Reading Traditional English Food

YUMMY YUMMY

Reading Activity

Reading comprehension

Here are some of our favourite traditional meals in Britain today. Do you know what is in them?

The Full English Breakfast

At the weekend, we love to get up a little later and enjoy a cooked breakfast with family or friends. The 'Full English' traditionally contains bacon, sausages, fried eggs and toast or fried triangles of bread. It gives you lots of energy for a busy day. Other items can be mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans. In Scotland, the cooked breakfast sometimes has slices of a special sausage called black pudding as well. Usually we drink either tea or coffee with this. Sometimes cold drinks like orange juice or grapefruit juice are an alternative. Other days, when we are in a hurry, many British people simply have cereals and milk. Toast with butter and marmalade (jam made with oranges) is also popular.

The cream tea

baked beans

Baked beans are probably one of the most common (if not the most) canned items to buy in England. A delicious, saucy side for any dish. They are usually made of white beans that are stewed in a sweet tomato sauce for quite some time. They are the perfect budget meal enjoyed by college students and bachelors. Let’s not forget about beans for breakfast too… yes, really! This recipe was first prepared as a canned food in the 1860s, during the American Civil War.

This is one of our most traditional customs, especially when we have visitors or if we are on holiday. We often like to take this little meal in the middle of the afternoon. The Cream Tea is normally a pot of tea with scones (round cakes of bread with added sugar and dried fruit like sultanas). It comes with jam and clotted cream. Clotted cream is almost yellow in colour and very thick. Typically it comes from Devon and Cornwall in the South West of Britain.

cornish pasty

fish and chips

Fish and chips were originally sold in shops by small family businesses, often sold from the ‘front room’ of the house and were commonplace by the late 19th century. This dish of battered and fried fish with French fries on the side, tremendously popular in the United Kingdom, is a delight that we recommend you try at some point in your life. It is important to have a good fish, fresh and firm meat.

This is another tradition originally from Cornwall in the South West of Britain. It is a tasty snack which you can easily eat during a break from work, when travelling or at a picnic. The outside is made of pastry (flour, fat and water) and the inside is a mixture of cooked meat, vegetables and spice. They are best hot but you can also eat them cold. Many railway stations sell these pasties to hungry passengers. The smell of hot pasties is very good and they taste delicious too!

THE END

Now prove your knowledge with a game!