A peanut and you're a goner: British Cuisine: Myth or reality? Enseñanzas Oficiales de Idiomas Inglés Nivel Intermedio B2: Primer curso Lesson A peanut and you're a goner: British Cuisine: Myth or reality? Objetivos Our protagonists, Paula and Carlos, are back again. What's new in their lives? Well, if you remember, Paula has been living in the UK since got a new job as a member of a creative team for outdoor advertising in a marketing and advertisement agency. And, you know what? Carlos is also in the UK!!!! After his American experience, he has just arrived in the UK for a new adventure. He has Imagen de also got a new job here to work as a chef in a Imagen de Adam MadalenaPestana well-known British restaurant where traditional Jones en Flickr bajo en Flickr bajo licencia dishes are a must. licencia CC CC For him, British food has always had a bad reputation. Now, he will learn how to cook local and national dishes like Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, Irish stew, Haggis, Cawl... British Food Do you agree with Carlos? Do you think that British food has a bad reputation? Reflect upon the following questions to see how much you know about British food: Imagen de Richard Cawood What is the traditional 'national dish' of Britain? and, hwat en Flickr bajo licencia CC about Ireland? Can you think of any other types of British or Irish food? Have you tried any of them? Were they appealing to you? What do you know about the full English breakfast? Do the British have it every day? Actividad de rellenar huecos Is the reputation of British food fair? To know a bit more about it read the following text. Once you have read it, look for words in the text for the definitions below. Imagen de Gene Hunt en Flickr bajo licencia CC Is the reputation of British food fair? Introduction Many foreigners go to Britain and say loved the country, hated the food. But is this fair? British food has long been the laughing stock of the cuisine world. However, is this now fair? After all, this is a country where chefs are now celebrities and their television programs exported around the world, Gordon Ramsey, footballer turned chef, is having some success in the USA. London has now become one of the food capitals of the world. British chefs are gaining Michelin stars. Should British food or, more precisely, British cuisine get the respect it deserves? Bit of History From the 18th century to the beginning of the 2nd World War British chefs were world class. London had several of the best restaurants in the world. The 2nd World War changed all that. Rationing until the 1950's meant people were limited with what they could cook due to the lack of ingredients. It was in the 1950's that the Good Food Guide began in a vain attempt to improve standards. People became lazy in the kitchen and expectations lowered. The nadir was in the 1970's and 1980's. Eating out became steak houses and salad bars serving limited menus of poor quality washed down with poor quality wine. In the 1990's things began to change. A new generation of chefs began to emerge who began to reinvent British cuisine and demand quality local ingredients. Their restaurants became successes, they got their own TV shows and educated the nation about food. Now the British population is prepared to demand more when it comes to food. What is British Food? British food is very meat based, most of which is cooked in the oven. Most of the offal is eaten as well. The best example of this is haggis. There is a great tradition of fish in Britain. Scotland is famous for salmon, English rivers have trout and Britain has an expert fishing fleet. Like people, in most countries, the cuisine is really influenced by the weather. Frequent rains and winters that are not too cold and summers that are not too hot have created a fertile country where wheat and vegetables are grown easily and green pastures for animals to graze. How did British Food get this Bad Reputation? Us Brits have to take some of the blame for this. Firstly, the advent of the mass package holiday meant British people were travelling abroad and were prepared to only eat poor quality British food. Because of this the locales were seeing British people eating fried breakfasts, fish and chips and cheap roast dinners. Secondly, when British tourists began to be more adventurous and the other countries' cuisine a common topic of conversation was "This is lovely. I wish we cooked food like this in Britain". What were the locals supposed to think about British food? British food also suffers from the narrow mindedness of foreign tourists. They arrive with a bad opinion of British food and leave with the same Most foreign tourists go to a bad opinion of British food and leave with the same. Most foreign tourists go to London. It's a fact. Although London has several world class restaurants they are out of the price range of most tourists. Unfortunately, like most tourist destinations in the world, the restaurants in the tourist areas of London are of poor quality or they eat in Pubs serving greasy food. Rarely do they try and find good restaurants and when they ask most of the people they ask aren't from Britain so they don't know. Where do I Find Good Places to Eat in Britain? Despite London having Michelin star restaurants for the best restaurants, you have to head out into the countryside. In the British countryside you will find pub-restaurants with small but high quality food. Much of the produce will have been bought locally and menus will be seasonal. They will have quality wine lists and real ales. In these restaurants British classics like gammon steaks, lamb chops, sirloin steaks and Sunday Roasts are served, but also other less well known British dishes like lamb shanks, wild boar, venison, salmon, trout, liver and bacon, kidney and oxtail. Also soups and broths of different flavours depending on the season. On coastal areas you can find oysters, sea bass, mackerel, haddock, cod, mussels and sea bream for example. Britain has also adopted food from around the world. None more so than curry. There are now curries that are British. Curry restaurants were once dark and dingy but now are modern with excellent service and good value. The best places for curry are Bricklane in East London and the Balti Mile in Birmingham. Like most places in the world you have to know where to go. Best of British British cheese is the best in the world and top quality British cheese is not hard to find. All you have to do is go to your local supermarket and the choice is endless, mature chedders, somerset bries, blue stilton and stilton with fruit, cheshire, lancashire, wensleydale to name a fraction. Beef in the west of England and North of Scotland is of the highest quality. Lamb in the hills and mountains of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are full of flavour. Free range British poultry is delicious. British bacon is the best in the world as well as British pork. For fish the best places to go are the south-west of England, Kent for shellfish, the North-West of Scotland and North-East of England. Finally, what nobody in the world can resist are British desserts. Once you tried it, you're hooked. Desserts include bread and butter pudding, apple crumble, rhubarb crumble, eat 'n' mess, treacle tart and the curiously named spotted dick. Conclusion What started out as a defence of British food and cuisine as turned into a passionate promotion. In conclusion, did Britain deserve its reputation for bad cuisine? The answer will have to be yes. However, does Britain still deserve this reputation? The answer has to be an emphatic no. If you are British farmer keep up the good work, if you're British buy British and, if your not, next time you are in Britain head out of London and find a traditional village and stop there for something to eat. You won't be disappointed and probably pleasantly surprised. Adapted from:http://paulwillson26.hubpages.com/hub/Is-the-Reputation-of- British-Food Find words in the text that mean: 1. The lowest point: 2. To take drink with food: to 3. The edible internal part of an animal, such as the heart, liver and tongue: 4. The grain used in making flour, pasta etc. : 5. Beer: 6. Cured or smoked ham: 7. Cut of leg meat: 8. Lacking light or brightness. Dirty: 9. A type of cheese whose flavour is very strong: 10. Domestic birds, especially gallinaceous, used as food: Enviar 1. The lowest point: Nadir 2. To take drink with food: to wash down 3. The edible internal part of an animal, such as the heart, liver and tongue: Offal 4. The grain used in making flour, pasta etc. : Wheat 5. Beer: Ale 6. Cured or smoked ham: Gammon 7. Cut of leg meat: Shank 8. Lacking light or brightness. Dirty: Dingy 9. A type of cheese whose flavour is very strong: Stilton 10. Domestic birds, especially gallinaceous, used as food: Poultry Actividad de rellenar huecos In the text you have just read above, there is a wide range of words related to food. In the table below you will find some of them.