Food and Meals
People carry out many different activities in one day. One thing they never forget to do is to eat. We can ask ourselves many
questions about eating, such as Do we eat in healthy way? or Do we not overeat? We know the answers but we usually don’t respect them. For many
people in our country food, eating and cooking is a hobby. But many people eat only to kill time or of boredom.
Breakfast.
In our country daily meals usually start with breakfast, which consist of something to drink (tea with lemon or milk, hot or cold milk,
hot chocolate or black coffee) and something to eat (crispy rolls, bread with butter, marmalade, honey, ham or yogurt). In some families
are cooked breakfast - toasts, pancakes, scrabbled eggs or hot sausage. Every meal should include fruits.
Traditional British breakfast
consists of glass of fruit juice and cornflakes with sugar and milk. Sundays are reserved for big cooked breakfast (it is sometimes called
„brunch“ - breakfast and lunch together). This big meal usually consists of boiled or scrabbled eggs, fried bacon with spicy beans in tomato and
fried bread. At approximately ten o’clock a.m. comes the time for a snack - usually a cup of tea or coffee and some biscuits are served.
On
weekends when people stay in bed longer there is also in Great Britain meal called “brunch”. It is breakfast and lunch together. In America there
are special restaurants which offer on special occasions (Eastern etc.)brunches.
Lunch. The midday meal is called lunch. In
our country it is the main meal of the day. A lot of people take their lunch at canteen and students at school canteen. If we haven’t got enough
time we can buy some food in snack bar or in fast food restaurant. Czech lunch usually consist of three courses - soup, the main course and the
dessert. Soups can be vegetable (potato soup, tomato, carrot, celery or mushrooms soup) or soup made of meat (beef, chicken or goulash
soup). The main dish can be sweet (strawberry or plum dumplings, pancakes with jam and cream) or we can have some meat, fish or poultry
with potatoes, chips or rise. While cooking we can add some spices (garlic, rosemary, pepper, ketchup, onion, mustard). Typical Czech food is
roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut. After the main dish we may drink tea, lemonade, juice, Coca-Cola, mineral water. The adults prefer beer and
black coffee after the lunch.
In England or the USA lunch is between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. o’clock. The British lunch is usually fairly
light. People may eat in the office or factory canteen or take a sandwich to work. Very popular fast food restaurants are fast food stains like
McDonald’s, Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken. These restaurants are cheap, but the food isn’t very healthy. If you do not want to go to a
restaurant, you can buy something on a street. British streets are full of stalls with popcorn or fish and chips. Many families now prefer to eat out
at restaurants or to buy Chinese or Indian meals called “take – away food”. It is meal prepared and packed into the bags in restaurant and we
can take it and eat it at home. It is cheaper then eating in restaurant.
Afternoon break. Around four or five o’clock
it is teatime. While in our country an afternoon snack is not common, in Britain it is a special occasion. Traditionally, at the tea-break people
drink a cup of tea or coffee and eat something (thin slices of bread with ham or butter and jam). Nowadays many people do not eat much at teatime but
they have at least one cup of tea or coffee.
Dinner. The Czech evening meal is not so nutritious if people have a hot
meal at midday. It may be some salami, cheese, eggs, bread or rolls and some vegetable. Some people prefer hot meal too. They may have pancakes,
potato pancakes, pizza or goulash. Some people may have a similar dish as at midday except soup, although the soup with bread may be a very delicious
separate evening meal.
The British hot dinner is served around 7 o’clock. It has three or four courses. It consists of soup or some
other starter, then the main course which is followed by a dessert and finally sometimes cheese and biscuits are served. As a dessert they may have
fruit, fruit salad, pudding or ice cream. With the meal they have beer or wine and finish with coffee is more frequent than with tea. Eating habits in
the North of England and Scotland are slightly different.
When we travel we cannot hold the traditional schemes of daily meals. Usually we
have to eat out, in a restaurant, a cafeteria, a snack bar or in fast food, where we can get hamburgers, chips, hot-dogs and something to drink.
On some special occasions such as Christmas, traditional food is served both in Britain and in our country. Fish soup, fried carp and potato salad
are generally made for Christmas Eve. When there is no traditional meal for Christmas Day, many families prepare roasted goose or duck with dumplings
or with potatoes and red or white cabbage. The British Christmas Day meal is roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, potatoes and the famous Christmas
pudding. In America there is served roasted turkey and pumpkin or apple pie (it is also served on Thanksgiving Day).
There is many
national cuisines, which have their typical meals, like Italians have pizzas, French are famous with their delicious meals, English are well-known
their horrible meals, for Czech cuisine is typical pork, dumplings and cabbage.
Zones.sk – Zóny pre každého študenta