Telling time in U. K. English

[captkjaneway]

I say 'five and twenty to' the hour personally - an East London thing.

On the subject of UK food, bread and dripping was a favourite of my dad's, I prefer to use the dripping to cook the roast potatoes in personally. I haven't had a roast dinner in a while nor a steak and kidney pudding, so have put an orer in with the old girl when I pop back to London later this year.

Also a fry up is not complete without black pudding.

[mrbanana]

Black pudding. Yuck. I think you've opened the floodgates there. It won't belong before someone starts singing the praises of jellied eels, tripe, faggots, haggis, and sheeps brains.

The oddest thing I've ever eaten was when I lived in Spain. A bunch of friends took me to this cider house just outside Madrid. While we were there they brought me a plate of bread and cheese and a large glass of flat cider. The cheese was called Cabrales. To eat it you pour the cider onto the cheese, mash it into a paste, apply the paste to the bread, and eat.

It's a very very strong blue cheese. I liked it.

Only after I cleaned the plate did they tell me that Cabrales is full of maggots, and that's what gives it its flavour.

[Bilbo1967]

Black pudding is great! Captain Janeway is right, a fry-up isn't complete without it. I must admit to really liking haggis as well. Faggots can be good (no sniggering at the back over there in the US please) tripe is OK and I've never tried sheep brains. Jellied eels I really disliked - more the texture than the taste really.

[DMB]

Originally Posted by mrbanana

Black pudding. Yuck. I think you've opened the floodgates there. It won't belong before someone starts singing the praises of jellied eels, tripe, faggots, haggis, and sheeps brains.

You left out starry-gazey pie.

The pie originates from the fishing village of Mousehole in Cornwall. As with many parts of Cornish heritage, a legend has appeared about its origins. In this case, the pie is served to celebrate the bravery of Tom Bawcock, a local fisherman in the 16th century. The legend explains that one winter had been particularly stormy, meaning that none of the fishing boats had been able to leave the harbour. As Christmas approached, the villagers, who relied on fish as their primary source of food, were facing starvation.[6]

On 23 December, Tom Bawcock decided to brave the storms and went out in his fishing boat. Despite the stormy weather and the difficult seas, he managed to catch enough fish to feed the entire village. The entire catch (including seven types of fish) was baked into a pie, which had the fish heads poking through to prove that there were fish inside. Ever since then, the Tom Bawcock's Eve festival is held on 23 December in Mousehole. The celebration and memorial to the efforts of Tom Bawcock sees the villagers parading a huge stargazy pie during the evening with a procession of handmade lanterns, before eating the pie itself.

[taosaur]

Heaven is a place where:
The lovers are Italian
The cooks are French
The mechanics are German
The police are English
The government is run by the Swiss

Hell is a place where:
The lovers are Swiss
The cooks are English
The mechanics are French
The police are German
The government is run by the Italians

[DMB]

Story told in Switzerland about cable cars for going up mountains.

The Swiss build them new
And
Use them for 10 years
Then
The Swiss sell them to the Austrians
Who
Use them for 10 years
Then
The Austrians sell them to the French
Who
Use them for 10 years
Then
The French sell them to the Italians
Who...


...Use them until they break.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I have seen black pudding salad as a starter on dinner menus. Some of the guys ordered it and said it was lovely. The joke was that they could go home and tell their wives that they had salad for dinner. Wikipedia has an image of deep-fried black pudding from a chip shop.

[captkjaneway]

Black pudding and rabbit is a lovely starter from Simpsons in the Strand actually.

Jellied eels not so good I don't like aspic, but stewed eels, mash and liquor was what I was weaned on, or failing that good old pie, mash and liquor - feeling quite homesick now

[SeaBookGuy]

When I lived in New York, I'd sometimes brunch at an Irish pub -- the black puddings ended up on my plate.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by DMB

You left out starry-gazey pie.

Traditional fish pie with mash and grated cheese is one my favorite English meals, but I think I prefer my fish filleted and chopped up inside the pie rather than staring at me. I have, however, tried whitebait deep-fried and served with bread and butter. That's an adventurous meal for me.

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I must admit to really liking haggis as well.

I was sorry to miss out on haggis pakoras on my last visit to Glasgow.

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

tripe is OK

I eat liver, brains, heart, kidney, and I'd probably try lungs, but tripe ... just NO!

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I eat liver, brains, heart, kidney, and I'd probably try lungs, but tripe ... just NO!

Tended to off the brains thing after mad cow disease but tripe is just plain an offence against food...

[mrbanana]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I eat liver, brains, heart, kidney, and I'd probably try lungs, but tripe ... just NO!

But if you eat cheese you've eaten tripe. In cheese it's called rennet. That's why you can buy vegetarian cheese, ie, cheese made without rennet.

And if you like a bottle of wine with your evening meal it might have finings in it, which are fish guts or fish bladders. It's used to clarify the wine. Stargazey pie doesn't sound so bad now.

[maianhvk]

In case you wanna know, telling the time in our language is pretty similar to that in English, roughly translated as:

4:15 = four (hour) fifteen

4:30 = four half <--- sounds like 4 x 0.5 = 2, but there's a not-saying "and a" between "four" and "half".

4:45 = four forty-five (many use this, but to me it sounds weird ) or five lacking fifteen (I always use this)

That's for 12-hour system. The same for 24-hour system, although IMO the latter is sort of awkward. I can't instantly 'exchange' it to the exactly time when given something like 18:50. I guess that is because I'm more familiar with analog watch. I hate digital watches.

When I first knew about your way of telling the time (for those who are related to US military), like 0415 hours, I thought, 'oooohhh it looks cool!'

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

I hate digital watches.

I remember when LED digital watches were the new cool gadget, and cost several hundred dollars for a black screen that showed a small 7-segment red LED display when you pressed a button. Even then, the battery only lasted a year or less.

Wild digression:

Spoiler:

Which explains why Arthur Dent, in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy says at one point:

"Hell! My left arm's come off too. How am I going to operate my digital watch now?"

— you need both the arm the watch is on, and the other arm to press the button to light the display.