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English vs English


deanb
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Tea for me is a Lyons Original teabag in a cup with 2 and a bit teaspoons of sugar and then the boiling water, wait for it to brew for a bit and then add the milk. If I was making a pot of tea, I'd use leaves if they were there or three teabags and then let it brew for a while. For a single cup of tea, I see people over here usually wait until after brewing the tea and removing the teabag before adding sugar and I used to do the same myself but then you get lumps of tea-coated sugar in the sugar bowl since nobody bothers to clean and dry the spoon before dipping in.

 

As for mates and chaps, "lads" and "guys" is more common here in Ireland and for women you don't really know but know somewhat it's "that one" or "those ones" or "your one", "one" always referring to women in that context.

Edited by MasterDex
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Oh, here's another one... I'm not sure if this is a US thing, or an ignorant thing (I do acknowledge that the two aren't always mutually exclusive). But "Addicting"? No. It's "addictive".

 

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/06/addictive-addicting.html

 

I'd refer you to that. There is no right and wrong there and it's not an issue of English vs English but rather something that props up in both places due to changing times. Of course it might sound annoying but it is correct and the OED (some versions at the very least) does have an adjectival input for addicting. However the thing is addicting sounds like it should be the present participle of addict which is a noun in modern English.

 

So in short it isn't wrong, despite the fact that it sounds wrong.

 

About my tea thing, you know I forgot the whole process of sieving in that write up I had...

 

I do believe lads is common in the North as well? But chaps is quite antiquated in modern society.

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People use the OED still? My use of that book was limited to college, wherein I minored in English.

 

Back in those days, my parents made tea using a coffee pot, putting the tea bags where the coffee usually goes.

 

Right now, I'm enjoying some green tea (2 bags, 12ozs of hot water, and 2 teaspoons of sugar). It tastes much better when it's stronger.

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Lads (lad singular has recently acquired its own specific meaning of a lad's lad or particularly blokish person, this should give you an idea), mate/mates, guy/guys all get used her up north (although in slightly different contexts, you might address someone as 'mate' but not as 'guy', for example). My most Yorkshire friend (in terms of his mannerisms) uses pal quite often and as such I find it slipping into my own vocabulary from time to time. But if anyone were to use chaps in a non-ironic situation it would be quite jarring, with the exception of something along the line of 'he was a nice chap' which I can imagine people of an older generation saying.

 

People use the OED still? My use of that book was limited to college, wherein I minored in English.

Free membership for OED online, one of the (admittedly many) things I love about uni.

Edited by Mr W Phallus
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Anyway due to these industry people some of whom shall not be named I learnt that you are 'supposed' to make tea black and honestly it's common today. But personally after the tea prep I too prefer milk and sugar (2-3 depends on the type of tea).

 

At least we've not gotten into tea ceremonies or learnt 'to drink cha from an empty cup'.

Which oddly reminds me, chai tea is an annoying double word. It literally is tea tea. Now if chai tea was a different name for masala chai or masala tea that would make sense I suppose but it's not.

 

I've also heard that adding milk to tea basically destroys any anti-oxidant n other health benefits tea has. I've taken to drinking tea n coffee black, but tbh it's more out of laziness. I don't always have breakfast so I rarely have milk in (I have changed this around lately) so rather than nipping to the shop to pick up milk to add a drop to some tea I just got in the habit of having black tea. Also cos I've started having some of those twining selection boxes and they taste really nice on their own.

 

btw WTF you must hate the American Bison?

 

Also we're a day on and still no Americans coming forward on their tea making habits so I'll just link:

BBC - h2g2 - Tea

 

 

Also I use mates, guys, maybe a few others. Not geezers though. Geezers are those guys who are a bit greasy, on the other side of the law a bit.

Which after the link was shared someone replied to it with "I stopped reading after he said the water needed to be boiling". Which got various replies of "you muppet, that's his fucking point. You guys don't have boiling water cos you think tea is a sissy".

 

btw isn't OED like £5K for online access?

 

 

Oh the Americanism article got a follow up:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796

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Tea is just fucking gross. That's the end of the story. I've had different varieties all made by people who knew how. I drink tea if I'm sick for the same reason I take Tussin.

 

BLASPHEMER! BURN HIM!

 

I love tea, I couldn't go a day without drinking a cup. It can take a while to find the type or even the strength of tea you like but once you find it, you'll love it. Also, tea tip: Substitute sugar for honey, it's delicious.

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Tea is just fucking gross. That's the end of the story. I've had different varieties all made by people who knew how. I drink tea if I'm sick for the same reason I take Tussin.

 

BLASPHEMER! BURN HIM!

 

I love tea, I couldn't go a day without drinking a cup. It can take a while to find the type or even the strength of tea you like but once you find it, you'll love it. Also, tea tip: Substitute sugar for honey, it's delicious.

 

Tea is like coffee in that everyone tells me you need to get a taste for it. Why would I get a taste for something bitter that has to be consumed with large amounts of sugar (well, I'd have to use Splenda) in order to make it palatable?

 

Speaking of tastes and flavors: Bacon

 

In America bacon is taken from the pork belly and is smoke cured (usually with hickory or maple wood or even corn-cobs. This bacon is higher in fat yet is quite delicious. If the only edible meat on a pig was belly bacon, they'd still be worth raising and slaughtering.

 

In the UK and other parts of Europe, bacon refers to the relatively lean part taken from the loin. We in America tend to use the pork loin more for things like pork chops and pork roasts (When we live "high on the hog" that is ;) ) In America we have this as "Canadian Bacon" which is odd since Canadians eat a lot of American style bacon (they call so-called Canadian Bacon "Back Bacon")

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We have streaky bacon, back bacon, and gammon.

And probably a few other cuts, but I'm no butcher.

 

We even eat the parts of the pig that make them bent.

1135-Mr_Brains_Faggots__24580_zoom.jpg

 

I believe streaky bacon (or belly bacon) is the closest to American bacon but IIRC it's not cured the same way but I'm not a British butcher. I am fairly sure that the French simply salt it and use it as Salt Pork (or Lardon.)

 

Fun fact: During the American Civil War the Union soldiers were given rations of Salt Pork and hard tack (aka Sea Biscuits when they are round and on a ship)

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We have bacon in the UK as smoked, sweet cure or dry cure. Any of those three can be back or streaky. I would say as a general rule people eat dry cure in a sandwich and use smoked as an ingredient in cooking (as it is more salty it's a bit much on a sandwich) I'd say sweet cure is definitely the least popular in this country and it always makes my toes curl when I see people pouring maple syrup on bacon in American movies/TV programmes. Ewww. :o

 

Also on Wikipedia, it says USAers use the term rasher of bacon to mean a serving of bacon (ie several slices) whereas in the UK a rasher is a single slice and is the most common way to refer to slices.

 

That kind of reminds me about the confusion around rounds of bread/toast. A round of bread/toast is one slice but a round of sandwiches is two slices of bread (making one sandwich) but some people take it to mean one slice of bread still so you could end up with only half a sandwich!

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I like bacon with maple syrup! A lot of Americans do, too. I dunno if that's a US/UK difference, though, could just be overall preference.

Maple Syrup with milk isn't bad, either. The concept is weird, but it works out pretty well. Make sure not to add too much syrup, though, because it can get disgusting.

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Mmm Maple Syrup, Bacon and Pancakes. Some of us in the UK have seen the light. It's not really any different from eating pork with apple sauce, or duck with plum sauce, or honey roast ham; meat goes well with sweet things.

 

Another use for maple syrup, back when I made bread (in a bread machine, I'm not that cool) my favourite was maple syrup bread. If I remember correctly I came up with it myself in a culinary experiment. :sherlock: I think it was as simple as pour in 3/4 of a bottle of maple syrup into normal white bread mix and put a bit less water in so it doesn't get too soggy so I guess it's not that impressive.

 

Edit: Thursday you meat sauce post ninja. :getoffmylawn:

Edited by Mr W Phallus
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