Food
Daily meals usually start with breakfast. An English breakfast differs greatly from ours. Traditional
British breakfast consists of a glass of fruit juice, cornflakes with sugar and milk and buttered crisp piece of toast with jam or honey. Quite a lot
of British people eat cereals or porridge. Of course they drink tea or coffee. Tea has been called the national English beverage and it´s still their
favourite drink. They usually put milk in tea, but seldom put any sugar in it. Sundays are reserved for big cooked breakfast which is sometimes called
"brunch" - breakfast and lunch together, consisting of scrambled or poached eggs, fried bacon, sausages, tomatoes, fried bread. The
breakfast is taken at eight or at nine o clock.
The second meal is lunch taken between 12 and 1 o'clock, which is a light meal. People may
eat in the office or factory canteen some kind of meat or fish, potatoes and vegetables and fruit or take a sandwich to work, which is the most
current. The typical British break is at 5 o'clock, which is called „high tea“. The tea is usually fairly strong and served together with some
cakes or biscuits.
At about 6 o'clock most families have their evening meal or "dinner". Dinner is the principal meal of the
day. It may be cooked or cold, depending on the time of the year. There is sometimes soup as the first course, then some meat, vegetables and almost
always potatoes, which is rather boring. The English are fond of cakes and pies. And there is often a sweet - some kind of pudding or a fruit pie.
Supper is a meal, which the English sometimes have when they come home late at night. It is always lighter meat.
The traditional
perception of British cuisine is of overcooked vegetables, tasteless meat and a lot of potatoes. Many families now prefer to eat out at restaurants or
cafés or to buy Chinese or Indian meals to eat at home. The selection of foreign food is larger now.
Fast food is a
typical feature of British and American life style. In a restaurant you can eat national dishes, but there are places, where you can either buy
various types of food to eat as you walk along the streets or take it away and eat at home. The Americans call fast food restaurants
"cheapies". These places - McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC usually offer beverages (Coca-Cola, tea, coffee, milkshakes...), some
food like roast chicken and chips, hamburgers, sandwiches, pizza, salads or deserts (apple, cherry pie). The oldest types of fast food are seafood
stalls or shops - usually with „fish and chips“. Another typical feature of British and American lifestyle is popcorn. You can buy it when you´re
walking the streets. Various types of popcorn are salt - either sweet with sugar or other flavours.
In our country daily meals usually
start with breakfast, which consists of something to drink – tea, cocoa, warm milk or black coffee and for example one or two slices of bread with
butter and cheese, ham, salami, jam etc. Instead of bread we can eat rolls or buns or we can have something sweet – cakes or doughnuts. Quite a lot
of people eat cornflakes for their breakfast and they also sometimes add various ingredients like yoghurt, raisins, chocolate, nuts etc. Breakfast
usually takes place between 6 and 7 o'clock.
Around noon (but in our school sometimes at half past two p. m.) we have our lunch, which is warm
and consists of some soup, a main dish, something to drink and salad or dessert. Most people go to a schoul or office canteen, but some prefer going
to a restaurant, having a fast lunch in a snack bar or buying something at street stalls.
Soups are generally vegetable
(potato, tomato, pea, bean, carrot, celery, mushrooms) or meat (beef tea, tripe, chicken, hen or goulash soup etc.).
The main dish can be sweet
- strawberry or plum dumplings, pancakes with jam and cream, doughnuts tec, or we can have some meat, fish or poultry with trimmings such as potatoes,
chips, rice, Czech dumplings, pasta or bread. We distinguish the following types of meat: beef, pork, veal, mutton, lamb, game and we can prepare it
in various ways - roast it, grill it, boil it, bake it or stew it - we can mince or smoke some kinds of meat. Poultry is things like chicken, hen,
duck, turkey and goose. Lots of people in our country eat rabbits. The main fish cooked in our country is carp (it is a traditional Christmas meal -
battered carp and potato salad) and trout.
While cooking we may add various spices so that the meal will have a unique
flavour - e. g. garlic, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, curry, pepper, ginger, red pepper, ketchup, Soya sauce, Worchester, sugar, vinegar,
mustard, peanuts, onions etc. After the main dish we may drink tea, lemonade, juice, mineral water, but most people like beer after their dinner. An
evening meal may be either warm or cold. Cold and quick supper may consist of some bread or rolls, kippers or some spread. We can cook a ready-made
dish from a tin or have soup or potato pancakes.
Typical Czech meals include: Tripe soup, potato soup, roasted goose and
sauerkraut and Czech dumplings, Moravian sparrows and dumplings, Spanish birds (rolled beef steaks filled with salami, cucumber, egg and mustard),
potato pancakes, fruit dumplings with cream, potato or "hairy" dumplings, fried cheese etc. Traditional Czech cuisine is however a bit
unhealthy and people can get fat. Many families prefer to cook more vegetable meals; they become vegetarians or try to cook some kind of foreign food.
Zones.sk – Zóny pre každého študenta