Traditional British Dishes

British food has traditionally been based on beef, lamb, pork, chicken and fish and it is generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable. The most common and typical foods eaten in Britain include the sandwich, fish and chips, pies like the cornish pasty, trifle and roasts dinners. Some of British main dishes have strange names like Bubble & Squeak and Toad-in-the-Hole. The staple foods of Britain are meat, fish, potatoes, flour, butter and eggs. Many of our dishes are based on these foods.

Meals and Meal Times We have three main meals a day: Breakfast - between 7:00 and 9:00, Lunch - between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m. Dinner (sometimes called Supper) - The main meal. Eaten anytime between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. (Evening meal) Traditionally the meals are called: Dinner (The main meal) - between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m. Tea - anywhere from 5:30 at night to 6:30 p.m. On Sundays the main meal of the day is often eaten at midday instead of in the evening. This meal usually is a Roast Dinner consisting of a roast meat, Yorkshire pudding and two or three kinds of vegetables.

BREAKFAST The traditional English breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and mushrooms. Even though not many people will eat this for breakfast today it is always served in hotels and guest houses around Britain. The traditional English breakfast is called the 'Full English' and sometimes referred to as 'The Full English Fry-up'. Many people especially children in England will eat a bowl of cereal. They are made with different grains such as corn, wheat, oats etc. In the winter many people will eat 'porridge' or boiled oats.

Sausages, eggs, bacon and baked beans

LUNCH Many children at school and adults at work will have a 'packed lunch'. This typically consists of a sandwich, a packet of crisps, a piece of fruit and a drink. The 'packed lunch' is kept in a plastic container. Sandwiches are also known as a 'butty' or 'sarnie' in some parts of the UK.

Lunch

DINNER A typical British meal for dinner is 'meat and two veg' British 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. The traditional meal is rarely eaten nowadays, apart from on Sundays. A recent survey found that most people in Britain eat curry! Rice or pasta dishes are now favoured as the 'British Dinner'.

The Sunday roast The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes (or boiled or mashed potatoes) accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef, lamb, pork, or a roast chicken and assorted other vegetables, themselves generally boiled and served with a gravy. Yorkshire pudding normally accompanies beef, sage and onion stuffing pork and usually parsley stuffing chicken. Take care! Not all our puddings are sweet puddings, some are eaten during the starter or main course like Yorkshire Pudding and Black Pudding.

Sunday roast consisting of roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding.

Puddings and Desserts A pudding is the dessert course of a meal ('pud' is used informally). In Britain, we also use the words 'dessert', 'sweet' and 'afters'. The more traditional and well known home-made puddings are apple or rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, spotted dick and trifle. The dishes are simple and traditional with recipes passed on from generation to generation.

Trifle Apple Crumble

Traditional Drinks in Britain Tea Britain is a tea-drinking nation. Every day we drink 165 million cups of the stuff and each year around 144 thousand tons of tea are imported. Tea in Britain is traditionally brewed in a warmed china teapot, adding one spoonful of tea per person and one for the pot. Most Britons like their tea strong and dark but with a lot of milk.

If someone asks you if you 'would like a cuppa‘ they are asking if you would like a cup of tea. If someone says 'let me be mother' or 'shall I be mother‘ they are offering to pour out the tea from the teapot.

Vocabulary baked beans – fasola w sosie pomidorowym oats – owies gravy – sos pieczeniowy parsley - pietruszka rhubarb – rabarbar spotted dick – pudding z rodzynkami boil – zagotować teapot – dzbanek do herbaty pot - garnek spoonful - łyżeczka