British Food

After years of disparagement by several countries (especially the French), Britain now has an enviable culinary reputation. Britain's culinary expertises are among the best in the world. Traditional British cuisine is extraordinary, yet easy to cook and  healthy.

Bubble & Squeak

British food has  been traditionally based on lamb, pork,
 beef, fish, chicken and generally served with potatoes.
 The most common foods eaten in Britain include the sandwich, fish and chips, pies like Cornish-pasty, trifle
 and roasts  dinners. There are some really strange 
names for their dishes such as Toad-in-the-Hole 
and Bubble  & Squeak.

Toad-in-the-Hole

  I decided to write about food because it is an important part of every culture. I have been improving my cooking skills by reading recipes and preparing some of them of course. I want to share this British website. There, you can find many delicious recipes.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/

 

All-in-one cabbage with
beans and carrots

       

     I figured out that preparing a tasty salad was very
 easy. It did not take more than 10 minutes. I think 
that to combine chicken or fish with vegetables make
 a huge difference compared to what  I used to try
 with my salads. For instance, I prepare the all-in-one 

cabbage with beans and carrots. 

This is the recipe:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8030/allinone-cabbage-with-beans-and-carrots

Would you like to try British food? Why?

           British pop culture today

British pop culture has an important place in the world. British export  music, TV, films, and celebrities all over the world, and it has been responsible for some of the most important pop culture elements to take the world by storm.

today british music industry sells thousand and thousand of records every day, and many of its artist are quite renowned oversea. one of the main characteristic of british music  is their voice quality , most of the pop artist that we may know , are really good at it, and most of them have a really good natural voice, which combined with british accent , make  it an attractive option .

Some tv programs like the x factor , Britain's got talent and some other tv shows, support and expand british music .

Today is really simple can enjoy of british music , you can easily buy british records in music stores or just download them from the internet. some expert say that in some way british pop music is not so fake  (or plastic) as american pop music . but what is exactly plastic music?

popular british singer ( or band)
-Oasis
-Jessie J
-Lily Allen
-Adele
-Natasha Bedingfield
-The Wanted
-One Direction
-Coldplay
-Blur
-Radiohead
-Rita Ora
-Taio Cruz
-Elton John
-Amy Winehouse
-Robbie Williams

Differences between British English and American English.

Since the beginning of the English language and then with the expansion of the British Empire, different varieties of English emerged, but certainly those that currently have more influence in the world are the British and American English.

We can find a lot of differents examples of the english usage. Some people say that British English is better than American English because is more formal, correct and sounds better, but other people say that prefer a more relaxed language.

Probably the major differences between British and American English lies in the choice of vocabulary, some words mean different things in the two varieties. For example:

Mean: American English - angry, bad humored
British English - not generous, tight fisted.

Rubber: American English - condom,
British English - tool used to erase pencil markings.

apartment  flat / baggage luggage / cab taxi / can tin / candy sweet / chips crisps
In conclusion, the world offers a wide range of languages, especially English where you can find more variety.

What do you think about British and American English? Do you think that one is better than another?

Introductions and Greetings

      First impressions are a really important aspect of British culture. Introducing yourself and others in the correct way is the key for having a first good impression. In social situations, a man introduced himself to a woman; in the business, introductions are based on a person's rank or position in an organisation; and if you are introducing two people of equal rank to each other, introduce the one you know less well to the one you know best.

     As Benjamin (substitute teacher) said the first impression is the most important thing when we are meeting new people, I know that are different ways to introduce people, but it depends on the context that we could be.
I’ve noticed (on TV or videos) that British shake hands when are introduced for first time to new people, but they rarely shake hands when parting. When shaking hands people may give you their name without saying "Hello" or anything else. It can come across as a bit unfriendly, but it's not considered to be rude. The response you give to the other person should have the same level of formality as the introduction. Perhaps many people think that the greetings are the same globally, with a "hello", "hi" or "good morning / afternoon" they can greet all formal or informal, but it is not. There are many ways to greeting, different countries have different traditions and cultures.


What do you think about first impressions? Do you know another formal or informal greeting or introductions in Britain?

British Literature

 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I choose this, because I think it's really interesting and different to others novels. Jane Austen have the magical skill to make us fall in love with every one of her characters.

I really like it, because it's not the typical love story, this novel show, haw the name say, the pride and the prejudices of the humans when thay meet fot he first time, and how much wrong people can be.

In the countryside, near from London live the particular Family Bennet, with five doughters all singles. Their mother is so interested in to have married doughters, because they don't have money.

Elizabeth one of the doughters, meet Mr Darcy, who have a best friend who fall in love with Elizabeth's sister, Jane.

Elizabeth and Darcy have a lot of misundertanding, and then... They realize that they love each other, but they can be together for this misunderstanding... They calrify all their problems and realize that they are not bad, and all the problems was,'t like they believed.

Mr. Darcy ask for the hand of Elizabeth to her father, and he says YES
What do you think about prejudices? If they are not clarify, Dou you think you are going to give the oppotunitie to meet other people?

Halloween in Britain

I'm going to talk about Halloween in Britain, because I think that is interesting know about the roots of this tradition that nowadays is very popular.

From time to time many of halloween traditions are associated with America, but that is not true because they originated in Celtic history. For example the custom of “trick or treat” originated in England as ‘Mischief Night' when children declared one ‘lawless night' of unpunished pranks (usually May Day eve or Halloween). In the late 19thC, the Irish belief that 'the little people' or fairies played pranks on Halloween, led boys and young men to carry out practical jokes on that night. Another example are the Jack O'Lanterns, they were brought by Irish people to America: The practice of carving Jack-o'-lanterns goes back to the Irish legend of Jack, a farmer who tricked the Devil. Today Jack O'Lanterns are pumpkins with a candle inside and usually with a scary face.

Halloween is an ancient festival, which has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain (Sah-ween), this was when the Celts (the ancient inhabitants of Great Britain) celebrated their New Year. Today in the UK it is celebrated on All Hallows Eve, the night of October 31.  I didn't know anything about that! Have you ever known that the origins of Halloween were in Celtic traditions? What do you think about that, now that you know it?

British rock bands: They will rock you

From Great Britain have appeared a lot of rock bands that has marked a tendency through the years, from The beatles to Guns ‘n’ roses, from Sex Pistols to Siouxsie and the banshee, from The Smiths to Pulp!. Anyway, british rock, from whatever the style is, they always do a impressive contribution.

But what I want to discuss is that most of the rock bands that appear in Great Britain, and have success, sells their bodies and lyrics to the great corporations, making themselves empty, over selled searching more and more money (but they always excuses saying: “we want that a lot of people know our music”). Sadly, there are more bands that are remarkable and have a lot of poetry in their songs. Bands like Bauhaus Joy Division, Roxy Music, Killing Joke, etc, (generally from the post-glam rock or darkwave period) are part of the list of bands that are only known in the (horrible) eighties, but they haven’t passed away in time. Only a few young people know them because they have searched about rock history, but they are without resources to have their music or albums (as a collection) because it’s only on vinyls, and they’re very expensive. They have to conform themselves with the bad quality of a downloaded youtube video.

As a conclusion, I think that people only known the stereotypical music, the over sold bands without soul, the MTV bands, etc. My question is: Why people only want what the corporations sell?, Why people doesn’t like to research about things that have made with true feelings?

I think that this killing joke song is very addequate to this entry...

Wessex kingdom and the britishness.

Some fact that barely knows the people who study english culture (and british culture above all), it is the way how the country itself birth.  The first thing to be aware of is the intertwining of different cultures and, a precedent of this are the Celtic-Roman mixture since I century b.c. to V century a.c., after this a wave of “hordes” of germanic tribes came to establish in the British isle such as Anglo-Saxons, Jutes and Vikings too.

But it was not until after the creation of the Wessex kingdom that we can say the idea of England (and of course UK) began to develop. In fact it was the first time that a whole set of different nations, that shares a same cultural and historic background, was unified in just one kingdom.

Due that we can say this is the first antecedent of the Britishness that, from this moment, it is always changing thanks to the combination of the way of life of different nations until now. How do you think it is British culture developing now?  

Harry Potter

The British literature (and movies that are based on books) is very important in Britain, probably because they are very intellectual, and the bridge for it are the books, the reading.

When you think about Harry Potter, instantly you can associated it with United Kingdom, that’s happens to me.

Harry Potter is a famous saga written by J.K. Rowling, a british writer, specifically from Yate. Also there are eight movies based in these books. The movies, of course, have a British style; firstable, because J.K Rowling demanded to every actor had to be british, second one because every film was filmed in places of United Kingdom.

It becomes too famous that in the King Cross Station, there is, as a touristic place, a new platform that is the Platform 9 ¾, with a half- cart symbolizing the entry of this magic world.

I really really like the books and the movies, because it was my first book so I began to  love books and the reading, also it made me start loving United Kingdom (yes! I love U.K.) It has a little piece of my heart, because Harry Potter has to meaning for me.

Do you like Harry Potter or any other book or movie based on a book written by a British writer? Why? Has it a special meaning for you?

British culture around the world

In our lives we have a lot of the British culture, maybe we don’t realized of that , but we are going to find a lot of things that they have created or are of them, like literature, music , architecture , science and so on  . For me the thing that I love the most is British music, because has so many groups that are famous around the world.   

The most popular group is The Beatles, an incredible band composed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Star. Their songs make that many artist can createb their songs feeling represented by them. When we think in British we think in The Beatles , because they made that a complete society change, just for their music. In EEUU they were very famous and they contributed to the hippie revolution that it was developed in the 60s.  

Also another singer that I like and In my point of view has been very famous is Adele , she is a new singer that in a little time has more and more fans. I thinkg that her songs are amazing and express a lot of feelings that only a song can express.

We  have so many groups only depend of your likes.

British music: The Beatles

You don’t need to be really into British music to know some very good British bands and musicians. There are a lot of well-known names that you may have heard in a moment of your life. This article will be about a very famous British rock band, and you don’t need to be a fan to know something about them. I’m talking about The Beatles.

The Beatles started –with the “actual” members:  John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star- on 1963. During all the time they spent together as a band they played almost 300 songs, most of them were written by Lennon and McCartney.

I think they are one of the most amazing bands that I ever heard. The reasons: the letters of their songs, also they were always looking for new ways to improve their music, with new instruments and music techniques.

So, what is your favourite British band and why? And… If you don’t have one, I invite you to discover one and enjoy it!

Music of United Kingdom

I chose this topic because I’m very into music, in fact, I’m interested in all kind of music, but my favorite one is R&B (Rhythm and Blues). To be honest, I know a little bit about UK music, so that’s another reason why I picked up, to search information, know about the styles, and so on.

The UK has been a major exporter and source of musical innovation and its cultural basis has been from the history of UK, from church music, from Western culture, from folk music and instrumentation of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. With United States leading the popular music, UK had a Britain Invasion and with this invasion they created “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” and “Britpop”. And also, with this big invasion we can highlight a big and wonderful group: The Beatles.


Some of the styles of music that UK has had are Baroque music, Classical music, Folk music, English folk music, Northern Irish music, Scottish folk music and Welsh folk music. Now, the most recent style is the Modern British popular music, including Jazz, pop, and rock music.
Today UK has the world’s largest music industry with many British musicians.
This small but interesting paragraph lead us to a big question: In the future, will be still UK one of the world’s largest industry? Will be always The United States and UK the head of music?

Music in British Culture

QUEEN

I chose this topic because I think Queen, together with one of its member Freddie Mercury, are one of the major exponents of british music.

Queen is a British rock band formed in London in 1971 with Freddie Mercury on vocals and piano, Brian May on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums and Mike Gross on bass. All of them have been a great influence in many people from all over the world for years and years, and the most important thing is that this band continues imposing a big mark in the greatest registers in the history of music. 

Each member of Queen was a very talented musician with a powerful voice and other skills that are recognized wherever we go, and all of us can prove this with just hear or remember any of their meaningful and inspiring songs, like "Bohemian rhapsody", "We will rock you", "We are the champions", and others.

But, Why do you think this songs and its lyrics are still heard and valued in the same way? 

James Bond

                               


  If I have to think about British culture and the characteristic of British people I can help but to think in one specific person, the fictional character, James Bond.
But why James Bond? I my opinion James Bond, with his behavior, special tastes and popularity has represent  the britishness and the British people.His serious and reserved personality and his gentlemanly behavior he has help to build many stereotypes around how British people behave and act.
He is so popular than he had an appearance in the last Olympic games that took place in UK. Where he was accompanied by the Queen, showing how important is the character to the British Culture.
  Why do you think James Bond has become so important in the British Culture?

British Music

Personally I love British Music, because of its history, message and because of its strenght.
 
 All the music movements like the 60’s when The Beatles and later The Rolling Stones appeared with the Rock and Roll and during the last years of  the decade and the early 70's groups like AC/DC, Queen, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin also appeared to play this awesome rock music. After that during the 70's appeared the Punk rock music with groups like The Clash and The Sex Pistols; and now the brit rock or pop with artist like Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Radiohead and others alternative groups are just awesome

I just love the way that these groups make me feel alive and although there are some groups that are old, they're still present not only in my life or MP3 but also in many people who, like me, love this british rock music
And after all, what we would do without this awesome British music?

Healthy v/s delicious

British food

One of the thing that comes inmediately when you think about Britain, is the food. There are a plenty of variety british food in over the world. One of them, could be "Chicken and Chip" dishes; it is a fry meal slashing with spices accompanied by a delicious chicken next to the chip. Even though is not very healthy for your body, people still prefer that kind of meal instead of salads and fruits, for example. Maybe, the price and the quicly preparation, could be one of the reason why this dish is so popular. Even if we think about "healthy food" in Britain...there are not so many, due to the world culture is not get used to eat healthy. However, eat fast food, is delicious.

What about you? Are you into eat "chip and chicken" or "salads and fruits"?