In Britain the biggest and best meal of the week is Sunday lunch. Traditionally people eat roast beef for Sunday lunch. Sometimes they eat roast lamb, roast pork, or roast chicken instead. Whatever meat they eat, there is always gravy with it. Gravy is a sauce made from the meat juices that come out when the meat is cooked. Roast beef without gravy is like sushi without soy sauce. It just wouldn't be the same without it.
It is traditional for the mother to cook the food, and the father to cut the meat. This is great if you are a man, but not if you are a woman. Husbands usually spend the hour before Sunday lunch in the pub, discussing how hard life is over a pint of beer.
The traditions of Sunday lunch are slowly changing. 'Hurrah!' the women cry. 'No more Sunday mornings spent preparing lunch. Sunday lunch is changing because of British beef. No one is sure whether it is still safe to eat or not.
Unless you have been asleep for the last five years, you will have heard of mad cow disease. Many scientists believe that people who eat the meat of 'mad cows' will also become sick. The French, the Germans and almost everyone else in Europe have banned British beef.
In Britain more and more young people are giving up eating meat, and are becoming vegetarian. They say vegetarianism is safer (no risk of mad cow disease), healthier (less cholesterol), and cheaper than eating meat. Some people eat white meat and fish, but not red meat. There are people who do not eat anything made from dead animals. These people are called vegans; they do not even eat biscuits because biscuits contain animal fat.
As more people give up meat, so there are more vegetarian restaurants in Britain than ever before. In supermarkets you often see labels saying 'This food is suitable for vegetarians'. On international flights to and from the UK there is usually a vegetarian meal for those passengers who do not want meat or fish.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet the prince wonders whether 'To be, or not to be?' If he were alive today, he would no doubt be thinking, 'To beef, or not to beef?' Prince Charles is said to be a vegetarian.