PDC (EN) : And you’d like to sit while eating ?
Internship London > Culture > And you’d like to sit while eating ?
While the Tube [FR] is one of the worst public equipment in London, the meals served au déjeuner don’t really help to regain prestige.
English people are known to eat almost nothing at lunch, and to make up for it in the evening. I don’t really know what this is all about at supper, but in the day there is no canteen, no restaurant with a plat du jour (today’s specials) — no restaurant at all, by the way. The meals, consistently* to take away, are grabbed, literally, and sometimes they even offer a fork (!) Then, the employees can just go to a park when it’s not raining (almost never ;-) ), or go back to their firm: it’s how, between 11.30 and 13.00, it’s lunch time at the fourth floor, and probably everywhere, embroiling chicken, salad, crisps, and coffee smells.
English people try to eat equilibrated food: sandwiches with salad, one or two peas in the noodles for the Chinese meals, and voilà. Some dare to move to a snack – we can’t call it with other words – to sit and eat a traditional Fish and Chips (see picture, here to take away) – probably just tourists.
What’s missing, actually, is the notion of Today’s specials (Plat du Jour), where you can eat at a reasonable price (less than 4£=6eur for a sandwich…), something different each day, where you can rest and discuss with colleagues or friends: where you can try to make the most of your meal, instead of just eating to live.
Real « restaurants » like we know them just don’t exist: some pizzerias, some sit-snacks, here and there, some chic restaurants; for the average businessman, it will be a chicken-and-chips, to take away please.
* Consistently: systématiquement
