Unit 1. Word list

British Meals. Introductory Text.

The usual British meals are breakfast, lunch, tea and supper. Breakfast is generally bigger than you have on the Continent, though some English people like a “continental” breakfast of rolls and butter and coffee. But the usual English breakfast is porridge or corn flakes with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade with buttered toast, and tea or coffee. For a change you can have a boiled egg, cold ham, or perhaps fish.

We generally have lunch at about one o’clock. The businessmen in London usually find it impossible to come home for lunch, and so they go to a cafe or a restaurant; but if I am making lunch at home I have cold meat (left over probably from yesterday’s dinner, the so-called leftovers), potatoes, salad and pickles, with a pudding or fruit to follow. Sometimes we have a mutton chop, or steak and chips, followed by biscuits and cheese, and some people like a glass of light beer with lunch.

Afternoon tea you can hardly call a meal, but it is a sociable sort of thing, as friends often come in then for a chat while they have their cup of tea, cake or biscuit.

In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day. We sometimes begin with soup, followed by fish, roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables, a sweet, fruit and nuts.

In my house as in great many English homes we make the midday meal the chief one of the day, and in the evening we have the much simpler supper – an omelette, or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs and sometimes just bread and cheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.

But Uncle Albert always has “high tea”. He says he has no use for these “afternoons teas” where you try to hold a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of bread and butter about as thin as a sheet of paper in the other. He’s a Lancashire man, and nearly everyone in Lancashire likes high tea, they have it between 5 and 6 o’clock. They have ham or tongue and tomatoes and salad, or sausages, with good strong tea, plenty of bread and butter, then stewed fruit, or a tin of pears, apricots or pineapple with cream or custard and pastries or a good cake. And that’s what they call a good tea.

(From C.E.Eckersley)

Unit 1. Word list

national dishes to string

to lay the table chop

sauce dice

cutlery tail

napkin top

serviette shred

salt-cellar simmer

sugar basin skin

clear soup bone

broth peel

fried/roasted/ grilled pour

baked slice

stewed grate

boiled spread (spread, spread)

starter sprinkle with

appetizer/hors d'oeuvres season

salad stew

chop stuff

meat-ball scrape

pancake combine

sandwich mix

soft drink/hard drink add

juice sieve

beer crush

to treat drain

to try/ taste heat

delicious melt

helping crumble

menu strain

order stir

pan roll out

kettle blend

mincer whip

grater blanch

saucepan/pot/casserole rinse

bowl mug

saucer

underdone/rare

overdone

sour, bitter, salty, sweet

BAKERY

a loaf of bread(white, brown, rye /stale, fresh)

baking, pastry

pastry/dough

bun, scone, roll, rusk, pie, cake, ring, dough nuts, pastry, biscuits, sponge cake, cookies(Am.), plum cake

crisps

pudding

custard

crust (of bread)

BUTCHERY POULTRY

meat turkey

pork, beef, veal, mutton broiler

ham, bacon chicken

rasher duck

rump-steak goose

beefsteak

sirloin, fillet

minced meat

sausage

fat, lard, suet

frankfurter

hot-dogs

chops, cutlets, rissoles,

liver

heart

tongue

tender/tough/fat/lean meat

hamburger

GROCERY DAIRY

cereal milk

castor/ granulated/lump sugar whipped/sour cream

buckwheat, rice, semolina curds/cottage cheese

pasta, macaroni, noodles, spaghetti cheese

millet fresh/new laid eggs

flour hard/soft boiled eggs

oats/porridge fried/scrambled /poached eggs

Indian/China/Ceylon/Georgian tea omelet

black/white/ready ground coffee yogurt

instant coffee butter

cocoa, hot chocolate

pepper

vinegar

sunflower/vegetable/ olive oil

spice

cinnamon

mustard

bay leaf

mayonnaise

margarine

FISH FRUIT

herring apricot water melon,

shrimps/prawns. scallop pear

pumpkin-fruit

lobster plum

perch peach

pike cherry

trout grapes

cod banana

salmon pineapple

sprats tangerine

caviar persimmon

eel pomegranate

crucian kiwi fruit

broiled fish water melon

smoked /marinated fish grape fruit

fish jelly

VEGETABLES BERRIES

tomatoes strawberry

cucumber raspberry

carrot gooseberry

potato blackberry

radish/garden radish/white radish black/white/red currants

aubergine/egg plant (Am.) blueberry

turnip, courgette bilberry

beetroot, sugar beet cranberry

beans/French beans

lettuce, leek NUTS

asparagus, celery

cabbage walnut

fennel almond

garlic (a clove of garlic) nutmeg

spinach cashew nut

cauliflower

green/brown onion

capsicum

vegetable marrow

celery

pumpkin

parsley

mushroom

sauerkraut

HARD DRINKS (spirits) SOFT DRINKS

dry/brut, sweet wine beverage

white/red/sparkling/vintage/fortified wine lemonade

whisky coca-cola

vodka Pepsi (on the rocks)

brandy juice

liqueur stewed fruit

champagne, vermouth jelly

rum cocktail/milk cocktail

beer/lager/ginger beer/dark (bitter) beer mineral water/soda

gin and tonic

sherry

shandy

gin and lime

CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES

To tip a waiter

Breakfast/lunch/brunch/elevenses/high tea dinner/supper consists of/includes…..

Menu includes (consists of…)

For the first /second course/dessert

Where can we get a quick meal?

Can you tell me if there's a restaurant around here?

I am hungry/starving/thirsty.

Can I reserve a table for two for 2 o'clock today?

What's the house specialty/speciality?

What shall we start with?

What wine do you recommend to go with meat?

Would you like a refill?

Help yourself to some more …

Please, pass me …

The meal is delicious/tasty/gorgeous/splendid

May I have the bill?

I'll treat you/ it's on me.

Let's go Dutch.

To your health/Cheers!

I don't care for fish in any shape or form.

I leave the choice to you

I am into chocolate.

I am an immense/great/small eater.

I have a sweet tooth.

This dish makes my mouth water.

I'd like to have a bite/snack.

Let's go to the snack-bar/buffet/cafeteria/restaurant/pub/luncheonette.

Do they serve dishes a la carte or table d'hote?

Would you like some more gravy/dressing?

How is it prepared?

The cake is fatting/filling

I’ll die from overeating.