At the Food Supermarket

When we want to buy something, we go to a shop. There are many kinds of shops in every town or city, but most of them have a food supermarket, a grocery, a bakery and a butchery.

I like to do my shopping at big supermarkets. They sell various goods under one roof and this is very convenient.

In a food supermarket we can also buy many different things at once: sausages, fish, sugar, macaroni, flour, cereals, tea. At the butcher's there is a wide choice of meat and poultry. At the bakery you buy brown and white bread, rolls, biscuits.

Another shop we frequently go to is the greengrocery which is stocked with cabbage, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, beetroots, green peas and what not. Everything is sold here ready-weighed and packed. If you call round at a dairy you can buy milk, cream, cheese, butter and many other products.

The method of shopping may vary. It may be a self-service shop where the customer goes from counter to counter selecting and putting into a basket what he wishes to buy. Then he takes the basket to the check-out counter, where the prices of the purchases are added up. If it is not a self-service shop, and most small shops are not, the shop-assistant helps the customer in finding what he wants. You pay money to the cashier and he gives you back the change.

British Food and Eating Habits

The English usually have four meals a day: breakfast, dinner (lunch), tea (five o’clock) and supper (dinner). Some people have dinner at one o’clock and some have dinner in the evening (instead of supper) and the midday meal is the called lunch. The traditional English breakfast is a meal of bacon and eggs, hot buttered toast or bread or rolls, marmalade or jam, tea or coffee. In Scotland and northern parts of England people sometimes have a plate of porridge or cornflakes for breakfast.

The second meal (lunch or dinner) is served at one o’clock. It consists of two courses if it is lunch and three courses if it is dinner. First comes soup (sometimes juice or a piece of melon). The second course is a meat or fish course. Beefsteak is the most popular meat dish. It is usually accompanied by roast potatoes or potatoes done in their jackets, a second vegetable (probably cabbage or carrots) and Yorkshire pudding.

Then comes a sweet. Apple pie (with hot custard) is a favourite sweet. There are various types of pudding. Lunch is very similar to dinner but it is a lighter meal and a rule people do not have soup lunch.

The next meal is five o’clock tea. In families it is served at half past four or five o’clock. Sometimes people may have some sandwiches or biscuits with five o’clock tea but generally very little food. Tea is taken with milk. Tea with lemon is called Russian tae and is served only in some cafes and restaurants. Guests are often invited to fives o’clock tea. The hostess welcomes them at the door and invites them to the drawing-room where tea is served. Then she brings in the tea-service (cups, saucers, plates, a tea-pot, a sugar bowl) on a tea wagon (tea-trolley) or on a tray. The tea-party usually lasts not more than a hour.

The most known and popular food in Britain is fish and chips which anyone can get in cafes and restaurants or in special Fish and Chips shops open at certain times of day (from 12 till 3 p. m. and from 7. 30 till 11 p. m.).

When you come in and ask for fish and chips, the shop-assistant puts chips into a paper bag, puts a piece of fish on the top, sprinkles everything with salt and vinegar and then wraps everything in an old newspaper to keep them warm.

Although the English people do not eat out as much as other Europeans do, there are many kinds of restaurants in England. Some of them are traditional restaurants where a waiter serves customers, and others are self-service restaurants.

There are small restaurants and cafes, which are very popular and crowded, especially during the lunch-hour, but it is getting more and more expensive to have meals there.

At self-service cafeterias a customer serves himself, and he can get a meal more quickly and less expensively there than in other types of restaurants. But the most popular place “for a drink and a chat” has been and still is the famous English pub with its cozy and friendly atmosphere. People go to pubs not only for some beer or whisky, but to meet their friends and they often spend the whole evening there till closing time.

Health Service

In many countries people have to pay to see the doctor, pay to go to hospital and pay for all medicines.

In Britain, anyone who is ill can receive treatment free or at a small fraction of the real cost. Treatment is given by the National Health Service. The National Health Service was introduced in Great Britain in 1948. It provides free medical treatment. Both employee and their employer have to pay a sum which goes to pay for the services provided by the National Health Service.

However it is still possible to get private medical treatment which is chargeable. A large number of people have some sort of private medical insurance. This means that they, or their employers, pay some money to one of the big insurance companies. Then, if those people are ill, the insurance company gives them money to pay for private treatment, or to live on, if they can no longer work.

The damp English climate can lead to catching a cold or a sore throat.

People consult doctors if they have a cough, a temperature, a headache or insomnia. The doctor usually examines the patient and prescribes some treatment, pills, tablets or some other medicine, which they can buy at the chemist’s.

In emergencies, for example, if they have heart attacks, people in GB call ambulance on 999.

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