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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby D-LOGAN » Thu Jul 04, 2013 9:33 pm

Marcuse wrote:Glad to fulfil your fantasy Dock


Well if you really wanted to do that you'd of put up a pic of yourself dressed as a Giant Custard Soaked Penguin On A Unicycle, but I guess I can't have everything. *sigh*
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby sunglasses » Fri Jul 05, 2013 2:41 am

D-LOGAN wrote:
Marcuse wrote:Glad to fulfil your fantasy Dock


Well if you really wanted to do that you'd of put up a pic of yourself dressed as a Giant Custard Soaked Penguin On A Unicycle, but I guess I can't have everything. *sigh*



That sounds so....dreamy.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby CarrieVS » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:30 am

DamianaRaven wrote:If cookies are called biscuits, what would you call that morning bread-puck we think a biscuit is?


I only recently found out what you think a biscuit is. We don't actually have them in this country, but we do have scones (it rhymes with stones), which appear to be very similar; indeed, I couldn't actually tell you where the difference lies, although I'm given to understand that they aren't the same.

spicytaco wrote:Are Vegemite and Marmite the same thing? Do you all really like it or is it just some joke on the rest of us?


Different brands of yeast extract. Marmite is by far the best known in Britain, Vegemite is the Aussie version; a few other countries have others. I've never tried any except Marmite, but I expect they taste slightly different. Some of us really do like it, and my personal suspicion is that a lot of the people who hate it - the ones who don't just not like it but rave about how poisonous it is - are doing it wrong. You do not spread it on thick like Nutella! Nor even half as thick. You shouldn't really have a layer of it at all: a scraping, just the tiniest scraping, is all you need. It is extremely strong. And full of vitamins; eat up everyone.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby sunglasses » Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:18 am

I can help with the scone/biscuit thing. Biscuits have no sugar added to them and are a combination of flour, leavening agents, butter, buttermilk or milk, and/or shortening. Scones (from what I've looked into and ate) tend to be much of the same ingredients BUT looks like sugar and cream are added as well as fruit, etc. Overall it looks like biscuits are meant to be more savory while scones are more sweet.

I've ate scones before, but with tea or coffee. I'm not sure how else y'all eat them. But biscuits, biscuits are eaten as part of a sandwich, with gravy, with honey or jam, with butter, with soup or stew, etc. Also, I know biscuits are considered a 'quickbread' much like cornbread. I am assuming scones are the same as neither requires yeast to rise.

And here's some recipes for both ala Alton Brown: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html
And cornbread: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/golden-sweet-cornbread/
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby DangerChocomog » Fri Jul 05, 2013 12:37 pm

CarrieVS wrote:
I only recently found out what you think a biscuit is. We don't actually have them in this country, but we do have scones (it rhymes with stones), which appear to be very similar


You rhyme scones with stones? Crikey, you'd be considered very posh round these parts.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Sekhmet » Sat Jul 06, 2013 5:32 am

What is with the British obsession with costume dramas? Are a lot made or are they part of the select few programs that get exported.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Mr Dent » Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:16 am

Primary ---> Secondary --->Tertiary

PS The idea of biscuits and gravy is just a hellish nightmare to me.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Phighter » Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:58 am

Someone settle this for me, as it confuses me dearly.

What's the difference between Britain and England?
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Mr Dent » Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:20 am

I could be wrong but I believe England is the modern country, and it makes up part of Britain, which is short for Great Britain, which is basically the name of the whole island that contains England, Scotland and Wales.

And then GB and Northern Ireland makes up the United Kingdom... I think with all the history and kingdoms and inbreeding it just gets murkier from there. And I bet the English make it even more confusing by calling themselves Brits .
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Learned Nand » Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:37 am

Phighter wrote:Someone settle this for me, as it confuses me dearly.

What's the difference between Britain and England?

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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Mr Dent » Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:44 am

Thanks, I thought I was right.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Marcuse » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:27 am

Mr Dent wrote:And I bet the English make it even more confusing by calling themselves Brits .


Nope, pretty much only Americans call us "Brits". Unless we're talking in a patriotic sense of "Great Britain" where people from any of the countries might refer to themselves as British. But generally, English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish refer to themselves as such. Particularly given the nationalist movements in Wales and Scotland.

It's like a dual identity, all four national groups have their own and a British identity. But generally British identity is not very well defined so as to be more inclusive so generally it's hard to self-identify as British. The complication comes from when local regions have their own identity, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Scouse, Geordie, Cockney, Cornish etc.

It's similar to identifying someone as from Florida, they are American but also Floridian. The difference is that in America the unified identity is stronger than the local identity. Whereas in Britain the local identity is stronger.
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Last edited by Marcuse on Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Learned Nand » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:48 am

I didn't say that. Your response is, nevertheless, interesting.
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Last edited by Learned Nand on Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby Marcuse » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:58 am

Oops sorry, fixed now.

Identity in Britain is very complex. For example, I'm a Yorkshireman, but also English, and also British, and to a lesser extent also European. There's a lot of layers here and it's not always easy for us to keep track of them.

To be honest, the concept of what constitutes "Britishness" is a very debatable and ill-defined subject. Gordon Brown kicked off a lot of soul-searching with his "British Jobs for British Workers" gaffe, and we essentially found out that we don't really know what it means any more than anyone else. Multicultural policies, combined with modern industrial atomisation of society means that the concept of Britishness means something different to almost every person that thinks about it.
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Re: Ask a Brit

Postby CarrieVS » Sat Jul 06, 2013 11:00 am

Mr Dent wrote:I could be wrong but I believe England is the modern country, and it makes up part of Britain, which is short for Great Britain, which is basically the name of the whole island that contains England, Scotland and Wales.

And then GB and Northern Ireland makes up the United Kingdom... I think with all the history and kingdoms and inbreeding it just gets murkier from there. And I bet the English make it even more confusing by calling themselves Brits .


You're essentially right, except I'm not sure what you mean by "England is the the modern country". If by country you mean sovereign nation, then no. England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are the four traditional countries in the British Isles, but there are only two modern countries, the UK and the Republic of Ireland. But we still tend to think of England, Scotland, Wales, and NI as countries, and most of us identify as English, Scottish, etc, although our actual nationality is British. A further complication is that ROI is part of the British Isles but they are a separate country and their nationality is not British.

It's pretty similar in principle to the organisation of the US, right down to the fact that they're called Americans and their country is often referred to as America even though that really refers to a continent (although in our case it's ambiguous whether Britain/British ought to refer to less than the UK or more; Great Britain or the British Isles).

That's basically it apart from the little islands around the edges. I think most of them are part of the 'country' they're off the coast of, but then we have things like the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. If you want those explained you'll have to find somebody else.
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