I don’t miss meals.
I think many of you know this. My audit teams in Fort Worth certainly do. The lunch discussion would start about 10am every day. And it had to be wrapped up by 11 so that we could be on our way out the door by 11:30. And as many an unsuspecting intern has found out, I get cranky when I get hungry.
When we first moved here, I swore my colleagues didn’t eat. It was nearly 1:15 pm my first day in the office before someone suggested lunch. I about died. Who doesn’t eat until 1? (Then we went to a pub type place and my manager ate his hamburger with a fork & knife. Seriously.) Slowly I’m wearing my team down, we’re now regularly eating between noon and 12:30. I like to think I’ve compromised. Really, I’ve just learned to keep some oranges in my purse to get me from 10:45 when my stomach starts rumbling until I bully someone to go to lunch with me. (And, CAI team, you’ll be glad to know I haven’t had any ailments since being here – I’ve yet again proven my hypothesis that oranges cure everything.)
At lunch today, however we started discussing British meal terms and times. I thought I’d share my new found knowledge with you.
Breakfast : also called brekkie, eaten in the morning before work. On a weekday, typically consists of cereal or toast with {cold} baked beans on it – never jam (and never ever jelly because that is Jello). On the weekend, you might get a ‘full English’ consisting of juice (apple or grapefruit or less commonly orange), tea or coffee (both will most likely have milk in it – let me tell you, hot tea with milk is a new experience), bacon (not what you would think of as bacon, it’s pretty thickly sliced and not at all crispy – kinda like ham, but not quite; and REALLY greasy), poached or fried eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, toast with butter and two to three pork sausages. Baked beans (again, cold) and hash browns are, according to one of my very passionate colleagues, a very important part of the breakfast. As best I can tell, nearly everything is fried in this meal. I’ve also seen signs in restaurants for "fry-up"s, which is now appearing quite accurate. (You thought the State Fair was bad for your arteries!)
Elevenses : a snack around 11am. It’s similar to afternoon tea, but eaten in the morning. It is generally less savory than brunch, and might consist of some cake or cookies with a cup of coffee or tea. I should point out though, coffee and tea breaks can occur at any point during the day. In my office, there are cubical sets of 8. About every 45 minutes to an hour throughout the day, someone will get up to get a drink and the custom is that you have to get a ‘round’ for the entire group. As my Fort Worth teams will also attest to, I drink very little through the day (and slowly too), so bringing me a fresh mug of tea (with milk in it) every 45 minutes is a bit worthless.
Brunch : not so much heard of around here. You could probably find it somewhere more touristy, but we’ve searched for a place to go after church on Sunday mornings without much luck.
This is where we start getting a bit confusing.
Lunch : sometimes also called dinner; typically eaten from noon to as late as 2pm. Sunday lunch is also often called Sunday dinner (more on that in a minute) and lunch in schools in also referred to as school dinner. Bringing you lunch to work (in American terms, ‘brown bagging’) is called bringing a 'packed lunch'. This typically consists of a sandwich (also known as a 'butty' or 'sarnie'), a packet of crisps (potato chips), a piece of fruit and a drink (not very often a soda – usually some form of juice). The short straw poll of the five people explaining all of this to me revealed the favorite sandwich as prawn and mayonnaise followed narrowly by tuna, mayonnaise and pickle. Yuck and yuck.
Afternoon Tea : traditionally eaten around 3 – 4pm. Historically, in the lower classes, the tea was accompanied by a small sandwich or baked good brought from home (how they had the will power not to eat it at lunch, I don’t know!) and for the more privileged, afternoon tea was accompanied by luxury ingredient sandwiches (cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste, ham, or smoked salmon), scones and usually cakes and pastries. Nowadays, a formal afternoon tea is usually taken as a treat in a hotel or tea shop or in an area with unsuspecting tourist willing to pay to be part of the ‘traditional English culture’. In everyday life, most people have one of their eight cups of tea a day and follow it with a biscuit (cookie). That being said, when you come over, I will take you to have a cream tea – you don’t have a choice (unless you have a gluten allergy; I’m still working on options for you Stephanie!). It is possibly the greatest thing on the planet. Tea with a combination of scones, clotted cream (this is what makes it so great), and jam (typically strawberry, although we’ve found a place that makes their own raspberry and it’s pretty amazing).
This is where we get really confusing.Tea : typically eaten between 5 and 7pm as early evening followed by a lighter meal later in the evening (see ‘supper’ below) or as the main meal of the day (in this context is synonymous with ‘dinner’). Tea could also be given to your children as their evening meal before you and your significant other have dinner.
Dinner : can be eaten anywhere from 6 to 10pm depending how many of the other six meals listed above you have also had today. When asked what you would eat for dinner, the opinions ranged from curry (extremely popular – curry take aways here are like nail salons in Dallas, there is one on every corner) to rice or pasta dishes to what you would think of as more traditional English meals such as fish and chips or shepherd's pie. A dessert (or pudding as it’s often called) would also accompany the meal.
Supper : an evening meal or a snack before bedtime. To quote one of my colleagues, ‘an invitation to supper would be more casual than an invitation to dinner, which is a formal meal.’
Clear as mud? One more for you.
Sunday Roast : the big meal on Sunday. You might have breakfast, but not the ‘full English’ then around 3-4 you would have your Sunday Roast and only have Supper in the evening. Traditionally a Sunday Roast consists of roast meat – beef is the most popular, (cooked until you can’t taste it), and about 5-8 different kinds of vegetables and potatoes (cooked until they’re all about the same texture, color and flavor). Though we have noticed that fewer and fewer people are actually making their own Sunday Roast, but rather going to the pub for one, so the veggies are a bit less cooked.
So, the lesson in all of this, you won’t go hungry when you come visit us!
