Lesson 3.3.2. Peculiarities of British cuisine. Healthy food

Where do you usually have your meals at weekends? How do you like the idea of celebrating family holidays in a cafe or restaurant? Can you think of any healthy and unhealthy food? Where do you buy your food?

Every person has his/her own food habits. What can you say about people who eat: a) dairy products and domestic meat; b) vegetables and fruits.

Do you think you can get all the nourishment you need from a vegetarian diet? Would you be happy to eat a vegetarian diet for a week? Can you describe any special diets, which are followed, in your country?

What age-group eats fast and junk food more? What could be done to encourage these people to eat healthy food? What does healthy food mean for you?

Ex 1. Read and translate the text. Write out new words. Make up a question to each paragraph. Ask the questions to your groupmates.

British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the United Kingdom. British cuisine has been described as “unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavor, rather than disguise it.” However, British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those that have settled in Britain, producing hybrid dishes, such as the Anglo-Indian chicken tikka masala, which has been called “a true British national dish.”

British dishes include fish and chips, the Sunday roast, steak and kidney pie, and bangers and mash. British cuisine has several national and regional varieties, including English, Scottish and Welsh cuisine, which each have developed their own regional or local dishes, many of which are geographically indicated foods such as Cornish pasties, the Yorkshire pudding, Arbroath Smokie, and Welsh cakes.

Although some traditional dishes such as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Cornish pasties, steak and kidney pie, bread and butter pudding, treacle tart, spotted dick or fish and chips, remain popular, there has been a significant shift in eating habits in Britain. Rice and pasta have accounted for the decrease in potato consumption and the consumption of meat has also fallen. Vegetable and salad oils have largely replaced the use of butter.

The typical English breakfast is a 19^th century invention, when the majority of English people adopted the copious meal of porridge, fish, bacon and eggs, toast and marmalade, that has now appeared on English breakfast tables for 100 years.

The custom of afternoon tea and scones has its origins in Imperial Britain. Over time, however, in a confusing development, pudding has become a more general term for a sweet or savory steamed mixture – as well as a word that describes desserts in general. For example, black pudding is actually made with pig’s blood. Whereas plum pudding is a Christmas treat consisting of a steamed cake of beef suet (the white fat around the kidney and loins) and dried and candied fruits soaked in brandy. And, of course, one can’t forget rice pudding.

Sunday roast consists of roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding. Fish and chips is a popular take-away food of the United Kingdom.

Roast beef is still the national culinary pride. It is called a “joint,” and is served at midday on Sunday with roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, two vegetables, a good strong horseradish, gravy, and mustard.

In fact fish is still important to the English diet, it is after all an island surrounded by some of the richest fishing areas of the world. Many species swim in the cold offshore waters: sole, haddock, hake, plaice, cod (the most popular choice for fish and chips), turbot, halibut, mullet and John Dory. Oily fishes also abound (mackerel, pilchards, and herring) as do crustaceans like lobster and oysters. Eel, also common, is cooked into a wonderful pie with lemon, parsley, and shallots, all topped with puff pastry.

Ex 2. Fill in the correct word from the list below: cooking ingredientsafternoon beef oily pasties steak and kidney waters pudding unfussy

1. roast … 2. Cornish … 3. cold offshore … 4. … pie 5. … fishes 6. quality local … 7. … tea 8. … traditions 9. Yorkshire …. 10. … dishes

B: That's a very difficult question to answer, because if you look in two supermarket trolleys, you'll see that what people buy is completely different. Some people will go for fresh vegetables and whole meal bread, while others prefer tins and packets of highly processed food.

B: That's the second problem, because a lot of what we buy comes from other parts of the European Community or further a field. Many trolleys will contain both New Zealand butter and South African fruit.

B: I think it's probably possible to generalize about what is eaten at main meal-times. Northern Europeans, including the British, tend to eat more potatoes than Asians, who prefer rice.

A: Can you explain why many Asians prefer French or Italian cuisine to British cooking?

B: That's both a question of what different Europeans eat and how it's prepared. For example, pizza has become international. People are accustomed to eating it and Italians prepare it well.

B: In fact, we have some of the top chefs in the world, but only people with a lot of money experience British cooking at its best. Students staying in English families often have to put up with convenience foods, quick preparations served up by working couples who have little time for anything other than their jobs.

B: No.... some are very careful about what they eat. They may buy brown rice, whole meal bread, muesli and organically grown fruit. They may eat a mainly vegetarian diet. But this can cause different problems. Japanese students are used to eating white rice, while Southern Europeans are used to eating a lot of meat. Certain versions of the British diet are probably very healthy, but don't appeal internationally. People simply aren't used to them.

Ex 4. Topics for discussion in a class. Compare your opinion with your groupmates.

Speak on advantages and disadvantages of fast, junk food and healthy food. Name different features of British food life as you can. Speak on the fast-food restaurants.

Man cannot live without food. An apple a day keeps a doctor away. Your own mother, your own sister, your own pigs, your own yams that you have piled up, you may not eat.

Why is food so important for people? Does cooking become the symbol of our humanity? Why? Do you agree with the expression that the food “is a social barrier”?

Why is it necessary to cook some food? Should countries try to grow all their own food or is it better to depend on trade to meet your food demands? Many people in the USA eat too much sugar, butter and salt. How healthy are eating habits (a) generally in your country (b) in your own family?

Ex 1. Read and translate the text. Write out new words. Make up a question to each paragraph. Ask the questions to your groupmates.

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