Food, glorious food

Okay, it's Holy Week at last, so my fasting of chocolate, candy and desserts is nearly at an end. I think that I've done okay, as well as finding out who my true friends are (I still love you Lyn)! Part of being tempted by anything is thinking about it and this has given me cause to think of food I miss, food I like and food I dislike.

What food do I miss from England? Not as much as I would have first thought but here is a list:
Meat pies (they are not readily obtainable here, the Americans think of a pie as being mainly dessert), especially Cornish Pasties (the genuine article, not the normal supermarket imitations), pork pies (Melton Mowbray of course), and steak and kidney pies - Mmmmm! On the sweeter side I also miss Battenberg cake (although a friend did bring me some on her return from a visit to London, thanks Hannah). Jacobs custard creams - now there's a real biscuit (not a cookie). McVites digestives you can get here, at a horrendous price though and good old Bird's Custard powder is available too. Cadbury's chocolate is missed terribly. Again, I'm talking about the real stuff, not the poor imitation made under license by Hershey's. Finally, I never thought I would say this, but I do miss the occasional British Banger. I do enjoy American sausage, but wouldn't mind savoring a tasty Cumberland sausage.

What American food do I like? Nearly all Southern foods for sure. Most of it isn't good for me I know, but all things in moderation. I love grits, fried chicken, okra, clam chowder, chicken dumplings and barbecue (the dish, not the grille). I enjoy waffles and/or pancakes for breakfast, biscuits and gravy, glazed donuts and horror of horrors to the average English, iced tea. The latter took some getting used to believe me.

And what don't I like? Hardly anything really, in fact probably the same foods I didn't like in Europe. The one which springs to mind (and I still won't eat) are Brussels sprouts - Ugh?

Can I hear lunch being prepared? Oh yes, I've worked up quite an appetite writing this.

Baby talk

A chance word at Holy Eucharist this evening gave me the idea for another installment of the main theme of this blog.

My wife was holding the baby, literally, as a church member had brought along her six-week old son and Gail immediately gave mother a break by holding him throughout the service. Young Timothy started to whimper during our monthly, informal evening service of Eucharist with Healing, so his mother passed Gail a pacifier [dummy].

During the supper which followed (our Vicar had made a truly excellent vegetarian black bean soup), baby talk showed up some other "same language-different words" for common baby items. Gail fortunately did not have to undo Timothy’s babygro [onesie] to change his nappy [diaper], but she did have to wind [burp] him. Nor did she have to push his buggy or the older version “pushchair”, [stroller] or put him to bed in his cot [crib] or Moses basket [bassinet]. When Timothy is old enough to ride his first bike [cycle] he will probably need stabilizers [training wheels] and when his parents need a night out they will need the services of a baby sitter [child minder].

As much as I enjoyed our Vicar's soup, the icing [frosting] on the cake at tonight's supper was the inclusion of some ginger nut [ginger snap] biscuits [cookies] - yummee [yummee]!

Our Americanization?

Since posting my first blog I have a couple of comments from English friends who, quite understandably, think I should anglicize my postings. One didn't like me using sidewalk or cellphone as opposed to pavement or mobile phone. I have explained that our American friends know the pavement as the actual "paved" roadway, so to them it would make no sense and at least the English are familiar with sidewalk through American literature, movies, TV shows, etc.
As for cell phone versus mobile phone, I happen to think that the former describes it perfectly - a phone which works by using a cellular transmission system, whereas the latter describes any phone that is mobile. Even my land line phone is in fact mobile.
I have two main reasons for using American terms:
(1) We have American friends as well as English who will likely read this blog.
(2) We live here now and although we are English born, we do try to fit in (the main English opposition to immigrants in England is that "they don't fit in") and are proud to, so I suppose we are becoming Americanized.
Mind you, as much as we love Southern cooking (I love grits, iced tea and biscuits) we do miss some very English culinary delights. For example, a friend recently brought us some Sainsbury's battenburg cake from a trip to London and this very morning I purchased Birds Custard Powder and some Marmite at the international section of our grocery store (they even stock Branston Pickle) and even though we drink plenty of coffee (not instant) we still enjoy our Tetley British Blend cuppas.
For all the things our great nations have in common, it IS different here and thank the Lord for that.