Eating out

There are a lot of places where people can eat out. There are coffee-houses, tea-shops, bars, pubs, cafés, restaurants, self-service restaurants, fast food restaurants, and others. I’d like to tell you some words about each of them.

Coffee-houses and tea-shops are places where non-alcoholic drinks, cakes, and light meals are served. Fashionable people often use them as an informal meeting place.

A bar is a place with a counter where alcoholic drinks are served. Besides there are bars where people can buy a particular kind of food or drink, e.g. a coffee bar, a snack bar, a sandwich bar.

A pub is a place where people meet their friends and drink alcoholic drinks. Pubs are very popular in Britain.

A café is a place where people can drink coffee or tea and sometimes alcoholic drinks, and eat cakes or small meals.

A restaurant is a place where people buy and eat a meal, which is brought to their tables. Besides there are self-service restaurants where people collect their own food and drink and carry it to the tables and fast food restaurants where people can buy and eat small meals that are ready to eat.

A lot of people enjoy eating out. But if it is a popular restaurant it is necessary to book a table in advance. When people come to a restaurant they ask a waiter or waitress for the menu. People may have three courses: a starter, a main course, a dessert. They may also have an aperitif before the meal, and coffee or tea after the meal. Then people ask for a bill and sometimes leave a tip.

Food around the world

Food is an integral part of any tourism experience. It is true that some holidaymakers look for the sort of food they would eat at home. However, most tourists expect to try dishes that are different.

One result of this situation is the use of food as a tourism resource. Now many places include their local dishes, wines, or other drinks as part of their tourism identity. Food festivals are another way to use their resource to attract visitors. Gastro-tourism is based on marketing the food and drink of a region.

Every country has its own cuisine and its own national dishes. For instance, Russian national dishes are pelmeni, shchi, rasstegai, Italian – pasta, risotto, lasagna, British – roast beef, puddings, fish and chips, Spanish – paella. A national dish can be a drink. Ireland, for example, is often identified with Guinness, a type of beer. However, national dishes quite often hide the richness of a country’s gastronomic heritage. Each region within a country has its own dishes. National dishes reflect the local climate, ingredients, customs, and even history.

The history of Russia

I am going to tell you about some of the most important facts connected with the history of Russia.

The Rus civilization emerged during the 8^th and 9^th centuries. In the 10^th century Svyatoslav, grand prince of Kiev, began to unite the land of Rus. His son Vladimir continued the unification and in 988 established Russian Orthodox Christianity in Rus. The Mongol conquest began in 1237 and lasted for about 240 years. One of the most outstanding Russian tsars was Peter the Great, who initiated a number of Western reforms and assumed the title of emperor. At the beginning of the 19^th century Napoleon invaded Russia. In 1917 the Russian tsar dynasty was overthrown. The Bolsheviks led by Lenin formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. After Lenin the leader of the country was Stalin. The Soviet Union played a major role in the defeat of Germany in World War II. After Stalin the leaders of the country were Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko. “Perestroika” is connected with the name of M. Gorbachev, the first and the last President of the USSR. The USSR was abolished in 1991 and B. Yeltsin became the first President of Russia. V. Putin was the second Russian President. And now the President of Russia is D. Medvedev.