British food and drinks / Британские еда и напитки

If you are in Britain and you feel like eating out, welcome to a traditional eating place called "a pub". Here you can get any form of alcoholic drink, from beer to whisky or, nowadays, soft drinks. Many pubs also run some kind of snack bar that provides cold food such as sausages, ham, olives, salad, veal-and-ham pie, rolls and butter sometimes hot pies or toasted sandwiches.

Some pubs maintain the traditional division into two parts — a public bar and a saloon bar. In the first, there is often a dart board and groups of friends will gather in the pub for a friendly match. The loser may have to pay for a round! In the saloon bar, drinks cost little more, but the atmosphere is quieter and there are perhaps fewer people.

In many pubs there is also a restaurant, and the food here is usually plain but of good quality. In fact, to taste good, traditional English food you would do well to visit a reputable pub. Many business men often have lunch in a pub near their office. In the country, the pub is often part of an inn where you can stay for the night.

The Englishman's favourite drink is beer, of which a variety of sorts is brewed. "Bitter" is probably the most popular. "Stout" is a heavy dark beer, very popular in Ireland. English beer is different from continental beer. The latter should be served well chilled, whereas English beer is at its best when it is only cool Wine is also increasingly drunk, both in pubs and at homes.

The times of opening of pubs are regulated by law. Local variations are possible, but usually a pub is open from half past eleven to three o'clock and from half past five to half past ten or eleven o'clock. Betting is forbidden in pubs and children are not allowed to be in. However, increasing numbers of pubs are opening their gardens to customers, so that children can play safely while their parents have a quiet drink.

Now, you can choose between the pubs you would like to have a meal and a drink in.

Словарь

a feature of English life — характерная черта английской жизни

soft drink (s) — безалкогольный напиток

a snack bar — закусочная, буфет

a veal-and-ham pie — пирог из телятины и ветчины

toasted sandwiches — поджаренные бутерброды

a saloon bar — бар, салон-бар

a dart board — мишень для метания дротиков

plain — простой, без специй, без начинки

reputable — уважаемый, почтенный

brewed — сваренный (о напитке)

stout — крепкий портер (.вид пива)

Continental beer — легкое пиво

increasingly — все больше и больше