Food
Intro: Food is mainly an input of nutrients. If we eat healthily and have a balanced diet, it enhances our health. People should eat at least five times a day and not in hurry, cereal and dairy products, fruit and vegetable is necessary and it is good idea to eat fish and poultry. Food is also very important part of our social lives. Dinners with family, lunches with colleagues or snacking in front of TV are common habits.
Daily meals Breakfast is the first and most important meal of a day. In our country, breakfast usually consists of tea or coffee and bread or rolls with cheese or ham. Some people prefer something sweet like cake or doughnuts. A very modern alternative is to have cereals or muesli. There are also some people who don’t eat anything for breakfast, because they have no time for it or they believe it will help them stay slim. English breakfast is different. A full English cooked breakfast is a hot dish of fried bacon, sausage, egg, tomatoes and sometimes mushrooms. It is usually served with a cup of tea or coffee. However, today people prefer a light breakfast consisting of cereals or porridge with toasts and marmalade and they eat traditional breakfast only on the weekend. Americans eat for breakfast mainly muffins, doughnuts, pancakes etc. At noon people have their lunch. In the Czech Republic, it is the main meal of the day with soup, a main course usually consisting of some meat, and sometimes deserts. People often eat in restaurants or canteens. British lunch is lighter. It is often just a sandwich or salad. Fast food is a typical feature of British and American life styles. These places like McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken offer some solid food like grilled chicken, hamburgers, pizza or desserts and beverages. The evening meal is called dinner. Czech dinner is not so nutritious. It may be some salami, cheese, eggs, bread or rolls and some vegetables. Other people prefer a hot meal for dinner too. They may have pancakes, potato pancakes, pizza or goulash. The British warm dinner has three or four courses. It consists of soup, then the main course, which is followed by a desert and finally sometimes cheese and biscuits are served. As a dessert, they may have fruit, fruit salad, pudding or ice cream. Supper is a light meal, which the English eat sometimes after the cinema or theatre late at night.
Typical meals
In UK
The traditional perception of British cuisine is of overcooked vegetables, tasteless
meat and a lot of potatoes. However, they also have good things like roast beef or
roast turkey and lots of seafood. The English national meals, fish and chips and roast
dinners, are also the traditional ones. The stereotype is fish and chips served as a
take-away meal wrapped in newspaper. However, wrapping food in newspaper is
now banned under EU hygiene regulations. Fish and chips is a balanced meal of
carbohydrate (chips), protein (fish), and fats (in the batter around the fish and in
vegetable oils). Sprinkled with lots of salt and vinegar, and red or brown sauce, it
lacks dietary fibre and some vitamins so it is not recommended that you eat it every
day.
Roast meat (pork, beef, lamb) is usually served with boiled or roast potatoes, peas,
Brussels sprouts, carrots, Yorkshire pudding and, of course, gravy. Gravy is made by
taking the fat and juices from the cooked roast meat and mixing them with flour and
vegetable stock and perhaps some gravy browning. This is mixed together into a
liquid, brought slowly to the boil, seasoned and then poured over the meat. Yorkshire
puddings are also made with flour and fat and are like hollow crispy buns.
In USA
For many people American food means only one thing – McDonald’s. However,
American food is more than fast food. It is the ethnic food that was brought to the
US by immigrants, such as Italians, Mexicans, and Greeks.
Of course, Americans love hamburgers. However, a proper hamburger is not what
you find at McDonald’s. The meat on a real hamburger must be at least 2.5 cm thick,
and be served on a thick, soft homemade bun. From there you can have what you
want on it, such as cheese, onions, and ketchup. And if you don’t want French fries,
you can have onion rings – slices of onion battered and fried to a golden brown.
In Canada
Canada, unlike most nations, doesn’t really have a traditional cuisine. As a nation of
mostly immigrants from all over the world, Canada has adopted the cuisines of its
immigrant population. Thai, Greek, Italian, French, Indian, and many other ethnic
restaurants are all common sights. Even all of the smaller towns tend to have at least
one Chinese restaurant, and one English fish and‑chips-style pub.
Poutine is a French‑Canadian snack consisting of French fries smothered with
cheese and hot gravy.
Maple syrup is also a truly Canadian dietary tradition; it is a sugary sauce made from
the sap of maple trees. It has a wide variety of uses: it can be eaten with pancakes or
waffles, poured over ice cream, used as an ingredient in baking, and also added as a
sweetener to tea or coffee.
In Australia and New Zealand
Australia has a lot of cattle and sheep, so beef and lamb are very popular. A typical
meal that is served everywhere is a thick beefsteak with green salad and chips.
Seafood is also very popular, especially mussels and prawns. Some people go down
to the coast and collect mussels from the rock pools in the sea.
Flake, the flesh of small shark, has a mild flavour and a clean white appearance.
Thanks to its low price it became the most common type of fish to be served in
Australian fish and chip shops.
These days, many New Zealanders enjoy eating Pipis and Toheora – both New
Zealand shellfish. In Australia there is the yabby, a big crab that lives in rivers.
Children go yabbying, which is fishing for yabbies with a stick and piece of meat tied
on a string.
In the Czech Republic
Traditional Czech cuisine isn’t healthy, I think. Czechs, in general, like fatty meals
with lard and flour (dumplings are traditional and rampant side dish).
Roasted pork is the national dish. Pork, roasted to perfection, is served with
sauerkraut and dumplings. Goulash, the Czech version of the Hungarian dish,
features equal portions of beef and onions cooked with spices and served with
dumplings. And my favourite svíčková is a combination of pieces of tenderloin
covered in a sweet creamy sauce, and served with sour cream on a slice of lemon,
cranberry sauce and surprisingly dumplings.
What I like and don’t like
I don’t like typical Czech cuisine very much, especially I avoid to pork and
mushrooms. I prefer lean meal, mainly chicken and fish. I like fried cheese with chips,
chicken schnitzels, pizzas and pastas and from time to time I fancy to eat burgers
from fast foods. I try to eat a lot of veg and fruit. I love Chinese meals.