BRITISH FOOD

МОУ Восточно-Европейский лицей

BRITISH FOOD

Работа выполнена

ученицей 11 гуманитарного класса

Одинцовой Елены.

Руководитель: Блинова Е. Г.,

учитель английского языка

Саратов 2009

Introduction

Learning English is inseparable from studying British culture. Here the word “culture” should be used in the broad sense, not in its narrow sense of “arts”.

If we look up the word “culture” in different dictionaries we shall find out that the definitions are different. But the key-words of the definitions are “way of life”, “customs”, “beliefs”. We may define the word “culture” as the way people see the world around them, their way of thinking, acting, reacting to the world and other people. That is why the cultural background of a language is so important.

It is really important for a number of reasons. Knowledge of British lifestyle is necessary to improve understanding and use of the English language.

 This paper deals with British culture, to be more exact with British cuisine. It seems interesting and exiting to find out some things about eating preferences of the British, about their attitudes to food, what British people eat and drink, what is ‘eating out’ in modern life, what a pub is and other things.

To begin with, one should recollect a widely known quotation: “On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners (George Mikes).

Britain and good food are two things which are not commonly associated. Visitors to Britain have widely varying opinions about all sorts of aspects of the country, but most of them seem to agree that the food is terrible. Why? One reason could simply be that British tastes are different from everybody else’s. However the most common complaint is not so much that British food has a strange, unpleasant taste, but rather that it has very little taste at all. The vegetables, for example, are overcooked. It is all too bland.

Another explanation may be that most visitors to Britain do not get the opportunity to sample home cooking. They either eat the food cooked in an institution, such as a university canteen, or they ‘eat out’ a lot, usually in rather cheap restaurants and cafes. These places are definitely not where to find good British food. Typical British cooking, which involves a lot of roasting, does not suit the larger scale production or the quick preparation which is required in such places. For one thing, food should, according to British people, be eaten hot, which is difficult to arrange when feeding large numbers of people. In addition, the British have not got into the habit of sauces with grilled food in order to make it tastier.

Chapter 1

Traditional meals and drinks observed in some works of British literature in the 19th, 20th centuries.

Having analyzed traditional British food in the light of the English literature, one can come to the conclusion that it had social distinctions and has been constantly changing. The investigation has been based on “The Forsyte Saga” by J. Galsworthy and “The Luncheon” and “Cakes and Ale” by S. Maugham.

It is interesting to note that eating ceremonies of the 19th century can not be compared with those of nowadays. The lunch described by J. Galsworthy should be rather called a kind of a feast.

The following dishes, for example, were served one by one during the lunch in Irene and Soames’s house:

“In silence the soup was finished - excellent, if a little thick; and fish was brought. In silence it was handed. […] The fish was taken away, a fine fresh sole from Dover. And Bilson brought champagne, a bottle swathed around the neck with white.

Soames said: “You’ll find it dry.”

Cutlets were handed, each pink-frilled about the legs. They were refused by June, and silence fell.

Soames said: “You’d better take a cutlet, June, there’s nothing coming.”

But June again refused, so they were borne away. […]

“Salad, sir?”

 Spring chicken was removed.

But Soames was speaking: “The asparagus is very poor. Bosinney, a glass of sherry with you’re drinking nothing!”

June said: “You know I never do. Wine’s such horrid stuff!”

An apple charlotte came upon a silver dish. […]

Sugar was handed to her, and Soames remarked: “This charlotte’s good!” […]

Olives from France, with Russian caviar, were placed on little plates.

And Soames remarked: “Why can’t we have the Spanish?” But no one answered. The olives were removed [1, 202].”

In “The Forsyte Saga” one comes across a delicate and tasty dish called “red mullet”:

“The feature of the feast was unquestionably the red mullet. This delectable fish, brought from a considerable distance in a state of almost perfect preservation, was first fried and then served in ice, with Madera punch in place of sauce, according to a recipe, known to a few men of the world [1, 202].”

It seems that in the 19th century much more attention was paid to how this or that dish was arranged, for example, mutton chops were to be “pink-frilled”. It didn’t matter how they were cooked. An attractive table was a sign of the cook’s or the host’s pride and respect for the guests.

The idea that in the 19th century the British were in the habit of eating only traditional dishes may be regarded as misleading. The menu was quite different for those who lived in summer houses. Fruit, berries and vegetables were preferable in that season. It should be noted that aristocrats used to pick up berries and mushrooms themselves without any help. For example, J. Galsworthy wrote about “…the mushrooms which he himself had picked in the mushroom house, his chosen strawberries, and another bottle of the Steinberg Cabinet… [1, 343]”

It should be noted that the main meal of the week has been Sunday dinner which is symbolic for the British mode of life up to these days. Traditionally all the members of the family gathered together around the family dinner table and usually family recipes connected with family legends used to be included into the menu. Besides, it could be easily observed that families had there own recipes which were kept in secret. The family dish for the Forsytes was a mutton saddle.

“With the second glass of champagne… the crowning point of a Forsyte feast- “the saddle of mutton” was brought [1, 66].”

On week-days dinner usually included soup, “cutlets, white wine and a tart [1, 53]” or “One mockturtle, clear; one oxtail; two glasses of port” or “…chop, prime chump, with a floury potato… [1, 228]” There was a special way of serving port which we learned from the saga:

“The waiter brought two glasses of port, but Soames stopped him.

“That’s not the way to serve port,” he said; “take them away, and bring the bottle [1, 229].”

The meals at the beginning of the 20th century had little in common with those of the past. In this respect numerous restaurants described in S. Maugham’s works can serve as an example of it.

The main character of the story “The Luncheon” did not belong to an aristocratic society but under some circumstances he found himself in one of the most fashionable restaurants in Paris “Foyot’s”. “Foyot’s is a restaurant at which the French senators eat.” He was compelled to order the most expensive food. It is interesting to note that he made an Englishman’s first choice though he was in France. It’s also clear that some dishes could be served only in a certain season. “It was early in the year for salmon and it was not in the menu [2, 65].” However it was substituted for caviar.

“I never eat more than one thing. Unless I have a little caviar [2, 66].”

It seems no Englishman used to lose a chance to order roast beef or chops.

“For myself I chose […] a mutton-chop [2, 66].”

In his story S. Maugham mentions some innovations in the British cuisine of that time (an ice-cream and coffee).

“Coffee?”

“Yes, just an ice-cream and coffee,” she answered [2, 67].”

 Besides, the young lady didn’t want to leave Paris without having some giant asparagus. She said: “No, no, I can’t eat anything more unless I have some of those giant asparagus. I should be sorry to leave Paris without having some of them [2, 67].”

The beginning of the 20th century was distinguished for another eating preference which is clearly observed in S. Maugham’s “Cakes and Ale”. During the lunch the following tarts were ordered: an apple tart, a gooseberry tart but what strikes the eye is that a veal-and-ham tart was rejected by the characters. Judging by S. Maugham’s stories, people tended to prefer going to restaurants to having home-made dinners. Expensive food couldn’t keep them from going to restaurants. Extravagant meals were highly appreciated at the beginning of the 20th century. The following quotation can prove it: “The roast beef is frozen and comes from Australia and was over-cooked at middle day; and burgundy - ah, why will they call it burgundy? Have they never been to Beaune and stayed at the Hotel de la Paste [2. 35] ?”

Such diversity of drinks was characteristic of the 20th century during a lunch as champagne, burgundy, sherry, “the Liebfraummilch, the 21”, “Steinberg Cabinet”. Only wine and champagne were served on the dinner table.

Chapter 2

Modern attitudes to food

Changes

It is common knowledge that modern pace of life has changed much in people’s routine. It certainly concerns their eating preferences, their attitude to food. Some explanations of unfortunate reputation of British cuisine have been mentioned in the introduction. It should be noted that even in fast food restaurants and everyday cafes, the quality seems to be lower than it is in equivalent places in other countries. It seems that British people simply don’t care enough to bother.

The country has neither a widespread ‘restaurant culture’ nor a ‘café society’. In the middle of the day, people just want to eat up quickly and are not interested much in quality (the lunch break is an hour at most). Young people and families with children who eat at fast food places are similarly not interested in quality. Little effort is made to make hamburgers tasty because nobody expects them to be. The coffee is horrible not because British people prefer it that way but because they don’t go to a café for a delicious, slow cup of coffee - they go there because they need the caffeine.

Even at home, food and drink is given relatively little attention.

The coffee is often just as bad as it is in the cafes. British supermarkets sell far more instant coffee than what some people who drink it often call ‘real’ coffee. Instant coffee is less trouble. Meals tend to be eaten quickly and the table cleared. “Parties and celebrations are not normally centered around food. For example, if a British person expresses a liking for barbecues, this does not necessarily mean that he or she likes barbecued food - it is understood to mean that he or she enjoys the typical barbecue atmosphere [3, 185].

When the British people do pay attention to food, it is most frequently not to appreciate it but to notice what they don’t like about it. Food hits the headlines only in the context of its dangers: for example in 1993, when it was discovered that 100 tons of six-year-old beef had been allowed to go on sale; or when a government minister announced that the country’s eggs were infected with salmonella. In the early 1990, everybody in the country knew about ‘mad cow disease’ (a disease affecting the brains of infected cattle). There are quite a large number of vegetarians in Britain and an even larger number of those who are aware of the implications for their health of what they eat.  ‘Health food shops’ are as abundant in the country’s high streets as delicatessens [4, 26].

British people have been mostly urban, having little contact with ‘the land’, for longer than the people of other countries. Perhaps this is why the range of plants and animals which they will 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 table is exotic. It is perhaps 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’ [3, 185].

However, the picture is not entirely negative. While the British are conservative about ingredients, they are no longer conservative about the way they are served. In the 1960, it was reported that the first British package tourists in Spain not only insisted on eating (traditionally British) fish and chips all the time but also on having them, as was traditional, wrapped in specially imported British newspaper [5, 127]! By now, however, the British are extremely open to the cuisine of other countries. The country’s supermarket shelves are full of the spices and sauces needed for cooking dishes from all over the world (the increasingly multinational nature of the population has helped in this respect). In addition, there is increasing interest in the pure enjoyment of eating and drinking.    

What British people eat

‘A fry-up’ is a phrase used informally for several items fried together. The most common items are eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, and even bread. It is not always accompanied by ‘chips’ (the normal British word for french fried potatoes). The British eat rather a lot of fried food.

Although it is sometimes poetically referred to as ‘the staff of life’, bread is not an accompaniment to every meal. It is not even normally on the table at either lunch or the evening meal. It is most commonly eaten, with butter and almost anything else, for a snack, either as a sandwich or as toast (a British household regards toasting facilities as a basic necessity). On the other hand, the British use a lot of flour for making pastry dishes, both savoury and sweet, normally called ‘pies’, and for making cakes.    

Eggs are a basic part of most people’s diet. They are either fried, soft-boiled or eaten out of an ‘egg cup’, hard-boiled (so that they can be eaten with the fingers or put into sandwiches) or poached (steamed).

Cold meats are not very popular. To many British people, preserved meats are typically ‘Continental’.

It is common in most households for a family meal to finish with a prepared sweet dish. This is called either ‘pudding’, ‘sweet’ or ‘dessert’. There is a great variety of well-known dishes for this purpose, many of which are served hot (often a pie of some sort). The British are the world’s biggest consumers of sugar - more than five kilograms per person per year. It is present in almost every tinned food item and they also love ‘sweets’ (which means both all kinds of chocolate and what the Americans call ‘candy’).

There is something in the British cuisine that would surprise any stranger. It is marmite. Marmite is a brownish vegetable extract with toxic odor, salty taste and axle-grease consistency that has somehow captivated the British. They spread it on buttered toast, put in gravies and mix with cheddar cheese and beans. They buy 24 million jars per year, which makes marmite a national symbol “right up there with the royal family and the Sunday roast”. No foreigner has been known to like it. Marmite is exported to 30 countries, but all of it is aimed at expatriates. The recipe itself is a secret. Though, the ingredients include yeast and extracts, salt, spices, folic acid and vitamins B1, B2, B12 [6, 1].

When people eat what: meals

Breakfast, elevenses, lunch, dinner, supper… There is certain confusion in the minds of foreigners concerning these things. English course books often give little clarification. In the book about Britain by James O’Driscoll [4, 186] a reliable information has been found. He writes: “…generalizations are dangerous. Below is described what everybody knows about - but this is not necessary what everybody does!”

Breakfast is usually  the first meal of the day. The traditional ‘British’ (or ‘English’) breakfast is a large ‘fry-up’ preceded by cereal with milk and followed by toast, butter and marmalade (a preserve made from oranges), all washed down with lots of tea. But nowadays, only 10% of people in Britain actually have this sort of breakfast. Two-thirds have cut out the fry-up and just have the cereal, tea and toast. The rest have even less which is much closer to what they call a ‘continental’ breakfast. The image of the British as a nation of tea-drinkers is exaggerated. It is true that tea is prepared in a distinctive way (strong and with milk), but more coffee than tea is now bought in shops [5, 125].

‘Elevenses’ is, typically, a cup of tea or coffee and some biscuits at around eleven o’clock. In fact, people drink tea or coffee whenever they feel like it. This is usually quite often.

Lunch is typically at one o’clock but it is often earlier for schoolchildren and those who start work at eight o’clock. People often find it impossible to come home for lunch so they go to a café or a restaurant. If someone has lunch at home it may be cold meat (left over probably from yesterday’s dinner), potatoes, salad and pickles with a pudding of fruit to follow). Sometimes people have a mutton chop or steak and chips followed by biscuits and cheese, and some people like a glass of light beer with lunch.

For urban working class (and a wider section of the population in Scotland and Ireland) tea is the evening meal, eaten as soon as people get home from work (at around six o’clock). For other classes, it means a cup of tea and a snack at around four o’clock. But as a matter of fact as for the tradition of afternoon tea with biscuits, scones, sandwiches or cakes, this is an activity, largely confined to retired people and the leisured upper-middle-class.

Increasing time pressures mean a great number of British employees take around 30 minutes for lunch; many take no time out for lunch at all. The ‘deskfast’ - breakfast at a desk - is becoming increasingly popular. They have it between five and six o’clock, and have ham or tongue and tomatoes or salad, sausages with strong tea, plenty of bread and butter, then stewed fruit with cream or custard and pastries or a cake.

‘Supper’ is the usual word for the evening meal among most people who do not call it ‘tea’. The evening meal often consists of soup, cooked meat or fish and vegetables, macaroni and cheese, eggs or tinned food. Beef, pork, lamb are often on the table in the evening. Roast meat has always been the Englishman’s first choice.

‘Dinner’ is also sometimes used for the evening meal. It suggests something grander and eaten comparatively late (at around eight o’clock). The word ‘dinner’ is associated with relative formality (many people use it when they speak about ‘Christmas dinner’, even if they have it in the middle of the day). This word is sometimes used to refer to the midday meal in schools.

The British themselves often say about when people eat what: “If you find this confusing, that’s because it is. If someone asks you around for tea, try to figure out from the time you supposed to be there which kind of tea it is – a cup of tea or a light dinner”.

Chapter 3

Eating out

Although it is far less unusual nowadays than it used to be, going to a restaurant is still a comparatively rare event for most British people. Regular restaurant-doing is confined mostly to the richest section of society. “Partly for this reason, there is an element of snobbery associated with it. Merely being in an expensive restaurant sometimes seems to be more important to people than the food eaten in it [3, 186]”. For example, in 2002 a survey by experts found that most of the caviar in top London restaurants was not what it claimed to be (the most prized beluga variety) and was often stale or going bad. The experts commented that restaurants used the mystique of caviar to hide the low quality of what they served because ‘the majority of people … don’t really know what they’re eating [3, 186]’.

Another expression of snobbery in the more expensive restaurants is in the menus, there is a unique phenomenon - all the dishes have non-English names, most commonly French (reflecting the high regard for French cuisine). It also makes the food sound more exotic and therefore more exciting. Many customers of these restaurants have little idea of what actually goes in to the dish they have chosen. But when, in 1999, the government suggested that menus should give details of ingredients in dishes, all the country’s chefs and restaurateurs were outraged. They argued this would take the fun out of eating out. The assumption behind this argument is that going to a restaurant is a time to be adventurous. This ‘adventure’ concept is undoubtedly widespread. It helps to explain why so few restaurants in Britain are actually British. Because they do it so rarely, when people go out for a meal in the evening, they want to be served something they don’t usually eat. Every town in the country has at least one Indian restaurant and probably a Chinese one too. Larger towns and cities have restaurants representing cuisine from all over the world.

Eating places which serve British food are used only for more everyday purposes. Apart from pubs, there are two types, both of which are comparatively cheap. One is used during the day, most typically by manual workers, and there is therefore sometimes described as a ‘workmen café’. But it is also used by anybody else, who wants a filling meal, likes the informal atmosphere and is not over-worried about cleanliness. It offers mostly fried food and for this reason it is also sometimes jokingly called a ‘greasy spoon’. Many of them are ‘transport cafes’ at the sides of main roads. It is a widely known fact that in 1991 Prime Minister John Major deliberately and publicly ate at one of these in order to prove that he was ‘a man of the people’. The other type is the fish-and-chip shop, used in the evening for ‘take-away’ meals. Again, the fish is (deep) fried.

Fast food outlets are now more common in Britain than they are in most other countries. Cynics might claim this is because the British have no sense of taste. However, their popularity is probably better explained sociologically. Other types of eating places in Britain tend to have class associations. As a result, large sections of society feel unable to relax in them. But a fast food restaurant does not have such strong associations of this kind. Although there is sometimes local middle-class protest when a new one appears in their area, people from almost any class background can feel comfortable in them.

Chapter 4

Food shopping

What else can give one a suggestion of eating habits of the British is shops and food shopping. The reason for this is the widely known idea that demand determines supply.

People going to spend their leisure time on a picnic can get prepared food in various places. Bakeries often sell sandwiches as well as cakes. Deli counters in supermarkets have sliced meats, cheeses, salads, fruit, and desserts, cartons of wine, juice and beer. People buy biscuits, crisps, jelly, fish fingers, and so on.

English foods that are unfamiliar to most foreigners are numerous. Drinks include horlicks, a malt drink served hot before bed; squash, a fruit drink bought in concentrated bottled form and diluted at about four parts water to one part squash (flavours are orange and lemon). Frozen foods include faggots (pork meatballs in gravy) or bubble and squeak (Brussels sprouts mixed with onions and potatoes and rolled into balls that are then covered with bread crumbs). There is a large variety of pickled vegetables: the sort called just pickle is a large dark brown concoction made with mixed pickled vegetables and vinegar. But the real coping with British food is whether you can eat marmite.

Many people still have their milk delivered to their doors every day. Milk mostly comes in small containers. Low-fat and skimmed milk are on the increase in shops. Single cream, whipping cream, double cream, thick spreadable clotted cream are available. There are also UHT (Ultra-Heat-Treated) milks, also called long-time milks, which have been treated in such a way that they keep on the shelf for six months. English cheeses are mainly mild and hard. Butter comes in both salted and unsalted varieties. English ice cream is not ice cream – it does not contain cream, but vegetable fat or lard.

Greengrocers sell a lot of fruit, vegetables and lettuces - native and exotic, brought from foreign countries.

Bakeries and supermarkets sell bread and besides have a tantalizing display of sweet goods such as cakes, yeast doughnuts, buns, scones, tarts, and meat pies, and meat-filled pasties.

England still abounds in old-fashioned butcher’s shops, where the meat is not prepackaged. A customer  can ask the butcher to cut exactly what one wants. Butchers also sell cooked ham, meat pies, homemade pate, sausages and eggs. According to many foreigners, the quality of English meat is somewhat different from that elsewhere. The beef can be disappointing in flavour and tenderness, which is probably why the English cook it to death. Both lamb and pork chops have a slice of kidney left on them. Ordinary bacon and streaky bacon are fat and salty and have rind on them. English sausages are made of pork, but sometimes have beef or even turkey in them. One can buy offal – kidney, liver, heart, tripe, etc.

Poultry comes in two kinds. Battery fowl are cooped in cages and fed a mixture of grain and fish meal. It tastes of fish. Free-ranged fowl roam and eat a variety of food, so taste better, but are more expensive.

Not very row of neibourhood shops has a fishmonger, but most large supermarkets stock some fresh or frozen fish. The types of fish available vary with the area and the season. The kinds of fish familiar to visitors are cod, haddock, herring, salmon and trod. Less familiar types include Dover sole, lemon sole, plaice, and whiting.

Chapter 4

Attitude to alcohol and pubs

The attitude to alcohol in Britain is ambivalent. On the one hand, it is accepted and welcomed as an integrant part of British culture. The local pub plays an important role in almost every neighbourhood - and pubs, it should be noted, are predominantly for the drinking of beer and spirits. The nearest pub is commonly referred to as ‘the local’ and people who go there often are known as ‘regulars’.

On the other hand, the puritan tradition has led to the widespread view that drinking is something potentially dangerous which should therefore be restricted. Most people, including regular drinkers, consider that it would be wrong to give a child even half a glass of beer. When, in 1999, research was published showing that nearly 70% of fifteen-year-old children in the country tasted some alcohol it was generally agreed that this was a serious ‘social problem’. People cannot be served in pubs until the age of eighteen and they are not even allowed inside one until they are fourteen. For many people, drinking is confined to pubs. Wine or beer is not as much a part of home life as it is in some other European countries. Most cafes are not allowed to serve even beer.

For most of the twentieth century, pubs operated under strict laws which limited their operating hours.

Nowadays many more types of shops sell alcohol than previously. However, there are government-sponsored guidelines which state maximum amount of alcohol 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 that alcohol can be bad for you has increased. The laws against drinking and driving have been strengthened and are fairly strictly observed.

The British pub (short for ‘public house’) is unique. This is just because it is different in character from bars or cafes in other countries. It is also because it is different from any other public place in Britain itself. It is the local life for many English people. It is not just a place to drink, but a place where they can bump into friends, make new acquaintances and find out what has been going on in the area. Without pubs, Britain would be a less sociable country. The pub is the only indoor place where an average person can comfortably meet others, even strangers, and get into prolonged conversation with them. In cafes and fast food restaurants, people are expected to drink their coffee and get out. The atmosphere in the other eating places is often rather formal. But pubs, like fast food restaurants, are classless. A pub with forty customers in it is nearly always much noisier than a café or a restaurant with the same number of people in it. So, there is something about the atmosphere of a pub that makes the typical English reserve melt away.

As with so many other aspects of British life, pubs have become a bit less distinctive in the last few decades. They used to serve almost nothing but beer and spirits. These days, you can get wine, coffee and some hot food at most of them as well. This has helped to widen their appeal. At one time, it was unusual for women to go to pubs. These days, only a few pubs exist where it is surprising for women to walk in.

Nevertheless, pubs have retained their special character. One of their notable aspects is that there is no waiter service. If you want something, you have to go and ask it at the bar. This may not seem very welcoming and a strange way of making people feel comfortable and relaxed. But to British people it is precisely this. To be served at a 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, it is more informal. You can get up and walk around whenever you want - it is like being in your own house.  This ‘home-from-home’ atmosphere is enhanced by the relationship between customers and those who work in pubs. Unlike in any other eating or drinking place in Britain, the staff are expected to know the regular customers personally, to know what their usual drink is and to chat with them when they are not serving someone. It is also helped by the availability of pub games (most typically darts) and, frequently, a television.

Another notable aspect of pubs is their appeal to the idea of tradition. For example, each has its own name, proclaimed on a sign hanging outside, always with old-fashioned association. Many are called by the name of an aristocrat (for example, ‘the Duke of Cambridge’) or after a monarch; others take their names from some traditional occupation (such as ‘The Bricklayer’s Arms’).

Conclusion

In conclusion it should be said that a modest attempt has been made to draw a parallel between eating habits of the British in the past and nowadays. It is obvious that pace of life and time pressure have changed a lot of in the British culture of eating. From the material studied, it is clear that British tastes are different from everybody else’s. From the point of view of foreigners British food has strange, unpleasant taste; or rather it has very little taste at all. Some authors try to explain this by lack of opportunities for foreigners to sample home cooking. On the other hand many people who lived in British families during student exchange traveling or while visiting Summer Language schools express dissatisfaction with British cuisine.

It has been interesting to find out attitudes to food of the British people. In fast food restaurants and everyday cafes the quality of food is lower than it is in other countries, it seems British people simply don’t care enough to bother. Even at home, food and drink is given relatively little attention. So what? It is probably one of the peculiar national features of the British.

It should be noted that during the last decades a number of people who are aware of the implications for their health of what they eat has become much greater. As a result, ‘health food shops’ are in much demand nowadays which are as abundant in the country’s high street as delicatessens.

Eating out has become quite common with British though, going to a restraint is a rare event for most British people. There is an element of snobbery associated with it. As a result large sections of society feel unable to relax in then. So, cafes, ‘workman’s cafes, ‘transport cafes, fish-and-chip shops, fast food restaurants are rather popular. And their popularity is probably better explained sociologically. The pub is a very specific eating and drinking place. Pubs make Britain a more sociable country. The pubs are classless with ‘home from home’ atmosphere.

The traditional British meals are different from those of other countries’. And it gives a clearer idea of the daily routine of the British people.

It’s obvious that with centuries and decades the British cuisine has been changing. But there are dishes that have remained in people’s lives: beef steaks, mutton chops, porridge, fried fish, pork and lamb chops, roasted meat, and different kinds of pies and tarts. Popularity of a great number of new dishes has been caused by the contribution of immigrants from almost all countries of the world. Modern British cuisine can be considered as multinational.  

Bibliography

1. John Galsworthy. The Forsyte Saga. Book One. The Man of Property. Издательство «Прогресс», 1980

2. S Maugham. Selected Works. The Luncheon. Cakes and Ale, or a Skeleton in a Cupboard. Издательство «Прогресс», 1979

3. James O’Griscoll. Britain. Oxford, 2003

4. Melissa August, Matthew Cooper. Should We All Be Vegetarians? TIME. October 14, 2006.

5. David McDowall. BRITAIN  IN CLOSE-UP. Logman, 2003.

6. Only the British could love marmite. “English” N 38, 2002

7. Food for thought. “English” N 7, 1999

8. Favorite Recipes from our Home to your Home. A collection of Recipes by Habitat for Humanity – Dekab, Inc, 1996

Supplement

A mini guide to British food has been compiled in order to create a fuller picture of British cuisine.

Apple dumplings – cored and peeled apples baked in a pastry shell. When George III was first served them, he was extremely puzzled as to how the apples got inside.

Apple pie – a traditional English pie, made with apples, sugar and cinnamon, usually eaten with custard.

Banbury cake – a spiced flat cake made with dried fruits and currants usually oval in shape. It derives its name from Banbury, an English town in Oxfordshire. For centuries Banbury was noted for its ale, cheese and cakes.

Bangers and mash – fried pork or beef sausages served with mashed potatoes, often accompanied with lots of thick gravy and fried onions. A very simple and common word “Banger” is a slang word for sausage.

Bannock – a kind of homemade bread in Scotland and North England. It is usually unleavened, of large size, round or oval in shape and flattish but not as thin as the scone or oatcake.

Boiled beef and carrots – a beef soup with sliced carrot and dumpling (the Cockneys’ favourite dish). A music hall song runs as following:

Boiled beef and carrots,

Boiled beef and carrots,

That’s the stuff for you Derby Kell.

Keeps you fit and keeps you well.

Don’t eat like vegetarians

On stuff they give to parrots.

From mon to night

Blow out your kite

On Boiled Beef and carrots.

Boxty (also boxty pancakes or boxty bread) – in Ireland, a kind of bread made of grated raw potatoes and flour; it differs from potato bread or potato cake. It is eaten on Halloween.

Bubble and squeak – a dish of slices of fried beef laid on cabbage, boiled, strained, and fried in dripping. The name refers to the sounds made in cooking this dish. Some cooks add boiled potatoes or replace cabbages with broccoli, sprouts or other cooked greens. This dish is cooked in millions of homes every Monday to finish the remains of Sunday dinner.

Caerphilly – a white delicious cheese originally made in the town of Caerphilly in South Wales.

Cheddar – a very popular variety of cheese Cheddar is bacteria ripened hard cheese without eyes. It is cured for a period from 2 months to 2 ears. Cheddar cheese has acidulous taste and a white to yellow colour. It was first made in the 16th century, in Cheddar, a village near Mendip Hills in Somerset.

Christmas pie – a small pie eaten at Christmas, usually a mince pie. Mince meat is a mixture of currants, raisins, sugar, suet, candied peel spices, all soaked with lemon and brandy.

Christmas pudding – a special rich pudding eaten at Christmas. It is made with lots of dried fruit (raisins, currants, sultanas), eggs, suet and very little flour. The pudding is made before Christmas and is boiled for hours in a basin. It is kept for a long time.

Cider - a beverage made from the juice of apples expressed and fermented.     The strong, rough cider made from small or unselected apples is called “scrumpy”. Pear cider, “perry”, is also popular. The Southwest counties of England have been famous for their first-rate homemade cider, different kinds of which are now produced sold, winning over a share of the beer market.

Cock-a-leekie soup - (Scottish for “chicken and leek soup) – according to the traditional recipe, the bird cooked must be an old tough cock.

Cornish pasty – meat, vegetables and seasoning cooked in a case of pastry. It is used to be the main food of Cornish miners and fishermen about 150 years ago, because it was a convenient meal to take to work. The word “pasty” applies to any pie of meat, jam, etc. enclosed in paste and baked without a dish.

Custard – a preparation of eggs yolks, sugar and milk. It is a traditional accompaniment to apple pie and different puddings.

Devonshire cream tea – a pot of tea and scorns with strawberry jam and thick, yellow clotted cream.

Dumplings – a mixture of flour and suet cut into small lumps and boiled in a simmering soup. It is sometimes served with jam or syrup as a separate dish. Solid as cannon-balls, heavy as lead, they are known as the British schoolboys’ favourite food.

Fish and chips – a snack composed of fish and chipped potatoes, fried in boiled cooking oil. Generally, they use fillets of cod, haddock, skate or plaice. Fish and chips can be made at home but the best fish and chips are sold in fish and chip shops. Fish fried golden-brown and strips of raw potatoes fried in fat are served on a piece of paper; salt and vinegar are added and the meal is wrapped in a final sheet of newspaper. One hurries home with a precious bundle or simply eats out of newspaper.

Gingerbread – a variety of oatcakes made with treacle and ginger. It is a favourite treat of adults and children on the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes’s Night. It is especially popular in the North of England, where the main cereal is oat.

Haggis – a Scottish dish consisting of the heart, lungs, liver, tripe, chitterlings of a sheep, minced with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, and boiled like a large sausage in the maw of an animal. It is eaten at Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve), and on the 25th of January (Robert Burns’ Night).

Hot-cross bun – a small bun with a pattern of the cross, toasted and eaten with butter on Good Friday, the last Friday before Easter. A traditional rhyme runs:

Hot-cross buns, hot-cross buns,

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns!

If you haven’t got a daughter,

Give them to your son.

But if haven’t got any of these

Little elves

You cannot do better than eat

Them yourselves.

Irish coffee (or Gaelic coffee) – black coffee with sugar, Irish whisky and cream. The cream should be flowing on top. This is best achieved by pouring it carefully over the back of a spoon. The coffee is then drunk through the cream.

Irish strew – a dish composed of pieces of mutton, potatoes and onions stewed together. It is cooked very slowly for three hours in a pot with tightly fitted lid. Irish stew should be thick and creamy, not thin and watery.

Kipper – a freshly caught herring (or sometimes haddock or spat), split, gutted, lightly salted and then smoked over smoldering oak chips. The traditional accompaniment to kippers is a cup of strong, sweet tea.

Lancashire – a white moist cheese made in Lancashire. It is cured for one to several months and has acidulous taste. This crumbly cheese is used in making toasted bread.

Lancashire hot pot - Mutton, potatoes, onions and sometimes kidney and mushrooms cooked in an earthenware pot with a tight fitting cover. Unlike Irish stew, this dish is cooked in an oven.  

Oatcake – a thin cake made of oatmeal. English miner in winter preferred oatcakes to wheaten bread, because oatmeal is more nutritious than wheaten flour.

Roast beef – a traditional dish of Old England. It is served with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, gravy and horseradish sauce. A good piece of roast should be red inside and nicely browned out side.

Scone – a large round cake made of barley meal or oatmeal or wheat flour baked on a griddle. There many varieties of scones: soda, butter, treacle scones, brown scones made of whole meal, etc. the Scots make “sweetie scones” with raisins, currants and spices. In Devon, scones (or “chudleighs”) are a very popular item of food, served with cream tea. The name must be an adoption of Middle Low German “schonbrot” (fine bread)

Shepherd’s pie – a pie consisting of chopped meat and onions, covered with a crust of mashed potatoes.

Singing Hinny – a currant cake with grind rice and lard baked on a griddle. It is made in Scotland and North of England. “Hinny” is a dialect word for honey.

Spotted Dick (Spotted Dog)- a suet pudding made with currants or raisins.

Stilton – one of the most famous English cheeses. It is made of cows’ milk with an addition of cream, mould-ripened for a period of 4 – 6 months or longer. It is semi hard, blue-veined cheese used in salads and as dessert. This cheese is also sure to be found in English pubs. Stilton is the name of a village in Cambridgeshire on the Great North Road (London – Edinburgh), where the cheese was first made in the middle of the 18th century and sold to the travelers at a nearby coaching inn.

Toad-in-the-hole – Yorkshire pudding with pork sausages arranged in liquid batter and baked together in a hot oven. With peas, potatoes and gravy, this is a favourite main course for schoolchildren.

Trifle – a sweet dish made of cream, white of eggs, sponge cake, jam, etc.

Wensleydale – a popular kind of cheese. It is a blue mould-ripened cheese originally made in Wensleydale, a village in Pennine Uplands, in the county of North Yorkshire.

Yorkshire parkin – a round cake made of oatmeal, ginger and treacle. It goes well with Cheddar cheese.

Yorkshire pudding – a pudding made of flour, eggs and milk baked in an oven. It is a traditional accompaniment to roast beef. In Yorkshire it is usually cooked in a big quadrant-shaped form and served as a separate course.