Breakfast

The English proverb says: every cook praises his own broth. One can not say English cookery is bad, but there is not a lot of variety in it in comparison with European cuisine. The English are very particular about their meals. The usual meals in England are breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.

Breakfast time is between seven and nine a.m. A traditional English breakfast is a very big meal. It consists of juice, porridge, a rasher or two of bacon and eggs, toast, butter, jam or marmalade, tea or coffee. Marmalade is made from oranges and jam is made from other fruit. Many people like to begin with porridge with milk or cream and sugar, but no good Scotsman ever puts sugar on it, because Scotland is the home of porridge. For a change you can have sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, cold ham or perhaps fish.

But nowadays in spite of the fact that the English strictly keep to their meals many people just have cereal with milk and sugar or toast with jam or honey.

The two substantial meals of the day are lunch and dinner. Lunch is usually taken at one o'clock. For many people lunch is a quick meal. Office workers usually go to a cafe at this time. They take fish, poultry or cold meat (beef, mutton, veal and ham), boiled or fried potatoes and all sorts of salad. They may have a mutton chop or steak and chips, followed by biscuits and a cup of coffee. Some people like a glass of light beer with lunch. Pubs also serve good, cheap food. School children can have a hot meal at school. Some of them just bring a snack from home.