Meals in England

Meals and mealtimes in England are not the same in all families.

Breakfast is the first meal of the day. But it is often a rather hurried and informal meal. Most people do not have a full breakfast, and some have no breakfast at all apart from a hot drink. People who do have a full breakfast say that it is quite good. That is why the writer Somerset Maugham once gave the following advice: "If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts daily."

At one o'clock comes a meal which is dinner to some people, lunch for others. More than half the population has a hot dinner (sometimes called lunch) in the middle of the day, and a cool meal in the evening. Others have a light lunch at one, and a hot dinner in the evening. Many men work too far away from their homes to be able to go home for a hot meal in the middle of the day, and many school children, too, have their lunch in schools. But on Sundays the family sit down together. Sometimes the mother puts the food on the plates in the kitchen, carrying them into the dining-room afterwards; sometimes it is served from large dishes in the dining-room itself.

The next meal is tea, with slices of bread and butter, cakes, and of course cups of tea. Mother and children may have their tea together at five o'clock in the afternoon, or they may wait a little for father to come in after work.

As it was said above, in the evening some people have a cool meal, which they usually call high tea (or supper). Others have a main meal in the evening, called dinner.

(From "Read and speak about Britain and the British" by V.F. Satinova)