English meals

An Englishman’s day begins when he sits down to breakfast with his morning paper. As he scans the headlines there is nothing he likes better, than his favorite breakfast of cornflakes with milk and sugar or bacon and eggs, toast and marmalade, tea or coffee.

Round about 11 in the morning some Englishmen who work have their tea or coffee break. They never call it a meal, of course. Tea or coffee is usually brought to the factory bench or office desk.

Then at mid-day, everything is stopped for lunch. Most offices and small shops are closed for an hour, say, from 1 till 2, and the city pavements are full of people on their way to cafes. Factory workers usually eat in their canteens.

The usual mid-day meal consists of two courses. First a meat course is served with plenty of vegetables. It may be potatoes, peas, beans, cabbage.

This is followed by a sweet dish, perhaps fruit pudding with tea to follow.

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 consists of three or four courses and is cooked by the mother of the family. 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, oranges, plums and nuts.

Afternoon tea is taken at about five o’clock, but can hardly be called a meal. It is a cup of tea with bread and butter and cake or biscuits. It is often not served at a table; each person has a cup and saucer, a spoon and a small plate in his hands. Even Englishmen themselves do not always find it convenient.

The evening meal, when all the family gather round the table after their working day, goes under various names — tea, high tea, dinner or supper (depending upon its size). It is usually a meat course followed by tinned fruit or cake and tea. But certainly it is not the same in every English home. Tastes differ.