Food and Drink

there are many myths and misconceptions in Ukraine about the food and drink of Britain.

English cuisine has long suffered from accusations of being bland, unimagi­native and boring. Its culinary highlight was roast beef, to such an extent that the French nicknamed the English les rosbif.

Historically eating turnips, parsnips, swedes, with buckwheat as the staple in the Middle Ages, the British excitedly adopted potatoes after their introduction from the New World, and for special occasions, boiled beef and carrots comple­mented a glass of gin. Little changed until after the Second World War. Despite being a European hub of the spice trade, only salt and pepper was commonly used until recently and garlic was despised by the majority of the population before the Gastronomic Revolutions in the 1960s. The special dish created to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 called, not surprisingly, Coronation Chicken, was scandalous in that it contained a hint of Indian curry spices.

Exotic exceptions long found in classical English cuisine were few, such as gin­ger beer and chocolate limes. The former is a sweet non-alcoholic soft drink with ginger and the latter are lime-flavoured boiled sweets with a chocolate centre. Gin­ger and limes were both introduced from the West Indies in the 17^th century.

National classic dishes that excite gourmets are few, once expensive and only-for- the-elite dishes such as venison, Dover sole, pheasant and salmon are removed from the menu. The most esoteric is roast swan, forbidden by law to be eaten other than by Royalty and the dons at Oxford and Cambridge Universities by Royal Charter.

More usual are pork (often eaten with apple sauce), lamb (often eaten with mint sauce), chicken, duck (often eaten with or­ange sauce), white sea-fish (frequently eat­en with tartare sauce) and inevitably beef (when roasted, eaten usually with Yorkshire puddings).

A traditional Sunday Dinner of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, vegetable and gravy.

British sausages or "bangers", eaten with brown sauce, are uniquely flavoured with pepper and various cereals to give them an unusual flavour that often surpris­es foreign visitors. Regional specialities may add various herbs, mustard, tomato or many unusual additions.

The most famous is the Cornish pasty, traditionally made in Cornwall for shepherds and other agricultural workers to take with them to the fields as their lunch. These were once made as pies with assorted vegetable and minced meat filling in one end and sweet, often ap­ple, cherry or plum, filling in the other end. Today's Cor­nish pasties are only savoury.

Fishconsumed in Britain is most frequently sea fish as no point in Britain is far from the sea. River fish most usually eaten are salmon or trout, while pike, perch and other such river fish are rarely eaten. Most fish is bought cooked and hot from Fish and Chip shops (see below) although fish fingers made from cod and cooked from frozen, are very popular, especially as a children's meal. The English once consumed vast numbers of fresh oysters although these are now becoming expen­sive and much rarer, while imported prawns are now used in a multitude of dishes. The English continue to eat cockles, mussels and whelks, often with malt vinegar.

The traditional English breakfast has now become the traditional British breakfast - the traditional oat porridge breakfast in Scotland has mostly disap­peared. Despite perhaps every episode of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories produced in Russia featuring Holmes and Watson breakfasting on oat porridge, this was not the case in the original literature and extremely rare in England.

The English breakfast is designed to make people fat, with its usually fried components being a selection (or sometimes all) of bacon, eggs, sausages, black pudding, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans and fried bread. Some of the other traditional elements of an English breakfast such as kippers, kid­neys and kedgeree have fallen out of fa­vour in recent years.

A fried breakfast may be preceded by cereals and milk, and followed by toast with marmalade. Orange marmalade is by far the most popular although lime marmalade may be found. Although traditionally the British drank Indian tea with milk, coffee, also usually drunk with milk, is more widespread in the 21^st century. At the same time, the convenience of instant coffee is being overtaken by the pref­erential taste of natural coffee.

Fried breakfasts are often a weekend luxury, except when staying in a hotel or Bed and Breakfast (B&B), or may be bought in the cafeteria of most large supermarkets or hypermarkets, motorway services or cafes.

Statistics vary enormously as to the extent of vegetarian attitudes to food in Brit­ain. It is probably the case that up to half the population will reduce their meat intake, occasionally or frequently, for dietary or ideological reasons with a proportion of those being vegetarian and a small percentage vegan.

Cheese is fundamental to British cuisine especially in common snacks such as grilled cheese on toast, cheese and pickle sandwich­es or ploughman's lunches ( a typical ploughman's lunch as served in many pubs, with bread, cheese, sal­ad, a pickled onion, tomato chutney, pickle and horseradish sauce).

While yoghurt was only a food-faddist's rarity 30 years ago, today it is a popu­lar breakfast food, along with fromage frais. Whereas cream until the past few years was always fresh and sold as single, double or whipped, recently "creme fraiche" (or Smetana) has appeared on almost all supermarket shelves.

Regional dishes are also plentiful. "Scouse" (the dialect name for someone from Liverpool) is a popular stew made with corned beef in the northwest of England, in the East Midlands meat pies covered in mushy peas and mint sauce are traditional and in London, jellied eels are a Cockney treat.

London also has the wonderfully-named Toad in the Hole - pork sausages cooked in batter, shown with cabbage l

The most widespread take-away food (called "carry-out" food in Scotland) al­ways used to be from the ubiquitous Fish and Chip Shop. A "chippie" has huge deep-fat fryers, once using lard but today usually using vegetable oil and small ovens in order to cook potatoes and various fish and meat dishes. Chips are large and finger-sized and so, being less crispy and, containing less fat than American fries or Belgian/French pommes frites, have their own particular taste. They are usu­ally eaten sprinkled with salt and (malt) vinegar.

Most chippies around Britain will also sell, deep-fried in batter, sausages, cod roe, burgers, sometimes black pudding, mushrooms and pine­apple rings. In the North-East of England and Scotland, small haggises may be deep-fried in bat­ter and Glasgow chippies are notorious for deep- fried Mars bars in batter.

Sweet dishes tend to traditionally be in three groups: stodgy puddings served with hot custard, cakes and fruit dishes.

The British have always brewed beer and although historically mead, made with beer and honey, was once drunk, in the 20^th century pubs served bitter or mild beer, more recently lager. Each region has its own preferences and often bot­tled specialities such as strong winter ales, IPA, stout or porter.

The south-west regions of England, as well as Breton area in French Brittany have always been famous for cider made from apples, usually sold filtered and 'bright'. There is also a stronger form of cider which is cloudy and unfiltered, called "scrumpy". Traditionally, a rooster was thrown in the vat when scrumpy was being made.

Finally, the only widespread wines in the past used to be champagne, sherry and port. The latter two being fortified wines, tended to be drunk in small quantities.

Supermarkets now stock vast rang­es of products and ingredients from literally all over the world, especially Indian, Chinese, Italian, French, Thai, Mexican and Greek. Pasta and rice are today's staples as much as potatoes, with dishes that vary hugely in scope.

Chinese take-aways and restaurants offer about 150-200 dishes most of which are freshly produced by wok cookery within 10 minutes of being ordered. Indian cuisine is often strongly-flavoured and a complete contrast to traditional bland food. Kebabs are usually Greek or Greek Cypriot and based on mutton, lamb or chicken.

Pizza has evolved into that which uses an Italian base but toppings that may cause an Italian to suffer cardiac arrest from shock. These may be from almost any cuisine and include Peking duck, Chicken Tikka, Jalapeno peppers, smoked trout, pineapple, Mexican chilli beef, English sausages and so on.

The most popular British dish today is either lasagne or Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM), depending on which survey is read. Chicken Tikka is a traditional Indian dish, a kebab of marinaded chicken breast cooked in a tandoor. But CTM was cre­ated in Britain, probably in Glasgow in the late 1960s when a legendary Glaswegian insisted on his chicken tikka and rice having a sauce, so the chef quickly produced a tomato-based sauce with garam masala spices.

Sainsbury's, a supermarket chain that may take 18 % of the British market, now sells 1,6 mil­lion prepared CTM meals each year and stocks 16 CTM-related products including CTM pasta sauce, CTM crisps, CTM pizzas and CTM kievs. Marks and Spencer in their food halls sell 18 tons of CTM sandwiches every week.

Superstitions in Britain

Superstition is a part of British culture today. Although superstition was more alive a hundred years ago, there are still superstitious people around, both young and old. Some people though, clame not to be superstitious, but it is still a part of them.

"All superstition has grown from something, there is no smoke withoout fire. Who was the first one to decide that opening an umbrell in a house is bad luck? Who was the first to walk under a ladder and suffer the consequenses? Who hung a horseshoe the wrong way up, smashed a mirror and spilled the salt? Who first branded Friday 13th as a day on which luck would run out?"(Loire P, (1992) p17).

Religion, diseases and fire might have been the most essential elements in the background of the beliefs of superstition. Even though we are not searching for the same answers today superstition is still with us as a tradition.

The word 'Superstition' comes from the Latin 'super' which means above, and 'stare' which means to stand. Those who survived in a battle were called 'superstitians', since they had outlived their fellow warriors and therefore stood above them.

Superstitions can be defined as, "irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown"
General Superstitions

Good Luck

Lucky to meet a black cat. Black Cats are featured on many good luck greetings cards and birthday cards in England.

Lucky to touch wood. We touch; knock on wood, to make something come true.

Lucky to find a clover plant with four leaves.

White heather is lucky.

A horseshoeover the door brings good luck. But the horseshoe needs to be the right way up. The luck runs out of the horseshoe if it is upside down.

Horseshoes are generally a sign of good luck and feature on many good luck cards.

On the first day of the month it is lucky to say "white rabbits, white rabbits white rabbits," before uttering your first word of the day.

Catch falling leaves in Autumnand you will have good luck. Every leaf means a lucky month next year.

Cut your hair when the moon is waxing and you will have good luck.

Putting money in the pocket of new clothes brings good luck.

Bad Luck

Unlucky to walk underneath aladder.

Seven years bad luck to break a mirror. The superstition is supposed to have originated in ancient times, when mirrors were considered to be tools of the gods.

Unlucky to see one magpie, lucky to see two, etc..

Unlucky to spill salt. If you do, you must throw it over your shoulder to counteract the bad luck.

Unlucky to open an umbrella in doors.

The number thirteen is unlucky. Friday the thirteenth is a very unlucky day. Friday is considered to be an unlucky day because Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

Unlucky to put new shoes on the table.

Unlucky to pass someone on the stairs.

Food Superstitions

When finished eating a boiled egg, push the spoon through the bottom of the empty shell to let the devil out

In Yorkshire, housewives used to believe that bread would not rise if there was a corpse (dead body) in the vicinity, and to cut off both ends of the loaf would make the Devil fly over the house!

Table Superstitions

If you drop a table knife expect a male visitor, if you drop a fork a female visitor.

Crossed cutlery on your plate and expect a quarrel.

Leave a white tablecloth on a table overnight and expect a death.

Animal Superstitions

Animals feature a lot in our superstitions as they do in superstitions around the world.

One ancient British superstition holds that if a child rides on a bear's back it will be protected from whooping-cough. (Bears used to roam Britain but now they are not seen on our shores)

In some parts of the UK meeting two or threeRavens together is considered really bad. One very English superstition concerns the tame Ravens at the Tower of London. It is believed if they leave then the crown of England will be lost.

It is said to be bad luck if you see bats flying and hear their cries. In the middle ages it was believed that witches were closely associated with bats.

If a Sparrow enters a house it is an omen of death to one of the people who live there. In some areas it is believed that to avoid bad luck, any Sparrow caught must be immediately killed otherwise the person who caught it will die.

In some areas black Rabbits are thought to host the souls of human beings. White Rabbits are said to be really witches and some believe that saying 'White Rabbit' on the first day of each month brings luck. A common lucky charm is a Rabbit's foot, but not for the Rabbit.

It is thought very unlucky to have the feathers of a Peacock within the home or handle anything made with them. This is possibly because of the eye shape present upon these feathers i.e. the Evil-Eye associated with wickedness.

Wedding Superstitions

Bride and groom must not meet on the day of the wedding except at the altar.

The bride should never wear her complete wedding clothes before the day.

For good luck the bride should wear “something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new”.

The husband should carry his new wife over the threshold of their home.

Medieval England was an era of witches, ghosts and demons. Religion was in a state of flux as Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England and money from the sale of monastic lands was used to pay for war with France. This was the time when the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus shocked people by suggesting the earth rotated around the sun, people still feared witches and confusion as to whether to obey God or the laws of nature would be expressed in outbreaks of hysteria.

During these troubled times, people were exceedingly superstitious. For those who could read, lists of ‘evil days’ were printed in almanacs. On these days people would refrain from travelling as it was believed that those who journeyed on evil days would either never return or would become ill.

There were three Mondays in the year when new ventures should never be started and these were the first Monday in April (traditionally the anniversary of Cain’s murder of Abel), the second Monday in August and the last Monday in December. These latter dates can be linked to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the birthday of Judas Iscariot.

The Christian Church attempted to eradicate the idea of evil days by dedicating each day of the year to one or more saints but up until the nineteenth century superstitions regarding these Mondays as being ‘evil’ continued. It has been estimated that up to200,000 people throughout Europe were put to death for witchcraft during the mid fifteenth century. Many witches were burned alive though in England, hanging was preferred and in Scotland the witch would first be strangled before hanging as an act of mercy.

Witches, they believed, could fly on broomsticks and would brew potions and evil spells over a black pot or cauldron. It was also believed that witches could change their form into an animal such as a cat or raven. The saying ‘bless you,’ is thought to originate from a medieval Superstition that if someone opened their mouth when sneezing, they were giving the Devil opportunity to enter their body. Following a sneeze with ‘bless you,’ was thought to counteract this.

Some would touch a man before his execution for good luck while it was also believed that the right hand of an executed prisoner had the power to heal! Many superstitions in medieval England had their foundations in the belief in magic and the fear of the supernatural. The belief, in some, that it’s bad luck when a cat crosses your path was originated in this era, a time when black was associated with witches and evil. Ladders were associated with executions and this may well have been the source of the superstition to walk under ladders brings bad luck while salt and pepper in those days were costly and it was seen as bad luck to spill either.

As well as superstition having roots in belief in witchcraft and the supernatural, many arose, during medieval times, out of practicality. A bride, for instance, would carry a bouquet of sweet smelling herbs to cover up the foul odours of unsanitary living conditions. This superstition continued through the ages when a bride would carry flowers as a symbol of life and fertility.