Holy Breadcakes Batman

This happened a while ago, at our groups’ previous meeting location, a hotel just north of Grantham, but still makes me smile.

I walked through from the function room to the public bar, accompanied by Teresa (this bar and lounge has featured in quite a few of her posts), to order food. My lovely partner M wanted soup and I asked if it came with a breadcake or similar? The barman looked at me like I was an alien, not because we were dressed, that didn’t seem to bother him one jot, but because I had used a northern variation on bread roll. I thought - surely we aren’t that far from South Yorkshire, but further questioning established that he was from much further south.

I should explain, one of the quickest ways to start a healthy debate about regional differences is the names of these lovely individual bread products. Some others are Baps and teacakes. Even in my own office, within a twenty mile radius, there are three variations.

Just goes to show that being out dressed may be the last thing to cause a hiccup.

In the states we have the same with food, most notably what we in my part of NJ would call a 'sub sandwich' (short for submarine sandwich), in other regions commonly called a hoagie, or a grinder, or even a po' boy. Other names as well, I'm sure.

Try asking for a "Bubbler" outside of the State of Wisconsin!

FYI - A bubbler is a water drinking fountain almost everywhere else.

My family is from Wisconsin and we always go to the bubbler for water and would go out for grinders.

There you go Helena, the correct designation is of course ' barm cake' :)

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Thank you Diane. I love barm cake and cob too (always ask for a bacon cob) . I googled map too and there were several quite different ones.

I went to Wales once and asked for a Cornish Pastie.

I tried to pass a Scottish pound off on to a news stand in Liverpool Station.

Talk about cultural differences. :-)

A cob is a male swan

Southerner Susan!

It's like u speak a different language across the pond! It takes awhile for us Yanks to work out what u mean when u say things like; bread cake, bickies, and, toad in a hole!:eek:

Be careful about asking to sample someone's floury baps in the south, you might get a slap x

One day while working and out on the road I stopped at a small roadside cafe, the temporary structures you find in laybys.

Walked up to the counter and asked for that staple of all van men, a sos and tom sandwich( sausage and tomato). The puzzled look I got back should have told me this wasn't going to pan out well.

So having explained more fully they set about their work. Now I should add for those not familiar with the finer points of British van man food this delicacy consists of two slices of fresh bread holding cooked bacon smothered in cooked tinned tomatoes. Well I got two out of three, the toms were fresh cold sliced and placed on the bacon, a bit like you get in a BLT.

I got the impression they were new to the catering game.

And getting back to the thread, I agree. People we sometimes interact with just don't see the clothes. Just getting on with the day to day things is of greater importance and we are just another person to deal with.

Macey, I did not grow up far from where you are but far enough that we did not call them subs but hero’s. I think it is a regional thing also.

Helena, absolutely & it's always a fascinating subject - breadcake to me is Hullensian.

Ah docrobby, the vagaries of nicking a language and trying to make it your own eh? And I speak from experience after all English is a mix of Roman, AngloSaxon and Norman (the Normans were of viking extract as France as we know it did not exist back then). BTW my tongue is very much in my cheek.

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Originally Posted by DIANEF

There you go Helena, the correct designation is of course ' barm cake' :)

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I recognise all the terms on that map, but to me a tea cake has dried fruit in it and a lardy cake is very sticky and also contains dried fruit, so not ideal to have with soup.

Me, I would ask for a roll with my soup and then expect to be offered : white, brown or granary and now perhaps even sourdough etc. Most will do, so long as they provide real dairy salted butter, none of that vegetable blend cholesterol beating muck.

When I was sixteen and long before I was a woman of the world I was looking for an evening meal.

Everybody was advertising Devonshire teas.

They were quite cheap for a meal of fish, meat, gravy and potato chips or something like that.

I ordered one and all I got was tea, scones and strawberry jam and cream.

I haven't indulged since as I like coffee anyway. :-)

Yep morning roll

Helena,
Are you sure the barman wasn't a little deaf and he thought you said beafcake ?
I must admit the barman usually on duty was a lovely guy , he had a great smile and was always very pleasant . If I was early he often served me with my pot of tea and usually insisted on bringing it through on a tray for me in the lounge area .

I always thought a bap was a soft bread roll and a cob normally a small crusty one .

Minirock,
Does a batch mean the long bread rolls still joined together ?

Bev,
Very dangerous ground there , you can have Devonshire cream teas and Cornish cream teas , you have to check which county your'e in before upsetting the natives !

My best Devonshire tea was served in Australia, Bev. My friends GF took me to her special place in Brisbane! In England and Oz it's served with clotted cream, not whipped cream. Clotted cream is incredibly rich and unsweetened!:drooling:

What a delicious and fun lunch that was. I was young then and could eat countless calories with zero negative results!:devil:

Sherry,
That's the difference between Cornish and Devonshire cream teas !

Subtle difference Teresa, as are Tourists; Grockles in Cornwall and Emmets in Devon.

Is there not also a difference between Devon and Cornwall regarding the order of the jam & cream on the scone (a most vexing question)?

Rachel. I am aware of teacake in both it forms and it does indeed cause hilarious confusion.

Teresa I am not sure if he was the usual barman, think he may have said he was from Bedfordshire, but the staff were very pleasant.

As a Scot may I say i haven't a clue what any of you are talking about :)

Sophie

Bread is good no matter what you call it or where it came from LOL
I heard a British guy in a car dealer trying to explain he had an engine knock.
He said "its me moar its got a chanking noise going on in it.
The poor girl service writer couldn't understand him at all.
I think I got the meaning but couldn't be sure so I stayed quiet.
The lady next to me said doesn't motor have a letter T in it?
I said yes but I'm not getting in the middle of that conversation.
We went back to chatting about how good the Cheesecake Factory was and how large the menu is.