Food

For many people in our country food, eating, sometimes also cooking, is a downright pleasure. There are some people who eat just once a day – they have one continuous meal, other are figure-conscious and try to fast, cut down on some fat and sugar, or go on a slimming diet. For many others cooking and eating is a nuisance and they do not care much about meals.

On the whole we eat more than the British or Americans do and our food is known to be less healthy. There is no expression in England for  „dobrou chu“, which perhaps reflects the English attitude to food. Maybe we can say: „We eat to live, we don’t live to eat.“ In the past the British cuisine did not enjoy a very good reputation. But it has improved considerably. Also the renowned English picnic has changed because people like more comfort today.

We should also think about our healthy lifestyle when we eat. But it’s very difficult in this time say what is or not healthy. You don’t have to eat more than you can or eat nothing. The best way is well-balanced food. The healthy food include fruit, vegetables, cereals, vitamins, minerals, good water, milk, cheese, little salt and spices. It’s not good idea to be vegetarian, because meat contains a lot of important substances – from the meat it’s poultry, lean meat, sausages, fishes or smoked meat. Than also is good to eat fibrous food, dark bread instead of white bread.

We should avoid restaurants with fast food because there are food with high calories and whit a lot of fat. But especially for Czech people is difficult to eat healthy because our national dishes are very fat and unhealthy. Among suitable eating habits sort eat slowly, take time to eat, eat at a nice seat table, eat more time a day in small amounts.

Czech food

The Czech are used to eating many floury, sweet and fatty meals, such as dumplings, pastry (cakes, sweets), fat pork and sausages. Our food should consist of more vegetables, fruit, lean meat, poultry and fish which would supply our bodies with more vitamins and minerals.

Breakfast

The Czech have their morning cup of coffee or tea, a roll or a slice of bread, some cheese, salami, or a cake in haste.

Lunch

The Czech midday meal is the main meal of the day (the English would call it dinner then). We can have it at home, at (works) canteens or dining halls, cafeterias or in a restaurant. It is usually a three-course meal which consists of soup, the main course and a dessert. An aperitif and an hours d’oeuvre are served only on festive occasion. As for soup we can choose from bouillon, clear (beef, chicken, vegetable, with liver-balls) soup and thick soups (potato, tripe and fish soup, cream of mushroom, celery, cauliflower or tomato). The Czech menu often offers the favourite dish – roast pork, with dumplings or potato dumplings and cabbage or sauerkraut. Another typical main dish is a fried pork chop with boiled potatoes or chips and a vegetable (lettuce, cucumber or tomato) salad, Vienna steak with potato salad or goulash with dumplings. Sometimes another Czech speciality is prepared – fruit dumplings with cottage cheese. As a dessert fruit (fresh or stewed), plain or with whipped cream, ice cream, sundaes, or custard with fruit are commonly eaten. Czech beer or an of the soft drinks (mineral water, lemonade, juice or just soda) are served with it.

Dinner

The Czech evening meal is nut so nutritious if people have a hot meal at midday. It may be some cold meat, salami, ham, cheese, eggs, bread or rolls and some vegetables. Some people prefer a hot meal too. they may have pancakes, potato pancakes, pizza, stews or goulash, although some thick soup with meat sauce. Some people may have a similar dish as at midday except soup, although some thick soup with bread may be a separate evening meal.

British food

In different parts in Britain people have different eating habits.

They have five or six meals a day: breakfast, elevenses (a morning snack), lunch, tea, dinner and later perhaps supper.

Breakfast

The British like to begin the day with a nice cup of coffee or tea in bed early in the morning. Then they have a leisurely breakfast, they do not like to hurry. The English take their time having breakfast. The renowned English breakfast starts with a glass of juice and a cereal, usually cornflakes with milk or cream and sugar, or porridge. This will be followed by fried or grilled bacon and eggs, sausages and grilled tomatoes or spicy beans in tomato sauce, or kippers. The round off with many cups of coffee rather than tea and buttered toast and marmalade (the toast is not fried but dry and by marmalade they mean preserves made of citrus fruits, usually oranges, containing small pieces of orange peel which give it a slightly bitter flavour).

But such a substantial breakfast is not as common as it used to be, it is served in hotels or restaurants if you ask for English breakfast or at weekends when people have more time. For most Englishman breakfast is a bowl of cereal followed by toast and marmalade, and coffee or tea, of course.

Elevenses – brunch

In the middle of the morning they have elevenses, which is usually not more than a cup of coffee and biscuits.

Sometimes, often at weekends, when they get up later, they have brunch, a combination meal which is eaten for breakfast and lunch.

Lunch

The midday meal is generally called lunch and is usually fairly light. If it is the main meal of the day, which is at Christmas or may be on Sunday, it is called dinner. Lunch often consists of a hot dish (for example soup if you eat a la carte in a restaurant), a salad, ham and cheese sandwiches, pizza, hamburgers and a dessert. The soup can be clear (beef, vegetable or chicken) or thick, such as cream of tomato, cauliflower, celery or mushroom.

Teatime

Around four o’clock it is teatime. While in our country an afternoon snack is not common, in Britain it is a special occasion. The traditional tea consists of thin slices of white or brown bread and butter with cheese, fish or ham, perhaps some vegetables, and jam )made of other kinds of fruit than citruses), cakes, fruit pies, biscuits and tea or coffee which in England are drunk with milk unless you ask for black coffee or only tea. Nowadays many people do not eat much at teatime but they have at least one cup of coffee or tea.

Dinner

The hot dinner which is served around 7 o’clock may have three or four courses. It consists of soup or some other starter, then the main course (meat and fish with vegetables) which is followed by a dessert and finally perhaps cheese and biscuits. The meat may be a stew, chops, a meat pie, a roast joint or fish if it is Sunday, with potatoes and one or two of the other vegetables (carrots, beans, peas, Brussels sprouts, cabbage or broccoli). Beef and mutton or lamb are much more favoured than pork. As a dessert they may have fruit, fruit salad, fruit cake, pudding with custard, jelly with cream, trifle or ice cream. With the meal they may have beer, cider or wine. They finish their dinner with coffee rather then tea.

High tea – supper

Eating habits in the North of England and Scotland differ slightly. Between five and six they may have high tea. Some light dish as fish (fresh, tinned or smoked), ham, sausages, eggs or cheese is followed by home made bread, buns, biscuits, cakes and cups of coffee and tea. Later in the evening more tea, cocoa, milk, sandwiches, bread and butter, cheese, cakes and biscuits may be eaten as supper. Also people in the South may have supper if they stay up late at night. It consists of sandwiches, could meat, vegetables, some milk, tea or coffee.

American food

Americans usually eat three meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Certain kinds of food are typical at each meal. Throughout the US the food is similar, but there are some regional differences. In general American food is plain and not spicy.

Burger

One of the most popular American food is the burger. Hamburgers are made of beef, not ham. They are served in a round piece of bread called a bun. They are often eaten with one or more of the following: tomato, lettuce, onion, mustard and ketchup. A hamburger with melted cheese in top is called a cheeseburger. Some restaurants have other kinds of burgers with others names, such as jumbo burger (very big), mushroom burger, or bacon burger.

Hot dogs

Hot dogs (also called franks of frankfurters) are a kind of sausage. They can be steamed, boiled, or grilled. They are served in a long bun with mustard or ketchup or pickle relish. You may want to know that hot dog are often made from pork – the meat from pigs. Bacon and ham are also meant from pigs.

Sandwiches – lunch

Americans eat a lot of sandwiches – especially for lunch. They are made with two pieces of bread and a filling. Some common fillings are tuna fish, eggs salad, ham, chicken, turkey, roast beef, cheese, and peanut butter and jelly. Some sandwiches are hot, for example, a hot roast beef sandwich. Another special type is the club sandwich, which is made with three pieces of bread and two fillings between the three pieces. The fillings are often chicken or turkey and ham with lettuce and tomato. One common sandwich is often called a BLT. Which means bacon, lettuce and tomato.

Dinner

For main dishes – especially for dinner – Americans eat a lot of meat, although today people are eating more fish and poultry than they used to. Beef is the most popular meat, followed by pork and lamb. In a few places you can find rabbit meat, but you will not find horse, goat, or dog meat. There are many kinds of beef. Hamburger (ground beef) and beef steak are the best known. In general, Americans like thick steaks. There are three ways to cook the meat: rare (not cooked very much), medium, and well-done (cooked a lot).

Salads are often served with a meal. They are eaten before or with the main dish. A salad can also be a main dish – especially for lunch. There are many kinds of salad, but some of the most common ingredients are lettuce, tomato, onion, and cucumber.

Festival’s food

Christmas

On some special occasions such as Christmas, traditional food is served both in Britain and in our country. Fish soup, fried carp and potato salad are commonly made for Christmas eve. As a dessert home made sweet and apple strudel are served. There is no traditional meal for Christmas Day, but many families prepare roast goose with dumplings and cabbage, Wiener schnitzel with potato salad, or roast turkey with potatoes. There is a suppression about New Year’s Day dinner. You should not have any poultry on that day, otherwise you will miss your good luck in the next year. The British Christmas Day meal is roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, potatoes and the renowned Christmas pudding and mince pies as a sweet.

Christmas dinner is a great occasion. It consist of roast turkey with chestnut stuffing and roast potatoes and Christmas pudding. This is a special rich pudding made with lots of dried fruit, eggs, suet and very little flour. It is made well ahead before Christmas, boiled in a basin for hours and then heated again on Christmas Day. It will keep for a long time. Something brandy is poured over it and set a light and the pudding is served surrounded with blue flames.

Hogmanay

It’s celebrate in Scotland the last day in the year. They sit down to dinner which begins with haggis, Scotland’s national dish (minced heart, lungs and liver of a sheep, boiled in a sheep’s stomach with oatmeal).

Thanksgiving Day

Here is the Thanksgiving menu: Turkey with bread stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie.

There is no soup and the menu could be made bigger with dinner rolls, a fresh green salad, corn and green beans.

The beautiful turkey is the glorious centrepiece of the Thanksgiving table. The turkey should be golden brown on the outside and the inside should be moist and tender.

The gravy is basically thickened juice from turkey that we get during baking.

The mashed potatoes can be creamy or smooth, fluffy or light, or whatever you prefer.

For best results, the cranberry sauce should be made about three days in advance. Boil water, sugar, cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks for about three minutes, add cranberries and cook until they begin to pop. For the next three days cranberry sauce is refrigerated and all spices need to be removed before serving.

The pumpkin pie needs a good crust made from dough and a good filling prepared from a mixture of pumpkin, sugar and spice. It’s good ides to bake the pie the day before, so the oven is free to roast the turkey.

It all may sound simple, but to prepare a meal for the whole family normally takes a few days of planning, grocery shopping and preparations and a whole day of cooking.

Dinner time is between 3 to 5 PM. By that time is a great smell in whole house and everyone who skipped their lunch is hungry.

 

 

People carry out many different activities in one day. One thing they never forget to do is to eat. We can ask ourselves many questions about eating, such as Do we eat in healthy way? or Do we not overeat? We know the answers but we usually don’t respect them. For many people in our country food, eating and cooking is a hobby. But many people eat only to kill time or of boredom.

Breakfast. In our country daily meals usually start with breakfast, which consist of something to drink (tea with lemon or milk, hot or cold milk, hot chocolate or black coffee) and something to eat (crispy rolls, bread with butter, marmalade, honey, ham or yogurt). In some families are cooked breakfast – toasts, pancakes, scrabbled eggs or hot sausage. Every meal should include fruits.

Traditional British breakfast consists of glass of fruit juice and cornflakes with sugar and milk. Sundays are reserved for big cooked breakfast (it is sometimes called „brunch“ – breakfast and lunch together). This big meal usually consists of boiled or scrabbled eggs, fried bacon with spicy beans in tomato and fried bread. At approximately ten o’clock a.m. comes the time for a snack – usually a cup of tea or coffee and some biscuits are served.

On weekends when people stay in bed longer there is also in Great Britain meal called “brunch”. It is breakfast and lunch together. In America there are special restaurants which offer on special occasions (Eastern etc.)brunches.

Lunch. The midday meal is called lunch. In our country it is the main meal of the day. A lot of people take their lunch at canteen and students at school canteen. If we haven’t got enough time we can buy some food in snack bar or in fast food restaurant. Czech lunch usually consist of three courses – soup, the main course and the dessert. Soups can be vegetable (potato soup, tomato, carrot, celery or mushrooms soup) or soup made of meat (beef, chicken or goulash soup). The main dish can be sweet (strawberry or plum dumplings, pancakes with jam and cream) or we can have some meat, fish or poultry with potatoes, chips or rise. While cooking we can add some spices (garlic, rosemary, pepper, ketchup, onion, mustard). Typical Czech food is roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut. After the main dish we may drink tea, lemonade, juice, Coca-Cola, mineral water. The adults prefer beer and black coffee after the lunch.

In England or the USA lunch is between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. o’clock. The British lunch is usually fairly light. People may eat in the office or factory canteen or take a sandwich to work. Very popular fast food restaurants are fast food stains like McDonald’s, Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken. These restaurants are cheap, but the food isn’t very healthy. If you do not want to go to a restaurant, you can buy something on a street. British streets are full of stalls with popcorn or fish and chips. Many families now prefer to eat out at restaurants or to buy Chinese or Indian meals called “take – away food”. It is meal prepared and packed into the bags in restaurant and we can take it and eat it at home. It is cheaper then eating in restaurant.

Afternoon break. Around four or five o’clock it is teatime. While in our country an afternoon snack is not common, in Britain it is a special occasion. Traditionally, at the tea-break people drink a cup of tea or coffee and eat something (thin slices of bread with ham or butter and jam). Nowadays many people do not eat much at teatime but they have at least one cup of tea or coffee.

Dinner. The Czech evening meal is not so nutritious if people have a hot meal at midday. It may be some salami, cheese, eggs, bread or rolls and some vegetable. Some people prefer hot meal too. They may have pancakes, potato pancakes, pizza or goulash. Some people may have a similar dish as at midday except soup, although the soup with bread may be a very delicious separate evening meal.

The British hot dinner is served around 7 o’clock. It has three or four courses. It consists of soup or some other starter, then the main course which is followed by a dessert and finally sometimes cheese and biscuits are served. As a dessert they may have fruit, fruit salad, pudding or ice cream. With the meal they have beer or wine and finish with coffee is more frequent than with tea. Eating habits in the North of England and Scotland are slightly different.

When we travel we cannot hold the traditional schemes of daily meals. Usually we have to eat out, in a restaurant, a cafeteria, a snack bar or in fast food, where we can get hamburgers, chips, hot-dogs and something to drink.

On some special occasions such as Christmas, traditional food is served both in Britain and in our country. Fish soup, fried carp and potato salad are generally made for Christmas Eve. When there is no traditional meal for Christmas Day, many families prepare roasted goose or duck with dumplings or with potatoes and red or white cabbage. The British Christmas Day meal is roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, potatoes and the famous Christmas pudding. In America there is served roasted turkey and pumpkin or apple pie (it is also served on Thanksgiving Day).

There is many national cuisines, which have their typical meals, like Italians have pizzas, French are famous with their delicious meals, English are well-known their horrible meals, for Czech cuisine is typical pork, dumplings and cabbage.