British Food

British Food
Зональная научно- практическая конференция
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Foreign people criticize English food
Foreign people criticize English food. ‘It’s unimaginative,’ they say. ‘It’s boring, it’s tasteless, it’s chips with everything and totally overcooked vegetables’.
These visitors have experienced English cooking in Wimpy Bars and MacDonald’s Hamburger restaurants.
If you ask foreigners to name some typical English dishes, they will probably say ‘Fish and chips’ and stop. It is disappointed, but true, that there is no tradition in England of eating in restaurants, because their food doesn’t lend itself to such preparation. English cooking is found in the home, where it is possible to time the dishes to perfection. Their basic ingredients, when fresh, are so full of flavour that they haven’t had to invent sauces and complex recipes to disguise their natural taste. But Cynics will say that British have no ‘cuisine’ themselves .
We as other foreigners don’t know much about British food. Our questionnaire proved it. But we can’t learn English without learning traditions and customs in which food is one of the essential things.

The Goal of Research
The Goal of the Research is to learn out more about people of Great Britain, their customs and traditions, their food as one of the parts of everyday and festival life.
The practical goal is to learn out about the awareness of English learners about British food, to learn out more about the language of food, to make up the glossary of typical English food and suggest some recipes of British cuisine.

The tasks
The tasks are to learn books and articles about food, to look for different examples of descriptions of meals and food in the original literature, to classify examples of food in accordance with its purpose, to analyze the answers of English learners about food, to raise interest and motivation to learning English .

The subject , the object and the methods of research
The subject of the research is British food, the object is Lexicology and Sociology, learning out how traditions and customs can change the language.
To learn it we have used some methods of research such as comparative, linguistic and contextual analyses.

Mealtimes
There can be 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)

What is a typical English 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. In the winter many people will eat "porridge" or boiled oats.

The Traditional English Breakfast
The traditional English breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and mushrooms. Even though not many people will 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'.

Lunch
If you go to Britain to study English and you stay with a family you will almost certainly be given a "packed lunch" to eat for your midday meal. Some factories and schools have canteens where you can eat but the packed lunch is the most common thing to eat. A packed lunch normally consists of some sandwiches, a packet of crisps, an apple and a can of something to drink, for example, coca-cola. The contents are kept in a plastic container and you take it with you when you go to school or work. The quality of the packed lunch can vary from terrible to very good, it all depends on who makes it.

Dinner
Things are changing and most British people eat meals from many different countries for example spaghetti or curry. In fact you could even say that the British don't eat much British food. However the most typical thing to eat for dinner is "meat and two vegs". This consists of a piece of meat accompanied by two different boiled vegetables. This is covered with "gravy" which is a sauce made with the juice that was obtained when the meat was cooked. One of the vegetables is almost always potatoes. The British eat a lot of potatoes.

Traditional Drinks in England
Tea
Coffee
Bitter
Wine

English Puddings and Desserts. Р.1
What is a Pudding ?
A pudding is the dessert course of a meal (`pud' is used informally). In Britain, they also use the words 'dessert, 'sweet'' and 'afters‘.

English Puddings and Desserts. Р.2
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 puddings involve fresh fruit such as raspberries or strawberries, custard, cream, and cakes.
Bread and butter pudding is old English favourite

Take away food. (Eat out food)
Take-away meals are very popular and most towns have a selection of Indian, Italian, Chinese and Greek Restaurants. You will also find MacDonald’s, Burger King and Subway

Fish and Chips

Favourite Children Food
Although many foreigners find British food disgusting, British teenagers in the survey enjoy eating bacon sandwiches, baked beans, cheddar cheese and curry (well, it’s not British but it is one of Britain’s most popular foods). Also, we know it’s a British stereotype but many British teenagers still like drinking a nice cup of tea in the morning.
The Victoria Sponge - Named after Queen Victoria

Eating Etiquette in England (UK)
What should you do or not do when you are eating in Britain?
Things you should do:
If you cannot eat a certain type of food or have some special needs, tell your host several days before the dinner party.
If you are a guest, it is polite to wait until your host starts eating or indicates you should do so. It shows consideration.
Always chew and swallow all the food in your mouth before taking more or taking a drink.
You may eat chicken and pizza with your fingers if you are at a barbecue, finger buffet or very informal setting. Otherwise always use a knife and fork.
Always say thank you when served something. It shows appreciation.
When eating rolls, break off a piece of bread before buttering. Eating it whole looks tacky.
When eating soup, tip the bowl away from you and scoop the soup up with your spoon
When you have finished eating, and to let others know that you have,
place your knife and folk together, with the prongs (tines) on the fork
facing upwards, on your plate.

What food was “invented” in England
1762: The sandwich was invented in England.
There is 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.

Festival Food. Shrove Tuesday
Pancakes

Festival Food. Good Friday
Hot cross buns
Fish

Festival Food. Easter Day
Chocolate Eggs
Roast Lamb
Chicken

Festival Food. Mothering Sunday
Simnel cake

Festival Food. Harvest
Special bread, made to look like sheaves of wheat

Questionnaire
1. What food is the most popular in Great Britain? (Sandwiches, fish and chips, curry, cereal, fry-up)
2. How many times a day do British people eat? (3 times)
3. What are the mealtimes called? (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)
4. What do British people eat for breakfast? (Fry-on, cereal, tea)
5. What is the most common lunch in Britain? (a "packed lunch" which normally consists of some sandwiches, a packet of crisps, an apple and a can of something to drink, for example, coca-cola).
6. What is the most popular drink? (Tea, coffee)
7. What’s British children’s favourite food? (bacon sandwiches, baked beans, curry, cakes, sorbets, cheeses, ice cream)
8. What is the traditional Christmas food? (Christmas pudding, mince pies, turkey, stuffing)

Analysis of the answers of the questionnaire. P.1
This questionnaire was given to 7 pupils of the 11th class and to 14 pupils of the 8th class. They answered some questions.
Pupils of the 8th class know about British food as little as pupils of the 11th. Nobody answered these questions correctly.
Most people think that the most popular food in Britain is fast food and fizzy drinks.
Pupils wrote that there are 4-5 meals in Britain.
Pupils of the 11th class know rather well about breakfast in Britain. They wrote about fry-up, cereal and tea. But nobody knows about lunch and favourite food of British children.

Analysis of the answers of the questionnaire. P.2
3 pupils of the 11th class wrote about Christmas food. They know that they eat turkey and pies at Christmas.
All pupils of the 8th class know about Christmas food. Some wrote about turkey, some about pies and some about pudding.
All pupils were interested in the topic. Even if they don’t know much they would like to know more and this project can be used as a kind of lecture to retell any group of learners about British food, and about the changes which it has had .