Foods and their names

There are just enough differences between the American and British names for some foods that can keep you guessing sometimes when you are shopping or reading a menu or a cookbook over here.

From the beginning, it was easy to note that chips here are French fries. I may have mentioned earlier that potato chips are called crisps. Also, it didn’t take long to understand that on the pub menu bangers and mash were sausages and mashed potatoes.

It did take a little longer, though, for me to realize that biscuits are both crackers and cookies.

I recently bought some biscuits (the cookie –type) that were called digestives. After looking them up, I discovered that they are something like our graham crackers. The ones I bought had a chocolate covering. (By the way – the chocolate bars over here are far superior to what I’ve had at home. Cadbury beats Hershey hands down.)

In my local grocery store, I always saw a sign for fairy cakes, and I wondered if they were sprinkled with magic sugar. In fact, they turned out to be simply cupcakes -- a bit of a let-down for me.

A week ago, when I stopped at a café for lunch, one of the sandwiches on the menu had mozzarella cheese with aubergine served on Panini bread. When I asked the waiter what an aubergine was, he said it was a vegetable, and he made a round shape with both hands. “You will like it,” he said smilingly. Well, he was right. It was eggplant, and the sandwich was delicious.

(Another food which is far superior here is bread. In every corner grocery store, there is a larger variety of breads available than I have ever seen in the States. They have flat breads, seeded breads, flavored breads, whole wheat breads, and on and on – not to mention the basic baguettes that everyone carries. I LOVE the breads over here!)

Earlier this week, when I was using my new cookbook by British chef, Gordon Ramsay, the recipe called for courgettes. Again, I had to look up the word in my American – British dictionary to discover that they meant zucchini. And at the farmer’s market on Sunday, one British woman corrected her American friend when she ordered beets. Here they are referred to as beet roots.

Finally, if you are feeling a bit puckish this afternoon – don’t worry; that means only that you are hungry.