National cuisine of english-speaking countries

1. Now let’s talk about food. What do people eat in Britain? Traditional British cuisine includes fish and chips, roast beef, steak, mash, and probably famous pudding. Certainly we may find different kinds of food in any restaurant in England, but these are the popular I guess because many Englishmen, answering the question about their gastronomy stereotype, will name these things.

A real British cuisine distinguishes itself either due to its high quality and high prices, or is not so expensive if you are satisfied with Bangers & Mash. A lot of bistros, snack bars, and even pubs provide us with sandwiches as well as dishes of the European cuisine.

Small cosy restaurants became more popular than big ones, which are decorated by the fashionable designers. And one more thing is pubs where the traditions of them are combined with modern - the British cuisine nowadays. The day starts with affordable lunch in the best restaurants. You may have a snack in Fast Food Shops, where you will find pizza and hamburgers and it is also available in some small fast-food bars. If you have a wish, you may make a culinary voyage in London. Indian cuisine, Chinese cuisine, American cuisine, and even African cuisine are represented in the restaurants of London.

Some people criticize English food. They say it's unimaginable, boring, tasteless.

It is disappointing, but true that, there is no tradition in England of eating in restaurants, because the food doesn't lend itself to such preparation. English cooking is found at home. So it is difficult to a good English restaurant with a reasonable prices.

Cynics will say that this is because English have no "cuisine" themselves, but this is not quite the true.

2. Do you know many recipes? Unfortunately, I don’t know many, but I really want to learn some from my mother. She is a really wonderful cook.

3. What questions can you ask a British friend about their eating habits? What is your favourite British drink? What dish would you recommend me? How many times do you prefer to have meals every day?

4. My friend wants to know more about national cuisines. Which national dishes would you recommend him to taste? I would recommend some of the various British puddings, beef and pork dishes and delicious desserts.

5. A lot of pupils refuse to have meals at school. What do you think about it? We spend a lot of time at school. So it’s necessary to have a snack at midday just to keep you going on. That’s why we have to go to a school canteen to have lunch. Our school canteen leaves much to be desired. It has become a tradition with our canteen to serve chops and watery mashed potatoes every day with a glass of tea or stewed fruit. Nevertheless sometimes you may choose something to your taste.

 

HOBBIES

Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting.

Hobbies are divided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things.

The most popular of all hobby groups is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities, everything from gardening to travelling and from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest of man's hobbies. It's a well-known fact that the English are very fond of gardening and growing flowers, especially roses.

Making things includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designing costumes, handicrafts. Two of the most famous hobby painters were President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill.

Almost everyone collects something at some period in his life: stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches. Some collections have no real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and galleries.

Both grown-ups and children are fond of playing different computer games. This is a relatively new hobby but it's becoming more and more popular.

As for me, I’m fond of collecting stamps. My hobby helps me to learn a lot of about other countries and other peoples’ traditions, the world’s flora and fauna. Maybe that’s why I’m good at geography and biology at school. I like to bring my albums to school and to examine with classmates my stamps with great interest.

When I was in the 6^th form my parents bought me a compact disc player and I decided to collect compact discs Today, I’ve got more than one hundred CDs of his favourite groups and singers. I am very proud of my collection. Every time I buy a new CD I carefully studies the information printed on disc booklets. I also tries to find out everything about the singers I like. I like all types of music except “rap” and “rave”.

No matter what kind of hobby a person has, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. Learning things can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby.

Hobbies, Leisure time

Leisure or free time is a period of time spent out of work and domestic activity. It is also the period of recreational time before or after compulsory activities such as eating and sleeping, going to work or running a business, attending school and doing homework or housework. Leisure time is the time when you can forget about day-to-day stress and stressful activities and relax. These activities can be our hobby.

Nowadays people work all day long and rarely have spare time to rest and to do something they like. But if they have it they try to spend it in the way they prefer. And there are a lot of possibilities to do it perfect. There are plenty of things to do that can help you not to feel bored. Any activity is much better than doing nothing.

I'd like to notice that there are two main ways of spending free time: the one is to do some physical activities (often outdoors), for example, football, swimming, hockey, skiing; and another way is to enjoy something relaxing at home or in special places: reading, watching TV, knitting, engaging in hand-made. At any rate, hobby is a matter of taste, and everybody should choose it according to the personal preferences.

As for me, I like to pass my leisure time both in active and passive way. I really enjoy reading or watching films, because it's always interesting, helpful and helps to relax, what is especially necessary after a long tiring day. Also I am fond of active sports, swimming, skiing or riding a bike from time to time, when it is possible. Sometimes you feel you need to escape from everyday worries and to do something no thought-provoking. In many cases I can't let me doing anything very extraordinary, so I just go walking over long distances. It really helps to release the tension and refresh the mind.

To the point, the way how people pass their free time depends on the culture and social status. For example, American favorite leisure activity now is participating in experiences that they know aren't real, they turn to imagination – to worlds created by others, such as books, games, movies and television. Also public researches show that the average amount of weekly free time of many people fell; while the average amount of time spent working is now up. It can be explained by the fact of extra time spent on mobile phones or computers, and infrastructure development (the problem of traffic gems in big cities). As well, preferences of people to spend their time have also changed over the past years: instead of team activities more and more people choose solo activities.

Anyway, in the life of any person there are periods of time when he feels extremely bored. It happens because this person doesn't know what to do with his time and can't find anything interesting to do, or because he doesn't like what he is doing. Well, this problem has hundreds ways of solution. The simplest is to find something interesting to do. Here are some variants of activities to choose:
- Just tidy up;
- Try new recipes;
- Decide on making candles, knitting, cross snitching - in one word, create something new you can be proud of;
- Don't let online games dominate in your life;
- Photography, drawing, painting, playing musical instruments are very special activities that you can do as a cure fore boredom;
- Communicate more with other interesting people;
- Read something exiting, encouraging, or anything that will enrich your knowledge;
- Join a health club or gum where you will be able to feel happy and keep fit;
- Go out with you friends;
- Set your aims and keep a diary.

Following these simple advices you will never have a time to think about such problem as boredom.

As we all know, leisure time is one of the most important thing people can't live without. It is a big part of our life, and it actually shows the character and temper of person. I can't imagine a person who doesn't have any hobbies and favorite activities, because it is really impossible. Our hobbies and habits make our lives, filling it up with variety of feelings and emotions. Each person chooses his own way of spending time, either active of passive, and in any case in should be a refreshment and a source of inspiration.

Meals and Cooking

The Belarusians have meals four times a day and their cuisine is rather simple.

Every person starts his or her day with breakfast. Some people are sentenced to either a continental or an English breakfast. From my mum’s point of view, when one has it continental it actually means that one has no breakfast at all, because it means drinking a cup of coffee and eating a bun. The English breakfast is a bit better, as it consists of one or two fried eggs, grilled sausages, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. The English have tea with milk and toast with butter and marmalade. As a choice one may have corn flakes with milk and sugar or porridge.

In Belarus people may have anything for breakfast. Sandwiches and coffee are very popular.

Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. It may be a meat or fish course with soft drinks followed by a sweet course.

Belarusian lunch is about 2 o’clock and often we call it ‘dinner’. His or her dinner includes three courses. A Belarusian will have a starter (salad, herring, cheese, etc.), soup, steaks, chops, or fish fillets with garnish, a lot of bread, of course, and something to drink. The more the better. At four or five the Belarusians may have a bite: waffles, cakes with juice, tea, cocoa, or something of the kind.

In Great Britain they have dinner at five or six. A lot of British prefer to eat out. “Fish and Chips” shops are very popular with their take-away food. The more sophisticated public goes to Chinese, Italian, seafood or other restaurants and experiments with shrimp, inedible vegetables and hot drinks.

Sometimes in |Belarus supper means one more big meal at seven. In England it is just a small snack - a glass of milk with biscuits at ten.

Most Belarusians have never counted calories and they are deeply convinced that their food is healthy. Some housewives may admit that it takes some time to prepare all the stuff, including pickles, home-made preserves and traditional potato’s pancakes—‘draniki’. But they don’t seem to mind too much and boil, fry, roast, grill, broil, bake and make.