A Bite of the UK

Sylvia Yang

Since the first release ofA Bite of Chinathe famous TV programme about Chinese traditional delicacies1. delicacy: 佳肴，珍饈。across the country, media and the public have started to think about what the series would be like if they were shot in other countries. I was a wonderer of this kind whose imagination was triggered instantly.2. wonderer: 好奇的人；trigger: 引發(fā)；instantly: 立刻地。What wouldA Bite of the UKbe like? Based on what I have known, one thing for sure is that the programme cannot be as long as that ofA Bite of China. So I’d like to present you some possible episodes3. episode:（電影、電視劇、戲劇等的）一集（或一出、一部分）。ofA Bite of the UK.

The first episode might be the nation’s best known food. If I’m asked about what’s the most typical British food, the first thing coming to my mind is fish and chips. The United Kingdom is composed of Scotland,England, Wales and Northern Island, which were surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and separated from the continental Europe by the English Channel.4. 英國由蘇格蘭、英格蘭、威爾士以及北愛爾蘭組成，被大西洋包圍，英吉利海峽將其與歐洲大陸分隔開來。continental: 大陸的。The geological location brings a large amount of fishing resources, which has influenced people’s eating habits. They have treated various fishes as their main dish like fried cod fillet, while the continental Europeans generally subsist on mammal meat,5. cod fillet: 鱈魚片；subsist on:靠……生存；mammal: 哺乳動物。such as beef and pork.There is even a dish with some fish whose bodies are entirely buried in the flour6. flour: 面粉。, while their heads and tails point towards the sky. Even though the dish doesn’t look quite delicious, it has a beautiful name, Stargazy Pie7. Stargazy Pie: 仰望星空派。. Besides, intensive conflicts between hot and cold air lead to a large number of rainy and windy days throughout the whole year except for a few days in summer.8. 此外，由于冷熱空氣強對流，英國全年除了夏天能有幾個好天氣之外，大多數(shù)都是下雨和刮風。These factors make it almost unsuitable for most major crops, such as wheat and rice, to grow on. Given the territorial and climatic conditions of the UK, while wheat and rice had failed to grow sustainably, potatoes have become the best choice for main meal.9. territorial: 領(lǐng)土的；climatic: 氣候的；sustainably: 可持續(xù)地。It would certainly be boring to have potatoes all the time, so different cooking methods of potatoes in various shapes have been developed. One of the most common types was deep-fried chips. If you combine fried cod fillet and chips with smashed10. smashed: 粉碎的。beans, salad and a piece of lemon, you’ll get the famous British dish: fish and chips.

《舌尖上的中國》已經(jīng)播出兩季，人們在流口水之余，也在好奇這舌尖上的“全世界”都是什么樣子。拿英國菜來說，雖然它不像中國菜那么豐富，但能說道一番的也不少：經(jīng)典的炸魚和薯條，和英國氣候特點密不可分；豐盛的英式早餐，讓你徒步一天都不覺得累；還有優(yōu)雅的英式下午茶，讓你體驗一把英國貴族的生活……那就讓我們擦亮眼睛，《舌尖上的英國》，show time！

Another episode may well be about the full English breakfast. As the name indicates, it does make you full after breakfast and you even still feel full at dinner time in the evening. I got the chance to try the most traditional homemade full English breakfast when I was residing at a B&B hotel in the Lake District.11. homemade: 自制的，家里做的；reside at: 居住，逗留；B&B hotel: 含早餐旅館（bed and breakfast）；the Lake District: 英格蘭湖區(qū)，英國國家公園，位于英格蘭西北海岸。My Finnish12. Finnish: 芬蘭的。friend and I decided to go hiking for the whole day that day. In order to prepare for the long walk, we had the full English breakfast, including two sausages, two pieces of bacon, some baked beans, two halves of toasted tomatoes,two slices of toasts with butter and jam.13. sausage: 香腸；slice: 薄片；toast: 烤面包。Afterwards, we went for hiking along one of the longest paths for six hours without having a slight feeling of hunger or tiredness. I suppose the breakfast provided such a great amount of energy. It was probably because of the needs of people working in fishing industry who had to work for the whole day on the sea, fighting against surges14. surge: 巨浪。and fishing with heavy fishing nets.

Apart from food, another important element ofA Bite of the UKcan be beverages15. beverage: 飲料。. If an Englishman tells you “We’re having tea” in dinner time, what they mean in fact is likely to be “We’re having dinner.” How about having tea in the afternoon? If you think they only drink tea in some teahouses, you are wrong. As afternoon tea is an indispensable routine of the higher-class for social activities and having tea without any food is obviously not enough to spend the whole afternoon, so some desserts on a tray of three plates are served with a pot of tea to form the complete version of afternoon tea.16. 對于上流社會來說，在交際活動中，下午茶是必不可少的；而只有茶沒有食物顯然不足以度過整個下午。因此除了一壺茶，還需要一些甜點，置于有三個盤子的托盤之上，這才是完整的下午茶。indispensable: 不可缺少的；routine: 慣例。On the bottom layer, there are some mini tuna17. tuna: 金槍魚。, bacon and egg sandwiches. In the middle, some pudding, mini cakes are nicely placed. On the top, a traditional British scone18. scone: 司康餅，一種英式快速面包。made from butter and flour is placed together with a tiny bowl of creamy butter and jam.When it comes to tea, English people like black tea19. black tea: 紅茶。the most. The most traditional tea for afternoon is Earl Grey, a kind of black tea flavoured with oil of bergamot.20. Earl Grey: 伯爵茶；flavoured:有……味道的；bergamot: 佛手柑。Other types can be traditional afternoon tea, all black tea. Slightly different from Chinese black tea, black tea enjoyed by the Europeans is mostly blended with flower or fruit flavours.Traditional afternoon tea has such a level of complexity21. complexity: 復雜性。and richness that it is specifically served for the rich or those from higher class. A term “high tea22. high tea: 下午茶?！?is used by some people to refer to the afternoon tea.However, high tea is the term for lower class, especially tea time of house servants. The high tea is comparatively simple with only a cup of plain tea23. plain tea: 原味茶。and some bread and cakes. Nowadays, only when people enjoy the typical traditional afternoon tea and spend the whole afternoon at a teahouse chatting will they order afternoon tea with three-layer plates of desserts. The most common and popular modern afternoon tea is mainly composed of a cup of tea and a piece of cake as a result of the fast pace and influence of modern life style.