текст по теме еда на английском с заданиями
Food exercises. Упражнения про еду [продукты, напитки] с ответами
Предлагаю вам подборку упражнений для детей по теме FOOD and DRINKS. Упражнения помогут вам закрепить лексику по теме еда, запомнить названия продуктов и напитков. Все упражнения даны с ответами.
Food and drinks exercises.
Упражнения идут от простых к более сложным.
Упражнение 1. Распределите названия продуктов по следующим категориям. Цифра обозначает количество слов в категории.
Chocolate, potato, tea, steak, pear, carrot, garlic, cake, pineapple, broccoli, wine, water, peach, coffee, ice cream, tomato, ham, watermelon, cookies
Упражнение 2. Look at the picture and say true or false.
Кстати, вы также можете повторить тему SOME / ANY / NO, и выполнить упражнения по этой теме.
Упражнение 3. Назовите продукт по описанию.
Упражнение 4. Ответьте на вопросы.
Упражнение 5.
Упражнение 6. Соотнесите идиомы и их значения.
2. Mouth is watering
4. Your finger in the pie
7. Cry over spilled milk
8. Hungry as a horse
A. to be involved in something
B. to make someone want to eat or drink
C. to hurt or ruin someone
E. to not think about or study carefully
G. to complain about something that has happened
H. able to eat a lot
I. to become too excited and behave crazily
Exercise 1.
DRINKS: tea, wine, water, coffee.
DESSERTS: chocolate, cake, ice cream, cookies.
FRUIT: pear, pineapple, peach, watermelon.
VEGETABLES: potato, carrot, garlic, broccoli, tomato.
Exercise 2. 1 F, 2 T, 3 T, 4 F, 5 T, 6 F, 7 F, 8 T, 9 T, 10 F, 11 T, 12 T
Exercise 3. 1 – bread, 2 — cheese, 3- eggs, 4 – hot-dog, 5 banana, 6 carrot
Exercise 4. Your own answers.
Exercise 5. Your own answers.
Exercise 6. 1 – F, 2 – B, 3 – E, 4 – A, 5 – C, 6 – D, 7 – G, 8 – H, 9 — I
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Тексты для чтения и упражнения по теме Food / Еда
Тексты и упражнения по теме Food / Еда. Неожиданно, правда?
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«Тексты для чтения и упражнения по теме Food / Еда»
The Importance of Food in Human Life
Food plays a huge role in our life. In fact, human can’t live without food. Of course, you can argue with me that man can’t live without water, but without food he can live more than two month. I agree with you, but have you ever imagined what his emotional state will be? He will become angry, furious, irritable, and gloomy. And his physical state will also be very poor: he will become very bony, weak, tired. So you see: we need food.
But it’s not only the source of our health and necessary vitamins and calories, it’s also the way to please ourselves. Remember different desserts: we eat them to feel their sweet taste, but not to put our hunger out, though they contain a lot of glucose that helps our brain to work hard, different vitamins (if they are fruit desserts) that help our organism exist and so on and so forth. By the way, all the products we eat are used by our internal organs for their own aims. For example: carrot, cabbage, turnip and other coarse vegetables are very useful for our intestines, fish is useful for bones and brains, meat – for our muscles and so on.
But food can be also very dangerous: too much food makes you fat, too little food makes you dead. This statement of the famous British comedian is very truthful: if you eat too much fat, high-calorie products, you will become very fat, you will have problems with your heart, endocrine system and other organs; if you eat too little, your organism will become depleted and in the end you may die. A man is what he eats. If you eat rather nutritious nourishment, you are lively, cheerful, happy and joyful, but is ration is poor, the consequences are awful.
But why different people eat different food? Why are their tastes so different? There are several causes for it:
For example, if you are Italian, your favorite dish will be pizza and pasta, if you are Russian, you will like pancakes, salted cucumbers and buckwheat. A poor man will never eat oysters and a rich will never eat pearl barley. If you became attached to chocolate from your early childhood, you will never betray your habit. So, these three points are clear, but what about the last one? How can fashion be connected with food? The example can be sushi. This dish containing raw fish, rice and vegetables came to us from Japan, and not by the direct way, but through the USA, where Japanese culture is extremely popular, especially among cellebs. So, their fans tried to copy their manners and the dishes they eat. Sushi spread throughout the world in a very high rate and now the majority of people eat it according to the fashion.
1. Look at the translation of the following words. Write down those in bold.
to play a role – играть роль (в прямом и переносном смысле)
physical state – физическое состояние
emotional state – эмоциональное состояние
source of health – источник здоровья
necessary vitamins and calories – необходимые витамины и калории
to put one’s hunger out – утолять чье-то голод
contain a lot of glucose – содержать много глюкозы
and so on and so forth – и так далее и тому подобное
internal organs – внутренние органы
high—calorie products – высококалорийные продукты
become depleted – становиться истощенным
nutritious nourishment – питательная еда, пища
national peculiarities – национальные особенности
become attached – становиться привязанным
betray one’s habit – изменить своей привычке
be connected – быть связанным
cellebs – знаменитости (разг. сокр. от celebrities)
2. Make up questions as possible as you can.
Nutritional Value of Food. Healthy and Junk Food. Diets.
Nowadays everyone is crazy about health. That’s why food is divided into health and junk food. Health food is organically grown untreated food, containing no synthetic ingredients and eaten for the health-giving properties. Junk food is processed food that typically has high carbohydrate and fat content but overall low nutritional value.
Junk food is very harmful for us; it contains a lot of chemical substances (stabilisers, emulsifyings, tartaric acid), cholesterol and carbohydrates. Their amounts are accumulated in our organism and act like poison for our internal organs. But helas! It’s very popular with all kinds of people. This event takes place because of our life-style. We exist in a very high rate and we haven’t got enough time to cook or to eat properly, and we eat hamburgers, sandwiches, chips, etc.
So, that’s the one trend in eating nowadays. But there is another one. In Europe and America (and in big cities in Russia) everyone is addicted to health food that is grown without chemical fertilizers, but with the organic ones. These products are sold in special eco-shops and cost rather big deal of money. Healthy meal by itself cannot be harmful, but an excessive passion for it can lead to painful personality changes and eating disorders.
And all these things starts with following different diets. They can be light or hard. For example, here is the “Turkish diet”, very popular now among young people. It contains five levels.
I level: you should weekly reduce amount of in-taken food.
II level: 1) Breakfast: a handful of prunes, a cup of black coffee or tea without sugar;
2) Lunch: a glassful of fresh-squeezed juice or one big persimmon or other juicy fruit;
3) Dinner: a piece of fat-free steamed meat, steamed vegetables.
III level: 1) Breakfast: the same;
2) Lunch: a cup of pulped juice;
3) Dinner: a cup of tea without sugar.
IV level: 1) Breakfast: the same;
2) Lunch: a cup or a glass of fresh water;
V level: 1) Breakfast: a handful of nuts (not peanuts!);
3) Dinner: 2 handful of nuts.
Of course, this diet is extremely effective if you need to lose weight quickly to get into your favorite dress. But if you eat like this all the time, then at least you are guaranteed constant headaches, and in the worst case anorexia.
1. Find the English equivalents to the following Russian words and phrases.
Здоровая еда; органически выращенная; необработанная еда; искусственные ингредиенты; полезные свойства; обработанная пища; высокое содержание углеводов и жиров; низкая пищевая ценность; быть очень вредным; холестерин и углеводы; накапливаться; действовать как яд; быть популярным у большого количества людей; происходить (иметь место); быть зависимым от здоровой еды; выращиваться без химических удобрений; продаваться в специальных эко-магазинах; стоить довольно больших денег; вести к болезненным изменениям личности и расстройствам пищевого поведения; следовать разным диетам.
2. Answer the questions.
1. What is health food?
2. What trends in eating are the most popular nowadays?
3. Why is junk food so popular?
4. Can you give any examples when healthy food can be dangerous for us?
5. Why do people follow diets?
6. How do you consider diets are effective?
7. What diet, in your opinion, is the most effective?
8. Is it helpful to be on a diet?
3. Read how health food and junk food are defined in some English dictionaries and give some examples of these kinds of food. Translate the definitions into Russian.
junk food (informal) food that is not very good for you but that is ready to eat or easy to prepare: junk food like crisps & sweets (Oxford Elementary Learner’s Dictionary, OUP, 2010).
junk food [C, U] infml bad quality unhealthy food, esp. chemically treated food containing a lot of sugar, fat and carbohydrates (Dictionary of English Language and Culture, Longman, 2010)
junk food processed food (e. g. hot dogs or candyfloss) that typically has a high carbohydrate content but overall low nutritional value (Longman New Universal Dictionary, 2015)
health food [C, U] food that is believed to be good for health, esp. food that is in the natural state, without added chemicals (Dictionary of English Language and Culture, Longman, 2010)
health food organically grown untreated food containing no synthetic ingredients and eaten for the health-giving properties, credited to it (Longman New Universal Dictionary, 2015)
wholefood (e. g. pulses and grains) food in a simple and natural form that has undergone minimal processing and refining (Longman New Universal Dictionary, 2015)
4. Read the list of different products. Which of them can be called junk food, health food and wholefood?
Soda pop, hamburgers, fresh fruits and vegetables, Wheaties or other whole-grain, low-sugar cereals, ice-cream, chocolate bars, pizza, chips, whole milk, extra-lean ground beef, frozen yoghurt, carrot sticks, oranges, hot dogs, whole wheat crackers, skim or 1% milk, low-fat hot dog, vegetarian burgers, crisps, frozen lasagna, fat-free corn or potato crisps, strawberries.
5. These are Mike and Sam. Mike is lean and Sam is fat. You should compose two diets to make Mike more fatty and Sam – more slim.
Дидактический материал по теме «Еда, способы приготовления пищи» для уроков английского языка
Данный материал может быть использован при изучении темы «Традиции питания», «Культурные и национальные традиции». Содержит информативные тексты, занимательные упражнения для закрепления лексики.
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«Дидактический материал по теме «Еда, способы приготовления пищи» для уроков английского языка»
Министерство общего и профессионального образования
государственное бюджетное профессиональное образовательное
«Волгодонский техникум информационных технологий,
бизнеса и дизайна имени В.В. Самарского»
Еда, способы приготовления пищи,
Britain has its own cuisine and some excellent traditional food. Unfortunately, good British food can be difficult to find. Only a few restaurants in London serve British food which comes from all parts of the country. Kent is the garden of England and is famous for apples and cherries. Most of fish comes through the ports of Yarmouth and Hull. Scotland is the home of salmon and whisky. Whisky is Britain’s most valuable single export product. Lamb is the national dish of Wales. Cider apples come from the orchids in the south-west. Watercress is a local speciality in Hampshire. There are more than 30 different local kinds of cheese. The British make their special style of beer, called bitter. There is also a black beer with a thick, creamy head known as stout that comes from Ireland.
People in Britain as well as throughout the world spend less time cooking.
Most people only have cereal or toast for breakfast during the week, but some still have a full cooked breakfast. A standard full English breakfast may consist of fried bacon and eggs with mushrooms, beans, tomatoes, fried bread, sausages, a toast with marmalade and tea with milk, of course. In Scotland for breakfast they prefer porridge with salt.
Most people do not cook their lunch. They prefer to dine out or buy some takeaway food. People in Britain are more likely to eat fast food than to go out to eat in a posh restaurant. A hamburger and French fries is the most popular fast-food meal in Britain, but not all fast food is American and Chinese or Indian. Fish and chips are the classic British takeaway food. People also like to eat baked potatoes filled with cheese and other fillings and pizza with different toppings.
A lot of people in Britain eat instant or convenience food in the evening during the week to save time and effort. For many families, the main meal of the week is Sunday lunch, perhaps roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.
1. Does Britain have traditions in food?
2. Is it easy to find British food in London’s restaurants?
3. What is Kent famous for?
4. What places does fish come from?
5. What part of the UK is the home of whisky?
6. Where do cider apples come from?
7. What is a local specialty in Hampshire?
8. Is there much cheese in Britain?
10 What other kind of beer has a thick, creamy head? Where does it come from?
11. Do people cook much throughout the world?
12. What do the British have for breakfast?
13. Do the British often have a cooked breakfast?
14. What does a standard British cooked breakfast consist of?
15. Which of dishes do you like?
16. What do the Scottish prefer for breakfast?
17. Do you cook your lunch?
18. Do the British cook their lunch? Why?
19. Where do they have their lunch?
20. Do you often eat fast food?
21. What is the most popular fast-food meal in Britain?
22. Do you often dine out?
23. Is all fast food American?
24. What is a classical British takeaway?
25. What do the British eat in the evening?
26. What is the main meal of the week for many families?
27. What do you eat for supper?
28. How late do you have supper?
29. How many meals a day do you have?
30. What is your favourite dish?
FAST FOOD: MCDONALD’S
You work in an office somewhere in New-York. You are very busy. You have only some twenty minutes for lunch. You go out into the street. You want to get your food and buy a newspaper… and get back to the office. So what do you eat? Fast food, of course – a sandwich, a burger or a slice of pizza. Your choice may be a McDonald’s restaurant. Do you know anything from the history of the McDonald’s company?
1937 Dick and Mack McDonalds open their first drive-in restaurant in California.
1948 The brothers get special paper boxes and bags for their hamburgers. They decrease the price from 30 cents to 15 cents a hamburger. The restaurant becomes self-service. It is cheaper and cleaner than its competitors. It becomes popular.
1960s The McDonald’s company opens hundreds of restaurants all over the country.
1991 They open their first restaurants abroad.
Now the company opens a new restaurant every eight hours. There are more than 15,000 restaurants in over 70 countries.
McDonald’s restaurants serve almost the same food in every country with some local specialities.
Заполните таблицу, распределив различные продукты по соответствующим колонкам.
peas sole, beef, cherries, onion, milk, chicken, strawberries, yoghurt, duck, butter, potato, cheese, apple, cauliflower, lamb, celery, pork, olive, oil, cranberries, tomato, turkey, salmon, cabbage, carp, pear, perch, beans water melon, cucumber
Translate the following words and phrases.
Make up a menu card, putting the dishes below in the proper section.
smoked salmon ___________________________
carrot cake ___________________________
roast beef ___________________________
strawberries and cream ___________________________
poached sole ___________________________
Swiss cheese ___________________________
Russian tea ___________________________
chocolate fudge cake ___________________________
duck with green peas ___________________________
garden soup (a vegetable soup with herbs) ___________________________
Italian salad ___________________________
cherry tart ___________________________
English tea ___________________________
PUDDINGS AND CAKES
Изучите предлагаемое Вам меню. Выберите блюда. Расскажите официанту, что бы Вы хотели заказать. Используйте фрагменты приведенного ниже диалога.
Waiter: What would you like?
Client: I would like … for a starter.
Waiter: Would you like some wine?
Client: No, thank you. I would like a glass of beer.
Waiter: Anything else?
Client: Salmon with cauliflower sauce, please.
Waiter: Would you like a piece of cake?
Сlient: Yes, I’d love one.
Waiter: With black coffee?
Сlient: It looks lovely. Yes.
Read these texts and say if it is the same in your country. Participate in discussion after each passage.
A. In the UK, afternoon tea is traditionally a rather formal meal where you drink tea and eat small sandwiches (especially cucumber sandwiches), scones, and cakes. Not many British people now have this type of meal at home, but it is still served in some hotels and in special tearooms that serve tea in delicate, finely painted cups.
B. Baked beans are a favourite food of many children in Britain. ‘Sausage, beans and chips’ is also a typical meal served in a café. Some people like to have beans on toast as a quick simple meal. Baked beans are considered by some people to be junk food, eaten by people who are lazy to cook something better, although other people think that they are good for you.
C. In Britain, people often eat cereals such as cornflakes with milk for breakfast. Some people like to have toast with marmalade or jam, and they drink a cup of coffee or tea, or a glass of orange juice. Some hotels, cafes, and B and B’s serve a ‘full English breakfast’, a cooked meal consisted of eggs, bacon, and sausages with grilled tomatoes or mushrooms and sometimes baked beans. On cold days, some people like to have porridge for breakfast. Porridge used to be eaten mostly in Scotland, but it is now popular in all parts of the UK.
In the US, most people eat serials such as cornflakes with milk for breakfast and they drink a cup of coffee or a glass of juice. Toast, or toasted English muffins are also popular. In the winter, might have hot cereals such as oatmeal (=porridge) or cream of wheat. If someone wants a bigger breakfast, they might have eggs, bacon or sausages and sometimes hash browns. People in the US also eat eggs, bacon, and sausages with pancakes or waffles that are covered with butter and maple syrup and served on the same plate as the meat and eggs.
Look through the texts again and complete the following sentences:
1) In the UK, afternoon tea is traditionally a rather formal meal where you
2) Baked beans are a favourite ________________________________________.
3) Baked beans are considered ________________________________________.
4) Some hotels, cafes, and B and B’s serve a ‘full English breakfast’:
5) On cold days, some people like _____________________________________.
6) In the US, most people eat _________________________________________.
7) People in the US also eat eggs, bacon, and sausages with _____________________________________.
1) drink tea and eat small sandwiches (especially cucumber sandwiches), scones, and cakes.
2) food of many children in Britain.
4) a cooked meal consisted of eggs, bacon, and sausages with grilled tomatoes or mushrooms and sometimes baked beans.
5) to have porridge for breakfast.
6) serials such as cornflakes with milk for breakfast.
7) pancakes or waffles that are covered with butter and maple syrup.
“TRADITIONAL MEALS IN BRITAIN”
Proverbs and sayings
Appetite comes with eating.
Аппетит приходит во время еды.
You are what you eat.
О вас судят по тому, что вы едите. / Вы то, что Вы едите.
“TRADITIONAL MEALS IN BRITAIN”
The usual meals in Britain are: breakfast, lunch, tea and supper. Breakfast is generally a bigger meal than they have on the Continent, through some English people like a continental breakfast of rolls, butter and coffee. But the usual English breakfast is porridge or cornflakes with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade made from oranges with buttered toasts and tea or coffee. For a change, you can have a boiled egg, cold ham or, perhaps, fish.
People in Britain generally have lunch about one o’clock. A businessman in London usually finds it impossible to come home for lunch, and so he goes to a café or restaurant; but if he is making lunch at home, he has cold meat (left over probably from yesterday’s dinner), potatoes, salad and pickles with a pudding of fruit to follow. Sometimes people have a mutton chop or steak and chips followed by biscuits and cheese, and some people like a glass of light beer with lunch.
Afternoon tea you could hardly call a mean but it is a sociable sort of thing as friends often come in then for a chat while they have their cup of tea with cake or biscuit.
In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day. In a great many English homes people make the midday meal the chief one of the day and in the evening they have the much simpler supper – an omelette or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs, and sometimes just bread and cheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.
Some people also have “high tea”. They say there is no use for these afternoon teas where you try to hold a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of bread and butter about as thin as a sheet of paper in the other. They have it between five and six o’clock, and have ham or tongue and tomatoes and salad or sausages with good strong tea, plenty of bread and butter, then stewed fruit, with cream or custard and pastries or a good cake. And that’s what and Englishman calls a good tea.
a traditional meal
a continental breakfast
обжаренный кусок хлеба с маслом
left over from yesterday’s dinner
оставшийся от вчерашнего обеда
a pudding of fruit
котлета из говядины
a sociable sort of thing
зд.: повод для общения
плотный ужин с чаем
сладкий заварной крем
Answer the questions
What do people eat for breakfast in Britain?
When do people generally have lunch? What do people eat for lunch?
What is afternoon tea?
What is the chief meal of the day? What does it consist of?
What do people in Britain eat for the midday meal and supper?
Exercise 1. Choose the necessary word and put it in the sentence below. Use these words:
Englishman, sociable sort of thing, steak, a boiled egg, “high tea”, mutton chop
Sometimes people have a … or … and chips followed by biscuits and cheese, and some people like a glass of light beer with lunch.
Afternoon tea you could hardly call a mean but it is a … as friends often come in then for a chat while they have their cup of tea with cake or biscuit.
And that’s what and … calls a good tea.
Exercise 2. Translate the sentences from Russia into English.
Континентальный завтрак состоит из булочек с маслом и кофе.
Традиционный английский завтрак состоит из каши или кукурузных хлопьев со сливками, яичницы с беконом и тостов с маслом.
Лондонский бизнесмен идет на обед в кафе примерно в час дня, поскольку не может поехать домой обедать.
На обед англичане обычно едят котлету или бифштекс с жареной картошкой, салатом и маринованными овощами.
Иногда за обедом англичане выпивают стакан легкого пива.
Послеобеденный чай – скорее повод для общения, чем трапеза.
Обед или плотный ужин с чаем – главная трапеза английского дня.
С кофе или чаем англичане обычно съедают тост с маслом и сыром или джемом, печенье или пирожное.
Exercise 3. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?
The Englishman never drink tea.
All Englishman breakfast eat only oatmeal.
People in Britain generally have lunch about one o’clock.
Bacon and eggs is the national food in Britain.
In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day.
Exercise 5. Read and study.
WORDS AND WORD COMBINATIONS
(not) to feel much like cooking
(не) любить готовить
to put on a little weight
to eat for dinner (breakfast, supper)
есть на обед (завтрак, ужин)
to put it in the refrigerator
положить в холодильник
to be too expensive to eat out
слишком дорого, чтобы есть вне дома
to do smb. any harm
наносить вред кому-либо
it’s time for high tea
время для вечернего чаепития
основной прием пищи
What’s for breakfast?
Help yourself (to some more).
to be sick and tired of restaurant food
быть сытым по горло ресторанной едой
What kind of food would you like to have?
How about having dinner together?
to have a wide choice of smth.
иметь широкий выбор чего-либо
What would you like to order?
Что бы вы хотели заказать?
What’s today’s special?
Какое сегодня фирменное блюдо?
Today’s main course is …
Would you like to have a starter?
Вы хотели бы перекусить?
Exercise 6. Read, translate and dramatize the dialogue.
Mother: Good morning.
Son: Morning. What’s for breakfast?
Mother: The usual. Eggs, toast, and cereal. Juice, if you want.
Son: I think I’ll just have cereal for a change.
Mother: Help yourself. The cereal and sugar are on the table. The juice is in the refrigerator.
Mother: I wonder what we should have for dinner.
Daughter: Are you asking me?
Mother: Yes, I am. I really don’t feel much like cooking, but the family must eat.
Daughter: Well, you know me. I can always eat pizza or spaghetti.
Mother: So I’ve noticed. You’re putting on a little weight, aren’t you?
Daughter: I know. Don’t remind me! I’m starting a new diet day after tomorrow.
Donald: Let’s eat out, shall we?
Debra: I’m broke. I’ve gone through my paycheck for the week already.
Donald: Don’t worry about it. It’s my treat.
Debra: You are sure? You’re so generous!
Donald: And nice, too.
Debra: So, where are you talking me?
Donald: Some place you’ve never been before. Donald’s Kitchen.
Ned: I think we should get something to eat.
Linda: Are you hungry?
Ned: Hungry? I’m starving.
Linda: There is an Italian restaurant near here.
Ned: Is the food very hot?
Linda: It’s kind of hoot, but it’s very tasty.
Kato: How about having dinner together after work?
Kato: Should we have Japanese or American food?
Mori: Whatever you say!
Kato: There is a good steak house around the corner.
Mori: That’s a good idea.
Brief History of Russian Cuisine
Russia stretches from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, neighboring many other countries. Russians speak Russian and share the same culture and traditions nationwide. An essential part of every nation is its cuisine. Ethnographers start studying every nation with its cuisine because it can reveal its history, everyday life and traditions. Russian Cuisine is no exception and is a very important part of Russia and its history.
Russian cuisine dates back to the 10th century. Old Russian cuisine became really diverse by the 15th century. Of course it was influenced by natural and geographical conditions. The abundance of rivers, lakes and forests contributed to the appearance of dishes made from fish, game, mushrooms and berries.
Among drinks popular were kvass (квас) and different wild berries’ drinks. Spices (Пряности) were used extensively since the XI century. Russian and overseas merchants brought clove (гвоздика), cinnamon (корица), ginger (имбирь), coriander (кориандр), bay leaf (лавровый лист), black pepper (черный перец), olive oil (оливковое масло), lemons (лимоны) etc. Russia was trading with western countries and was a passing way to China.
Tea was first brought to Russia in the XVII century. As for alcoholic drinks, in the Old Russia they drank low-alcohol drinks based on honey and berries. Vodka was first brought to Russia in XV century, and was immediately banned and did not appear until the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the middle of XVI century. At that time the first Tsar Bar was opened (Царский Трактир).
Russian cuisine was not only unique because of the ingredients they used but because the food was cooked in the Russian Stove (в русской печи). They baked bread in them, brewed kvass and beer, and on stoves they dried food. And they were generally used to heat houses and many people slept on them.
The food cooked in stoves was delicious because it was heated evenly from all sides. Russian stoves are no longer used these days, even in the countryside. They have been replaced by electric stoves and microwave ovens. In the old times the food of the elite class was no different from what the common people ate. By the XVII century the food of the elite became more sophisticated, differing not only in quantity but in the serving manner and ingredients.
Tsar feasts were very pompous and huge with a great variety of dishes. The number of dishes could reach 150-200.
The sizes of dishes increased, and the duration of the banquet. They normally started at lunch time and continued eating till late night.
XVIII century was a new era in the development of Russian society. Peter I not only transferred the capital to St. Petersburg closer to the Western Europe and changed the calendar, he changed many traditions. Russia was becoming more and more influenced by western European cuisine, first German and then Dutch and French.
The Russian aristocracy was hiring foreign chefs that totally replaced lady-cooks. The Russian cuisine got dishes like sandwiches (бутерброды), salads (салаты) and bouillon (бульон), and a choice of pan fried dishes (beefsteaks, entrecote, meat patties (котлеты), as well as sauces (соусы), желе (jellies), creams etc. Russian traktirs (трактиры) were replaced by restaurants with waiters and hosts. Most of this did not affect the common people.
Russian food was also diverse in different parts of the country because of the different climates and nature of those parts.
To my mind, delicious food is one of the greatest pleasures in our life. I’ve been living in St. Petersburg since my birth and can tell you many interesting things about its restaurants of Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese and Indian cuisine. However, first of all I’d like to share some secrets of typical Russian cuisine with you.
Russian cuisine is indeed original. Its distinctive feature is not only in original recipes but also in the fact that it reflects a certain way of life. Russian people usually have meals three times a day. In the morning they have breakfast, in the afternoon — dinner and in the evening it’s time for supper.
Let us start with breakfast. This meal doesn’t usually take much time to prepare, due to the fact that people, as a rule, are in a hurry for work, school or somewhere else. It may include just sandwiches, fried or scrambled eggs, corn flakes or muesli and various kinds of porridges. It can be cream of wheat, oatmeal porridge, rice or buckwheat porridge. It is more common for Russian people to drink black tea with jam or honey but there are ones who prefer coffee in the morning. You may think there is nothing special in this set of dishes. You are right. But it was a description of a typical working day breakfast, when people have little time to prepare something. Now I’d like to call your attention to breakfast of a day off.
Have you ever tried traditional Russian sirniki? I’m sure, if you live in Russia, at least once in your life your grandmother or mother prepared them for you. Nothing can be compared with sirniki, made of fresh village cottage cheese and fried on a pan. They are usually served with sour cream and sugar. Perhaps, the only dish which is as delicious as sirniki is blini or pancakes. In Russia they say that the thinner blini are made the tastier they are. Blini are served rolled with a variety of fillings but the most delicious ones are pancakes with jam, honey and sour cream.
A traditional Russian dinner consists of three courses. It is the main meal of the day. First of all snacks are served. It can be caviar, herring, salt cucumbers and sauerkraut. All these salt dishes are served in order to excite the appetite. In general Russian cuisine is famous for its pickles.
Then comes the first course — soup. There is a great variety of different soups in Russia but the most famous is «borsch». Shchi, rassolnik, shchaveleviy soup and cold soup — okroshka are also cooked in Russia. Of course, it is not the whole list of traditional Russian soups, but these are the most popular ones.
After the soup the second course follows. It usually includes meat or fish and garnish. The Russians prefer freshwater fish like carp and pike. As for meat, it may be pork, beef, veal, lamb, turkey or chicken. The most famous meat dishes in Russia are zharkoye (stewed beef with potatoes, onions, carrots and garlic seasoned with salt and pepper), beef Stroganoff (the dish consists of pieces of beef served in a sauce with sour cream) and cutlets (the dish made of minced meat). The main course is usually served with garnish — mashed, baked or fried potatoes, pasta or vegetables. Russian people often eat pelmeni (meat dumplings) for the second course. Pelmeni are often cooked by the whole family. Firstly, the filling of minced meat is made due to the particular recipe, then they roll out the pastry and after that everybody sits at the big dinner table and makes pelmeni. Sometimes the preparation of this dish takes almost the whole day. Very often people cook pelmeni for a holiday. The Russians eat everything with bread but sometimes pies are served instead of bread. These pies may be stuffed with various fillings: fish, spring onions and eggs, meat, chicken, potatoes and mushrooms. Sweet pies are served for tea. They are usually stuffed with different fresh berries or jam. Every housewife has her own cooking secret.
As for the third course, it is usually a drink — compote, kissel or mors. In old Russia there existed another popular drink — Medovukha which is derived from the word «honey» (in Russian it sounds as «mjod»). Sometimes this course includes desserts. It may be ice-cream, baked apples or some fresh fruit.
Supper is the longest meal of the day, since it is time when the whole family can gather at one table and discuss some news. Russian people usually have a substantial meal for supper. It may be fried potatoes, potatoes in their skin with herring, fried fish or chicken. But there are also people who prefer light supper such as cottage cheese with sugar or milk and jam, an apple cake called «sharlotka», or a potato cake, or some vegetables. It will depend just on a person’s preference.
It is worth saying that Russian cuisine is famous for its natural products. Russian people are fond of gathering, drying and using mushrooms and all kinds of forest berries in their dishes.
distinctive feature — отличительная черта, особенность
recipe — кулинарный рецепт
fried eggs — яичница
scrambled eggs — омлет
oatmeal porridge — овсяная каша
cream of wheat — манная каша
rice porridge — рисовая каша
buckwheat porridge — гречневая каша
set of dishes — набор блюд
to call one’s attention — привлечь чьё-либо внимание
dayoff — выходной день
cottage cheese — творог
sour cream — сметана
sauerkraut — квашеная капуста
to excite the appetite — раззадорить аппетит