Perhaps one of the best - loved cliches is that of the English
breakfast, fruit juice, cereal and milk, and then sausages, eggs,
bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and then buttered toast with
marmalade, all washed down with plenty of tea with milk. But this
takes a long time to prepare and is too filling. We might
occasionally have it at weekends as a BRUNCH (= breakfast+lunch)
or if we are on holiday. A much more common breakfast is a cup of
coffee and a piece of toast or a yogurt.
British eat is much convenience food. There are all kinds of
tinned, dried, frozen, prepackeged, precooked and prepared foods
on sale in British shops, but the same is true everywhere else in
Europe. These days most women go out to work and fewer and and
fewer are full-time housewives. So they have less time to
preparing meals. But that is not to say that everybody lives on
TV dinners, packet soups, frozen pizza and canned vegetables.
Another common notion is that we overcook everything. In some
homes this happens. But we know that overcooking destroys
vitamins.
Perhaps the biggest reason for these ideas is that many of
people who visit Britain have few changes to eat really authentic
home-cooked British food. Most of their restaurants serve ethnic
food - Chinese, Indian, Italian, Greek, indeed, food from almost
everywhere except Britain ! Fast food like pizza, hamburgers and
kebabs is more international than British and very often foreign
visitors' experiences of British food an limited to sandwiches,
pub snacks. . .
As to what is typically British, it's important to remember
that Britain comprises several countries, and that each of them
has its own traditions. There are also regional variations. There
are historical factors to consider, too.
In the Middle Ages, English food was highly spiced. Also
ingredients were mostly controlled by Italian merchants and were
expensive. Potatoes and tobacco were brought back (from USA). Later they were under the influence of French cuisine, which
prefers the use of herbs. Cookery in Britain has been exposed to
many new influences. This is a result of immigration but also due
to more of our people travelling abroad and being exposed to
foreign food. Health consciousness and increased prosperity are
also important factors.
Interest in cookery in Britain is very high these days.