I recently went to the UK on vacation. I love going to a different country or city to taste and look at their differences in cuisine and grocery habits. There were many restaurants to visit in Great Britain.

Right away I noticed that they have a very large breakfast. It included toast, in a cute little plate that presented the toast on end as if they were files served with jam, a spread-able cheese, eggs, sausages, fruit, broiled tomatoes and mushrooms, coffee or tea and finally juice. Wow, that is quite a breakfast. You are really not hungry for lunch after wolfing that down.

We are used to having lunch but they have tea in the afternoon. If you do have lunch it seemed they were small portions or something called ploughman’s lunch. The ploughmans lunch included cheese and crackers or country style bread. The selections of cheeses were out of this world, not our everyday Cheddar, and Jack cheese, but new and delicious cheeses with romantic sounding names. This seemed perfect for me…just a little bite instead a large lunch. So when two or three o’clock rolled around you were ready for tea. Tea was presented in different forms, casual with a few cookies (they call biscuits) or formal setting with silver and the whole layout. They have delicate little sandwiches, with the crusts cut off, made with cucumbers and lettuce. They use butter instead of mayo, on the sandwiches, which I really didn’t care for. They bring these little delicacies on a three tier serving dish. They have little petits fours, bite size quiches, small pastries. Another wonderful addition is a biscuit/cookie called scone served with something called clotted cream. Clotted cream tasted like it was a cross between whipped cream and butter. I really enjoyed tea, it was exactly the right time for something to eat and relax. I think the English have it right on this timing for a break in the afternoon..

Dinner seemed like it had smaller portions, not like America, where we have larger portions and super size everything. The time was later than what we are used to, not 5:00 or 6:00 pm but rather 8:00 or 8:30 pm. It seemed much more natural to have a large breakfast, a small bite for lunch, if at all, and tea with little sandwiches and then a small dinner later on.

As for the myth that the food in the UK, the latest criticism coming from France, isn’t good or they don’t know how to cook, I found simply not true. I loved the food and the country.

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