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#15825 01/17/01 07:57 PM
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Speaking of local idioms...in another post...what about the varied names for a certain kind of sandwich:
Hoagie
Sub (Submarine)
Hero
Torpedo

And when you want a cola...the general request is for a "Coke". Rarely have I heard the specific request for a "Pepsi". Flavored sodas in this area are called "pop".

In New Jersey, where I spent most of my life, if you wanted a pizza, a REAL pizza that is, you would ask for a "tomato pie".

Anyone want to share their local food names?

"Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"

#15826 01/17/01 08:41 PM
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The Hoagie/Sub/Hero/Torpedo can also be called a "grinder" around here, but anyone would understand what was meant by any of the terms.

Soda pop is shortened to "pop," although I get grief from people in other parts of the country for not calling it "soda." I say, which is the shorter abbreviation of soda pop, and which doesn't get confused with soda water???

I gave up trying to order either Coke or Pepsi, invariably to have the waiter inform me that they carried the other brand, or the generic cola, only to have the waiter check to see if Coke, or Pepsi, was OK, and have now resorted to ordering "diet brown."


#15827 01/17/01 08:48 PM
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Back in Boston in the old days I don't know what pop would've gotten you. The generic term for soft drinks was tonic pronounced [tawnic].


#15828 01/17/01 09:26 PM
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It's not my local dish, but I've been told the cold people in the Northern U.S. (Minnesota, Wisconsin) have something called "hotdish". It is a sort of casserole consisting of a pale meat, a pale vegetable and a binder. For example, turkey, peas and mushroom soup, or ground beef, celery and cream of celery soup. A friend said the number of combinations is mind-boggling, and she's actually found one she liked.


#15829 01/17/01 09:56 PM
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in Boston the generic term for soft drinks was tonic pronounced tawnic.

Ahhhh, yes indeedy! I took my tawnic to Houston in 1952 and got a befuddled look... tonic in Texas is on the order of Lydia Pinkham's Pills for Pale People.
As to ice cream based drinks.
In New England milk and ice cream whipped together is a frappe, but on a drive to west coast I learned to call it a "cabinet" somewhere in the mid-west.

Back in Boston if you ordered a "soda" you got syrup, carbonated soda and a scoop of ice cream perched precariously on the side of the glass.

In Pennsylvannia's Dutch Country (around Lancaster) I was introduced to Shoo Fly Pie, a molasses based pie which I've never found anywhere else. Yum.

To me the All American desert is apple pie. Whatever part of the USA you're in apple pie is apple pie! As in the euphemistic "war cry" -- "For God, Country, Mother and Apple Pie!"

wow




#15830 01/17/01 10:03 PM
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Good Gawd! I don't believe I did it. desert...nononono..... apple pie is dessert.
It's also good for breakfast!
wow


#15831 01/17/01 11:39 PM
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apple pie for breakfast

Absolutely for breakfast in New England with a wedge of cheddar cheese and "red flannel hash"!

"Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"

#15832 01/18/01 01:51 AM
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"Hotdish" reminds me that pasties (flat a) are regional. A pastie is a single-serving sized pastry crust, roughly rectangular, stuffed with meat, gravy and a veggie or two, the veggie usually being a root veg, especially turnip.

And malts: my grandfather, who was an electrician who traveled around the country working on railroads and at large projects, liked to tell of the time he was on the east coast for several months over a summer, working on something or other. Every evening, he would walk from his place of work to his room, and pass a drug store which had a soda fountain. He would stop there and order a malted, per the sign which indicated that malteds were 25 cents. The first time, the soda jerk made a malted with a single scoop of ice cream, and it was too runny for Grandpa. The next time, he asked the clerk to make the malted with two scoops. The clerk was aghast, but agreed to make the malted with the double ice cream if Grandpa would pay an extra 25 cents. Grandpa agreed, and so every day, he stopped and got his double-thick malted. After about a week, other people started ordering malteds that way, and then next time Grandpa went to the store, a sign in the window advertised their new specialty, "Western Malteds. 50 cents."


#15833 01/18/01 08:22 AM
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>apple pie is dessert.
It's also good for breakfast!

Oh - wonderful - that will make you a Yankee then!
I'd been sent a "definition" of Yankee ages ago by a friend and I'd assumed that the bit about apple pie for breakfast was a joke as I'd never heard of it!

To people outside the USA, a Yankee is someone who lives in the US.
To someone who lives in the USA, a Yankee is someone who lives in the North.
To a Northerner, a Yankee is someone who lives in New England.
To a New Englander, a Yankee is someone who lives in New Hampshire.
To someone who lives in New Hampshire, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.


#15834 01/18/01 08:51 AM
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I don't think that we use the term soda very much.

People used to have those soda fountain things on their "in house built-in-bars" which pumped out soda water (to go with whisky, I assume)- I never really knew why anyone would want it as it tasted fairly unpleasant. Shops still sell soda water in bottles as a mixer drink. I think it is still sold to go with whisky but I've never actually heard anyone ask for whisky and soda. It tends to be whisky (blended) and Canada Dry (for my parents' generation), malt whisky is better without any additions.

We can buy soda fountains/Sodastreams which is presumably based on the US usage as sticky concoctions are added to make not very convincing fizzy drinks. I don't think that we never had places called soda fountains (maybe because we could buy soft drinks in pubs).

There was a fashion for ice cream soda which my uncle used to buy for me at his favourite "Milk Bar".

In the North of England fizzy drinks were always (and maybe still are) called "pop". There even used to be a pop delivery van.

The word for drinks that have to be diluted was always cordial or squash in my family. I say a sign in a hotel in the US saying that soda was free but there was a charge for cordials. I was surprised, as I would have thought that cordial was cheaper. I hadn't realised that the word cordial was used to refer to alcoholic drinks.

On the subject of fizzy drinks. Lemonade is clear fizzy stuff with a vague taste of lemon - it's taste of lemon tends to be directly proportional to the price paid. The rather up-market fizzy stuff that actually looks lemon coloured and tastes of lemon, tends to be called "old fashioned lemonade" with the words "old fashioned" seen as an extra selling point. Some places sell Seven Up as lemonade but I think it has lemon and lime (but I could be wrong). Fizzy lemon and lime has the same chemical taste of lemonade but had extra lurid green dye. You can sometimes get the real still old fashioned lemonade sold in the US as lemonade, it is sometimes called lemon juice but you may need to be careful, otherwise you could end up with pure squeezed lemon.

As mentioned earlier, Coca Cola tends to be Coke, even if it is Pespi although "own brands" tend to call their stuff cola - often even more revolting than the real aircraft cleaning fluid sold as a drink.

I think that, like other foods, terms for drinks have regional/generational variations, so don't be suprised if someone from another part of the UK disagrees!


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