The current queen of England has been on the thrown for over 56 years. This year she will turn 83 years old. Some interesting facts about England’s sovereign:
1). She has sent around 100,000 telegrams to centenarians in the UK and the Commonwealth since she has been the Queen.
2). She has sent over 280,000 telegrams to couples in the UK and the Commonwealth celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary (60 years of marriage).
3). She is fluent in french.
4). The Queen’s official London residence, Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. These include 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms.
5). Some rooms at Buckingham Palace have a Chinese theme. That is because they feature furniture and decor which came from the Prince Regent’s oriental-style Royal Pavilion at Brighton (later sold by Queen Victoria to finance building work at Buckingham Palace).
Many students ask me about famous English food.
Fish and Chips
Fish and chips originated in the UK. It consists of deep-fried fish (traditionally haddock or cod) in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried cut chipped (slab-cut) potatoes. Seasoning is usually salt and vinegar (malt vinegar or onion vinegar (the vinegar used for storing pickled onions)). Other accompaniments include mushy peas, “chip shop curry”, gravy and “scraps” (small pieces of left-over batter). Traditionally, fish and chips are wrapped in an outer layer of newspaper.
The Sunday Roast
Traditionally, English people eat roast meat on Sundays (usually, beef, pork, lamb or chicken). It is usually eaten with vegetables, gravy and a corresponding sauce: horseradish sauce, bread sauce or mustard with beef, apple sauce with pork and mint sauce with lamb (very similar to gingis khan in Hokkaido). Yorkshire pudding is also a common accompaniment. This is made using a pancake batter which is baked in an oven.
Pudding
Pudding for the Sunday Roast could be variety of delicious (usually heavy) choices. Apple pie is popular, served with either cream or custard. A variety of the fruit pie is “crumble”, for example apple crumble, blackberry crumble or rhubarb crumble. This is relatively easy to make, and includes butter and breadcrumbs. (I don’t remember the exact recipe, let me me know if your are interested, I can find it for you). The mixture is poured over the fruit and the crumble baked in an oven. As you can see the oven is used a lot for Sunday dinner!
