ENGLISH MEAL Many Englishmen eat porridge with milk for breakfast English people often take sugar in their porridge But porridge is a Scotch dish, and the Scotch always put salt in it, and never sugar English people drink a lot of tea Some English people have tea for breakfast, tea in the middle of the morning, tea after dinner, tea in the middle of the afternoon, tea at tea-time and tea with supper At work they take five or ten minutes in the middle of the morning and the afternoon to have a cup of tea At tea-time they have one, two, three or more cups of tea, bread and butter, or cakes Some English families have “high tea” or “big tea” and no supper For high tea they may have meat, bread and butter, cakes, and, of course, a lot of tea The English always drink tea out of cups, never out of glasses In England they usually drink tea with sugar and milk When you go to an English house for tea, the housewife always asks you, “How many lumps (pieces) of sugar you take in your tea?” The answer is: “I take one lump (or two lumps)” or sometimes: “I don’t take any sugar.” Tea with lemon in it is called “Russian tea” in England Englishmen always eat bread with their soup With meat and vegetables they never eat any bread Some Englishmen only eat one thin piece of bread at dinner On working days many English people have lunch at one o’clock instead of dinner Lunch is usually cold, but some Englishmen have thin soup at lunch MEALS There are four meals a day in an English home: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner Breakfast is the first meal of the day It is about o’clock in the morning, and consists of the porridge with milk and salt or sugar, eggs – boiled or fried, bread and butter with marmalade or jam Some people like to drink tea, but others prefer coffee Instead of porridge they may have fruit juice, or they may prefer biscuits The usual time for lunch is o’clock This meal starts with soup or fruit juice Then some meat or poultry with potatoes follows – boiled or fried, carrots and beans Then a pudding comes Instead of the pudding they may prefer cheese and biscuits After all coffee – black or white Englishmen often drink something at lunch Water is usually on the table Some prefer juice or lemonade Tea is the third meal a day It is between or o’clock, the so-called o’clock tea On the table there is tea, milk or cream, sugar, bread and butter, cares and jam Friends and visitors are often present at tea Dinner is the fourth meal of the day The usual time is about o’clock, and all the members of the family sit down together Dinner usually consists of soup, fish or meat with vegetables – potatoes, green beans, carrot and cabbage, sweet pudding, fruit salad, ice-cream or cheese and biscuits Then after a talk they have black or white coffee This is the order of meals among English families But the greater part of the people in the towns, and nearly all countrypeople, has dinner in the middle of the day instead of lunch They have tea a little later – between and o’clock, and then in the evening, before going to bed, they have supper So the four meals of the day are either breakfast, dinner, tea, supper; or breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner