English Food

We 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)

Typical English Breakfast?
The traditional English breakfast is called the 'Full English' and sometimes referred to as 'The Full English Fry-up'.
Consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and mushrooms. Even though not many people will eat this for breakfast today.

Now-a-days, 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.

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'.

Hot brown gravy, traditionally made from the juices of the roast meat on the meat and usually the vegetables.
One of the vegetables is almost always potatoes.
A typical British meal for dinner is meat and "two veg".

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'.
Vegetables grown in England, like potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbages and onions, are still very popular.

English Puddings and Desserts
What is a Pudding ?
A pudding is the dessert course of a meal (`pud' is used informally). In Britain, we also use the words 'dessert, 'sweet'' and 'afters'.
Not all our puddings are sweet puddings, some are eaten during the starter or main course like Yorkshire Pudding and Black Pudding.

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.
The more traditional and well known home-made puddings are apple or rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, spotted dick and trifle. The traditional accompaniment is custard, known as crème anglaise (English sauce)

Favourites
Bread and butter pudding
Crumpets
Spotted Dick / Dog

Afternoon Tea and High Tea in England
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
Afternoon tea sandwiches
Assorted pastries

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'.
This meal is now often replaced with a supper due to people eating their main meal in the evenings rather than at midday.

Tea
Britain is a tea-drinking nation. Every day we drink 165 million cups of the stuff and each year around 144 thousand tons of tea are imported.
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.
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.

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.

Coffee is now as popular in Britain as tea is. People either drink it with milk or have it black
Britain is also well known for its ale which tends to be dark in appearance and heavier than lager. It is known as "bitter"
Drinks

Pies in England
Pies are very popular in England. Pies are a baked dish consisting of a filling such as chopped meat or fruit enclosed in or covered with pastry (a mixture of flour and butter).
Porkpie

Main meal dishes
Yorkshire Pudding

This dish is not usually eaten as a dessert like other puddings but instead as part of the main course or at a starter.
Yorkshire pudding, made from flour, eggs and milk, is a sort of batter baked in the oven and usually moistened with gravy.
The traditional way to eat a Yorkshire pudding is to have a large, flat one filled with gravy and vegetables as a starter of the meal. Then when the meal is over, any unused puddings should be served with jam or ice-cream as a dessert.

MAIN MEAL DISHES
Similar to Yorkshire Pudding but with sausages placed in the batter before cooking.
Toad-in-the-Hole

MAIN MEAL DISHES
Roast Meats:
beef
pork
lamb
a whole chicken
rarely duck, goose, gammon, turkey or game

MAIN MEAL DISHES
Fish and chips

FISH AND CHIPS
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 our cities over night.
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
1902: Marmite was invented

Favourite Children Meals
Three favourite meals
with children are:
fish fingers and chips
pizza baked beans on toast

QUIZ ANSWERS
1) What is the ‘’Full English”?
A cup of tea with teapot
Fish and chips
2) Which line is not a description of traditional English breakfast?
A slice of toast, cup of coffee
A baked beans, fried bread, mushrooms
3) A ‘’butty” in some parts of UK is:
4) Which meal is not a dessert?
5) The Britons drink traditional tea:
Only during the breakfast
6) If someone says ‘’let me be mother”:
They want to have children soon
c) Traditional English breakfast
Bread
c) Sandwich
b) Butter
c) At 5 o’clock
b) At 4 and 6 o’clock
c) A sandwich, a piece of fruit
Cottage Pie
c) Apple Cramble
b) Bread and butter Pudding
b) They are offering to pour out the tea
c) They want to be your mother

THE END