My meals

It goes without saying that I prefer to have meals at home. At the weekend I like to get up late and have a good breakfast of scrambled eggs, or pancakes, or something like that. But on weekdays I'm always short of time in the morning. So I just have a cup of strong tea or coffee and a couple of sandwiches.

As I spend a lot of time at school (usually eight or nine hours) it's necessary to have a snack at midday just to keep me going. That's why I have to go to the school canteen to have lunch. Our school canteen leaves much to be desired. It has become a tradition with our canteen to serve chops and watery mashed potatoes every day with a glass of cocoa or stewed fruit.

But I enjoy my evening meal at home. My mother is a wonderful cook and her dinners are always delicious and various.

To begin with, we usually have some salad - tomato and cucumber salad or mixed salad (I like it very much). For the first course we have some soup - noodle, mushroom or cabbage soup, or maybe some fish soup for a change. For the main course we have meat, chicken or fish dishes, for example, steak or fried fish with spaghetti or potatoes (boiled or fried). We also have a lot of vegetables - green peas, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers. I prefer meat to fish but my mother makes me eat fish from time to time. She says it's good for my brains. For dessert we have some fruit, fruit juice or just a cup of tea with a slice of cake.

On Sundays we sometimes go to McDonald's. I like everything there: cheeseburgers, hamburgers and Big Macs, apple pies and fruit cocktails. But unfortunately we can't afford to go there very often, because it's rather expensive for a family and besides, they say it's not very healthy to eat at McDonald's.

On english food

The usual meals are breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. Breakfast is a really a big meal, but one would find that lunch is not small either. The usual breakfast is porridge with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade with buttered toast, and tea or coffee.

At lunch which is about one o'clock, cold mutton or fish with potatoes, salad and pickles generally grace the table.

After lunch most people take coffee, though tea is the favourite beverage in England. That is why there are no «coffee-houses» there, but tea-rooms and luncheon-rooms there are in abundance. There is nothing like an English tea-party, be it at home or in the open air. Such little at-homes and outings do much to further sociability and make you feel on good terms with all the company in a short time, which is very helpful to a foreigner in England. Afternoon tea can hardly be called a meal. Tea is made at the table. It is very strong and drunk with sugar and cream. It would be an offence to take lemon in your tea.

When outing, that is, on a picnic, the English load their luncheon baskets with all sorts of sandwiches made of thin slices of bread and butter with meat, ham, raw tomatoes or even cucumber in between.

Dinner, which is around 7 o'clock in the evening, begins with what might correspond to a Russian «zakuska», followed by a clear soup, fish, roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables and dessert.

In simpler homes the schedule is somewhat different. In the morning they have breakfast, at midday-dinner, which is considered to be the chief meal, tea in the afternoon and supper in the evening. The supper might consist of an omlette or even a sandwich of bread and butter with cheese with a cup of coffee or cocoa.