Different words for the same things depending on which country you're in.

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Replies

  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    @makeupandmuscle , what always cracks me up is the eastern seaboard word for Wellies, as in Wellingtons, as in rubber boots.

    Outsiders won't get it, but we have plenty of Newfies right here in Alberta.

    Lots of capers there too. I think half the island is there!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I was on the other thread about how many times people eat out per week, and it was a lot!

    I'm curious about what a regular meal out for 2 people averages in America. If we go the cheaper route, like a normal pub meal, our bill rarely comes out under $40 for the two of us. That's 1 meal each, a beer for him and a soft drink for me.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
    edited January 2017
    I was on the other thread about how many times people eat out per week, and it was a lot!

    I'm curious about what a regular meal out for 2 people averages in America. If we go the cheaper route, like a normal pub meal, our bill rarely comes out under $40 for the two of us. That's 1 meal each, a beer for him and a soft drink for me.

    When we went on holidays there, a couple of years ago, it was a bit cheaper but not much. We weren't going to chain/cheap places though... The portions were often massive though, so making one meal last two would be easy... Or sharing everything...
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
    Oh... And the Australian shop "Target" doesn't sell food (with the exception of lollies/holiday food). I see posts about people buying food from Target all the time!
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Oh... And the Australian shop "Target" doesn't sell food (with the exception of lollies/holiday food). I see posts about people buying food from Target all the time!

    Target in the US (the Canadian ones closed) is a "department store" sort of like Walmart but smaller. It sells a little bit of everything.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Oh... And the Australian shop "Target" doesn't sell food (with the exception of lollies/holiday food). I see posts about people buying food from Target all the time!

    Yeah, I double looked at that too! They even have a fridge section. I could do food shopping at our Target, if i wanted to live on chips, lollies, chocolate and popcorn.

    We need a larger population, so our food prices and choices would resemble America's. And what about petrol! (gas in America), $1.43 a litre here right now :(
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    @makeupandmuscle , what always cracks me up is the eastern seaboard word for Wellies, as in Wellingtons, as in rubber boots.

    Outsiders won't get it, but we have plenty of Newfies right here in Alberta.

    Brits wear wellies too... :) (Or do you mean Newfies have a different word for them?)

    Oh, and the first time I went into Wal-Mart here and asked where to find the torches, I got some very odd looks. Turned out I needed a "flashlight", but I guess they were wondering if they should direct me to the pitchforks... ;)
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Newfies call them rubbers! Cracks me up every time.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Target tried to move in to the Canadian market and failed. We weren't used to seeing food in department stores either. But to squeeze Target out, we now can get groceries at Wal-mart and our local drug stores too.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,799 Member
    I was on the other thread about how many times people eat out per week, and it was a lot!

    I'm curious about what a regular meal out for 2 people averages in America. If we go the cheaper route, like a normal pub meal, our bill rarely comes out under $40 for the two of us. That's 1 meal each, a beer for him and a soft drink for me.

    If you go to comparable places, "family restaurants", in Canada the price for two meals might come to about $30 and in the US you can probably get away with $20.

    And those meals would likely include the extras we don't get here in Australia. In North America, a pasta dinner would include garlic bread. Here we have to buy it extra. It may also include dessert in some places.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,799 Member
    edited January 2017
    Machka9 wrote: »
    I was on the other thread about how many times people eat out per week, and it was a lot!

    I'm curious about what a regular meal out for 2 people averages in America. If we go the cheaper route, like a normal pub meal, our bill rarely comes out under $40 for the two of us. That's 1 meal each, a beer for him and a soft drink for me.

    If you go to comparable places, "family restaurants", in Canada the price for two meals might come to about $30 and in the US you can probably get away with $20.

    And those meals would likely include the extras we don't get here in Australia. In North America, a pasta dinner would include garlic bread. Here we have to buy it extra. It may also include dessert in some places.

    See here ... this is a Perkins menu. Perkins is a "family restaurant" which might be comparable to an Australian pub.

    http://www.perkinsrestaurants.com/wp-content/themes/gsperkins/assets/pdf/Perkins-Menu-052016.pdf

    Scroll down to "Fork-worth Entrees" (those would be the main meals).

    I'd probably go with the chicken strips meal (because they do chicken properly in Canada ... in Canada they cook the chicken, here in Australia they serve it up half raw ... I rarely choose chicken in a restaurant here! I found that out early on. <<shudder>>) ... as you can see the chicken strip meal would include two sides in the price of $10.79. I'd probably choose the mashed potato and broccoli.

    And then I see that I can get a beverage and a slice of pie for an additional $3.99! Cool. Done. And that would be the chocolate cream pie if they've got it.

    So for a grand total of $29.56 (plus tax), my husband and I could have a meal that includes a dessert and beverage. :)


    I'd better go for a bicycle ride now that I've drooled over all that.

  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    elebel82 wrote: »
    Australian:
    Chips = us fries
    Chips = uk crisps

    There's rarely any confusion over them - it's usually context that will give it away, though we also do sometimes distinguish hot chips vs potato chips.
    However just about every aussie who visits the US has at least one instance of being disappointed when offered chips with something and getting potato chips. You guys do eat potato chips with weird things (hotdogs, subs, burgers, etc.)

    For that matter, all of the classic bun + meat items that are sold in mcdonalds in australia are "burgers" even the chicken offerings . A "sandwich" is generally a much healthier item, cheese/cold meat such as ham etc/egg with salad in two pieces of bread, such as what's taken to school.
    At home I take my tea white. It took a number of confused looks and wrong orders in the states to eventually come up with "hot black tea with milk." (or space for milk.)
    I still don't understand what the deal is with "cream" in america. Cream to me is thick and what I put on desserts, I put milk in my tea and coffee. Nor do I understand what half n half is.

    Speaking of this ... one that confused me when I first moved to Australia was "salad roll". As in, "I think I'll just have a salad roll for lunch."

    I was envisioning some sort of salad. Nope!

    A salad roll - ie a bread roll filled with things like lettuce ,tomato, cucumber,cheese - what would you call it in other places?

    A cheese sandwich.

    If someone asked me for a cheese sandwich, they'd get bread and cheese, and maybe butter if they asked for it. :p

    I agree. The item described above seems more to me like what we'd call a "wrap", assuming it was all rolled up in a flour tortilla.

    No, a salad roll wouldn't be rolled up in a tortilla - that would be a salad wrap.
    A salad roll would be the items in a roll ( or a bread bun, to some of you)
    A salad sandwich would be same items between 2 pieces of bread.

    3 things - same fillings- ie lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cheese, or similar things, but in roll, wrap or sandwich outers.

    Oh!! Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't thinking roll and bun at all. I thought of rolled up somehow. Got it now.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I was on the other thread about how many times people eat out per week, and it was a lot!

    I'm curious about what a regular meal out for 2 people averages in America. If we go the cheaper route, like a normal pub meal, our bill rarely comes out under $40 for the two of us. That's 1 meal each, a beer for him and a soft drink for me.

    That seems reasonable to me, but there's a huge range depending on the restaurant here (and I'm in a big city, which makes it more expensive).

    Here are a couple of pub-type menus: http://www.thegrafton.com/food-menu/ and http://www.hopleafbar.com/#our-menus, and remember we'd tip on top of that.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited January 2017
    Watching a US cooking show last night, they were making "hamburger mac-n-cheese".

    Hamburger = Mince (ground beef). In Australia, a hamburger would be the whole thing - bun, meat patties, sauce, etc. I would buy or make "burger patties" as the meat component.... I have no idea what we'd call mac-n-cheese with mince in it?!

    Here (US, Chicago specifically), I'd certainly understand "hamburger" used for the meat, but I think it's much more common for hamburger to refer to the whole thing, just the meat is usually "ground beef" or maybe "burger meat."

    But could be I'm weird. ;-)

    Btw, I think I was quite old before I figured out that mince was ground beef. The whole "mincemeat" thing had me all confused, as I assumed they were the same thing, and understood mincemeat to be sweet.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Target tried to move in to the Canadian market and failed. We weren't used to seeing food in department stores either. But to squeeze Target out, we now can get groceries at Wal-mart and our local drug stores too.

    We've had that for a while in my end of Alberta. :) (You northerners are just behind the times... :tongue: ) My local Wal-Mart became a "supercentre" several years ago and started carrying groceries, and my Shoppers Drug Mart always did (since we've been here anyway, 11 years now). One of the things I read about Target was that they didn't take account of the differences in minimum wage here, and the general cost of doing business in Canada was what caused them to give up because their losses were too high. I went to the one in Calgary a few times and thought it was quite good, but didn't really understand the enthusiasm Americans seem to have for it! I guess their products are much cheaper in the US?

    (lol at the boots, too. :) Some Brits do call them "rubber boots", but they were always "wellies" to me!)
  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    @makeupandmuscle , what always cracks me up is the eastern seaboard word for Wellies, as in Wellingtons, as in rubber boots.

    Outsiders won't get it, but we have plenty of Newfies right here in Alberta.

    Anytime I hear folks talking about wellies there's normally a sheep in the story.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited January 2017
    Machka9 wrote: »
    I'll also just mention ... potato chips.

    In Canada, my favourite flavour is dill pickle. In Australia, I cannot find dill pickle chips. In fact, dill pickles are hard to find ... it's all sweet pickles which are really quite ick.

    In Australia, a common potato chip flavour is chicken. In fact, there's chicken salt that goes on chips (the big, thick fries type of chips), dim sims, deep fried lasagne, battered fish, and whatever else you want to get at the take-away.

    So true.

    And chicken chips are not easy to find in Canada. I also miss Burger Rings! I miss meat pies, too.

    As for chicken chips (fries), I just sprinkle some powdered chicken stock on my fries instead of salt...YUM!!!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Has anyone mentioned Gum boots? That's what i call wellingtons/rubber boots.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    Has anyone mentioned Gum boots? That's what i call wellingtons/rubber boots.

    I've heard them called gumboots, but it's not a word my family ever used themselves. :)
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
    I don't think anyone mentioned napkins. I was warned not to ask for a "napkin" in an English restaurant because a napkin is a feminine hygiene product in England. In America you use a cloth or paper "napkin" to wipe your fingers and mouth during/after a meal, and the feminine product is a pad.

    Like a previous poster, my mother from Alabama also said "fixin' ta" meaning "getting ready to." Growing up in California, my school friends had to correct the southern sayings I picked up from my mother. A high school boyfriend roared when I said "let up the (car) window" and "Let down the window." I still slip and say that sometimes! And my husband still laughs remembering how my mom would drawl, "Can I dip ya some putatahs, darlin'?"