Bridging the Gap - The cultural exchange thread

[TomGuycott]

I think it's more of a brown gravy for what Kosheh described. Biscuits and gravy is more of a white gravy I think.

I'm sometimes dumb when it comes to food, I don't know what the difference is.

[Goemar]

So very late to the party here, and sadly quoting on an iPod and editing a quote down is pretty much impossible so... yeah I'm just going to reference old posts without quoting...


The whole wine to children thing. Here in the U.K. it's legal to have a glass of wine or half a pint (I think? Might even be a pint but I doubt it...) of cider or perry with a meal at a restaurant/pub regardless of age (might actually be 12 or something... seriously no one knows these laws) if accompanied by an adult.

Regardless of legal side of things - ever since I can remember I've had a glass of perry (Lambrini to be exact) with the family Sunday lunch when I was younger and it isn't uncommon at all.



Now onto the Jewish thing. The most 'historical' after death scenario is that you literally lie in the ground (dead) and rise again when the son of god arrives. I believe this was meant to happen after a thousand years - but obviously, he's running a bit late so a less literal approach has been taken.

It's also important to remember that when it comes to the Jewish messiah - miracles and that kind of stuff aren't really important, in fact some would even see such a thing as proof the person isn't the messiah.

The Jewish messiah is someone who knows Jewish 'law' so well (it's a monster of a thing to fully know) he/she will end all suffering as the teachings of God will be known fully to all.

There was actually a man born in recent-ish times who some believed was the son of god as his knowledge of Judaism was outstanding. This was later disproven when he died.


Like all religions, they were created back when the world was a smaller place, so the writing obviously made a lot more sense back then. Now, for one man/woman to end all suffering through the knowledge of religious teachings it's a hard pill to swallow so it's better to follow what the writing meant, rather than what it said. This does of course mean that it is very unlikely the Jewish faith will ever agree if someone is the messiah.

Judaism is so massively complicated that it often leads to disagreements.

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Pot pies (puff pastry pies, lid pies etc) are a common pub food here in the U.K.

The North tends to favour them other the shortcrust pastry variety.

Pie and chips and a few pints is a pretty standard lunch out.

Fun trivia: Yorkshire Caviar is just mushy pies - often advertised as such as a joke aimed at tourists.

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Also microwaving pastry is just a terrible idea, like yes you can - but you get crappy flat pastry instead of awesome flaky pastry. I remember when a friend of mine told me her microwaves tea instead of using a kettle it hurt my brain.

[Goemar]

Well UK gravy is brown. Mostly made with granules now but traditionally from beef drippings and corn flour (or is it just flour...). Now idea what a white gravy is...

I mean gravy and chips is a very British thing. And slapping some cheese on there, I mean a bit weird with the gravy... but ok, maybe, I guess? But cheese curdles... man... like no one willingly eats cheese curdles here...

[Kosheh]

I moved our poutine posts from the Love thread to this thread. It...seemed kind of out of place.

Also yeah, Goemar: Poutine usually uses America's "brown gravy" as opposed to the white gravy you'd get on biscuits in the South US.

Here's a stock photo of poutine.

And like, you can't eat this with your hands, you've gotta use a fork - to pick a little piece of cheese and also at least a fry or two.



geez I didn't expect this post to get so....lost in translation

[PatientZero]

Judaism is so massively complicated that it often leads to disagreements.

^This.
Like, for real, it's actually really hard to get across to people from a purely Christian background, but beyond the broad strokes Judaism is a lot less black and white than most other religions.

Also I suppose I should have clarified, I follow reformist Judaism, which is much less dogmatic and more social/democratic. While religion is still part of it, I personally see the mitzvot as being fairly logical guidelines which may or may not be outdated in the modern age, and others which are just respectful or ceremonial.

[Gors]

No idea what a white gravy is...

if you know what i mean...

Here's a stock photo of poutine.

that looks crazy good i love potatoes in any shape or form and this makes me hard

[puggsoy]

French fries and chips are 2 different things...

A bit late but: NZ is pretty similar to the UK with terms for food so I feel like I have something to say here. We do often call fries chips, but the word is also used for crisps. When trying to be unambiguous fries/crisps is usually said for clarity, but most of the time you can say chips and the context will make it obvious what you mean (e.g. fish n chips).

Basically, I am confused, what are pies doing in your country?

Here when you say pie you almost always mean a classic meat pie. Most commonly you have mince or steak, with or without cheese, by this I mean the ones you get at the shops or at a dairy. Some places that make their own pies have more variety, for example a place at my university has bacon and cheese, potato topped (mashed potato as a cover instead of pastry), mince with mushrooms, etc. Some places might put some veggies in which I love.
Obviously if you say apple pie you usually mean the same apple pie as in the US (or the one from McD), but the word pie itself typically implies meat.

Oh yeah and if anybody has NZ questions I'm here now. Apparently we're the only place where frozen Coke is a thing, is that true?

[Kendotlibero]

French fries and chips are 2 different things...

A bit late but: NZ is pretty similar to the UK with terms for food so I feel like I have something to say here. We do often call fries chips, but the word is also used for crisps. When trying to be unambiguous fries/crisps is usually said for clarity, but most of the time you can say chips and the context will make it obvious what you mean (e.g. fish n chips).

Basically, I am confused, what are pies doing in your country?

Here when you say pie you almost always mean a classic meat pie. Most commonly you have mince or steak, with or without cheese, by this I mean the ones you get at the shops or at a dairy. Some places that make their own pies have more variety, for example a place at my university has bacon and cheese, potato topped (mashed potato as a cover instead of pastry), mince with mushrooms, etc. Some places might put some veggies in which I love.
Obviously if you say apple pie you usually mean the same apple pie as in the US (or the one from McD), but the word pie itself typically implies meat.

Oh yeah and if anybody has NZ questions I'm here now. Apparently we're the only place where frozen Coke is a thing, is that true?

here a lot of bars use coke to make slush, mint and lemon are really common too

[Goemar]

We have Coke flavoured slushies - but I'm not sure if that counts as frozen Coke...

[Kosheh]

Gonna hit up this thread later, I love this thread omg

Apparently we're the only place where frozen Coke is a thing, is that true?

I think we've talked about this? New Zealand/AUS is probably the only place where McDonald's exclusively sells "frozen Coke".
Our Burger King restaurants in the US also have frozen Coke, but because licensing deals, it has a different name: the ICEE.

(seriously, click on the link and read what's on the glass cup that you do not get with the actual drink)
https://www.bk.com/menu-item/coke-icee

Burger King sells this is both Coke and Cherry flavors - apparently Cherry is the more popular flavor though? (When I order a Coke ICEE I end up getting Cherry 3/4 of the time, wtf)
Also worth noting: ICEEs, other than Cherry and Coke, fucking suck

It's kind of a limited-market thing I guess, but there's also 7-eleven's "Slurpee", which takes the idea steps further with crazier flavors. Then there's other weird gas-station variants on the idea. They're generally more "fluffy" though; I don't exactly understand the science behind it. ):

** It's worth noting though that Pepsi had their own "Pepsi Freeze" variant in convenience stores, too that had a more "slush" consistency (shredded ice in soda; kind of a "wetter" consistency. The "Freeze" name still lives on in Taco Bell stores through variations of Mountain Dew-branded Freeze drinks)

[JewyB]

In England we have Tango Ice Blasts, which are prettty sweet, i think i saw a Fanta one as well once, but i honestly cant remember

[puggsoy]

Yeah I'm pretty sure as Kosheh said anything that comes under "slushy" would be a wetter consistency. Frozen Coke/Fanta/etc tends to kind of get to that point once it starts melting but until then it's actually quite dry, it's more of a "melts in your mouth" kind of thing.

I think we've talked about this? New Zealand/AUS is probably the only place where McDonald's exclusively sells "frozen Coke".
Our Burger King restaurants in the US also have frozen Coke, but because licensing deals, it has a different name: the ICEE.

We have talked about it yeah, but I think that was on Discord and not on the forum. Also ICEE seems exactly like what Frozen Coke is here, and both McD and BK have it. They also have a Fanta version, I think McD has a (sour?) grape flavour and BK has mango and lime (that's at least the case around here, might vary between specific places).

[Kosheh]

Interesting to note, though that in most US households "Slurpee", "Icee", and "Slushie" are used interchangeably. It's technically a "frozen carbonated drink"

slush + lots of carbonation = weird fluffy beverage, apparently


Also, Fanta is...oddly uncommon here; sometimes you'll see it sold alongside imported Coke from Mexico. Oh yeah, that's a really American idea here, check this out:

Our Coca-Cola beverages, because it's...cheaper I guess? use HCFS (high-fructose corn syrup. If you're a health idiot you'll know this means it's not entirely ~natural~) and [ironically] health nuts were like "WTF, if I'm gonna drink Coke I'm gonna fill my body with REAL SUGAR! and started visiting Mexican groceries and buying up their Coke products.

Some distributors, noticing this trend started importing Coke products from Mexico, which contains real cane sugar - and also comes in a glass bottle. It turned out to be a hit, so you'll actually see this in quite a few shops, supermarkets and nearly every Mexican restaurant carries them, too alongside Jarritos soda products.

meanwhile yall probably use real sugar in your sodas so He He Ha Ha America

[Goemar]

Oddly enough here in 'America' shops you can buy Pepsi 'with real sugar' - which is pretty odd as U.K. Pepsi uses real sugar...

[Kosheh]

Oddly enough here in 'America' shops you can buy Pepsi 'with real sugar' - which is pretty odd as U.K. Pepsi uses real sugar...

Whoops! Yeah, that's a thing Pepsi's been doing for a little while to get the leg-up on Coke sales too. The thing is, the Pepsi and Coke rivalry in the states...it's really hard to tell the difference between the two from taste alone (just kidding, Pepsi-Cola use more syrup while Coke uses slightly more carbonation in my experience)


Also, today I learned what makes those frozen carbonated beverages more airy than typical, "wet" slush drinks: yucca extract. u_u