Discuss the following text in pairs using comprehension check after the text.
MEALS IN BRITAIN
The Health Education Authority asked a number of people in Britain what sort of meals and snacks they eat regularly. Here are the most common replies to the survey.
BREAKFAST
The most popular choices are: a bowl of cornflakes and a cup of tea, a bowl of muesli and fresh orange juice, a piece of toast with marmalade, a yoghurt and fresh fruit with black coffee or tea.
The traditional British breakfast is a cooked meal of bacon, eggs and sausages, preceded by cereal or fruit and followed by toast. Nowadays, this large meal is served mainly in hotels and is very popular with foreign visitors. Britons may eat this big breakfast at weekends or on special occasions but prefer a smaller, healthier meal to start a normal day.
Many people just have cereal with milk and sugar, or toast with marmalade, jam, or honey. Marmalade and jam are not the same! Marmalade is made from oranges and jam is made from other fruit. The traditional breakfast drink is tea, which people have with cold milk. Some people have coffee, often instant coffee, which is made with just hot water. Many visitors to Britain find this coffee disgusting!
SNACKS AND LUNCHES
For many people lunch is a quick meal and it is eaten at school or at work. Lunch takes 30-40 minutes. Popular lunches are: a salad or a sandwich, a baked potato, beans on toast.
In cities there are a lot of sandwich bars, where office workers can choose the kind of bread they want-brown, white, or a roll- and then all sorts of salad and meat or fish to go in the sandwich. Pubs often serve good, cheap food, both hot and cold. Some offices have installed a microwave oven for employees to use. School-children can have a hot meal at school, but many just take a snack from home-a sandwich, a drink, some fruit, and perhaps some crisps.
Snacks are very popular in Britain and many people frequently eat snacks between meals. School and workplaces may also sell snacks such as crisps, chocolate, sweets and biscuits. Instant snacks are the fastest-growing sector of the food market; 5,5 million packets of crisps are sold every year. British kids eat more sweets than any other nationality. Biscuits, chocolates and sweets worth more than 5 billion pounds were sold in Britain in 1990.
DINNER
Dinner is usually the main meal of the day and consists of two courses-meat or fish served with plenty of vegetables. It may be potatoes, peas, beans, cabbage or cauliflower. This is followed by a dessert, perhaps fruit pudding with tea to follow.
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Most Englishmen like what they call «good plain food». They must be able to recognize what they are eating. Usually they like steaks, chops, roast-beef, Yorkshire pudding and fish and chips. They are not over-fond of soup remarking that it doesn't leave enough room for the more important meat course.
Those who eat at home usually call their mid-day meal dinner and make it the chief one of the day. It may consist of three or four courses. The first course is soup. Then comes fish or meat served with various vegetables; as a change they sometimes eat chicken or duck. Then the table is cleared and the dessert is brought in. This is jelly or fruit-apples, pears, plums, and nuts.
AFTERNOON TEA
Afternoon tea is taken at about 5 o'clock, but it can hardly be called a meal. People have afternoon tea with sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and, of course, a cup of tea. Cream teas are popular. You have scones (a kind of cake) with cream and jam. At the week-ends afternoon tea is a special occasion. Friends and visitors are often invited to have a chat over a cup of tea.
The British are famous for their love of sweet things, and afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones, jam and several different kinds of cake was once a traditional custom. Like the English cooked breakfast, it is now more often found in tea shops and hotels than in private homes, and you can buy special guidebooks to tell you where the best afternoon teas are served. Most working people do not have tea as an afternoon «meal», but they do have a short break in the middle of the afternoon for a cup of tea. Tea is often drunk with lunch and dinner.
TAKE-AWAYS
Many people in Britain find the prices of meals in good restaurants too high. Ordinary people can't afford to pay 30, 40, 50 pounds for a meal for two. On the other hand, they don't want to cook every day and it's so nice to eat something different for a change. Many people are so busy that they don't have time to cook for themselves. Others live alone, and feel it's not worth cooking just for one person.
This has led to a massive increase in the «fast food»business. Most of this is «takeaway» food. Many people prefer to eat in comfort of their homes, rather than in public restaurants, because they don't have to dress up and they can relax in front of the television. People often get take-away meals - you buy the food at the restaurant and then bring it home to eat.
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Pre-packed or pre-cooked convenience foods are especially popular. About 3.000 million pounds is spent on frozen food every year. 60 percent of British homes use a microwave oven for cooking. In recent years, foreign foods have become a regular part of the British diet. Indian, Italian and Chinese dishes are particularly popular for evening meals. Most supermarkets sell a range of repacked meals to be heated in the microwave.
Take-aways became extremely popular in the 1980s. The traditional British take-away is fish and chips eaten with salt and vinegar and served in an old newspaper. Most towns and cities now offer a wide range of take-away meals, from American-style hamburgers and Italian pizza to Turkish kebabs.
Comprehension Check
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