【英文】英国饮食文化介绍——Food in the UK

As more and more people decides to go abroad to study, one of the factor they consider is the food they eat in that country. More importantly what food they can buy in that country. People from different countries have different habits, traditions and culture and thus they will eat different type of foods. As more Chinese people go to UK to study, more Chinese restaurants and Chinese supermarkets are opening.

The items they sell in the Chinese supermarket is really similar to the foods in china, especially the dry and tin foods. So before you decide to bring your favorite food as luggage with you when you go to the UK, it is best to do some research first if they sell it. I’ve been told that the food in the UK is rubbish and disgusting by many people in the past, all I can say is that the food in the UK is different and definitely not disgusting.

Let’s start with breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Traditional full English breakfast consist of, baked beans, bacon, sausages, eggs (fried or scrambled), toast, tomato and mushrooms. Breakfast is traditionally served with English tea, however coffee is becoming popular as well. As most of the foods are fried, the full English breakfast is not typically very healthy. A healthier alternative is to eat cereal, cornflakes or a sandwich. Many people will often eat a sandwich for breakfast as they can eat it on the go while they are travelling to work.

What happens when you wake up late and don’t have time eat breakfast or you don’t feel hungry in the morning and you eat something between breakfast and lunch time. Breakfast + lunch = brunch. Brunch can be combination of breakfast and lunch food and any meal eaten in the late morning is considered as brunch.

Lunch really depends on what type of a person you are. There are some people who will eat fast food, junk food everyday such as burgers and pizzas. However some people will eat sandwich or a salad. Children who bring packed lunches to school will definitely eat sandwiches for lunch. Some school do provide school lunches and because of the overweight problem occurring in the UK, school lunches are becoming healthier and healthier each year.

Afternoon tea starts about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Normally people eat some snacks such as, biscuits, cakes and crisps, and a cup of tea. Dinner starts about 6-7 o’clock so only a light snack will do at this time

Dinner is the main meal of dayand a typical British meal for dinner is meat and "two veg" (vegetables). We put hot brown gravy, traditionally made from the juices of the roast meat (but more often today from a packet!) on the meat and usually the vegetables. One of the vegetables is almost always potatoes. This traditional meal is rarely eaten nowadays, and often just eaten on Sundays, Sunday Roast.

Nowadays British people eatsomething meat based with either rice or pasta and a sauce to go with it, such as Shepherd’s Pie, Bangers (Sausage) and Mash, Steak and curry. Takeaways for dinner are also very popular, Chinese and Indian food are the most common type of takeaway food. Mainly eaten on Fridays and Saturdays. Dessert is also very important, ice cream, cheesecake, apple pie or apple crumble with custard.

A famous British dish, which people know about is Fish and chips. Thick cut fries and battered cod or haddock. This is traditionally eaten on the seaside, however even a tiny village in the countryside will definitely have a fish and chip shop.

English food is not as bad as you may have heard. British people like to eat sandwiches, deep fried food, meat with no bones such as chicken breast and beef steak. They are not very keen on seafood because of the fishy taste and fish bones. Thus the only fish they mainly eat are cod, haddock and salmon.In the worst case scenario you can always go to the Chinese supermarket and cook whatever suit your taste

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