What comes into your mind when you think of British food? Probably fish and chips, or a Sunday dinner of meat and two vegetables. But is British food really so uninteresting? Even though Britain has a reputation for less-than-impressive cuisine, it is producing more top class chefs who appear frequently on our television screens and whose recipe books frequently top the best seller lists.

It’s thanks to these TV chefs rather than any advertising campaign that Britons are turning away from meat-and-two-veg and ready-made meals and becoming more adventurous in their cooking habits. It is recently reported that the number of those sticking to a traditional diet is slowly declining and around half of Britain’s consumers would like to change or improve their cooking in some way. There has been a rise in the number of students applying for food courses at UK universities and colleges. It seems that TV programmes have helped change what people think about cooking.

According to a new study from market analysts, 1 in 5 Britons say that watching cookery programmes on TV has encouraged them to try different food. Almost one third say they now use a wider variety of ingredients (配料) than they used to, and just under 1 in 4 say they now buy better quality ingredients than before. One in four adults say that TV chefs have made them much more confident about expanding their cookery knowledge and skills, and young people are also getting more interested in cooking. The UK’s obsession (痴迷) with food is reflected through television scheduling. Cookery shows and documentaries about food are broadcast more often than before. With an increasing number of male chefs on TV, it’s no longer “uncool” for boys to like cooking.

Tea culture is varied in different countries by the way tea is made and drunk, and by the places for tea drinking. How to make tea may be different. According to the ways of making tea, tea is classified (分类) into white tea, green tea, black tea, etc. And how to prepare tea may be different, too. In Tibet, tea is commonly boiled with salt and butter. People may drink tea at home or in public, for example, at tea houses.

As part of culture, tea has a relationship with history, health, education, communication and so on. It is commonly used at social activities. For example, afternoon tea is a British custom. Families or friends can communicate with each other while having afternoon tea.

Tea has remained a way of daily life in China and drinking tea has a lot of advantages. It makes people less tired, clears heat in the human body and helps people lose weight.

Chinese people are good at using tea to make other things delicious. Tea, originally (最初) served as a medicine in ancient times, is now not just a kind of drink, but also excellent seasoning (调味品). Here are two delicious dishes made with tea:

Tea Eggs: You can find them cooked and sold in street markets in almost every city in China. Dragon Well Tea Shrimp (龙井虾仁). It’s one of the most well-known dishes in Hangzhou. Before you drink tea, please check the following tips:

♦ Drink tea hot.

♦ The best time to drink is in between meals. It is bad for your stomach if you drink tea just before meals, during meals or soon after meals.

♦ Do not drink too much strong tea.