|
Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: Heaven: What's strange about the British?
|
Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
|
Posted
I think we probably need to have a grading system for cafes.
There are the truckers' caffs. These are only known to those in the knowledge and I have only been to them when travelling with someone with the knowledge. There menu is everything buttered or fried with strong brewed tea or instant coffee in a good sized mug. The mug will be clean due to food hygiene regs. Do not ask for home baking though you might get Coke and a Mars Bar but the coke will be an low key producer e.g. Panda. Design concept, is prefab in a car park, with tables bought second hand and vandalised, odd cutlery, toilets are chemical and has gaming machines
Secondly there are walkers' caffs. These are up a grade from the truckers caffs, and quite often in unusual places. The range of meals largely similar but you almost certainly could get a veggie burger if you are vegetarian, may include baked potatoes and home baking. Expect wooden benches and wooden trestle tables inside an ancient stone building.
Thirdly there are city/town caffs. These will serve tea and coffee but food will be significantly different with preprepared sandwiches, (cheese or ham) and maybe even the token salad, they do not always serve hot food. Coke, biscuits, choccy bars all readily available. The baking will be shop bought and defrosted. As they get aspirations will have a broader range of teas and coffee available. Decor is normally in a shop with clear glass window with a net curtain half way up, gingham plastic coated table clothes or formica covered tables. The tea and coffee is served in cups and saucers.
Fourthly Railway station cafe, normally a change, selling tea, coffee (which may be decent brewed elsewhere and brought in) prepackaged food both cold and hot (they have a microwave to reheat the food). Only fruit and veg available is either in pre-packed sandwhiches or a piece of fruit. Smart either wooden of formica that can easily be wiped down, a linoleum or tiled floor for the same reason. Coffee and tea served in plastic or polystrene mugs and veg on paper plates as they have no facilities for washing up.
I think I better continue this list later.
Jengie
--------------------
"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Real Ale Methodist:
What about the beer, one american visitor to my great embarrasment asked if we should return our pints (Timothy Taylors Landlord) due to their warmth and strange hoppy taste. Deary deary me.
Losing my will to live...
You know that Budweiser once recalled a load of bottles and wouldn't say why?
The story went round that someone had snuck some malt and hops into the mash and Bud were terrified their customers would find out what beer was meant to taste of.
--------------------
Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rat
Ship's Rat
# 3373
|
Posted
Kenwritez, you will easily get Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi (most pubs only stock one or the other), and you are unlikely to find iced tea.
As for ice - personally I like the lashings of ice you get in American cold drinks, but the only place you are likely to see that is in McDonalds and Burger King, or possibly US-style restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe. And I actually know many people who ask for their drinks without ice in US-style places as they consider it a con - a cup full of ice when you are paying for coke means less coke.
In a pub, though, you could always ask for more ice. It wouldn't be a problem.
--------------------
It's a matter of food and available blood. If motherhood is sacred, put your money where your mouth is. Only then can you expect the coming down to the wrecked & shimmering earth of that miracle you sing about. [Margaret Atwood]
Posts: 5285 | From: A dour region for dour folk | Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
GeordieDownSouth
Shipmate
# 4100
|
Posted
And as for cafe's etc. we now have seemingly a full range of Starbucks, Coffee Republic, Costa (my favourite), Nero and the rest. They've all sprung up in the last five years or so. All major towns will have at least three of these, and the cities three on every street.
For a good lunch time snack hunt out a Greg's bakers shop. Freshly prepared sandwiches and baking.
--------------------
----------------------
No longer down south.
Posts: 689 | From: Birmingham | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
|
Posted
Add to the list of British cafes (always pronounced "caffy" in my childhood):
5) the city-style Sandwich Bar, for some reason almost always run by Jews or Italians, serving large quantities of sandwiches very fast with decent espresso coffee and drinkable tea. They have a sort of late 50s/early 60s feel to them. There is a lot of formica about, and often old black-and-white photos of famous people who allegedly ate there once.
There will be some of these in just about every city, but their real centre is London. (I strongly suspect that many northern and eastern cities in the USA have similar establishments.)
Main location of these in London used to be the area round Liverpool Street Station near the City, and up to Clerkenwell and OLd Street. Literally hundreds of them. Nowadays many of them have "upgraded" themselves into posh coffee shops and most of the rest have been taken over by crap franchise chains.
However they still flourish a mile or so west of there, in Holborn (lawyers and low-paid civil servants) and on either side of Tottenham Court Road in Bloomsbury (British Museum, hospitals, students and cheap hotels) and Fitzrovia (more hsopitals, film & TV post-production, engineering companies, restaurants, expensive hotels)
Cheapest location is Store Street - Garner's charge the same for sandwiches of different sizes so you can stuff yourself for 2 quid.
6) Only in Brighton do we have greasy-spoon caffs, all food fried, lino on the floor, huge mugs of strong tea, foil pie-dish ashtrays, and the smell of marmite - that are vegetarian, vegan, and organic. Brighton is different from most British cities.
7) And then there are Tea Rooms. Tea Rooms are cafes to which one takes one's aunt.
--------------------
Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
|
Posted
On my last business trip to London, I enjoyed grabbing a quick lunch at Pret a Manger -- I thought the sandwiches were fabulous! That was a chain I had never seen in the US, and I am glad to see that at least one has opened in NY now (but alas, not in the neighborhood of my office).
I'd be interesting in knowing what the Brits think of Pret a Manger. Yes, I have my shields up and am prepared to duck if necessary.
--------------------
"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
GeordieDownSouth
Shipmate
# 4100
|
Posted
Its ok, a bit pricey, and I would definitely recommend Gregs instead :-)
And aren't Pret a Manger owned by McDonalds?
--------------------
----------------------
No longer down south.
Posts: 689 | From: Birmingham | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
|
Posted
Amanda - I have never used s Pret, but I gather that they are considered one of the better sandwich chains.
"Cute". If my pre-teenage sone sees Tower Bridge, he can describe it as "kewdt".I will probably respond with a very flat "yes". If you arrive with your American drawl and Say "Gee, that's cute", I will acquint your head with hte solid stone and metal that make up this great landmark of our country. It's subtle, but important. If you have an American accent, do not say cute.
Tourists. Actually ,we do'nt really mind tourists. We may have some fun ( Sending you to Stratford E15 to see Shakespeare birthplace, for example ), but that's just our sense of humour.
What really irritates us ( me at least ), I believe, is where our grewat national treasures are used as backdrops to pictures of you. "This is me in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is my by tower bridge. This is my head impaled on a railing".
This applies to all tourists, not just Americans. I was in Israel with an English couple like that. "This is my grinning, ugly mug at Yad Vashem. Ah, and this would be my large intestine". It is about appreciating what is there, and not thinking that your butt-face actually adds anything to it. I know this viewpoint is not universally held.
--------------------
Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ferijen
Shipmate
# 4719
|
Posted
Greggs is Ok, but most of their food tastes pretty samey. Pret a Manger's sandwiches, on the rare times I've had them (usually at airports, actually), were lovely, but pricey. They go overboard on making them not look like 'ordinary' sandwiches, though, with their cardboard wrappers and 'pret facts'.
Posts: 3259 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Amphibalus
Cloak of anonymity
# 5351
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
7) And then there are Tea Rooms. Tea Rooms are cafes to which one takes one's aunt.
Tea Rooms - like de Greys of Ludlow. They've just finished in the top five of the 'Best Cup of Tea in Britain' awards - and the winner came from Shropshire as well.
I was once in de Greys on a Sunday afternoon and was disappointed to find that they don't do fresh cream cakes on the Sabbath (some hygeine regulation or other). But the waitress did inform me that she could bring me 'a pleyte of fencies'. That sort of stuff is beyond price! ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
--------------------
I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook’s
Going to get a big dish of beef chow mein. (Warren Zevon)
Posts: 1471 | From: Home of Ronnie Radford's boot | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Saviour Tortoise:
I'm afraid you chain is being yanked. The Tetley's refered to by Amos is a rather exceptional Bitter brewed in God's Own Country, (or Yorkshire as it is sometimes known.) Exceptional when bought in a pub in Yorkshire, anyway. It does not travel well, IMHO, so when for sale in a pub outside of the environs of that fair county, and particularly when being despensed from one fo those nasty electric pumps, it should not be touched with a ten foot barge pole.
(BTW - My Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather was Josiah Tetley, founder of said brewery.) [/QB][/QUOTE]
Flippin' eck! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) Old Jos. T. was your ancestor!
I agree that electrically-pumped Tetleys (esp. if chilled) is very dire. And even the hand-pulled stuff, as you say, doesn't travel well, and it needs a good cellarman to be 'looking after it'. It is quite good when/if you find a 'good pint' of the stuff (the Cardifgan Arms in Leeds used to do ok, as Karl LB will testify). But it isn't in the ale Premier League, as Timothy Taylor's or Black Sheep or Bateman's or Caledonian are.
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Add to the list of British cafes (always pronounced "caffy" in my childhood):
7) And then there are Tea Rooms. Tea Rooms are cafes to which one takes one's aunt.
Like Betty's in York? Costs an arm and a leg, but sheer bliss. Their Yorkshire Curd Tarts are to die for!
--------------------
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I'd be interesting in knowing what the Brits think of Pret a Manger.
OK, if a tad expensive, and a bit pretentious. Decent for veggie stuff. I'd prefer more bread and less filling in some of their sandwiches.
It must be the only chain of shops I know that has taken its name from the liturgy of the Mass.
I'm afraid I don't like corporate image and branding and pseudo-cool jargon so I'll usually go to a small shop rather than a chain if I can possibly avoid it. And in London I can.
Ken (who has never knowingly entered a Starbucks)
--------------------
Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alarik the Goth:
But it isn't in the ale Premier League, as Timothy Taylor's or Black Sheep or Bateman's or Caledonian are.
Now why does that remind me of Saturday?
Oh yes, because I was at the Keswick Beer Festival. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
--------------------
Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alarik the Goth:
I agree that electrically-pumped Tetleys (esp. if chilled) is very dire. And even the hand-pulled stuff, as you say, doesn't travel well, and it needs a good cellarman to be 'looking after it'. It is quite good when/if you find a 'good pint' of the stuff (the Cardifgan Arms in Leeds used to do ok, as Karl LB will testify). But it isn't in the ale Premier League, as Timothy Taylor's or Black Sheep or Bateman's or Caledonian are.
Indeed I do recall. Dissecting the sermon at St Matthias over Tetleys. If we were feeling flush, though, I seem to recall we drank the Burton Ale.
Never, ever, drink Tetleys in Sheffield. It's cheaper to drink the outflow of the Sheaf Culvert - the taste's pretty much the same.
--------------------
Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
KenWritez
Shipmate
# 3238
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Corfe:
quote:
From tales I've heard, UK pubs don't understand the concept of adequate amounts of ice in a glass, and they probably wouldn't stock Diet Coke.
My experience is that in US-owned businesses here (eg McD) they craftily fill the container with ice first and you have to stop them or you only get the small amount of drink that fills the gaps. Usually in pubs they will stick in 2-4 ice cubes in a mixed drink. You could have as much as you like as they're saving on the volume of whatever you top it up with. Diet Coke is extremely widely available.
Yes, but almost every restaurant and fast food joint over here will offer you free refills of soda pop, so if you're sitting down to a meal at such a place, you can have as much as you want.
--------------------
"The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd." --Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
My blog: http://oxygenofgrace.blogspot.com
Posts: 11102 | From: Left coast of Wonderland, by the rabbit hole | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
What really irritates us ( me at least ), I believe, is where our grewat national treasures are used as backdrops to pictures of you. "This is me in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is my by tower bridge. This is my head impaled on a railing".
This applies to all tourists, not just Americans. I was in Israel with an English couple like that. "This is my grinning, ugly mug at Yad Vashem. Ah, and this would be my large intestine". It is about appreciating what is there, and not thinking that your butt-face actually adds anything to it. I know this viewpoint is not universally held.
Speaking for myself, having a picture of Sydney Opera House with my family in front of (but not obscuring) it adds the personal touch to holiday snaps.
If I just wanted a picture of it without us in front, I could buy a postcard. It'd be a better quality pic as well.
To be honest, people who take lots of holiday photos and aren't on any of them confuse me. I thought holiday photos were supposed to be a record of your trip, not professional portraits of a building/landscape/etc.
--------------------
Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
|
Posted
Nah. I take pictures of the things I saw.
I'd be unlikely to photograph the Opera house. Most of my photos are of mountains.
--------------------
Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
|
Posted
Another oddity in terms of language - lemonade. In the UK, this is a fizzy lemon flavoured drink. I still have a problem trying to get my head round being asked what flavour of lemonade I want, as some other countries use it as a general term for fizzy drink. So cherry flavoured fizzy water is cherryade, not cherry lemonade.
Soda is either used in baking or cooking. A drink of soda would not be pleasant. Pop is what balloons do if you bring them near a pin.
Doughnuts in the UK are generally filled with jam, and don't have a hole in the middle. Bagels do have a hole in the middle, but are savoury. Oh, and Candy is a Essex girls name, or a make of washing machine, or a suffix to "eye". Sweets are both the American candy, and the last course of a meal ( singular only ), also called pudding, afters, or dessert.
And if you ask for "biscuits and gravy", which I believe is a much loved food over there, you will get some very odd looks. Biscuits are what the Americans call cookies, whereas cookies are a type of biscuit ( best with chocolate chips ).
Floor numbers may well throw you as well. We start with the ground floor, and then count up from that, so the first floor is upstairs. For some reason, Americans seem to have their first floor on the ground. Which is a very strange idea.
Those British are crazy ... toc toc toc toc.
--------------------
Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rat
Ship's Rat
# 3373
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Another oddity in terms of language - lemonade. In the UK, this is a fizzy lemon flavoured drink. I still have a problem trying to get my head round being asked what flavour of lemonade I want, as some other countries use it as a general term for fizzy drink. So cherry flavoured fizzy water is cherryade, not cherry lemonade.
Oh my, that's right, don't even start trying to comprehend the different ways of talking about fizzy drinks in the UK, this is totally region dependent.
For instance, in Glasgow many people use Ginger as a generic term for any fizzy drink from lemonade to Irn Bru to Tizer. This is because the first ever fizzy drink marketed in Glasgow was ginger-beer and the name stuck. (I suspect coke doesn't count as ginger since it is a relatively new arrival)
--------------------
It's a matter of food and available blood. If motherhood is sacred, put your money where your mouth is. Only then can you expect the coming down to the wrecked & shimmering earth of that miracle you sing about. [Margaret Atwood]
Posts: 5285 | From: A dour region for dour folk | Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ormo
Shipmate
# 4805
|
Posted
In some parts of NI (and prob scotland and maybe north england) people will call a fizzy drink a mineral... Never really got this except it must be in some way linked to mineral water.
And instead of a can of coke people may ask for a tin of coke... (also applies to beans and other canned foods)
Posts: 445 | From: Belfast, Northern Ireland | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rat
Ship's Rat
# 3373
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ormo:
In some parts of NI (and prob scotland and maybe north england) people will call a fizzy drink a mineral... Never really got this except it must be in some way linked to mineral water.
I've never heard that, though it could be used in bits of Scotland I'm not familiar with.
My dad swears blind that when he grew up in Belfast the red raspberry sauce you could get the ice cream man to squidge on your ice cream cone was referred to as vanilla. He says when he first came over here and asked for vanilla on his ice cream people laughed hysterically and he couldn't understand why. Is that something you recognise?
--------------------
It's a matter of food and available blood. If motherhood is sacred, put your money where your mouth is. Only then can you expect the coming down to the wrecked & shimmering earth of that miracle you sing about. [Margaret Atwood]
Posts: 5285 | From: A dour region for dour folk | Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
[Yes, but almost every restaurant and fast food joint over here will offer you free refills of soda pop, so if you're sitting down to a meal at such a place, you can have as much as you want.
Well Ken that is very rare in the UK. Even McDonalds don't do it here.
Surprised us the first time we visited a McD's in the states, to be given empty cups rather than ones filled with half ice half drink - until we realised the drinks dispensers were on the customers side of the counter, and we could have as much as we wanted.
So let me ask something - when presented with this 'unlimited' beverage idea in a place like McDs, the temptation is for my family to just order one drink between us, and share it around a number of people, refilling as necessary. Would Americans ever do this or is it just 'not done'?
--------------------
Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Campbellite
Ut unum sint
# 1202
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
So let me ask something - when presented with this 'unlimited' beverage idea in a place like McDs, the temptation is for my family to just order one drink between us, and share it around a number of people, refilling as necessary. Would Americans ever do this or is it just 'not done'?
It is just 'not done'. Each person would get a separate cup.
The foolish bit is that people will pay extra for the "Supersize" cup, fill it once, and not be able to drink it all.
I prefer to get the smallest size, at a far smaller price, and refill it several times.
--------------------
I upped mine. Up yours.
Suffering for Jesus since 1966.
WTFWED?
Posts: 12001 | From: between keyboard and chair | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
|
Posted
So people still pay more for a larger cup, even though everyone can get free refills? Crazy! ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
(edited to add....) but then I suppose getting refills would involve getting up off your butt and walking across the restaurant, too much effort obviously?! ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
[ 08. June 2004, 16:14: Message edited by: Gracious rebel ]
--------------------
Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Saviour Tortoise
Shipmate
# 4660
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alarik the Goth:
Flippin' eck! Old Jos. T. was your ancestor!
Indeed so. But then, given the size of Victorian families and the number of generations back we're talking about there are probably a few tens of thousands of people who can claim the same thing!
quote:
But it isn't in the ale Premier League, as Timothy Taylor's or Black Sheep or Bateman's or Caledonian are.
Black Sheep is simply fantastic. Am I right in thinking that the Theakston family (owners of the Masham brewery were said Ale is produced) have bought Theakston back? I heard a rumour recently.
Tim Taylor's suffers from the same problems as Tetley's in many places though (certain down here) - the nasty, chilled, electric pumps. Why do people do that?! ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
--------------------
Baptised not Lobotomised
Posts: 745 | From: Bath, UK | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Saviour Tortoise
Shipmate
# 4660
|
Posted
Sorry to double post - just remembered a story about the wife of a famous UK based Cathedral Organist:
Said Organist was on sabbatical running the music at a church in the US. His wife was singing with the adult choir. On finding she needed to make a correction to her score, but being unable to due the state of the eraser on the end of her pencil, she said the following.
"Blow me, this pencil's got a manky rubber on the end of it."
Apparently many of the rest of the choir found it difficult to sing for a while.
--------------------
Baptised not Lobotomised
Posts: 745 | From: Bath, UK | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tabby Cat
Shipmate
# 4561
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I'd be interested in knowing what the Brits think of Pret a Manger.
I really tried to hate Pret a Manger. I used to walk past it thinking 'Ack, what a posh, pretentious place, they think they're so good, don't they!'
Until my (then) boyfriend made me go in.
Mmmm mozzarella, rocket and pine nuts...
Mmmm avacado wraps...
Mmmmmm...
Am now addicted, although I can't afford it. It's v. expensive. They make, however, the best sandwiches in the world.
[ 08. June 2004, 17:17: Message edited by: Tabby Cat ]
Posts: 1063 | From: Paddling at the edge of the sea | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
Pret are usually good quality. I just don't like sandwiches much. But their salads and sushi are nice. If overpriced.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ormo:
In some parts of NI (and prob scotland and maybe north england) people will call a fizzy drink a mineral... Never really got this except it must be in some way linked to mineral water.
In New England they call it a tonic. Other American words are pop, soda, and soft drink. Soft drink is understood almost everywhere.
Moo
--------------------
Kerygmania host
---------------------
See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
KenWritez
Shipmate
# 3238
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
So people still pay more for a larger cup, even though everyone can get free refills? Crazy!
(edited to add....) but then I suppose getting refills would involve getting up off your butt and walking across the restaurant, too much effort obviously?!
No, not everyone orders the largest size cups. Of those who do, I've seen many of them take their drink with them when they leave the restaurant. (I take my drink with me as well to sip on during the day, especially if it's a hot day, as it often is up here.)
As regards Pret sandwiches: What's an example of their pricing?
[ 08. June 2004, 17:42: Message edited by: Kenwritez ]
--------------------
"The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd." --Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
My blog: http://oxygenofgrace.blogspot.com
Posts: 11102 | From: Left coast of Wonderland, by the rabbit hole | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Custard
Shipmate
# 5402
|
Posted
There are some places in the UK that do unlimited refil drinks.
Pizza Hut is one (but they are a US chain)
Nandos do too (spicy allegedly Portuguese chicken)
trying to think of other places...
Custard
--------------------
blog
Adam's likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp thine image in its place.
Posts: 4523 | From: Snot's Place | Registered: Jan 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ormo
Shipmate
# 4805
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Rat:
My dad swears blind that when he grew up in Belfast the red raspberry sauce you could get the ice cream man to squidge on your ice cream cone was referred to as vanilla. He says when he first came over here and asked for vanilla on his ice cream people laughed hysterically and he couldn't understand why. Is that something you recognise?
Nope! Theres a good chance, though, that the particular ice cream man that would come around to his area mis-named his raspberry sauce that, possibly not knowing what vanilla actually was...
Or it is possible that if you asked for a vanilla ice cream it came standard with raspberry sauce, and as a young innocent child your father logically assumed that as the ice cream was, apparently, plain the naming must be after the sauce on that, apparently plain, ice cream. And as it seemed to work he stuck with it... Or perhaps another kid did that and then told your father that it was called vanilla...
I bet thats how a lot of these kinda things start... Logical, but misinformed, kids learning by trial and error...
Posts: 445 | From: Belfast, Northern Ireland | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
|
Posted
Think we are about down to eight on the lists of grades of cafes so :
8) a coffee house. Main purpose is to roast and sell decent coffee (and sometimes tea) but in order to stay in business run a cafe business as well. You know you are in a coffee house when you ask for coffee they ask whether you want it "mild, medium, strong or decaff". They sometimes even offer as wide a range of tea. Cooked meals tend to be traditional English, but well done, and baking home made. You eat surrounded by the delicious smell of proper coffee. The one in Sheffield is very reasonably priced with coffee for £1.00 for a huge cup.
9) Tourist Tea Shop - found in touristy areas, normally packed with serve tea, homebaking, and quite often cooked on the premises hot meals in the middle of the day. Normally have eccentric English features for decor. Price ranges hugely depending on how popular the tourist spot is rather than the quality of the food. Are like to sell local specialities as well.
At least two other sorts to go!
Jengie
--------------------
"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
QLib
Bad Example
# 43
|
Posted
And another weird – possibly the weirdest – thing about the British is that you ask them a perfectly straightforward question about themselves and you end up with learned disquisitions on (to name a few)… the best way of making tea (compulsory), North v South, the class system, types of refreshment facilities (including of course what makes for a good pub), ice cream sauces, the class system, obscure linguistic derivation and U v Non-U arguments about certain words, etc., etc. (Apologies to anyone offended by being left out…. or put in ![[Smile]](smile.gif) ).
Just about the only thing we haven’t had so far are the old arguments about the relative merits of football (soccer), rugby and cricket and the people who play them. And the other thing is that we like weirdness. Eccentricity is a prized British characteristic.
--------------------
Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Qlib:
the best way of making tea (compulsory)
When I first saw this thread, I gave serious thought to starting a pool on how long it would take before someone gave detailed instructions on how to make tea.
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Saviour Tortoise
Shipmate
# 4660
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Qlib:
Just about the only thing we haven’t had so far are the old arguments about the relative merits of football (soccer), rugby and cricket and the people who play them.
I did mention cricket further up the thread somewhere. It's clearly the strangest game of the three. (And clearly the best game of the three as far as I'm concerned!)
I always liked the rugby / football comparison which goes "rubgy is a hooligan's game played by gentleman and football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans."
--------------------
Baptised not Lobotomised
Posts: 745 | From: Bath, UK | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
R.A.M.
Shipmate
# 7390
|
Posted
Cricket especially real test cricket, especially when you get fantastic matches like the last two tests between MCC and the Kiwis.
It is apart from anything the most civilized game to watch or listen to other aprolonged period especially when working form home.
--------------------
Formerly Real Ale Methodist
Back after prolonged absence...
Posts: 1584 | From: (Sunshine on) Leith | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
dorcas
Ship's florist
# 4775
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
quote:
Originally posted by Ormo:
In some parts of NI (and prob scotland and maybe north england) people will call a fizzy drink a mineral... Never really got this except it must be in some way linked to mineral water.
In New England they call it a tonic. Moo
Over here "a tonic" is an over-the-counter "pick-me-up" drink from the chemist (pharmacy/drug store)- what you call "a tonic" is tonic water, a mixer for gin, vodka or on its own with a twist of lemon and lots of ice!
--------------------
"I love large women - they supply warmth in the winter and shade in the summer!" (With thanks to Gort!)
Posts: 387 | From: The Curry Mile, Manchester | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
From tales I've heard, UK pubs don't understand the concept of adequate amounts of ice in a glass, and they probably wouldn't stock Diet Coke, so iced tea, coffee or water are what I imagine my last resorts to be.
adequate amounts of ice?
The more ice, the less drink you get! Surely you want as little as possible, just enough to cool down the drink slightly but no more...
Amorya
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Campbellite
Ut unum sint
# 1202
|
Posted
In the case of Coca-Cola™, it is properly served just this side of forming ice crystals. If you drink it too fast, you will get a headache.
There are few things less civilized than tepid Coke™.
[ 09. June 2004, 02:56: Message edited by: Campbellite ]
--------------------
I upped mine. Up yours.
Suffering for Jesus since 1966.
WTFWED?
Posts: 12001 | From: between keyboard and chair | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ormo
Shipmate
# 4805
|
Posted
Oh cricket!!! Of course!
(taken from this site)
How (test) cricket works:
quote:
"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he is out. When they are all out, the side that's been out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
"When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out, he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who are all out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game."
[ 09. June 2004, 11:10: Message edited by: Ormo ]
Posts: 445 | From: Belfast, Northern Ireland | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Neep
Ship's Meerkat
# 5213
|
Posted
Of tourists and photography...
Personally, I feel that standing someone in front of a well-known tourist-luring location and taking a picture of them standing there is entirely inexcuseable. Good photography is of things in their natural habitat, on the whole- so the monument or landscape itself can make for a good photograph. Separately, portraits of people work best if the person is shown doing what they do best, and doing it naturally- regard this as doing what God made them to do. If there are people in the world made by God specifically to stand in front of monuments and squint at a camera, I would prefer not to meet them.
Half of the year, I live in Cambridge, where such idiocy is rife. The rest of the year I spend in Walsall. For some reason, there's not so much of a problem with it there...
--------------------
"Your standing days are done," I cried, "You'll rally me no more!
I don't even know which side we fought on, or what for."
Posts: 293 | From: A burrow, in England | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ship's Meerkat:
Of tourists and photography...
Half of the year, I live in Cambridge, where such idiocy is rife. The rest of the year I spend in Walsall. For some reason, there's not so much of a problem with it there...
It seems odd really, as most photographs taken in Walsall would actually be improved by having an inanely grinning, fat, ugly face added ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
--------------------
Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Neep
Ship's Meerkat
# 5213
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
quote:
Originally posted by Ship's Meerkat:
Of tourists and photography...
Half of the year, I live in Cambridge, where such idiocy is rife. The rest of the year I spend in Walsall. For some reason, there's not so much of a problem with it there...
It seems odd really, as most photographs taken in Walsall would actually be improved by having an inanely grinning, fat, ugly face added
Precisely! If anyone wants to take a photograph of something in Walsall and needs an inanely grinning ugly face adding, just let me know.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
--------------------
"Your standing days are done," I cried, "You'll rally me no more!
I don't even know which side we fought on, or what for."
Posts: 293 | From: A burrow, in England | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Crotalus
Shipmate
# 4959
|
Posted
Ah, Walsall. Like the old Soviet Union, but with McDonalds.
Posts: 713 | From: near the knacker's yard | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Wet Kipper
Circus Runaway
# 1654
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Saviour Tortoise:
I always liked the rugby / football comparison which goes "rubgy is a hooligan's game played by gentleman and football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans."
I always thought the comparison was
Rugby : Played by Hooligans, watched by Gentlemen
Football : Played by Gentlemen, watched by Hooligans
--------------------
- insert randomly chosen, potentially Deep and Meaningful™ song lyrics here -
Posts: 9841 | From: further up the Hill | Registered: Nov 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Doughnuts in the UK are generally filled with jam, and don't have a hole in the middle.
That's what we call a jelly donut. Most properly the filling is currant jelly, but other flavors are common.
--------------------
"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Saviour Tortoise
Shipmate
# 4660
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Crotalus:
Ah, Walsall. Like the old Soviet Union, but with McDonalds.
It does seem do have grown a reasonable art gallery since I was growing up around there.
Walsall Art Gallery
I remember being enthralled by the Walsall Illuminations when I was little. Went back as an adult once. My God they're terrible.
--------------------
Baptised not Lobotomised
Posts: 745 | From: Bath, UK | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view
