We love hearing about our students' experiences studying English in Wimbledon! Charlotte's Proficiency level class have written a series of blogs about their favourite things about studying English in London. In this series, students will write about watching the 2018 World Cup in Wimbledon, going to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and what to expect when living in a homestay! Our next student, Sara, has written about typical British meals cooked by her host family!

As soon as I was told I was going to study English in England, I immediately thought about the food. What if I didn’t like it? I bet you’ve asked yourself the same question. Of course the food here is very different from your grandma’s cuisine, but it’s not bad as you might believe. It’s not all about lamb, roast beef, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and fish and chips! Here are the 5 typical meals that my host family cooks:

Singapore Noodles

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never tried them before. The first time my host mum cooked them I was pleasantly surprised. It is a dish of rice noodles with curry powder, vegetables, beef and soy sauce.

Singapore Noodles

Pasta

If you are Italian like me, when your host family says that there’s pasta for dinner, don’t expect a traditional Italian dish! I mean, here in England pasta is cooked in a different way. For some reason they don’t add salt while pasta is cooking, so sadly it can be flavourless and sometimes overcooked. Also, in most cases, they won’t give you a plate full of pasta because here they consider it only a side dish.

Sauces

I don’t know if sauces can be considered as a meal, but apparently here in England they love them! I was astonished by the amount of sauces my host family has in the fridge: tartar sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, soy sauce, black bean sauce, chilli sauce, pesto, tomato sauce and last their favourite, ketchup!

Ketchup

Chicken

I think this is my host family’s favourite meat, because they cook it almost every day! Whether it is leg or breast, they will cook it using spices, the thing that may vary are the side dishes which can be rice, sweet carrots, potatoes, salad (rigorously without olive oil, salt or vinegar), pasta or sauces.

Fish and Chips

Fish and Chips

Last but not least, the inevitable typical English meal, fish and chips! My host mum prepares it every Friday for dinner and of course she combines it with ketchup or tartar sauce.

Sara from Italy, 18 years old, Proficiency class. Loves cats, Italian cuisine and joining in the salsa classes at WSE.