If I don't eat it, it goes in the bin. Cats don't seem to like pancakes :-D

The pancakes are made very thin, as crepes.

Upthread, there was some talk about the abbreviating of some words. I know we used to do it growing up in England during the 1970s (when mum, amazingly and kindly, cooked up full breakfast every morning.) I remember "Chrissie pressies" (and still call them that), cozzie (for swimming costume - I was a competitive swimmer for ages), libee (for library), and others. I don't think it's limited to Australia and the sun. ;-)

So what are Chrissie pressies?

Christmas presents.

As an Aussie (notice the shortening) I had cereal and/or toast for breakfast as a child. I love a cooked brekkie, but prefer to have it as brunch.

When I travel, I like to try the local food. I don't mind grits, but the gravy that comes with biscuits just looks wrong to me. Gravy should be brown :) I love a full English/Scottish/Irish breakfast, but without the blood pudding.

Pikelets were occasional treats in our house, eaten with sugar and lemon or Golden Syrup. I make mine with self raising flour.

A final comment is to add that the same foods are called different things in different places. Sultanas seem to be exclusively Australian - we have raisins but they are bigger than US raisins which are (as far as I can tell) the same as sultanas.

In the US they refer to sultanas as "white raisins".

Kath, that white sausage gravy that is served with biscuits will give you a heart attack! LOL White gravy is served with country fried steak, too, but without the sausage in it.

I don't think anyone has mentioned French toast in the breakfast discussion. I love it even more than pancakes! It's a good thing I can't cook, or I'd probably make pancakes and French toast a lot and be really fat. :)

Donna

Astro.......thankfully you'll never find grits or white gravy on biscuits in the northeast ! We favor hash browns (pan fried potatoes) , eggs and some sort of breakfast meat such as bacon, sausage or ham slice.

Bon, do you have scrapple in NY? We first encountered it in Pennsylvania (I think) and were thoroughly disgusted by it. They have it on the menu at Bob Evans restaurants here in FL, but they call it golden mush.

PS - I love grits, too, but can't stand Cream of Wheat. :)

Donna

Another difference is our mutual language is that in the U.S. flour to which baking powder and salt have been added is called self-rising flour rather than self-raising. So, does it rise or is it raised?

Donna, it's possibly better that I don't know what's in sausage gravy! I do know that it was served at a buffet dinner at a conference my husband attended in the US and most of the Australians were confused by it. I was able to tell them what it was, but I don't think any of them took much :)

I guess you could describe sausage gravy as like savoury mince, but made with sausage meat and milk instead of mince and water.

Carolyn, you have probably noticed in the British books you read that British employees who want an increase in theirs wages will ask for a pay "rise" instead of a pay "raise" that American employees prefer.

Donna, I call that white floury gravy served with country-fried steak "Kindergarten paste" because it looks and tastes to me just like the goo we Iowan Kindergarten pupils used to adhere pieces of paper to other objects. I know because I was one of those kids who tasted the paste! I didn't like it then, and I never developed a taste for the 'gravy' equivalent. It's too raw tasting, I think, and almost sweet (from the added milk?).

One time at a restaurant (in Alabama) when I was quite obviously pregnant I couldn't face trying to eat the white goop, so I asked the order taker to have the stuff left off my country steak. Instead I asked if there was a bottle of Tabasco or Louisiana hot sauce available. She brought me a bottle and then purposefully waited to see what I was going to do with it. I liberally doused my steak with it in lieu of the gravy. The waitress was so astonished that she exclaimed, "I hope your baby kicks you all night long!"

So the next question is . . . What is country-fried steak? Also never heard of sausage gravy. If it is made with some sort of sausage meat, why would you add it to another type of meat eg beef?

Just to add, when I lived in Ottawa and went into the city to meet friends, we would often go to a restaurant popular with female secretaries from the various Embassies and High Commissions. The favourite lunch for the 'local' girls was always a cheese/egg/ham sandwich covered in hot gravy served with a side order of coleslaw. All washed down with a glass of Coke. I'm sorry to say that to me it seemed a revolting combination!

The sausage gravy is essentially sausagemeat crumbled and fried off with onions, then sprinkled with flour and milk poured in to make a white gravy with crumbled sausagemeat in it. This isn’t a dressing for cooked meat, but is ladled over hot American biscuits/scones.

Donna, scrapple is a Pennsylvania Dutch food ......not at all common in diners or restaurants here in NY .

And I have to repeat for those not in the US......white gravy and biscuits or "chicken fried" steak are very much southern foods, not overly relished by those who weren't born and raised with it !

Thanks Colleen. So when Frieda mentioned above her 'white goop' served with steak, it was not quite sausage gravy or maybe Alabama is not typical or even more Southern?

And we too also had that 'Kindergarten' style paste, a mixture of flour and water . . . it was better at sticking in our hair than in holding bits of paper together.

We had that type of glue dispenser, although it wasn't LePage's and I can't remember the brand. The glue most used at school was called Clag, and it was translucent white and the lid had a brush through it.

Vee, I can't think of the name(s) of English equivalents to U.S. chicken-fried or country-fried meats, but I know you have them in some parts of England because I've eaten them there -- particularly in North Yorkshire and Teesside, I think.

Schnitzel is the Austrian/German name; Milanesa is Italian and Argentinian; Escalope is the French; and there is some form, with various names, in other parts of the world. Just about any kind of meat can be used: veal, beef, lamb, mutton, pork, venison, chicken, turkey, etc. Whichever is chosen, it is in general fairly thinly sliced, then tenderized by pounding with a mallet, rolling pin, or just a heavy stick. Sometimes a bit of flour is pounded into the meat, then the meat is dipped into a beaten egg mixture and this coated meat is dredged in a seasoned flour mixture or breadcrumbs. It is pan-fried in some form of fat until the breading is browned. Some folk will cook it on a griddle or 'oven-fry' it.

Typically some sort of sauce or gravy is served atop the meat -- sometimes just melted cheese. Some of these are simply deglazing of the cooking pan, others involve a more complex roux, and sometimes it's just a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Does that help you identify the English/British versions?

Our Kentucky sausage gravy doesn't have onion in it. It is ground, seasoned pork sausage fried and crumbled and added to a salted, medium-thick roux made with milk. Plain milk gravy, if it is too thick, may be yucky, but good sausage gravy isn't. Well, maybe you have to be born to it. Tastes like Christmas breakfast to me!

Vienna Schnitzel here!

I would use breadcrumbs to coat the meat and now panko crumbs is the fashion, I think. Butchers sell it ready to cook.

Thank you for all the chicken/steak/schnitzel comments.

Annpan I haven't had a Vienna Schnitzel since the '60's at the German restaurant in London's Charlotte St Soho! No longer on English menus.

I think we would just call your sausage gravy sauce . . . which over here is always a roux base, made with milk to which parsley other herbs or cheese had been added and in my childhood was used as a disguise for over-boiled carrots, onions or the hated marrow.

Frieda, my Mother, with a glance towards her American heritage used to do fried chicken. But she wasn't much of a cook so it was often rather underdone.

Steak is considered something of a luxury here as it is very expensive and was always grilled (broiled?) although done in a hot pan is better.

Frieda will be familiar with lamb/mutton chops which along with pork chops used to be a staple on UK menus. My Great Grandfather would eat them for breakfast.

yoyo, that glue, with a different name was common; it is probably still available. We also had a thick white glue, sold in round tins with a plastic 'spreader' that sat in a central well. It smelt strongly of almonds and we used to sniff it!

Was this the beginning of a life of substance abuse?!

Sausage gravy really can't be described as "sauce" as it has a fair amount of cooked crumbled sausagemeat in it... it's more like the filling of a cottage pie, but made with sausagemeat instead of mince and milk instead of water. Maybe a little runnier than cottage pie filling but not much.

I love lamb chops but never for breakfast, always an evening meal.

Schnitzels are popular pub food here, originally called Wiener Schnitzel, but we seem to have lost the Austrian connection. Actually, given the Australian propensity for abbreviations, discussed above, they are often called schnitties. A pub usually offers chicken or beef, with a variety of sauces such as gravy, mushroom, diane etc. Another favourite is chicken parmigiana (called a parmie of course) which is a tomato based sauce with cheese melted on top.

astrokath.....lol...."parmie" " schnitties" .....oh my , that last one could get dicey !

In googling Australian diminutive slang I found that it is actually a feature of the Australian English language. Interesting.

Parmi and a coldie...doesn’t get much better :-D

A chain restaurant here called Olive Garden has Eggplant Parmesan on the menu which is the only eggplant I've ever really liked except a dish of eggplant with unknown seasonings I ate in Turkey once that was delicious.

Kath, re 'pub food'. Over here the usual menu includes fish and chips served with mushy peas (which I can't stand), a wide variety of 'pies' including steak and ale, chicken, minced beef all served with chips (ie French fries) and possibly a few lettuce leaves on the side, lasagna and a 'veggie' dish. Of course there are a few up-market places that offer a more adventurous menu.

Many pubs now do an 'all day breakfast' ie fried stuff as mentioned above and a Sunday Roast.

This used to be the bed-rock and highlight of the weekend, except for Mother labouring in a hot kitchen. Now the family can go out to their local and enjoy roast beef, pork, lamb, (often ALL served on the same plate) with Yorkshire pud, veggies and the ever-ready brown gravy. The price often includes a pud, so can be good value for money.

Of course it means that come Monday there are no cold cuts/leftovers on which to feed the family. And by Tuesday nothing to mince and turn into a shepherds/cottage pie. Little gets wasted in our household!

Vee, what makes the peas mushy? I like green peas. I usually get them frozen and heat them in the microwave.

Donna

Vee, I hear you! Sometimes if the joint was a good size, we had stew on Wednesday. Thursday was often Sausage Toad and Friday fish and chips. Saturday depended on what we fancied from the local market as we did the weekly veggie shop there.

msmeow, mushy peas are made from dried marrowfat peas that have been soaked overnight and then simmered with a bit of bicarbonate of soda to make them soft. It’s a bit like really really thick pea soup without the ham. I quite like them.

I was remembering today another Aussie nickname, for the band AC/DC. It’s usually referred to as “Acca Dacca”.

Donna, I think they are similar to what we call split pea soup , My Sicilian nonna used to make that and serve it with elbow or other macaroni in it. It is the Sicilian version of "pasta e fagioli......or as non-Italians call it " pasta fazool".

Mushy peas are much thicker than split pea soup, and the peas used are a different variety. (Like the difference between, say, Roma tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.) They have a consistency about the same as pate.

Colleen, when I first ran across "Acca Dacca" in print and spelled out that way, I thought it was a different Australian band, not AC/DC. I (logically to me) thought it must be pronounced with sibilant 's' sounds, but I was soon corrected by someone and told the double 'c' sounds like a hard 'k'. Is that correct? I understand now that it is an affectionate name and terms of endearment don't necessarily have to make any logical sense.:-)

Above you mentioned "garbo" as the shortened term for garbage collector (a human?). In parts of the U.S. the garbage disposal machine in a kitchen sink is called a "garbo" because a popular brand name of such machines is a "Garbolator."

Thanks for the info on mushy peas! Frieda, I’ve never heard of the brand Garbolator. We’ve always had Insinkerator brand garbage disposals. Lately I’ve been hearing that we’re not supposed to use them because it puts too much gunk (mostly fat) in the city water treatment system.

Donna

My cooked split peas end up very thick....not soupy

I think the mushy peas served in pubs over here come from huge 'catering size' cans and are quite soupy, not nearly as solid as pate. In no way could they be cut with a knife, they would be better eaten with a spoon. Donna, they are pale, insipid green and taste very mealy.

Donna, I have had Insinkerator brand garbage disposals, too. I had to go look in my kitchen sink to see which one I currently have. It has "Garbolator" imprinted around the metal ring at the opening. I searched on the internet to see if Garbolator is a west-of-the-Mississippi thing. I didn't find many mentions, so perhaps that brand is now defunct or at least rare. However, I think "garbo" is said so habitually in some places that many people I know would still call whatever brand name they have a garbo, and the act the machine performs would remain as the verb garbolate. (It's like Xerox as a noun and a verb, I suppose.)

My garbage disposal is several years old. I only occasionally use it, because I've heard those warnings you mentioned. I've seen gross photos of the results, as well!

Yes Frieda, it's a hard "k" sound- I debated spelling it "Akka Dakka". And "garbos" are human. We don't have sink garbage disposal units in Australia.

I don't think many people in the UK have a garbage disposal unit in their sink.

But as for trade-names that have now become the recognised 'name' for the machine, over here we almost always refer to a vacuum cleaner as a 'Hoover' whether or not it was manufactured by the company of that name.

I'm sure there are other eg's.

Thermos is another brand that has come to mean the item, in this case a vacuum flask.

Acca Dacca rhymes with Macca's - which is what we call McDonalds :)

I remember long discussions here on what words rhyme in various accents - for instance my 'aunt' sounds exactly like 'aren't' - which makes describing how a word is said very difficult. Do you remember the video I made to show my accent?

Kath, I do! I thought is was excellent and don't know why no-one else commented on it at the time.

Coming late to the table---- just wanted to put in a good word for Southern cuisine and grits. Shrimp and grits are a staple at some of the best restaurants here in Charleston, SC. I was never a fan of grits until I moved to this city. In case you have not noticed, southern cuisine is having a renaissance on the the culinary scene.

Having said that, I would not touch "fried steak", etc. I used to see it frequently on menus when I lived in West Virginia, years ago.

Kleenex is another brand that has come to me the object as well.

The good nuns used to call them wipes. Rather icky term. They'd seem to always have them tucked up into their sleeves, a habit a tend to have as well when no pocket is available !

Kath, I remember your video demonstrating your accent. I watched/listened to it probably a.dozen times. Yours was the first South Australian accent that I was sure was different from other Australian accents I had heard.

Btw, I recently was told that the names Anna and Arna (spelling?) are pronounced the same with an authentic South Australian accent. I have no reason to doubt that as it reminds me of the dog's 'paws', pronounced pores (to my ears) in SA, which I recall was featured in your video. You can verify it for me, though. :-)

Vee, I made several comments about Kath's video. But I think you are right that no other RPer attempted to make a similar video/audio of her own accent. . . none that I know of anyway.

No, we pronounce Anna with a short ‘a’, quite different to Arna. However you are right about paw sounding the same as pore (and poor and pour LOL).

The South Australian accent is more RP than the eastern states. We say ‘grarf’ rather than ‘graff’ for instance, which causes much mirth among the easterners.

Yoyo, Kleenex didn't catch on here. It's a brand we have but we call them generically tissues.

Kath, a tip for writing Australian pronounciation phonetically is that you need to think in terms of the foreign person reading it rather than an Australian. For instance, if I said "grarf" with an American accent, it would sound very different to what you intend. An American would spell it "grahf" (almost rhymes with midwest American "off" (actually in WA we say it that way too :-) ) as opposed to the eastern states "graff" (rhymes with "half").

I used to think about this sort of thing a lot in the shower because I had to coach my West Aussie Sweet Adelines chorus to sing with a mid-west American accent. The vowels produce the best sound in this art form- if you "lock and ring" chords (sing each voice part's note with a pure harmonic) it creates a fifth harmonic which gives the impression that it's a five-note chord instead of the four voices actually singing.