The US & UK: Divided by a common culinary language

A shrimp cocktail ( or a tableside Caesar salad), followed by a steak dinner with a baked potato (jacket potato in UK Speak) and Black Forest Cake would have been a celebration dinner in Ontario or Saskatchewan, and I suspect also throughout the Midwest, in the 70s and 80s.

Quite a few steakhouses- the ones that have been open 40 or more years- keep these types of dishes on the menu, and often have some sort of prix five or full dinner that includes soup or salad, bread and butter, steak, and choice of potato.

Naw. It’s how one uses what was found

I always assumed that the “confusion” was intentional. My impression was that it was the only thing that made the store notable. It appears that the use of the logo in the UK was not without controversy either.

I am usually amused at these comparisons. Sure, there are differences but nothing you shouldn’t be able to decode.
Much more idiosyncratic are regional names for a simple cup of coffee. Like in NYC, Black, Light, Extra-Light, or Black-and-Sweet . However, coffee with milk and sugar is a “Regular Coffee.
Name your region and it just gets more regional and inbred.

I think this may be a fairly general difference in an abbreviation for “vegetables”

veggie (US)…veg (UK)

I’ve been using your “veg” for some time. Way easier.

But am I generally right, Linda?

I based my interpretation for the US on American cooking shows shown here

I attribute the use of “veggie” as more cutesy than a deliberate American choice. But maybe it is an American chef choice - don’t know enough of them to say one way or another. But I still like the abbreviated “veg” vs. the full word.

Yes, there are some American chefs and/or cooks (i.e., Rachael Ray is one example) who use the term veggie vs. saying the complete word. Then again, Ray has so many Rachael-isms…and since there’s so much out there about her, I’ll just leave that here and let you draw your own conclusions.

Agree, re: the cutesy usage.

The Brits I know use veg as an abbreviation.

Any North Americans I know that say ‘veggies’ are using it in an cutesy manner, including both Americans and Canadians. If they use veg, it’s an abbreviation.

Vegetables?

One of a small handful of Spitting Image sketches I remember well, Robin.

Veggie’s still shorter than vegetable. I’m being efficient, not cute.

As long as you don’t say EVOO in mixed company.

That’s an appropriate one for this thread. Not a common abbreviation in the UK.

It’s not really common in the US, either, just a famous (and much-derided) affectation by Rachael Ray, who had a long-running Food Network show called 30-Minute Meals.

I used to watch them on trips to the States. And I bought a number of her cookbook - although that wasnt successful. Recipes included many “short cut” ingredients which were just not available here.

Cilantro… Coriander

Pudding (US)… Custard (UK)?

Pudding (UK)… Dessert (US)?

Question: I’ve read about dishes being “claggy” or “butch” as described by UK food writers but am unclear as to what those descriptions mean.

A random New Zealand thing:

Edited to add:

Flapjack (US) is an older word for pancake, but in the UK it’s similar to a chewy granola bar, as I understand it:

And one more edit for this link (and to remind myself to explore more of the blog):

Claggy - sticky, clumping together - for example, like a badly made risotto.

Butch - opposite of dainty/restrained. Taken, I presume, from the American word describing certain lesbians.

Thank you, @Harters. Does “claggy” have a positive or negative implication or is that in context? (Would something intentionally sticky/clumping together be called “claggy”?)

Regarding “butch”: I was wondering if it came from the lesbian/gay community.

In what I’ve seen of judges’ comments on Great British Bake Off, claggy is there used negatively, for e.g. cakes that are dense and gummy or underdone.