by Zdena Červinková

In our country daily meals usually start with breakfast which consists of something to drink such as coffee, black tea with sugar and lemon or fruit tea, milk or cocoa. Most people have bread or rolls and butter with cheese, eggs, ham or jam for breakfast. Quite a lot of people eat cereals or cornflakes with yoghurt, milk, chocolate, stewed fruit, wallnuts, hazelnuts etc. Between the second and the third lesson students have a snack. They usually have bread or rolls and ham, cheese or some vegetables. At school they can buy food from the buffet. They can also buy some drinks from the slot-machine. Adults have a break for their snack mostly after nine o´clock.
At about twelve o’clock there is lunchtime. Most people have their meals at the school canteens or local canteens but some people go to restaurants or have some fast food.
Our lunch is a fairly big meal, it consists of several dishes: soup may be prepared either from vegetables (potato, tomato, pea, bean, lentil soup), or meat (mostly beef or chicken soup). The main dish can be either sweet such as fruit duplings or pancakes with jam and cottage cheese, or we can have various kinds of meat (beef, pork, veal, mutton) with potatoes, chips, rice, dumplings or pasta. Beef and pork are slowly being replaced by more healthy fish and poultry. Adults usually drink beer with or after their meal, or you can have a glass of mineral water, fruit juice or cola. There is sometimes a dessert and a cup of coffee at the end of lunch. Some people have a cup of coffee or tea, sometimes with some sweets, later in the afternoon.
At about six o´clock in the evening comes time for dinner. We often prepare warm dishes, but some people have just bread with ham or cheese. On some occasions we go out to a restaurant. There we can choose from various dishes. Roasted pork and dumplings and sauerkraut, beef sirloin in cream sauce and dumplings, schnitzel and potatoes or potato salad, chicken and rice – these are the most typical Czech dishes. We can also order vegetable salad from tomatoes or cucumbers.
Cooking we can use spices such as garlic, onion, salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard and others. It is better to eat more vegetables and fruit, cereals and other low caloric and healthy food. And it is also better to eat your last meal before seven p.m.
At this time we also eat much more food introduced by people who come to our country from all over the world. There are Italian pizzas, American hamburgers and Chinese and Greek restaurants. People visit these restaurants and they enjoy the meals there.
At Christmas we cook a special meal. For Christmas dinner we prepare fish or pea soup, potato salad and fried carp. Some families have only potatoes and chicken or sausages, because they don´t like the carp. Adults usually drink red or white wine and children drink juice. Many kinds of Christmas sweets can’t be forgotten, too