UK vs North American Cultural Differences

EmmaKarney
EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
in Chit-Chat
As a Brit on this board I've noticed just how many cultural differences there are between us an you guys across the pond when it comes to things like food...

Imperial vs Metric - I have no idea what an oz of liquid or food looks like!
Cups - you really measure stuff in cups? What if everyone uses a different size cup?
Coffee creamer - what the hell is this stuff? Do you not just use milk?
String cheese - WUT?
We take our tea hot and with milk (& sugar) and is English Breakfast blend unless otherwise specified...


Feel free to add...
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Replies

  • mingecrackers
    mingecrackers Posts: 152
    I'm from the UK too and I tend to see 25ml as 1oz and 250ml as one cup or thereabouts? I might be wrong :') But yes, coffee creamer - what is that?
  • kriskel
    kriskel Posts: 29 Member
    a cup is an actual measuring device not just a random cup.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    We do use imperial when it comes to weight though - we weigh ourselves in stones and pounds. Plus we use miles not kilometres.

    I find the coffee creamer obsession really weird!

    I also find that a lot of Americans seem to follow things like Insanity, P90x etc, more than British people. They probably have bigger houses though and more space!
  • Disneynut
    Disneynut Posts: 69 Member
    Also as a Brit

    To Add:

    Hershey v's Cadbury or Galaxy ?
    Chips v's Crisps ?
    Fries v's Chips ?

    I shall stop now as this is making me hungry :happy:
  • running_shoe
    running_shoe Posts: 180 Member
    LOL! You must have pounds and ounces! A cup is 250 mL. Here at least, we can buy "milk" with different amounts of fat strained out of it; skim 0%, 1% fat, 2% fat, homogenized 4.5% (I think), light half-and-half 5%, half-and-half 10%, table cream 18%, whipping cream 35%. People like different weights of "milk" in their coffee here. String cheese... hmmm... maybe try google; difficult to explain... Here in the northern parts of north america, our tea is generally hot, usually orange pekoe. I love the differences, too! Glad you posted!

    Sandy
  • jendarlin
    jendarlin Posts: 184 Member
    As a Brit on this board I've noticed just how many cultural differences there are between us an you guys across the pond when it comes to things like food...

    Imperial vs Metric - I have no idea what an oz of liquid or food looks like!
    Cups - you really measure stuff in cups? What if everyone uses a different size cup?
    Coffee creamer - what the hell is this stuff? Do you not just use milk?
    String cheese - WUT?
    We take our tea hot and with milk (& sugar) and is English Breakfast blend unless otherwise specified...


    Feel free to add...

    A cup is 8oz standard.

    Coffee creamer is cream, a lot of times flavored (vanilla, mocha, etc)

    String cheese is just mozzarella in the shape of a stick, it peels apart easily into strings, hence the name string cheese.
  • denezy
    denezy Posts: 573 Member
    Don't even get me started on the American ineptitude and general disrespect they give to tea.

    Ugh.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    We still seem to weigh ourselves in pounds - but we generally use stones/pounds. I only know my weight in pounds from being on this site - otherwise I'd refer to my weight as 9stone 8 to my friends.

    For milk we have whole milk, semi skimmed and skimmed which does equate to your percentages I think?

    Hershey's chocolate tastes really weird me to. But then so does Cadburys now that I only eat plain dark choc.
  • LouiseH238
    LouiseH238 Posts: 199 Member
    They sell Cheese Strings in the UK.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    LOL! You must have pounds and ounces!

    My parents would have used pounds/ounces for cooking 30 years ago but now we use grams.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    They sell Cheese Strings in the UK.

    Really?

    They seem quite popular on this site with the Americans. I've never heard of such a thing!
  • ruckerbenton
    ruckerbenton Posts: 94
    I often feel the same way but have a British friend in my swim group that helps! I struggle with metric vs. standard measurements too! A cup is always a cup no matter the size of the cup. 8oz is 8oz and looks about like a standard coffee mug full. Crisps are potato chips and chips are french fries. Most Americans are coffee drinkers but I prefer tea the English way--creamer is any dairy or non-dairy flavored stuff that lightens and sweetens the bitter brew. I prefer milk and sugar and I put my milk in first to scald the milk not cool the tea! Regardless of our differences, we all do one thing the same way--open mouth...put food in. You guessed it! I have this process down and do it really well!

    Another thing I notice is that all Brits don't have a car. In my rural area of Indiana, just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky--most everyone has their own car. I don't walk anywhere except the dog down the road and back. In the bigger cities this isn't the norm but here at home we wouldn't get very far, or anyplace I need to go, on foot.

    Best wishes and thanks for the food for thought!
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    I posted this out of a genuine interest - not to cause any offence, I hope none is taken by anyone :)

    It is interesting how we are so similar culturally and yet there are so many differences.
  • LouiseH238
    LouiseH238 Posts: 199 Member
    They sell Cheese Strings in the UK.

    Really?

    They seem quite popular on this site with the Americans. I've never heard of such a thing!

    Yes! I've just eaten one with my lunch! :)
  • Kabijots
    Kabijots Posts: 218 Member
    I am from the UK but definitely know what fluid ounces are... That's how babies bottles / formula is still measured out! (I think they have ml on the side of the bottles too but I never used that measure.)

    And, as I am old (well 35!), I still prefer to weigh my ingredients in ounces rather than grams. It makes more sense to me because I still remember what a quarter lb (of sweets) feels like! So I know, roughly, how much flour or whatever ingredient I will need.

    I think they sell string cheese here too. http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=252887981 Not my bag, though.

    Coffee creamer is also still sold here and is available in our office (in London). My mum and dad had it all the time in the 80s! Its gone out of fashion here generally though.

    But I see lots of different and interesting foods, on the boards and in the food diaries of my MFP friends, from all around the world.

    Vive la différence!
  • eag264
    eag264 Posts: 116
    I was devastated when I couldn't find French vanilla coffee creamer here in Australia.
    Back in NY, I was addicted. Up to 6 cups of coffee extra light a day.
    I begged my mom to send me the powder kind, just so I'd have it.
    She said I didn't need it and never sent it.
    I am now grateful that I can't find any of it here.
    Helps me cut back on coffee (and major calories) drastically.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    Wow I'm almost 33 and have never used oz to weigh food - even at school!
  • Kabijots
    Kabijots Posts: 218 Member
    Wow I'm almost 33 and have never used oz to weigh food - even at school!

    Did you never buy a qtr lb of pear drops or cola cubes from the sweet shop? :)

    You haven't lived! x
  • WinnerVictorious
    WinnerVictorious Posts: 4,733 Member
    LOL! You must have pounds and ounces!

    My parents would have used pounds/ounces for cooking 30 years ago but now we use grams.

    grams... invented by the French.

    your British ancestors are rolling over in their graves.

    :bigsmile:
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
    I posted this out of a genuine interest - not to cause any offence, I hope none is taken by anyone :)

    It is interesting how we are so similar culturally and yet there are so many differences.

    It's to thumb our noses at you after the War for Independance. :wink: That's why we also spell things slightly different from y'all as well.
  • Iron_Feline
    Iron_Feline Posts: 10,750 Member
    cheesestrings.jpg

    Cheese string in England - I love it :love:
  • CapnDonkey
    CapnDonkey Posts: 108 Member
    It is amusing the subtle differences between UK and American English.

    US versus UK:

    Truck - Lorry
    Flashlight - Torch
    Candy - Sweets

    And don't get me started about adding 'u's to words that don't need them: Color, flavor, favorite, etc. :)

    All said I love the British accents. And the British comedy.
  • JenniferMary_9169
    JenniferMary_9169 Posts: 164
    This girl will NEVER give in to the metric system :noway:

    *giggle* :tongue:
  • olDave
    olDave Posts: 557 Member
    "I'm mad about my flat" means a very different thing on this side of the pond. LOL.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    I did not see it clarified on here, but a cup is 8 fluid ounces.

    However, although I am in the US, as a chemist, I declare the metric system to make infinitely more sense and believe that we are stupid for not adopting it.

    I also think that coffee creamer is vile and I love English breakfast tea.

    Hmm, maybe I am living in the wrong place...
  • Sqeekyjojo
    Sqeekyjojo Posts: 704 Member
    Us slightly older ones (40) ended up bilingual where weights and measures were concerned - we learned metric at school, but imperial at home.

    It's like trying to speak a different language sometimes here, it's not a bad thing, it's only fair to try and use the words the majority of people on the site use, but you aren't going to get me to change my spelling.

    But I like it here.
  • FitnessCharl
    FitnessCharl Posts: 166
    You mean a "cup" measurement isn't just the biggest cup you can find in your cupboard? Whattttttttttttttttttttt????
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    coffee creamer - what is that?

    It's just powdered milk in different flavors. I like vanilla. :smile:
  • Phoenixchichima
    Phoenixchichima Posts: 416
    I'm US & I dont know what coffee creamer is either, some wicked unnatureal chemically stuff I wont touch, lol.

    a "cup" is 8 fluid oz. :)
  • jillybean_75
    jillybean_75 Posts: 70 Member
    A coworker from my office in Wales came over to the States and we all went out to lunch one day...and he ordered a sandwich with chips (thinking he was getting fries), and was surprised when it came with potato chips (crisps). And we just had a meeting where he typed out 'catalogue' and was jokingly reprimanded by a German colleague to take out the 'u' for the Americans :tongue:

    I have to say, the houses and cars are all much smaller there, and the beer is generally not cold, which was weird to me. But beautiful countryside, at least in Wales where I was.

    EDIT: Oh, and EXCELLENT Indian food (curry as they called it all).

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