Eating is a part of our lives. For many people eating is something more than just fulfilling energetic needs of our bodies. Eating habits and national cuisines are elements of our culture. They are tradition cultivated for many years. Each national cuisine depends to the climate conditions and natural resources. For many years it has been developed to achieve the modern appearance.
In Britain people used to have a traditional English breakfast, which is consisted of sausages, bacon, omelette, tomatoes and mushrooms. Today people have changed their habits and have cereal with milk and sugar or toasts with marmalade or jam for breakfast. Every one of us thinks that marmalade and jam are the same! But British marmalade is produced from oranges, whereas jam is a delicacy made of any other fruit. The British are used to drink tea for breakfast, but some people prefer coffee. Instant coffee has become very popular today, but many tourists find this coffee awful!
People usually have a quick meal for lunch. In big towns there is a variety of sandwich bars, where you can find something tasty for lunch. The food offered by theses bars are good and cheap, served both hot and cold. Children at schools are given a hot meal during a day, but most of them choose to have a snack from home. Usually they have a sandwich, a drink or some fruit. "Tea" has in Britain double meaning. It means a hot drink and a kind of meals, which people are used to have in the afternoon. They usually drink tea and have a sandwich or a cake. Sweet buns are also very popular.
Dinner is the main meal for many British people. They usually have an early dinner between 6.00 and 8.00 and it is time when the whole family gathers together.
At weekends a lot of families are used to have a traditional lunch. They eat roast meat (beef, lamb, chicken or pork) and potatoes wit some vegetables and gravy. Gravy is a kind of sauces.
The British like testing food from every part of the world. They especially love Italian, French, Chinese, and Indian cuisine. Sometimes they buy take-away meals, which are bought in the restaurant, but eaten at home. Today British cuisine is quite international.
Americans say that eating should be enjoyable. We should eat what we like instead of what is healthy. Sometimes eating what we like can be very harmful for our bodies. Americans are used to have a lot of hamburgers and hot-dogs. They say they like them.
Sometimes enjoyable food means unhealthy food. Hamburgers or hot-dogs are very greasy and fattening. When you decide to visit the USA, you probably put on weight, because of its greasy cuisine. Americans also love food from different part of the world, especially Italian pizza and spaghetti. They usually eat out in restaurants or in fast food bars like McDonald's. They have no time to prepare meals at home and they are too lazy.
Polish cuisine, on the other hand, is similar to the other European cuisines. We have three meals during a day and we eat a lot of meat and potatoes. Toady people are used to eat too late at the night and our meals are unhealthy and too fattening. We often buy snacks such as fast food, crisps and chips. We drink a lot of Coca-Cola and our diet is full of greasy food. Unfortunately, for Polish people eating is nothing special, is just a routine. Polish ham, sausages and other meats are well-known all over the world. To traditional Polish meals belong sauerkraut stew which is made of sauerkraut, meat and mushrooms.
In my opinion, the more enjoyable food, the more unhealthy. We should consume more healthy food such as fruit, vegetables and salads. Eating only greasy food such as hamburgers, hot-dogs and chips can bring a lot of harmful consequences. More and more popular are fast food bars. People work today so long that they have no time to prepare their meals at home. When they prepare them, they usually do it in the microware ovens.
