British food

‘British food’ has become a laughing stock and it’s not fair! It doesn’t deserve its terrible reputation.

In the sixteenth, the banquets of the English kings and queens were known as the most exciting in Europe. We were renowned for our toasts, pies, stews, soups and puddings.

So what’s gone wrong? Well, a lot of things. During the Second World War there was a shortage of food so it was shared out – in rations. People got used to poor quality meat or fish or cheese. As a result, the British diet – although still healthy – became very bland.

When rationing ended in 1954, people went mad for the most exotic food they could find. Fewer and fewer restaurants served good British food at reasonable prices and ordinary people had no example to follow of what really good British food was meant to taste like.

British people don’t complain enough when they are served bad quality food. Many like cheap, fast meals – ‘ convenience food’. They prefer to spend money on gardening and home improvement than good quality ingredients. Also, factory-farming methods, breeding programmes to make cows, pigs, sheep and vegetables grow faster, the injection of hormones and the use of other chemicals have all made Britain’s farm produce bland and undesirable.

This is a disaster because traditional British cooking is based on bringing out the flavour of the meat, fish, vegetables or whatever a dish is based around. It doesn’t use a lot of herbs, spices and sauces as other cuisines do.

Luckily, the British are waking up to the potential of their national cuisine and refusing to accept low standards. Smaller, ‘organic’ farms have sprung up which avoid using chemicals and cruelty. The food they produce is more expensive – but far better!

Things are changing. The British are also interested again in their own traditional recipes. More and more restaurants are opening in Britain which specialise in the country’s own cooking. This is a revolution – and it means a great national heritage being rescued.

FOOD for THOUGHT

Read the following idioms and their meanings. Think of their Ukrainian equivalents. Complete each sentence with the correct idiom.

a dog’s breakfast/dinner: a thing that has been done badly make a meal of smth: spend a lot of time, energy doing smth in a way that other people think is unnecessary and/or annoying a square meal: a good, satisfying meal out to lunch: crazy, mad in the soup: in serious trouble, in disorder

1.Why do you have to..... everything?

2.She is totally..... and you should never believe what she tells you.

3.He has made a real..... of these accounts.

4.She is really..... now. She told her boss that she was sick but he saw her downtown shopping.

5.He looks as though he hasn’t had..... for weeks.