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what they call "good plain food". They must be able to recognize what
they are eating. Usually they like steaks, mutton chops, rissoles, roast-
beefs, Yorkshire pudding, fish and chips. They are not over-fond of
soup remarking that it doesn't leave enough room for the more
important meat course. It is followed by a sweet dish, perhaps biscuits
and cheese, or cakes. Apple-pie is a favourite sweet, and English
puddings of which there are very many, are an excellent ending to a
meal. Finally a cup of coffee - either black or white. Some people like a
glass of light beer with lunch.
Afternoon tea is taken at about 5 o'clock, but can hardly be
called a meal. It is a cup of tea with bread and butter and cake or
biscuits. It is often not served at a table: each person has a cup and a
saucer, a spoon and a small plate in his hands. This has become a kind of
ritual, At this time the whole nation is at ease drinking tea.
At the weekends afternoon tea is a very sociable time. Friends
and visitors are often present.
"High Tea". Some people like to have the so-called "high tea"
which is a purely British institution. It is a mixture of tea and supper.
Though foods for high tea and supper are mostly interchangeable it is
more the custom to have something cold for high tea and something hot
for supper - for example, meat, cheese and fruit may be added to bread
and butter, pastries and tea.
Dinner. Those who have their meals at home call their mid-day
meal dinner and make it the chief one of the day. It is the most sub-
stantial meal which consists of three or four courses. The first course is
soup (it just covers the bottom of the plate). Then comes fish or meat
served with vegetables or, for a change, they sometimes eat chicken,
duck or goose. Then the table is cleared and the dessert is brought in.
This is jelly or fruit - apples, oranges, plums, peaches, pineapples,
apricots, melon or water melon, grapes, berries (depending on the
season) as they contain lots of vitamins,
Supper. The evening meal, when all the family gather round the
table after their working day, goes under various names: tea, high tea,
dinner or supper depending upon its size and the period of the day It is
usually a meat or fish course followed by tinned fruit or cheese or cake
and tea, coffee, cocoa, or milk. Before going to bed they may have an
apple with the popular English saying in mind - an apple s day keeps a
doctor away. But certainly it is not the same in every English home.
Tastes differ. And, no doubt, everything is determined by the part of the
country one lives in, one's eating habits, and, undeniably, by one's
housekeeping budget, social standing and lifestyle.

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