part of many people’s calendar that it has led co a In some pubs, cider is available on draught, and in some parts of Bricain, mose eypicaly in the English west country, itis this, and not beer, which is the most well-known colloquial coinage - the ‘booze cruise’ Ac the time of writing, chere is continuing debate about licensing laws. When further relaxing of the laws was planned in 2005, it caused a common pub drink, Shandy is half beer and half fizzy lemonade. ithas the major political row. The medical profession, residents’ groups, and ea getener bien vedaecd most (but notall) of the police were against the plan. One national | For quenching thes. The meanings of the word ‘bar’ in British English 1 The area in @ hotel or other public place where alcoholic drinks are sold and drunk. 2 The counter in a pub where you g0 to getyour drinks. 3 A place in the centre of a town or city similarto a pub in general purpose, but which serves a greater choice of wines than the typical pub (some are even known a8 ‘wine bars") and usually looks unashamedly modem. Indeed, these bars are a relatively recent phenomenon. 4 The different rooms in a pub This an ourdated meaning which you may find used in books about life in Brcain before the 1980s, when pubs had two distinct kinds of room “The public bar had hard esat, bare floorboards, a dart board land other pub games and was ‘ypically used by the working ase. The’salann har’ on the ‘cher hand, was ically used by che mide classes. Here there newspaper organized a campaign to stop it. Much of the debare revolves atound the issue of ‘binge drinking”. There has always heen something of a problem of public drunkenness in Britain and che perception these days is that among young people it is an ‘epidemic. Those who want fewer regulations argue that this would reduce drunkenness, which, they say, is largely the result of having to drink too fast. (And indeed, there is no doubt that the average British drinker finishes a drink more quickly than the average drinker of other European countries. This is a habit born of generations subject to limited drinking time.) They have a vision of introducing to Britain the more civilized drinking habits of mainland Europe. Pubs The British pub is unique. This is not just because itis different in character from bars or cafés in other countries. It is also because it is different from any other public place in Britain itself. Without ‘pubs, Britain would be a less sociable country. The pub is the only indoor place where the average person can comfortably meet others, even strangers, and get into prolonged conversation with them, In cafés and fast food places, people are expected to eat, drink, and get out, The atmosphere in other eating places makes some people feel uncomfortable. But pubs are classless. A pub with forty customers in itis nearly always much noisier than a café or restaurant with the same number of people in i. The local pub plays an important role in almost every neighbouthood ~ and pubs, it should be noted, are predominantly for the drinking of beer and spirits, Indicative of this role is the fact that it is commonly referredwas a carpet on the floor, softer seats and the drinks were a little more expensive. Some pubs also had a ‘private bar, which was even more exclusive. A.ypical pub sgn to as ‘the local’ and people who go there are often known as ‘regulars’. ‘The action in all of the country’s most popular soaps (see chapter 16) revolves around a pub. As with other aspects of British life, pubs have become a bit less distinctive in the last thirty years. They used to serve almost nothing bur beer and spirits and only things to eat you could get were ‘bar snacks’ such peanuts and crisps. These days, you can get wine, coffee, and hot food at most of them as well. his has helped to widen their appeal. Nevertheless, pubs have retained their special character. One of their notable aspects is that there is no waiter service. IFyou want something, you have to go and ask for it at the bat. This may nor seem very welcoming and a strange way of making people feel comfortable and relaxed, But to British people itis precisely this. To be served ata table is discomforting for many people. It makes them feel they have to be on their best behaviour. But because in pubs you have to go and fetch your drinks yourself, itis more informal. You can get up and walk around whenever you want - like being in your own house. This ‘home from home’ aspect of the pub is encouraged by the relationship between customers and those who work there, The latter are expected