Food and Meals, eating out

19. Food and Meals, eating out
For many people in our country food, eating, sometimes also cooking, is a downright pleasure. There are some people who eat just once a day – they have one continuous meal, others are figure-conscious and try to fast, cut down on some fat and sugar, or go on a slimming diet. For many others cooking and eating in a nuisance and they do not care much about meals. On the whole we eat more than the British or Americans do and our food is known to be less healthy. The Czechs are used to eating many floury, sweet and fatty meals, such as dumplings, pastry (cakes, sweets), fat pork and sausages. Our food should consist of more vegetables, fruit, lean meat, poultry and fish which would supply our bodies with more vitamins and minerals. There is no expression in English for „doubrou chuť“, which perhaps reflects the English attitude to food.
In different parts if Britain people have different eating habits. They have five or six meals a day: breakfast, elevenses (a morning snack), lunch tea, dinner and later perhaps supper.
The British like to begin the day with a nice cup of coffee or tea in bed early in the morning. Then they have a leisurely breakfast, they do not like to hurry. Unlike the Czechs who have their morning cup of coffee or tea, a roll or a slice of bread, some cheese, salami, or a cake in haste, the English take their time having breakfast.
The renowned English breakfast starts with a glass of juice and a cereal, usually cornflakes with milk or cream and sugar, or porridge. This will be followed by fried or grilled bacon and eggs, sausages and grilled tomatoes or spicy beans in tomato sauce, or kippers. They round off with many cups of coffee rather than tea and buttered toast and marmalade (the toast is not fried but dry and by marmalade they mean preserves made of citrus fruits, usually oranges, containing small pieces of orange peel which give it a slightly bitter flavour).
But such a substantial breakfast is not as common as it used to be, it is served in hotels or restaurants if you ask for English breakfast or at weekends when people have more time. For most Englishmen breakfast is a bowl of cereal followed by toast and marmalade, and coffee or tea, of course.
In the middle of the morning they have elevenses, which is usually not more than a cup of coffee and biscuits. Sometimes, often at weekend, when they get up later, they have brunch, a combination meal which is eaten for breakfast and lunch.
The midday meal is generally called lunch and is usually fairly light. If it is the main meal of the day, which is at Christmas or may be on Sunday, it is called dinner. Lunch often consists of a hot dish (e. g. soup if you eat a la carte in a restaurant), a salad, ham and cheese sandwiches, pizza, hamburgers and a dessert. The soup can be clear (beef, vegetable or chicken) or thick, such as cream of tomato, cauliflower, celery or mushroom.
The Czech midday meal is the main meal of the day (the English would call it dinner then). We can have it at home, at (works) canteens or dining halls, cafeterias or in a restaurant. It is usually a three-course meal which consists of soup, the main course and a dessert. An aperitif and an hors d´oeuvr