Funnel cake= Pancake batter consistency poured through a funnel into hot oil then pulled out and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Elephant ear=also deep fried batter (or dough) but not poured through a funnel and is sprinkled with a mixture of cinnamon and granular sugar. Both are fair foods. And yes, an elephant ear is also a plant.
@@rebelpearl yes they are! And down here I don’t have to pull the bulbs out of the ground. I just cut them to the ground at first frost, which is usually December. Have a great evening, and thank you!
My husband and I drove a moving van across the US when we relocated to Phoenix. We were getting toward the end of it and I was pretty cranky. Husband was trying to cheer me up, "Well at least the landscape is nice. Look at that mountain over there, isn't it a pretty mountain?" Without thinking I retorted, "It's a butte." He set me up to make a horrible pun and I love him for it.
The thing I've always wanted to witness is a native of Birmingham, England meeting a native of Birmingham, Alabama, USA. They would both be technically speaking English, but I'm pretty sure they would not be able to understand each other.
Hehe! That brings to mind my junior year of high school when our family had just moved to Virginia from Macon, GA, and the school's English teacher had just moved to VA from somewhere in New York State; yeah, just because both languages were named English that didn't mean they were the same language! (yes, I know, technically it is dialects, but it sure felt like we were speaking different languages)
@@alonespirit9923 Dialects can be very pronounced, i.e. Cantonese and Mandarin are technically both Chinese; however, they differ in almost every way even the characters are different now.
I’m from Georgia and recently I was in Boston due to my job. I had to work with a native Bostonian. We ended up having to write notes to each other. Between his distinct Boston accent and my southern drawl, it became rather comical.
@@KRYMauL cantonese and mandarin aren't dialects though.... "chinese" isn't a single language but the name of a language family like how english and german are both part of the germanic language family, but I highly doubt anyone would argue those two languages are even remotely dialects so neither should they say that for cantonese and mandarin which can't even be understood in writing nvm speaking
6:55 Raincheck is also used when you go to a store that is having a sale, but they've run out of the sale item. You can ask for a "raincheck", which is a coupon to purchase the item at the sale price later on, when it's back in stock. (Stores may or may not issue rainchecks, and often sales designate that it only applies "while supplies last".)
Yep...I'm old and retired so I've always got plenty of time to throw the supermarket's customer svce into a tizzy trying to find the raincheck coupons somewhere under the counter😂😂 Rainchecks are great tho cause the expiration always lasts waaaay longer than the sale. 👍
I worked as a carhop at Sonic, and had a group of 4 British guys absolutely astounded by the whole experience. Only time I have ever felt like a walking novelty.
Carhops on roller skates were fairly common on the 1950s and 60s. We used to BEG our parents to take us to an A&W in Golden, CO because we loved rootbeer floats (are those a thing in the UK???), the little tray they would hook onto your car window, along with a radio to use to call the server back, and the teenagers in skates speeding across the parking lot.
Carhops on roller skates wasn't an 80's thing. It was a 50's thing. By the time, I grew up in the 80's, it was already a nostalgia thing for my parents.
I'm an American and I spent 5 years in Scotland. One of my most memorable experiences was looking for "Band-Aids" in Edinburgh. I know that's an American brand name, so I had to call them something else to find them. I asked around, described what I was looking for, scanned shelves at the pharmacy (drug store), asked the "chemist" (pharmacist), and ended up all over town in frustration until someone finally told me I should ask for "plasters." By then I was nearly in tears from frustration and pain from my "booboo" I needed the Band-Aid for. I will never forget that experience.
@@batshtcrazy5293it is called plaster’s over the pond, went to America needing plaster 🩹 and paracetamol,so I understand your frustration because the chemist is in Walmart and she asked if I was okay 😢. No I just need some 🩹 plasters and paracetamol 😂
@@ChaosLightspeed I asked in every way I could think of, including a detailed description, including "bandage with adhesive so it sticks and stays in." Everybody looked at me like I had 3 heads. You have to ask for PLASTERS.
In the US we have several words for our political leaders like Congressmen, Senators, and President. While in the UK they just call their politicians "Ignorant Twats". At least my British granny does.
“Rubbers” Had a British tour planner for our high school Latin Club’s Italy trip and he asked us if our school was a “good school”. We asked what he meant. He asked “well do kids behave in class and raise their hands or are they being naughty and throwing rubbers at each other when the teacher isn’t looking?” We stares at him in silence for a bit before our Latin teacher coughed and said “rubbers are slang for condoms and no I have not encountered this.” This Brit doubled over laughing and choked out “Oh no! I meant rubber erasers. The pink erasers for pencil marks!”
When I was in high school, a German exchange student (who learned the Queen's english) quite loudly asked the teacher for a rubber, resulting in much hilarity. (Late 80s... no internet to help sort things out before hand.)
Brownies seem to have crossed to the UK but when I moved to the US in the 90s, the only brownies I was familiar with were the 10-year-old girl guides. When I was asked if I'd ever had a brownie before, I replied "No, where I come from we have laws about that kind of thing."
Aren’t brownies a tier level of Girl Scouts in America? We also had the Kodak brownie camera and now an edible version. Let’s be honest, American English is and always was about trolling.
The story on the hush puppy is that while deep frying either fish or chicken, the dogs would yelp and bark for some of the food, so some of the batter used to dip the fish or chicken in before frying would be poured into the fry bath with a ladle, and the fried batter would be tossed to the dogs with the admonition, "Hush, puppy". That's the story, anyway.🙂🐕
I was JUST about to post this, jacques! I believe this came about around the time of the Civil War ... something done during big banquets held in large Plantations from what I hear.
@@lifecloud2 The real truth is probably lost in the mists of time, IMO, it was probably named sometime after, and it may have had several names before this one stuck. There are also different compositions, some with onions, soft corn kernels, and they also take on the flavor of the fry bath that they are cooked in, usually fish or chicken, but those charming Southerners will deep fry just about anything. 😏 Then, too, they are sometimes served with syrup, butter, sour cream, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, and many other things I can't think of.
A flat-topped hill with vertical sides is a "mesa" from the Spanish word for table. A butte is an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte "In geomorphology, a butte (/bjuːt/) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaux, and tablelands." www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/butte/ "Buttes were once part of flat, elevated areas of land known as mesas or plateaus. In fact, the only difference between a mesa and a butte is its size. Most geographers say a butte is taller than it is wide, while a mesa is a much larger, slightly less elevated feature." Flat top is still the distinctive feature
@@travissmith2848 it would appear America didn't get the memo. Buttes are common in the northwest, are isolated hills or chains of hills, volcanic in origin, and never have flat tops. Meanwhile in the southwest where mesas are common, none are called buttes. While some people in the NW know what a mesa is, few people who live in the SW have heard of a butte. I think these geographers need to get out more... or perhaps look at map.
@@nathanegbert977 Tell me about it. Here in Montana we got loads of buttes but no mesas. Despite few "buttes" being only spires only a couple dozen yards across.
Outside just a bit crisp, inside warm and almost melting... My wife has perfected a fusion between her family's recipe, and mine, and it's amazing. She made a double batch this evening. 😋
I find they're better when made in a seafood restaurant. The fried seafood kind of flavors the cooking oil ans makes the fries and hush puppies better.
Being from the American south east when you said elephant ear I assumed you were talking about the large leaved plant we call elephant ears(Xanthosoma sagittifolium) is the most common one here in FL. We also still regular use raincheck at grocery stores when there is a sale and the store runs out of the item on sale. You can get a literal coupon from them for that sale price to be used when the item is back in stock even if the sale is over with. Finally, the best hush puppies I've ever found were in tarpon springs Florida at a restaurant called Rusty Bellies 👌🧑🏽🍳
Americans almost never use the word fortnight, despite the fact that most are paid fortnightly. We will use Biweekly, but that can mean either twice a week or every other week.
Elephant ears can also refer to a decorative garden plant with leaves that can reach 3 feet or more in length. A rain check is also something you might get from a store when a sale item is out of stock, allowing you to get the sale price when they get it in.
That’s what I thought he meant at first. We don’t get elephant ears at the fairs where I am (Georgia) but we do have funnel cakes which is the same thing shaped differently
Down here in Southeast Louisiana, those decorative garden plants are nuisance plants. We chop them down and get rid of them only to have them come back a week later. They're indefatigable. I found it hilarious when my husband and I discovered that we could dig them up and sell them for significant profit to people in the area of Alabama where he was from.
@@penelopepitstop762 Honestly, Texas sounds so amazing. Except for the metropolitan areas where displaced liberals moved to who haven't changed their voting habits that destroyed California.
@@penelopepitstop762 I was Air Force. Boot Camp at Lackland, and then Tech School at Sheppard AFB. On the bus, leaving Lackland for Sheppard..... I saw a tumbleweed blowing near the road. I had only seen that in movies before. So that was a fun memory!
I'm from West Virginia and I'd never heard of "elephant ears." The only fried dough type of treat that I've ever known of previously is called a "funnel cake."
on a topic of lowrider subculture.... who would've known that it would cross a different pond -- the Pacific -- over into Japan? Knew something was up when I'd seen a Japanese-language edition of the Lowrider magazine back in the early 1990s.
A rain check to me is if you want something that's on sale at a store and they don't have it, you ask for a rain check and when it is restocked at that store you bring that rain check back to the store and you get the item at the sale price.
There's also the usage Lawrence mentioned, of "holding" a social engagement for a later time, as in "I'd love to go out to lunch with you and catch up tomorrow, but I'll have to take a raincheck because I'm going out of town," meaning "I would very much like to do this thing with you at a later date, because I can't accept your invitation for the date you're offering".
In California, a rain check is what you get from the car wash so that if it rains in the next two days (or whatever) you get a free car wash. At least, it used to be! Haven't gotten one in ages.
Sonic is all over USA & has carhops. Used to be on roller skates, but not usually these days. Also, about a thousand kinds of beverages. Love their strawberry limeade.
Bob's Big Boy, a chain of diners in California, started out with carhop service way back when. It fell into disuse for several decades, but became viable again during the pandemic as a way for people to eat out without breaking isolation.
A quick note about carhops: You can still find them in some Sonic locations, but they appear to be almost completely phased out (assumedly due to health and safety). However, the name "carhop" came about during the '50s in which carhops would literally hop on the side of a moving car as it was pulling in to park at a drive-in, take the order, and then dismount once the car parked (presumably closer to the building)
The Sonic in my town that hasn't closed down yet still does the rollerskates. To continue this, the new hire is required to know how to skate proficiently, after a rookie tripped and smashed a car's windshield in with her head and dumped milkshakes all over the car next to the now smashed one. The girl was okay, a small gash on her head but otherwise alright. Last I heard, she still works there and Sonic paid for the car's windshield. First and last time I went to Sonic. The food was expensive, mediocre, and small. The shakes are good, but I paid $5 for a hotdog and got a glorified lil' smokie on a bun.
In the US, you can also get a rain check if a sale item is out of stock (especially in grocery stores). The rain check let’s the user get the item for the sale price after the item comes back in stock (expiration date 1 or 2 weeks).
As with everything in the US, there is a lot of variation. I believe CVS rain checks don't expire and I have been to a grocery store where the rain check didn't expire until 60 days later.
If a grocery store runs out of something on special that week , you can ask for a rain check and they’ll give you a piece of paper that has the item named with the sale price on it. When they restock the item, use that ticket for the stated sale price!
If it wasn't for grits the defense lawyer in My Cousin Vinny may not have ever proven that the next-door-neighbor witness was fibbing about how long he said the accused were at the murder scene.
@@eaglescout1984 They’re made from dried, ground corn (Maize) cooked in various liquids - including water, milk, or broth - until the mix reaches a thick, creamy, porridge-like consistency. You can have savory shrimp’n grits or cheese. They’re most commonly served as a breakfast or side dish and usually made from a variety of corn called dent corn, which has a softer, starchy kernel (1). The crushed corn granules are typically cooked in either hot water, milk, or broth until they reach a thick yet creamy consistency that is similar to porridge. Grits are often paired with flavorful ingredients, such as butter, sugar, syrups, cheeses, and meats like bacon, shrimp, and catfish. You can purchase several varieties of grits, including: Stone-ground. These are made from whole, dried corn kernels that are coarsely ground in a mill. This type is harder to find in grocery stores because it has a short shelf life and takes 30-60 minutes to cook on the stove (2Trusted Source). Hominy. These are made from corn kernels soaked in an alkali solution to soften the tough pericarp (outer shell or hull). The pericarp is rinsed, then removed, and the corn kernels undergo further processing to make hominy (3Trusted Source). Quick and regular. These types undergo processing, which involves removing the pericarp and germ (nutrient-rich embryo), so they have a longer shelf life. Regular versions are medium ground while quick are finely ground (2Trusted Source). Instant. This precooked, dehydrated version has had both the pericarp and germ removed. They’re widely available in grocery stores.
After spending a year in England, I realized I had no idea what I used to call a tea towel. I considererd the most obvious options, like "kitchen towel" and "dish towel," but I couldn't remember having a default word for it. So even though I don't call a meal in the late afternoon "tea" and have no other reason to associate them with it, I still call them "tea towels."
@Guardian Pigeon How different? Is it just the fact that funnel cakes are drizzled into the fryer, or are the doughs made differently as well? I've had funnel cakes where I live, but never an elephant ear.
@@Isolder74 Not anywhere I've ever made them or had them. Eclairs and cream puffs are made with choux pastry, which is beaten at the end with a much larger ratio of eggs into a glossy paste that will puff and leave the inside hollow. It's piped out of a bag; you could never pour choux pastry dough through a funnel. (I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time I had to beat the eggs into the dough forever by hand for my grandmother to make cream puffs, and I worked in a professional kitchen later in life.) Funnel cakes are generally made with a batter, not a dough, and it's closer to waffle batter than probably anything.
@Guardian Pigeon in some parts of the country--especially New England--it's also common to serve elephant ears (we called it fried dough) topped with tomato sauce and few shakes of parmesan cheese. Like a little fried pizza.
Raincheck is also used at stores when an item is out of stock, and a litreral raincheck is written out to the consumer for later purchase at the same price....and it took off into more common uses...you can ask your store for these
Rain checks are also a thing in retail! For example, if you walk into your local grocery store, and they are offering ramen for 10c each (lets say theyre usually 25c each). However, the flavour you like is all sold out. You can have staff write you a raincheck, guaranteeing you the sale price, for whenever they get the item back in stock (even if the sale has ended by then!).
@@PastelBrushes-n-Donuts Yep, we removed ours like a month ago, which is sad for me working in grocery because it solved a lot of problems with customers who would make you check the back room twice and then ask about when specific products are being delivered. Apparently it somehow created more problems though, but with a limit on items allowed I can't see any real issues, just corporate greed
Never heard of this. I know about people invitation. This sale raincheck must happen in only usa. In other countries i have been . The sale is till have stocks
I love the myth about Devil’s Tower. I learned it in 4th grade. A bear chased a bunch of Indian people up a mountain/hill. The bear kept clawing at the sides because he wanted to eat them, and that’s how the ridges on the sides got there. That could be mostly wrong, as that was like 17 years ago. But, did it really stick in my head.
In the olden days(1960s) I was Car Hop Captain, then moved up to Curb Manager , which allowed me to sub for the Assitant Manager, or Store Manager....life in the fast lane.
As a southerner, love me some grits and hushpuppies. Traditionally, hushpuppies were always fried in the oil that you had fried fish in and were served with fried fish. Not necessarily true now.
oh but I agree, hushpuppies are the leftover batter/breading/eggwash mixed together and deep fried in the leftover oil from frying fish or chicken, maybe with a little baking powder and garlic powder. Not sure if they're authentic made 'specially!
A raincheck is also used when a grocery store has a sale, but they have run out of the product before the sale ended. So you will ask for a raincheck so you can return to the store in about a week or so when they have restocked the item. Then you can buy the item (that is no longer on sale in the flyers) for the previously advertised price.
I love s'mores, I love it when the marshmallow is burnt so the middle is melted. The charcoal like flavor from the burnt marshmallow adds to the outdoors, camping flavor.
A friend of mine from Rhode Island used to call them Samoas -- because they don't pronounce the "r" in "more" there. I (from Indiana) never could convince her that they were actually called S'mores.
That's kind of like having good memories of the fine sand in your swimsuit from trips to the beach. Ahh, that wonderful feeling of the abraded skin where the sand got stuck in the hem around your upper thigh/crotch. Those were the days... The trick is getting the marshmallow just the right golden brown on all sides just before it is ready to fall off the stick into the fire.
Interesting story: I was with my grandpa in California this last summer, and when we came to a place to eat, I saw hushpuppies on the menu. Me, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, had no idea what a hushpuppy was. My grandpa looked at me like I was neglected as a child. I can attest to the great taste of those deep-fried delights.
I live in Ohio and just last week I stopped in my local grocery store and bought a bag of frozen hush-puppies, They were once a purely southern food, but anyone who tasted them wanted more, so now they are available all over the country. By the way, Do you have Tater tots in Britain, or do you have them under another name?
The elephant ear is called a beavertail in Canada! "Beavertails" is a chain eatery of the most delightful ski resort junk food. (I'm pretty sure Canadians would still call it a beaver tail even if it wasn't from that brand...) Cinnamon sugar is the original, but they also have like peanut butter banana, Nutella, apple pie ones... 😍
@@laurenswift9368 funnel cakes are similar, but beaver tails are like a pizza crust shape of dough and funnel cakes are squirted into the hot oil in a pile of squiggles out of a funnel or squirt bottle type of thing. Pizza vs spaghetti shaped but both are sweet fried dough, usually with more sugar on top
Where I'm from, Philadelphia, Elephant Ears are like French Palmiers, sugared rolled flakey pastry. What you had shown is more like a funnel cake. But it also looks like a Moravian Sugar Cake sold here in North Carolina.
Years ago I had a friend from the northern US who was traveling through the south. His breakfast arrived with a serving of grits which he had never seen. He asked the waitress "What is this?" She said "Them are grits--eat 'em." So he did, and loves grits to this day.
I used to live in Seattle, where grits aren't common. One diner served them as a side dish. They had an inset on the menu explaining that grits were "that white stuff they served you in prison". 🤣🤣🤣
As a kid growing up in New York I had grits all the time. But now I am thinking this might have been because my father's ancestors were from the South.
Another type of drive in. Movies outdoors that you sit in your car and watch. Half way through the dancing snacks play while you get out of your car and go to the"snack bar". Love you guys, keep up the good work.
@5:00 Sonic Restaurants are also a large chain of restaurants that feature the "Drive IN" experience. The Car Hops do serve your food on roller skates. @6:54 Raincheck is also referred to when a sale at a store was happening and they were out of stock, you could go to the store manager and get a raincheck on the item so that you could purchase it when it was back in stock.
A lot of Sonics no longer have skating carhops, alas. A&W also used to have skating carhops, but try to find an A&W anymore. Trivia: A&W tried to become a big player in the fast-food chain business, not only with their signature root beer but they also started offering a 1/3-pound burger, to compete with McDonald's Quarter Pounder. Unfortunately, it seems most Americans thought 1/4 was bigger than 1/3 (because 4 is bigger than 3?) and the idea didn't catch on.
I worked at Sonic as a car hop when I was in high school and I skated. The older people loved it and they tipped better. Those little mints you get were affectionately (I guess) called landmines. Hiting one of those bad boys in skates would ruin your night. It would happen all the damn time. This was in 2006, so I'm sure they rarely do it anymore if at all.
Old folks just like nostalgic stuff. It’s just how everyone is, we will be old one day ourselves. I used to do cashier work at 7-Eleven and for some people I would count up to their payment, just because they liked it. In other words, if someone handed me a $20 bill to pay for something they bought, I would count the change, then point the merchandise and say “and twenty”.
My parents argued over what a scone was all the time. My dad was thinking of an elephant ear, and was pretty stubborn about it. My mom is a baker, and knows what a scone actually is.
Some food, particularly from the south, of the US Jalapeño poppers: a halved jalapeño, with seeds removed, filled with cream cheese and topped with panko crumbs, cooked in a oven. Armadillo eggs: similar to the jalapeño poppers but without the crumbs and wrapped in ground beef and bacon, usually smoked. Tamales: more of a Mexican food but is still popular in Texas and other bordering states. They are a dumpling made with masa filled with meat, usually pulled pork, steamed within a corn husk.
Mmmm, all that is delicious! I found a recipe for Scotch Eggs from England and it's a boiled egg wrapped in hamburger, oats, and spices and baked. It's delicious.
To me, the term "raincheck" refers to the practice of a retail outlet being out of the advertised item, but a customer could get a "raincheck" to be able to purchase the advertised item at the sale price when it is restocked, even if the advertised sale dates are over
Kudos to you, Laurence and others in the comments section for getting the form of the noun "grits" correct (if only by accident) - it's singular! As in, "grits is found on the breakfast table in many Southern homes." Implied in the word is "a dish of..."
Native American fry bread is not the same thing as a Elephant Ear. If you ever go to a PowWow you have to get one as a taco and one covered in cinnamon sugar😊
@@kerridwynntheacegoblin6465 In authentic "Indian Tacos" (specifically those made by the Di'neh, used to be known as the Navajo, who today reside in the Sonoran desert) the meat is usually mutton because many Native tribes took to keeping sheep which are easier to care for than cattle. Some Americans are therefore "meh" about them because we're all about the beef, but this Yank thinks they're terrific. Oh, and the cinnamon sugar ones aren't just for kids. Yum!
I lived in Alabama a couple years over forty years ago. An elderly lady (100+) told me the farm dogs would hang around the kitchen screen door when they were cooking and whined. The ladies would tell them to hush. The cooked up the extra dough for them got to be named ‘hush puppies’.
I grew up in Georgia and my grandmother (born last decade of the 1800's) said basically the same thing about feeding the dogs with leftover cornbread batter. Hushpuppies are basically fried cornbread with some onion added. Since they're usually served as a side dish to fried fish now, I have my doubts about the origin of the name.
@@fidelogos7098 Actually if you search on the internet you will find it is true. When my fam first moved to the south a waitress offered me and my sister a choice between hushpuppies or coleslaw. My sister asked what is a hushpuppy and the waitress went silent as she wasn't sure how to explain it because surely everybody already new.
As you were talking about grits, I noticed the link for part 2 below had cheese whiz in the thumbnail. My granny combined grits and cheese whiz at Thanksgiving once, and created a dish that I and my cousins demanded every year since. It's truly a marvel.
Canadian here. Been watching on and off for a while and really like the deadpan humour and how you actually do all the research into the origins of these differences. I'm subscribing now, hope you keep making videos forever.
A "rain check", at least in some parts of the U. S. can also apply to a sale item that a store has run out of, but will honor the sale price with a "rain check" when they get more of them.
I lived in England for four years in the 1960s. When we first arrived, we were given an orientation, so that we would communicate better with the locals. We were told not to be offended if someone asked if we had a rubber (an eraser to us), or if we were asked if we wanted to be knocked up in the morning (a wake up call to us). There were others, I’m sure, but the years have erased them from my memory.
Man, how language changes. I'm british and In the 20 or so years I have been able to understand words, I have never known Knocked up to mean anything but pregnant. You sure they weren't pulling your leg? Either way, interesting to see how time changes our sayings.
@@dd11111 There used to be men employed as 'knocker uppers' in the UK before the days when it became common to have alarm clocks. They'd tap the windows with a long stick. I'm talking about pre-WWII.
Just a note: good hush puppies have onions added and are cooked in the oil leftover from frying fish. Serve with coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob and sweet tea. Enjoy y‘all!
@@commandercody2980 you should open your mind to trying out different cultural cuisine you'll be surprised how good things taste that don't smell appetizing. Take kimchi for example it doesn't smell very good but tastes good.
A "raincheck" also means, in a store, if an item on sale is sold out, the scrip the customer service desk can give a customer, to present to buy it when the store has restocked, at the sale price.
Also to clarify for those that may not know, grits are a porridge of ground corn. So, it's not a typical kind of porridge usually of like oats, rice, or something. Another famous more mainstream carhop service is Sonic. They are as popular as mcdonalds, kfc, etc but you stay in your car, for the most part, and are served that way. (some do have seating areas outside if you don't want to eat inside your car but that isn't the usual, especially here in tx where it's hot hot hot)
@@Musketeer009 In many Asian countries porridge is also made with rice. Places like Japan specifically have both rice porridge and rice puddings depending on a lot of cultural factors - such as rice porridge is typically served to someone that is ill or is a nostalgic comfort dish, while rice puddings are more like desserts or for special occasions. Though my overall point still being that a porridge made of corn, such as grits, is more unusual in the wider world of porridges, not just in the comparison of the UK.
Grits is actually ground dried hominy. It's a bit corser than cornmeal, which, if you boil it up would be called corn mush, or if you're Italian or want to be high-fallutin', polenta.
Mexicans call “fried bread” “sopapillas” (“soup pillows”) and can be served plain with a dipping sauce or dusted with cinnamon, powdered sugar and/or honey. You get better ones along the Oklahoma-Texas-New Mexico interstate corridor but they’re available elsewhere.
I have met many people from all parts of the world and every single culture I have encountered has some sort of fried bread. It is "making the most of what you have".
Meh, "elephant ears" are made with a batter closer to churros than the fluffy sopapilla. I still think of sopapillas as "mexican beignets" ... grew up with more New Orleans influence in the cuisine.
my first experience with elephant ears is when my mexican neighbors made some. it was more or less the same thing from carnivals, if i recall correctly. maybe slightly smaller.
I'm an American living and teaching English in Vietnam. There are foreign English teachers here from all over the world, and I'm always amazed at how the kids can pick up the language despite the different accents they hear. Textbooks are usually from British publishers and include British spellings and words (lift vs. elevator, lorry vs. truck...). They tend to use British words spoken with American accents, presumably due to the predominance of American culture. I constantly have to clarify the differences between cookies, crackers, and biscuits, as well as chips, fries, and crisps.
When I lived in France, if someone was mean to me about my accent, I would (with great fan-fair and winks to anyone listening) ask them to pronounce three English words for me: sheet, beach, and hungry. (Payback for oeil, beaucoup, and oeuf. Ha!
A raincheck is also used if a store had an item on sale, but it's out of stock. They used to allow rainchecks to allow you to buy at the cheaper price within a timeframe.
There's a whole Butte County in California. Also, just for clarification, the word was originally a French word for an isolated hill. Another flat topped land form is a mesa. But where a mesa is Spanish for a table, you can recognize a butte as looking more like a stool.
I was a geography teacher in England, so I know what a butte is, (even before I'd seen one) it's a recognised geographical term for a flat topped rocky hill. Just like a crevasse is a French word that is the official term for a crack in an ice sheet or glacier.
On the northern Gulf coast MS, AL, & Pensacola... lol We call it a funnel cake. I guess because the batter gets poured through a funnel into the hot grease.
Sort of. It's not exactly the same but similar enough that I say they're sort of like elephant ears when explaining beavertails to Americans. The couple who own the franchise invented them in my hometown. ❤
@@laurahinrichsen3917 I live in ny on the Canadian border so I’ve personally never heard of an elefant ear before tonight but I just assume they are basically the same as a beavertail with less flavours
In Florida, and the southeastern U.S. in general we usually throw some chopped green onions into the hushpuppy mix before frying, gives them a slight sweet taste in addition to the onion flavor. (onions generally turn sweet when exposed to heat or an acid (vinegar)) YUM!!
And if we (here in Florida, particularly) add chopped conch (pronounced konk, with a hard ‘k’ sound at both ends, never a ch!) to a hunch puppy, it’s a conch fritters and is gloriously delicious! Hush puppies are generally awesome, though. So there we are 😁
That sounds delicious. I have never tried this. I think I will look up how to make this. As a Brit living in America, I will say that the best food I have eaten has been in the South.
My first trip to London I was amazed to see that establishments advertised that they had "facilites" ... wash rooms, etc. ... often with very large signs on the top of the building. Dyslexia ... these signs actually said "TO LET", which in US is said "TO RENT".
In Roger Miller's song 'King of the Road' he sings room to let, 50 cents. In Sweden if someone has a room to rent they just put up a sign with the word 'Rum'.
I remember seeing the carhops when we went to the drive-in in our station wagon. We had to be careful not to spill the A&W in the "wayback". Remember waybacks? The third bench seat that you could fold down to make a platform to sit on,(while your parents drove on your roadtrip) or you could make the seat face backwards?
It just brings me joy that when you talk about the US, your personal experiences are in IL and IN. I grew up in and currently live in the Chicagoland area, went to school in central IL, and lived for a few years in Michiana (North central IN), so I know where most of the places you talk about are 😊
Spent a year in Edinburgh as an exchange student. The first time I heard the expression "knock up" used as the Brits do (or did) was quite amusing. "Why don't you come knock us up at 8?"
We still use the term "knocked up" not as often though since its kind of weird to go to someones house knowing that they're still asleep. Most people use alarm clocks now. You would only use really if someone called late at night as opposed to early in morning as it was used. If you was to tell someone you will "knock them up in the morning" The reply would probably be "you bloody will not! Call round after breakfast" The term would more likely be used as "Dave came home shitfaced last night. Lost his keys and knocked me up" Or bloody 5,0 knocked me up at daft o'clock again"
Surprised Sonic's wasn't mentioned, it a chain Drive-in. I've been to a few where they wore skates. Also Drive-in can be an outside movie theater that you watch from your car. Grits are also close to polenta, if you can believe the Food Network.
Close, but no cigar. Polenta is made from ground corn and, sometimes, other grains. Grits are traditionally made from hominy, which is corn that has been treated with an alkali, such as lye.
I mean, technically they have a word for it. They just don't know it. Because as soon as we tell them what it is, then they have a word for it. I didn't have a word for sauerkraut till I went to a German restaurant. Well, spoiled cabbage maybe. But now I have that word. It's mine, and you can't take it from me.
@@renejean2523 We have *multiple words* (iow, a phrase) for it, which is why we now use schadenfreude instead. Americans: always on the lookout for a more efficient way of doing things!
@@DarthPoyner culture shock is when, as an American, I went to a Swedish pizzeria and nearly everyone had sauerkraut put on their pizza. People warned me how Italian pizza is different from what we Americans eat, but sauerkraut on pizza? Since then I've also had pickle slice pizza from a "Domino's" in southern Mexico, where they also put "salsa de inglés" (Worcestershire sauce: can't really blame them for that translation) on pizza.
In the South, where I live, grits was once known as 'southern ice cream', due to it's creamy texture, and you can't have fried fish without hush puppies. And though Sonic is one of the few modern fast food places with carhops, here in Atlanta we have the Varsity, who have had carhops serving chili dogs, chili burgers and onion rings down the way from Georgia Tech since 1929.
You've no doubt heard that Nipsey Russell, the comedian, got his start as a Varsity carhop. Native Atlantan here! Chili dog, onion rings, fried peach pie and an FO* are my faves, but I haven't been in quite a while. * Frosted Orange. Often referred to only by the letters.
I have lived all over the U.S. and I have always been fascinated with the differences in regional foods. For example, I am from north central Ohio and the bratwurst that we have there are nothing like what I have had in other parts of the country or Germany for that matter. They are way more spiced and flavorful. (shout out to Carle's Bratwurst!)
Aldi occasionally have bratwurst are imported from Germany. They are very good but mush different form what is sold by Johnsonville. There are really good brats from the west side market in Cleveland. Stadium mustard!
Cincinnati here too. There are good butchers who have flavorful brats. They're even better if you cook them in beer. Many brats bought at grocery stores and at ballparks tend to be blander, but still great with kraut, relish, onions, and ballpark mustard.
The back of a baesball ticket is usually the raincheck ... if the game gets rained out before it's an official game, that raincheck allows the ticket-holder to attend a later game without paying for a new ticket
The Giants had tickets with a tearable stub on the end. The ticket taker would tear off the stub and give you the remainder of the ticket (which also served as souvenir). That remainder served as the rain check if the game was rained out before the 15 outs was scored by one team and the outcome was known (end of the top of the 5th and the home team was leading, or the end of the bottom of the 5th, regardless). If you arrived at the gates for the original game with a missing stub, they would not admit you, assuming you had already been in and had been ejected for some reason.
@Randall Johnson I was surprised this definition wasn't in the video. It's the first one I thought of. I'm a baseball fan and I had forgotten about the origin of the term!
More fried bread: Zeppole - fried rounds of dough tossed into a paper bag with powdered sugar. Popular on the east coast and at any street festival in an Italian-American neighborhood.
Churro: The Mexican version of fried dough, but it's actually extruded through a star-shaped die as it falls into the hot oil. Then they cover the finished product with cinnamon-sugar.
I live in Canada and have only heard three of these used here: s'more, raincheck, and jay walking. I'm originally American but moved to Canada when I was only six. Some of these words you used brought back very distant memories indeed! Like "elephant ears." Do you ever do Canada? We've got a bunch of words they don't use in the UK or the States, like "toque"!
"Raincheck" is still part of my regular vocabulary. Usually it's used if I made plans with someone and one of us, for any reason, cannot or do not want to make it but would like to hang out again soon. It's super informal. I'd use it to tell my friend I wasn't up for going to the bar a particular night because I didn't feel like leaving the house.
A rain check is also a voucher that a store will issue if they run out of an item that's on sale, so that the customer can get it at the sale price when it is back in stock, after the sale is over.
Grits are an art form. You will find them in high end restaurants in New Orleans as one of the side dishes alongside the main course. So they can be part of a lowly breakfast mixed with eggs or a delicious shrimp n’ grits for dinner, for example.
During the Underground Railroad, runaway slaves used to mix hemlock root in with corn bread balls. They'd leave them on the trail, and the hound dogs pursing them would eat them, and very soon, be hushed.
@@richardm3023 When I first learned about the Underground Railroad, I assumed that Harriet Tubman's last name was a nickname given to her because she constructed a "tube" (a literal underground railroad). Eventually, I realized that it was not underground and was not really a railroad, but I still say "Harriet Tube-Man"...
I also remember learning that when kitchens used to be separate from the house, hush puppies were used to lure dogs away from the meal when brought to the house.
I think a lot of the words that we have here in the states that don't translate to the UK are words that originate within certain parts of the US. Grits is a southern styled food. Fajitas are something that you would normally find in the Southwest. And depending on which part of the Midwest you are from some words can only be translated after a beer or tree.
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o But do they call them fajitas? Back when I played Neopets, which is owned by a British company and lives on a British internet server, there was a food item whose name always made me roll my eyes. It was called "Cheese Tortilla". The reason it made me roll my eyes is because here in the southwest US, we call that a quesadilla.
So, my wife and I went on a trip to England, we were sitting outside of St. Paul's Cathedral, and we had tea and crumpets. Later on that week, we met up with a co-worker who works at the Crawley plant of the company we both work for. He had come over to the states for training and we would keep in touch because I would answer most of his technical questions. Well, we were talking in a pub somewhere in Brighton, and I told him I had my first crumpet. The guy next to him almost spit out the beer he just drank and looked at me with a grin. I had no idea what I had said, then my friend said to not say that too loud because that was slang for having a girl the night before. Man did my wife laugh.
Tea and crumpetS (plural) are typically a breakfast thing over here, a quick and simple meals when in a hurry - such as when you want to get out of someone's house quickly, but you're too polite (British) to refuse their offer of breakfast (or when you want them to leave to spare your embarrassment), hence "crumpet" as slang for a one night stand. Tip for the Americans: both types of crumpet are good with peanut butter smeared on them...
My friend mentioned your channel to me and we just LOVE talking about the topics you bring up! Thank you so much for your channel and enriching our lives 🌞🥰💯👍👍👍👍
Leon's frozen custard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 50's drive-in started in 1947. Has hot food as well. Definitely has roller skates on their servers. Also, Ardy & Ed's Drive-In in Oshkosh. There are about 5 more drive-ins for Wisconsin.
An old southern saying is "i put my whole foot in it" meaning that a person made some food and they were at their best when they made it. My great grandmother from Alabama used to say that when she made a dish she was particularly proud of
In England putting your foot in it means you have made a mistake such as I have just told my sister about her surprise birthday party, I really put my foot in it.
@@johnshufflebottom7907 Yeah, that's what can get confusing about some terms, because there is this phrase "put my foot in my mouth", it means to have said something that you didn't mean to or weren't supposed to say. I guess it's kind of like the term "two left feet" but for your speech.
To elaborate on Shufflebottoms explanation, the phrase refers to saying/doing a thing that causes considerable embarrassment, and now, like stepping in quick drying cement, you have put your foot in it, and are stuck with the shame of your idiocy. We Brits derive a perverse joy from watching people do this, especially down the pub, where such moments will live in eternal infamy
Particularly "put my whole foot in it" is a Black American term coopted by Southern culture at large (and is far from the only example of that happening). A popular way to say you kicked someone's ass (as in you beat them very thoroughly) was to say you "broke your foot off in their ass" so a kind of cheeky way to say you cooked something extremely well (as in you beat the meals ass) was you put your whole foot in it.
Stoop - A word taken from the Dutch. In New York City and parts of New Jersey the word stoop refers to the front steps / stair cases that lead into most apartment buildings. People from the building usually congregate on the stoop and socialize for hours on end.
I've been getting Elephant Ears at a bakery in Rockport, MA for more than 30 years. They have always been a sweet flaky pastry, close to filo dough, in the giant shape of a baby elephant's ear, topped with cinnamon sugar. 100% a different thing than fried dough. I mean, America is gigantic, and regional dialects change food names, so I understand the confusion
I was told by my mother, who admittedly was not always the best source for obscure trivia (because you could never tell whether she was making something up or not) that hushpuppies (a cornmeal ball with seasoning added) are used to take the fishy flavor out of oil after you have deep-fried fish in it, so the oil can be used again. That is why hushpuppies at a catfish house (seafood restaurant) are so good.
When I was a young girl, back in the 60's, A&W had carhops. It was a real treat to jump in the Ford Falcon station wagon on a hot summer day, with my mom at the wheel, and head out for a "Black Cow" (root beer float) served up in a frosty mug. Under other circumstances, my older brother would tease me endlessly, but he was always on his best behavior when a stop at A&W was in the offing. They lost my Mom's business when they lost the carhops.
@@LindaC616 Our station wagon was a Ford and it had fake wood on the side. Those were the days. Mom and Dad in the front seat, Grandma and Grandpa in the back seat, and little old me rolling around in the cargo area with my pillow, my blanket, and a stack of comic books.
Funnel cake= Pancake batter consistency poured through a funnel into hot oil then pulled out and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Elephant ear=also deep fried batter (or dough) but not poured through a funnel and is sprinkled with a mixture of cinnamon and granular sugar. Both are fair foods. And yes, an elephant ear is also a plant.
It just isn’t going to the fair without having one or both of those at some point during your visit! Very nice explanation.
I love funnel cakes, and I have elephant ears in my garden. 😁
@@NOLAgenX They are lovely plants. Best to you!
I've lived in many different places and it's always called funnel cake. Those other names must be hyper regional.
@@rebelpearl yes they are! And down here I don’t have to pull the bulbs out of the ground. I just cut them to the ground at first frost, which is usually December. Have a great evening, and thank you!
My husband and I drove a moving van across the US when we relocated to Phoenix. We were getting toward the end of it and I was pretty cranky. Husband was trying to cheer me up, "Well at least the landscape is nice. Look at that mountain over there, isn't it a pretty mountain?" Without thinking I retorted, "It's a butte." He set me up to make a horrible pun and I love him for it.
🤣🤣🤣That was awesome! As a Mojave Desert dweller, I love it!
HAHAHA! Good one!
I LOL'd at that. thanks
I don't get it. How is "It's a butte" a pun? Please explain, I'm genuinely confused.
@@commandercody2980 it's a beaut (short for beautiful) butte and beaut sound the same when said
The thing I've always wanted to witness is a native of Birmingham, England meeting a native of Birmingham, Alabama, USA. They would both be technically speaking English, but I'm pretty sure they would not be able to understand each other.
Hehe! That brings to mind my junior year of high school when our family had just moved to Virginia from Macon, GA, and the school's English teacher had just moved to VA from somewhere in New York State; yeah, just because both languages were named English that didn't mean they were the same language!
(yes, I know, technically it is dialects, but it sure felt like we were speaking different languages)
@@alonespirit9923 Dialects can be very pronounced, i.e. Cantonese and Mandarin are technically both Chinese; however, they differ in almost every way even the characters are different now.
I’m from Georgia and recently I was in Boston due to my job. I had to work with a native Bostonian. We ended up having to write notes to each other. Between his distinct Boston accent and my southern drawl, it became rather comical.
@@KRYMauL cantonese and mandarin aren't dialects though.... "chinese" isn't a single language but the name of a language family like how english and german are both part of the germanic language family, but I highly doubt anyone would argue those two languages are even remotely dialects so neither should they say that for cantonese and mandarin which can't even be understood in writing nvm speaking
@@Aeririn The difference between a dialect and language is very hard to point out, and no one has a solid grasp on what the difference is.
6:55 Raincheck is also used when you go to a store that is having a sale, but they've run out of the sale item. You can ask for a "raincheck", which is a coupon to purchase the item at the sale price later on, when it's back in stock.
(Stores may or may not issue rainchecks, and often sales designate that it only applies "while supplies last".)
Thank You
Never heard of it used that way.
Yes, that's the kind of rain check I'm familiar with. No doubt came from the baseball rain check.
Drive-in movies would also issue rain checks if it would start raining during or just before the movie started.
Yep...I'm old and retired so I've always got plenty of time to throw the supermarket's customer svce into a tizzy trying to find the raincheck coupons somewhere under the counter😂😂 Rainchecks are great tho cause the expiration always lasts waaaay longer than the sale. 👍
I worked as a carhop at Sonic, and had a group of 4 British guys absolutely astounded by the whole experience. Only time I have ever felt like a walking novelty.
Roller skates?
Ours over on the East Coast in the South have roller skates.
Carhops on roller skates were fairly common on the 1950s and 60s. We used to BEG our parents to take us to an A&W in Golden, CO because we loved rootbeer floats (are those a thing in the UK???), the little tray they would hook onto your car window, along with a radio to use to call the server back, and the teenagers in skates speeding across the parking lot.
As a southern girl my first thought at elephant ear is a plant. I wasn't familiar with the dessert similar to funnel cakes.
It is a plant!!! Funnel Cakes on the other hand...I couldn't live without them!
Same. I thought about the plant.
Same here. The only 'elephant ear' I know of is a potted plant on people's porches.
So much better. Here in Wisconsin they are large (12 in across) n are much better than a funnel cake
Ditto! We have a mass of elephant ears growing by our front door.
Carhops on roller skates wasn't an 80's thing. It was a 50's thing. By the time, I grew up in the 80's, it was already a nostalgia thing for my parents.
You can still find carhops with skates in Sonic.
@@BalletMum14 Most carhops at Sonic just walk. In fact, I think I've only ever seen ONE carhop at a Sonic wearing skates. I was impressed.
@@Vykk_Draygo That's a regional thing for you then..... this part of Texas, they actually give them a raise to do it...
Well, 50's nostalgia was an 80's thing, so it sorta works either way.
On the other hand, there is a whole group of custom shops and mechanics dedicated to hopping cars also.
I'm an American and I spent 5 years in Scotland. One of my most memorable experiences was looking for "Band-Aids" in Edinburgh. I know that's an American brand name, so I had to call them something else to find them. I asked around, described what I was looking for, scanned shelves at the pharmacy (drug store), asked the "chemist" (pharmacist), and ended up all over town in frustration until someone finally told me I should ask for "plasters." By then I was nearly in tears from frustration and pain from my "booboo" I needed the Band-Aid for. I will never forget that experience.
@@batshtcrazy5293it is called plaster’s over the pond, went to America needing plaster 🩹 and paracetamol,so I understand your frustration because the chemist is in Walmart and she asked if I was okay 😢. No I just need some 🩹 plasters and paracetamol 😂
Couldn't you have just asked for a bandage? That should have gotten the message across easily enough. Or just show them your injury to begin with?
@@ChaosLightspeed I asked in every way I could think of, including a detailed description, including "bandage with adhesive so it sticks and stays in." Everybody looked at me like I had 3 heads. You have to ask for PLASTERS.
@@Irene-xs9pc You going to do some plastering of your wall? hahahahaha
@@meredithinserra4670 I wonder if Duct Tape and Gorilla glue would be understood in Britain.
In the US we have several words for our political leaders like Congressmen, Senators, and President. While in the UK they just call their politicians "Ignorant Twats". At least my British granny does.
We have a similar name for our politicians.
Jackasses
As an American can agree all of our political leaders are twats
@@jean-lucpicard3012 Almost all. I think Pete Buttigieg shows promise. He's at least well spoken.
@@Gerry1of1 well-spoken just means they're a polite jackass.
We have other words for our politicians, but I don't want to get flagged.
snowbird-a northerner who moves to a southern state in the winter
If they stay past winter, they're called "damned Yankees."
I had one on the phone the other day; they call themselves 'sunbirds' which made me laugh.
Okay. Sorry. I need to read ALL the words. 💜
@@OZARKMOON1960 and as a Floridian I would say a Sunbird is a Floridian that goes up North during summer?
@@philipwebb960 and yes that's exactly what they're called after April 1st! And all the months from October to April
“Rubbers”
Had a British tour planner for our high school Latin Club’s Italy trip and he asked us if our school was a “good school”. We asked what he meant. He asked “well do kids behave in class and raise their hands or are they being naughty and throwing rubbers at each other when the teacher isn’t looking?” We stares at him in silence for a bit before our Latin teacher coughed and said “rubbers are slang for condoms and no I have not encountered this.” This Brit doubled over laughing and choked out “Oh no! I meant rubber erasers. The pink erasers for pencil marks!”
I thought it was the rain boots 😂
When I was in high school, a German exchange student (who learned the Queen's english) quite loudly asked the teacher for a rubber, resulting in much hilarity. (Late 80s... no internet to help sort things out before hand.)
I thought rubbers in Britain was rubber bands. Hmmm.
@@SuperJMichael they are usually called laggy bands in the Midlands.
I was imagining a bunch of kids throwing tires at each other XD
Brownies seem to have crossed to the UK but when I moved to the US in the 90s, the only brownies I was familiar with were the 10-year-old girl guides. When I was asked if I'd ever had a brownie before, I replied "No, where I come from we have laws about that kind of thing."
Thanks for the laugh!!!🤣🤣🤣
Not anymore... I'm sure it's perfectly legal in both the USA and Britain
Aren’t brownies a tier level of Girl Scouts in America? We also had the Kodak brownie camera and now an edible version. Let’s be honest, American English is and always was about trolling.
ever had a brownie in the bed roo.. NO NO NOT WHAT I MEANT..
I STOP ARESSTING ME.
SHIT SHIT I MEAN SHIT...
The story on the hush puppy is that while deep frying either fish or chicken, the dogs would yelp and bark for some of the food, so some of the batter used to dip the fish or chicken in before frying would be poured into the fry bath with a ladle, and the fried batter would be tossed to the dogs with the admonition, "Hush, puppy". That's the story, anyway.🙂🐕
The one I heard.
Ooh that’s fun! I never new that!
Yup, my mom told me that, and she was from Texas, where they deep fry EVERYTHING.
I was JUST about to post this, jacques! I believe this came about around the time of the Civil War ... something done during big banquets held in large Plantations from what I hear.
@@lifecloud2 The real truth is probably lost in the mists of time, IMO, it was probably named sometime after, and it may have had several names before this one stuck. There are also different compositions, some with onions, soft corn kernels, and they also take on the flavor of the fry bath that they are cooked in, usually fish or chicken, but those charming Southerners will deep fry just about anything. 😏 Then, too, they are sometimes served with syrup, butter, sour cream, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, and many other things I can't think of.
A flat-topped hill with vertical sides is a "mesa" from the Spanish word for table. A butte is an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte
"In geomorphology, a butte (/bjuːt/) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaux, and tablelands."
www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/butte/
"Buttes were once part of flat, elevated areas of land known as mesas or plateaus. In fact, the only difference between a mesa and a butte is its size. Most geographers say a butte is taller than it is wide, while a mesa is a much larger, slightly less elevated feature."
Flat top is still the distinctive feature
Or where teenagers go to make out in cars lol
@@travissmith2848 it would appear America didn't get the memo. Buttes are common in the northwest, are isolated hills or chains of hills, volcanic in origin, and never have flat tops. Meanwhile in the southwest where mesas are common, none are called buttes. While some people in the NW know what a mesa is, few people who live in the SW have heard of a butte. I think these geographers need to get out more... or perhaps look at map.
@@nathanegbert977 Tell me about it. Here in Montana we got loads of buttes but no mesas. Despite few "buttes" being only spires only a couple dozen yards across.
We must also discuss that butte can also replace the word beauty or beautiful in the Midwest.
Good hushpuppies are beyond heavenly.
Cooked well, but not overcooked. Moist and soft inside. A deep, dark golden brown crust on the outside. Mmmmm
Outside just a bit crisp, inside warm and almost melting...
My wife has perfected a fusion between her family's recipe, and mine, and it's amazing. She made a double batch this evening. 😋
You should try hushpuppies stuffed with crawfish tails
I find they're better when made in a seafood restaurant. The fried seafood kind of flavors the cooking oil ans makes the fries and hush puppies better.
Are they dipped in something oreaten as-is?
Being from the American south east when you said elephant ear I assumed you were talking about the large leaved plant we call elephant ears(Xanthosoma sagittifolium) is the most common one here in FL. We also still regular use raincheck at grocery stores when there is a sale and the store runs out of the item on sale. You can get a literal coupon from them for that sale price to be used when the item is back in stock even if the sale is over with. Finally, the best hush puppies I've ever found were in tarpon springs Florida at a restaurant called Rusty Bellies 👌🧑🏽🍳
Americans almost never use the word fortnight, despite the fact that most are paid fortnightly. We will use Biweekly, but that can mean either twice a week or every other week.
Smart Americans use fortnight for two weeks, biweekly for every other week, and twice-weekly for, well, twice a week.
@@gloriouslumi "Smart" Americans simply say "two weeks" instead of "fortnight". 😅 I've never in my life heard anyone here say otherwise.
Didn’t you watch Game of Thrones they mention ‘fortnight’ almost biweekly!
@@gloriouslumi Hate to break it to you, but using the word fortnight does not make you smarter than anyone else. :)
Yes, true. I have never heard an American use fortnight. Unless they are talking about the game that is.
Elephant ears can also refer to a decorative garden plant with leaves that can reach 3 feet or more in length. A rain check is also something you might get from a store when a sale item is out of stock, allowing you to get the sale price when they get it in.
Yep! Totally agree. 💗
That’s what I thought he meant at first. We don’t get elephant ears at the fairs where I am (Georgia) but we do have funnel cakes which is the same thing shaped differently
Target use to give rain check for sale items.
Usually pinkish and just lovely!
Down here in Southeast Louisiana, those decorative garden plants are nuisance plants. We chop them down and get rid of them only to have them come back a week later. They're indefatigable. I found it hilarious when my husband and I discovered that we could dig them up and sell them for significant profit to people in the area of Alabama where he was from.
Sonic has drive-ins, and they sometimes have roller-skates.
Yeah, as Brit living in the US I was delighted to discover a Sonic in Medford, Oregon.
We have them in Texas.
@@penelopepitstop762 Honestly, Texas sounds so amazing. Except for the metropolitan areas where displaced liberals moved to who haven't changed their voting habits that destroyed California.
@@CelticSpiritsCoven LOL well you may not like where I am... Austin. We have lots of Californians here. But they’re not so bad. 😉
@@penelopepitstop762 I was Air Force. Boot Camp at Lackland, and then Tech School at Sheppard AFB.
On the bus, leaving Lackland for Sheppard..... I saw a tumbleweed blowing near the road. I had only seen that in movies before. So that was a fun memory!
I'm from West Virginia and I'd never heard of "elephant ears." The only fried dough type of treat that I've ever known of previously is called a "funnel cake."
Also from w.Virginia, have heard of elephant ears, both the kind on the elephant and the kind made of fried dough.
funnel cake is a thick batter. fried dough is made from a flour dough
From Missouri. I’ve also never heard of an elephant ear, besides the plant. 🤷🏻♀️ I haven’t even seen those, so I don’t have a word for it.
The only elephant ears I have ever heard of were the plants with the huge leaves. And I agree with you about funnel cakes.
Where I'm from
“A carhop is not a car that hops!”
Obviously Larry has never hung out with the Vatos in East L.A. and seen there Low Riders!!!
LOL I'm a lifelong LA girl and I didn't even think of that!
Well rabbits hop and I seen VW Rabbits.
that still isn't what carhop means tho...
on a topic of lowrider subculture.... who would've known that it would cross a different pond -- the Pacific -- over into Japan? Knew something was up when I'd seen a Japanese-language edition of the Lowrider magazine back in the early 1990s.
and another bit of info: www.refinery29.com/en-us/japanese-chicana-chola-lowrider
(look aat the episode info for description)
A rain check to me is if you want something that's on sale at a store and they don't have it, you ask for a rain check and when it is restocked at that store you bring that rain check back to the store and you get the item at the sale price.
While that is the modern usage, he does have the origin correct.
There's also the usage Lawrence mentioned, of "holding" a social engagement for a later time, as in "I'd love to go out to lunch with you and catch up tomorrow, but I'll have to take a raincheck because I'm going out of town," meaning "I would very much like to do this thing with you at a later date, because I can't accept your invitation for the date you're offering".
In California, a rain check is what you get from the car wash so that if it rains in the next two days (or whatever) you get a free car wash. At least, it used to be! Haven't gotten one in ages.
We still get rain checks at Kroger!
yep. Walgreens used to give rainchecks.
Sonic is all over USA & has carhops. Used to be on roller skates, but not usually these days. Also, about a thousand kinds of beverages. Love their strawberry limeade.
Tips were better on skates!
The thought of insurance... 🤪
Bob's Big Boy, a chain of diners in California, started out with carhop service way back when. It fell into disuse for several decades, but became viable again during the pandemic as a way for people to eat out without breaking isolation.
@@lizh1988 People who skate regularly are almost as stable on skates as they are in shoes. And when delivering drinks in a hurry, more stable.
There's a Sonic on every corner in N. Mississippi,half of them still use roller skates.
A quick note about carhops:
You can still find them in some Sonic locations, but they appear to be almost completely phased out (assumedly due to health and safety). However, the name "carhop" came about during the '50s in which carhops would literally hop on the side of a moving car as it was pulling in to park at a drive-in, take the order, and then dismount once the car parked (presumably closer to the building)
The Sonic in my town that hasn't closed down yet still does the rollerskates. To continue this, the new hire is required to know how to skate proficiently, after a rookie tripped and smashed a car's windshield in with her head and dumped milkshakes all over the car next to the now smashed one.
The girl was okay, a small gash on her head but otherwise alright. Last I heard, she still works there and Sonic paid for the car's windshield.
First and last time I went to Sonic. The food was expensive, mediocre, and small. The shakes are good, but I paid $5 for a hotdog and got a glorified lil' smokie on a bun.
@@GetDougDimmadomed Did you order the footlong chili dog? That's my favorite thing on their menu.
That sounds terrifying 😱 and like the car could come away with several scratches
...back in the days of running boards. you could never do that on a mustang.
Back when cars had runningboards?
In the US, you can also get a rain check if a sale item is out of stock (especially in grocery stores). The rain check let’s the user get the item for the sale price after the item comes back in stock (expiration date 1 or 2 weeks).
of course that doesn't apply to black friday sales
Yes! During Covid our local store had a sign posted that rain checks were not being given.
Yup, no rainchecks for the rice that sold out in 1 day...
As with everything in the US, there is a lot of variation. I believe CVS rain checks don't expire and I have been to a grocery store where the rain check didn't expire until 60 days later.
That's the only kind of rain check I've heard of. Fun question: in Britain would it be a rain cheque?
If a grocery store runs out of something on special that week , you can ask for a rain check and they’ll give you a piece of paper that has the item named with the sale price on it. When they restock the item, use that ticket for the stated sale price!
Yes, but, the term did originate with baseball.
@@SorenWinslow
As all good things do ⚾️🇺🇸🥰
I came here to make this comment. Good job!
@@ChristinaBoggs me too
Yup, we did them at KMart in the 80's.
If it wasn't for grits the defense lawyer in My Cousin Vinny may not have ever proven that the next-door-neighbor witness was fibbing about how long he said the accused were at the murder scene.
"What is a grit anyways?"
@@eaglescout1984 They’re made from dried, ground corn (Maize) cooked in various liquids - including water, milk, or broth - until the mix reaches a thick, creamy, porridge-like consistency. You can have savory shrimp’n grits or cheese.
They’re most commonly served as a breakfast or side dish and usually made from a variety of corn called dent corn, which has a softer, starchy kernel (1).
The crushed corn granules are typically cooked in either hot water, milk, or broth until they reach a thick yet creamy consistency that is similar to porridge.
Grits are often paired with flavorful ingredients, such as butter, sugar, syrups, cheeses, and meats like bacon, shrimp, and catfish.
You can purchase several varieties of grits, including:
Stone-ground. These are made from whole, dried corn kernels that are coarsely ground in a mill. This type is harder to find in grocery stores because it has a short shelf life and takes 30-60 minutes to cook on the stove (2Trusted Source).
Hominy. These are made from corn kernels soaked in an alkali solution to soften the tough pericarp (outer shell or hull). The pericarp is rinsed, then removed, and the corn kernels undergo further processing to make hominy (3Trusted Source).
Quick and regular. These types undergo processing, which involves removing the pericarp and germ (nutrient-rich embryo), so they have a longer shelf life. Regular versions are medium ground while quick are finely ground (2Trusted Source).
Instant. This precooked, dehydrated version has had both the pericarp and germ removed. They’re widely available in grocery stores.
"No self respecting southerner uses instant grits" great movie.
It was them two yutes
@@jasonwomack4064 No self respecting southerner puts sugar or syrup in their grits either....
After spending a year in England, I realized I had no idea what I used to call a tea towel. I considererd the most obvious options, like "kitchen towel" and "dish towel," but I couldn't remember having a default word for it. So even though I don't call a meal in the late afternoon "tea" and have no other reason to associate them with it, I still call them "tea towels."
To everyone saying they call elephant ears funnel cakes, they are actually two different (albeit similar) desserts.
@Guardian Pigeon How different? Is it just the fact that funnel cakes are drizzled into the fryer, or are the doughs made differently as well? I've had funnel cakes where I live, but never an elephant ear.
@@captin3149 Funnel cakes are made from the same batter as is used to make eclairs and cream puffs.
No
@@Isolder74 Not anywhere I've ever made them or had them.
Eclairs and cream puffs are made with choux pastry, which is beaten at the end with a much larger ratio of eggs into a glossy paste that will puff and leave the inside hollow. It's piped out of a bag; you could never pour choux pastry dough through a funnel. (I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time I had to beat the eggs into the dough forever by hand for my grandmother to make cream puffs, and I worked in a professional kitchen later in life.)
Funnel cakes are generally made with a batter, not a dough, and it's closer to waffle batter than probably anything.
@Guardian Pigeon in some parts of the country--especially New England--it's also common to serve elephant ears (we called it fried dough) topped with tomato sauce and few shakes of parmesan cheese. Like a little fried pizza.
Raincheck is also used at stores when an item is out of stock, and a litreral raincheck is written out to the consumer for later purchase at the same price....and it took off into more common uses...you can ask your store for these
Rain checks are also a thing in retail! For example, if you walk into your local grocery store, and they are offering ramen for 10c each (lets say theyre usually 25c each). However, the flavour you like is all sold out. You can have staff write you a raincheck, guaranteeing you the sale price, for whenever they get the item back in stock (even if the sale has ended by then!).
Yep. And sadly, most companies are now putting disclaimers in their adds specifying “No Rainchecks.”
@@PastelBrushes-n-Donuts Yep, we removed ours like a month ago, which is sad for me working in grocery because it solved a lot of problems with customers who would make you check the back room twice and then ask about when specific products are being delivered. Apparently it somehow created more problems though, but with a limit on items allowed I can't see any real issues, just corporate greed
That’s where the term is most used.
Never heard of this. I know about people invitation. This sale raincheck must happen in only usa. In other countries i have been . The sale is till have stocks
Well we definitely don't have those in the UK either!
I love the myth about Devil’s Tower. I learned it in 4th grade. A bear chased a bunch of Indian people up a mountain/hill. The bear kept clawing at the sides because he wanted to eat them, and that’s how the ridges on the sides got there. That could be mostly wrong, as that was like 17 years ago. But, did it really stick in my head.
In the olden days(1960s) I was Car Hop Captain, then moved up to Curb Manager , which allowed me to sub for the Assitant Manager, or Store Manager....life in the fast lane.
As a southerner, love me some grits and hushpuppies. Traditionally, hushpuppies were always fried in the oil that you had fried fish in and were served with fried fish. Not necessarily true now.
And fried okra.
No wonder I like Long John Silver's. I'm from the north so I've never had any other kind.
Gawd, I want a big plate of catfish and hushpuppies now
Yes, that's correct. My daddy would have fish fries on the river and he fried the fish and hushpuppy in his big cast iron pot in the same oil.
oh but I agree, hushpuppies are the leftover batter/breading/eggwash mixed together and deep fried in the leftover oil from frying fish or chicken, maybe with a little baking powder and garlic powder. Not sure if they're authentic made 'specially!
As a Brit, I knew about Drive Ins due to the closing credits of The Flintstones
Lol!
OR the TV show 'Happy Days'
OMG! I forgot all about that.
We do eat a lot here, but usually the car doesn't tip over.
Yeah these were popular in the 50s and 60s... not the 80s.
I love your presentations & explanations.
A raincheck is also used when a grocery store has a sale, but they have run out of the product before the sale ended. So you will ask for a raincheck so you can return to the store in about a week or so when they have restocked the item. Then you can buy the item (that is no longer on sale in the flyers) for the previously advertised price.
I love s'mores, I love it when the marshmallow is burnt so the middle is melted. The charcoal like flavor from the burnt marshmallow adds to the outdoors, camping flavor.
Agreed!!
A friend of mine from Rhode Island used to call them Samoas -- because they don't pronounce the "r" in "more" there. I (from Indiana) never could convince her that they were actually called S'mores.
@@carolthedabbler2105 that's just wrong! Lol.
That's kind of like having good memories of the fine sand in your swimsuit from trips to the beach. Ahh, that wonderful feeling of the abraded skin where the sand got stuck in the hem around your upper thigh/crotch. Those were the days... The trick is getting the marshmallow just the right golden brown on all sides just before it is ready to fall off the stick into the fire.
Yeah I like to burn my marshmallows and then put in the cracker and Hershey bar yum
Interesting story: I was with my grandpa in California this last summer, and when we came to a place to eat, I saw hushpuppies on the menu. Me, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, had no idea what a hushpuppy was. My grandpa looked at me like I was neglected as a child. I can attest to the great taste of those deep-fried delights.
They sell them at Long John Silvers
@@joycej9415
Yep. Not sure how they will taste at yours, but the ones in Clemson are really good.
@@robertalexander5892 I always think they are tasty. Was just remarking that you can get them any place now!
"Gilligan's" puts bits of 🟢 peppers in them. 😋
I live in Ohio and just last week I stopped in my local grocery store and bought a bag of frozen hush-puppies, They were once a purely southern food, but anyone who tasted them wanted more, so now they are available all over the country.
By the way, Do you have Tater tots in Britain, or do you have them under another name?
I love seeing people on here visiting my town. I hope you enjoyed Anderson, IN and everyone made you feel welcomed to the town
“This is for my British viewers, i. e., my mum.” Sorry Uncle Toby. You don’t warrant a mention now.
😂
Has he been a bad boy again?
Yeah, the Queen stopped watching when Harry got married.
The elephant ear is called a beavertail in Canada! "Beavertails" is a chain eatery of the most delightful ski resort junk food. (I'm pretty sure Canadians would still call it a beaver tail even if it wasn't from that brand...) Cinnamon sugar is the original, but they also have like peanut butter banana, Nutella, apple pie ones... 😍
I normally hear “funnel cakes” or an I thinking of something else? - an American
The only reason I know that is because of john pinette, he’s a comedian and he talks about BeaverTails.
@@laurenswift9368 funnel cakes are similar, but beaver tails are like a pizza crust shape of dough and funnel cakes are squirted into the hot oil in a pile of squiggles out of a funnel or squirt bottle type of thing. Pizza vs spaghetti shaped but both are sweet fried dough, usually with more sugar on top
Yet another reason to visit Canada 🇨🇦 ❤
Where I'm from, Philadelphia, Elephant Ears are like French Palmiers, sugared rolled flakey pastry. What you had shown is more like a funnel cake. But it also looks like a Moravian Sugar Cake sold here in North Carolina.
Years ago I had a friend from the northern US who was traveling through the south. His breakfast arrived with a serving of grits which he had never seen. He asked the waitress "What is this?" She said "Them are grits--eat 'em." So he did, and loves grits to this day.
I used to live in Seattle, where grits aren't common. One diner served them as a side dish. They had an inset on the menu explaining that grits were "that white stuff they served you in prison". 🤣🤣🤣
As a kid growing up in New York I had grits all the time. But now I am thinking this might have been because my father's ancestors were from the South.
Never tried grits. Been wanting to ever since I saw My Cousin Vinny. Lol.
@@alienlife7754 If you like corn chips, Fritos or polenta, you'll like grits.
@@alienlife7754 it's essentially thin polenta. Nothing special. You never see it because it's more exciting calling it polenta rather than grits...
Another type of drive in. Movies outdoors that you sit in your car and watch. Half way through the dancing snacks play while you get out of your car and go to the"snack bar". Love you guys, keep up the good work.
"Elephant Ears" in Canada are "Beaver Tails."
I was thinking the same thing, lol.
I'm pretty sure elephant ears are the generic (I had them at the CNE as a kid) and Beavertails are a specific brand.
Are you really the girl in the picture?
@@Heggsabee All of my friends (in Canada) refer to them as "Beaver Tails" even if they're not from the actual store.
@@numarkaz Haha, yes.
@5:00 Sonic Restaurants are also a large chain of restaurants that feature the "Drive IN" experience. The Car Hops do serve your food on roller skates.
@6:54 Raincheck is also referred to when a sale at a store was happening and they were out of stock, you could go to the store manager and get a raincheck on the item so that you could purchase it when it was back in stock.
You live in the US? I got 6 sonics in my area and nobody skates anymore 😂
I live in Stillwater, OK the home of the original Sonic and they don't skate anymore here.
A lot of Sonics no longer have skating carhops, alas. A&W also used to have skating carhops, but try to find an A&W anymore.
Trivia: A&W tried to become a big player in the fast-food chain business, not only with their signature root beer but they also started offering a 1/3-pound burger, to compete with McDonald's Quarter Pounder. Unfortunately, it seems most Americans thought 1/4 was bigger than 1/3 (because 4 is bigger than 3?) and the idea didn't catch on.
I worked at Sonic as a car hop when I was in high school and I skated. The older people loved it and they tipped better. Those little mints you get were affectionately (I guess) called landmines. Hiting one of those bad boys in skates would ruin your night. It would happen all the damn time.
This was in 2006, so I'm sure they rarely do it anymore if at all.
Old folks just like nostalgic stuff. It’s just how everyone is, we will be old one day ourselves. I used to do cashier work at 7-Eleven and for some people I would count up to their payment, just because they liked it. In other words, if someone handed me a $20 bill to pay for something they bought, I would count the change, then point the merchandise and say “and twenty”.
Could be nostalgia, could just be rewarding the extra effort.
Some Sonics still have an occasional rollerskater, but it's no longer the norm.
My parents argued over what a scone was all the time. My dad was thinking of an elephant ear, and was pretty stubborn about it. My mom is a baker, and knows what a scone actually is.
Some food, particularly from the south, of the US
Jalapeño poppers: a halved jalapeño, with seeds removed, filled with cream cheese and topped with panko crumbs, cooked in a oven.
Armadillo eggs: similar to the jalapeño poppers but without the crumbs and wrapped in ground beef and bacon, usually smoked.
Tamales: more of a Mexican food but is still popular in Texas and other bordering states. They are a dumpling made with masa filled with meat, usually pulled pork, steamed within a corn husk.
I'm from Indiana and love Tamales. It isn't just a border thing anymore, although growing up in the 80s and 90s they were not as common as nowadays.
A dumpling? I really wouldn’t call it that
Panko? Masa?
Mmmm, all that is delicious! I found a recipe for Scotch Eggs from England and it's a boiled egg wrapped in hamburger, oats, and spices and baked. It's delicious.
@@mursuhillo242 panko is a coarse Japanese style bread crumb. Masa is a dough made from corn/maize
"And when I say she 'took me there' I got absolutely no say in the matter." - Every man who was ever married is nodding his head at that.
**Nods in agreement**
Quietly, where I can't see him.
@@Hullj 🤣
The good ones, anyway. The good ones always do.
Thank God Malls are all but dead, husbands bored to death while sitting with their wives purses in their laps was a sad sight.
To me, the term "raincheck" refers to the practice of a retail outlet being out of the advertised item, but a customer could get a "raincheck" to be able to purchase the advertised item at the sale price when it is restocked, even if the advertised sale dates are over
Yes, but, the term did originate with baseball.
Store still do this to make sales.
That's the main way we use it in Australia
Me too..... it was the first think I thought of too, but probably because I used to work at a grocery store when I was in college.
Raincheck is most commonly used as a way of expressing desire to reschedule
Like
Can i get a raincheck? When one must refuse an invite
Kudos to you, Laurence and others in the comments section for getting the form of the noun "grits" correct (if only by accident) - it's singular! As in, "grits is found on the breakfast table in many Southern homes." Implied in the word is "a dish of..."
Native American fry bread is not the same thing as a Elephant Ear. If you ever go to a PowWow you have to get one as a taco and one covered in cinnamon sugar😊
@@kerridwynntheacegoblin6465 In authentic "Indian Tacos" (specifically those made by the Di'neh, used to be known as the Navajo, who today reside in the Sonoran desert) the meat is usually mutton because many Native tribes took to keeping sheep which are easier to care for than cattle. Some Americans are therefore "meh" about them because we're all about the beef, but this Yank thinks they're terrific.
Oh, and the cinnamon sugar ones aren't just for kids. Yum!
Indian Fry Bread cant be beat by anything, full stop, no argument possible.
Texas also has something similar, imported from northern Mexico, called a sopaipilla. Usually covered with powdered sugar.
I like mine with honey.
@@markfergerson2145 I love lamb, so I'd probably like it :)
I lived in Alabama a couple years over forty years ago. An elderly lady (100+) told me the farm dogs would hang around the kitchen screen door when they were cooking and whined. The ladies would tell them to hush. The cooked up the extra dough for them got to be named ‘hush puppies’.
I grew up in Georgia and my grandmother (born last decade of the 1800's) said basically the same thing about feeding the dogs with leftover cornbread batter. Hushpuppies are basically fried cornbread with some onion added. Since they're usually served as a side dish to fried fish now, I have my doubts about the origin of the name.
@@fidelogos7098 Actually if you search on the internet you will find it is true. When my fam first moved to the south a waitress offered me and my sister a choice between hushpuppies or coleslaw. My sister asked what is a hushpuppy and the waitress went silent as she wasn't sure how to explain it because surely everybody already new.
@@fidelogos7098 Here in Texas, we often put jalapeno peppers in them, instead of onion.
@@randlebrowne2048 I'll have to give that a try. i love jalapenos.
I have read stories that run away slaves would drop baked food so the dogs chasing them would stop barking and eat it. The food was to 'hush puppies.'
As you were talking about grits, I noticed the link for part 2 below had cheese whiz in the thumbnail. My granny combined grits and cheese whiz at Thanksgiving once, and created a dish that I and my cousins demanded every year since. It's truly a marvel.
Cheesy grits are awesome! I've never used Cheese Whiz, but some good sharp cheddar or Velveeta will do the trick.
Cheese whiz makes a jalipino version. I drink it.
OMG!! Cheesy jalapeño grits, YUM!
Canadian here. Been watching on and off for a while and really like the deadpan humour and how you actually do all the research into the origins of these differences. I'm subscribing now, hope you keep making videos forever.
A "rain check", at least in some parts of the U. S. can also apply to a sale item that a store has run out of, but will honor the sale price with a "rain check" when they get more of them.
I work at a grocery store they had rain check also and I would get them sometimes but what you said was true
I lived in England for four years in the 1960s. When we first arrived, we were given an orientation, so that we would communicate better with the locals. We were told not to be offended if someone asked if we had a rubber (an eraser to us), or if we were asked if we wanted to be knocked up in the morning (a wake up call to us). There were others, I’m sure, but the years have erased them from my memory.
Man, how language changes.
I'm british and In the 20 or so years I have been able to understand words, I have never known Knocked up to mean anything but pregnant.
You sure they weren't pulling your leg?
Either way, interesting to see how time changes our sayings.
@D 'knocking up' is a pretty archaic term these days, as nobody really calls unexpectedly any more, though you might still hear it.
@@dd11111 There used to be men employed as 'knocker uppers' in the UK before the days when it became common to have alarm clocks. They'd tap the windows with a long stick. I'm talking about pre-WWII.
You could probably do multiple episodes on Fair food alone, especially once your travel increases.
We don’t even use the word fair food .
Yes, big variety in the Midwest fairs. Admit though that I never had a dog-on-a stick that was as good as at the California fairs. Maybe changed now.
Come to Texas
@@texaschel1863 Yup. The texas state fair is the king mcdaddy of fair food.
lol! Lawrence, you are such a stitch! You have such a delightful sense of humor!
Hi from the land of 400 degree temperatures.
Nevada?
...and hushpuppies!
What part of Arizona?
Texas
Memphis! The only rivals to our summer miseries are New Orleans and Houston.
Just a note: good hush puppies have onions added and are cooked in the oil leftover from frying fish. Serve with coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob and sweet tea. Enjoy y‘all!
Bad hushpuppies have onions added. Onions make everything worse.
@@commandercody2980 you sir are very wrong, onions are delicious and sweet onions can be eaten like apples.
other side options may include but are not limited to, baked mac & cheese, fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, dirty rice, or boudain balls. :)
@@cameronzwicke5761 onions smell like sweaty armpits, how could they possibly be good?
@@commandercody2980 you should open your mind to trying out different cultural cuisine you'll be surprised how good things taste that don't smell appetizing. Take kimchi for example it doesn't smell very good but tastes good.
A "raincheck" also means, in a store, if an item on sale is sold out, the scrip the customer service desk can give a customer, to present to buy it when the store has restocked, at the sale price.
Thank you. Now I get it. At the "sale price" is the key which I didn't get.
Also to clarify for those that may not know, grits are a porridge of ground corn. So, it's not a typical kind of porridge usually of like oats, rice, or something.
Another famous more mainstream carhop service is Sonic. They are as popular as mcdonalds, kfc, etc but you stay in your car, for the most part, and are served that way. (some do have seating areas outside if you don't want to eat inside your car but that isn't the usual, especially here in tx where it's hot hot hot)
Rice porridge, as you put it, is known as rice pudding in the UK. Porridge is made with oats and water or milk.
@@Musketeer009 In many Asian countries porridge is also made with rice. Places like Japan specifically have both rice porridge and rice puddings depending on a lot of cultural factors - such as rice porridge is typically served to someone that is ill or is a nostalgic comfort dish, while rice puddings are more like desserts or for special occasions.
Though my overall point still being that a porridge made of corn, such as grits, is more unusual in the wider world of porridges, not just in the comparison of the UK.
i prefer cream of wheat
Sonic here has drive thrus now.
Grits is actually ground dried hominy. It's a bit corser than cornmeal, which, if you boil it up would be called corn mush, or if you're Italian or want to be high-fallutin', polenta.
Mexicans call “fried bread” “sopapillas” (“soup pillows”) and can be served plain with a dipping sauce or dusted with cinnamon, powdered sugar and/or honey. You get better ones along the Oklahoma-Texas-New Mexico interstate corridor but they’re available elsewhere.
Being from New Mexico - Sopapillas and Fry Bread are vastly different foods. Sopapillas have a pocket you can put honey in.
I have met many people from all parts of the world and every single culture I have encountered has some sort of fried bread. It is "making the most of what you have".
Meh, "elephant ears" are made with a batter closer to churros than the fluffy sopapilla. I still think of sopapillas as "mexican beignets" ... grew up with more New Orleans influence in the cuisine.
"Sopapillas" also means "The best edible thing at Casa Bonita" in Coloradoan.
my first experience with elephant ears is when my mexican neighbors made some. it was more or less the same thing from carnivals, if i recall correctly. maybe slightly smaller.
Only people past a certain age will get the Richard Dreyfuss mashed potatoes reference.
What?? That movie came out just the other day! Oh, wait...nm.
This means something.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Still my favorite movie.
I snorted! Was my first thought, then he said it. LOL
I'm an American living and teaching English in Vietnam. There are foreign English teachers here from all over the world, and I'm always amazed at how the kids can pick up the language despite the different accents they hear. Textbooks are usually from British publishers and include British spellings and words (lift vs. elevator, lorry vs. truck...). They tend to use British words spoken with American accents, presumably due to the predominance of American culture. I constantly have to clarify the differences between cookies, crackers, and biscuits, as well as chips, fries, and crisps.
When I lived in France, if someone was mean to me about my accent, I would (with great fan-fair and winks to anyone listening) ask them to pronounce three English words for me: sheet, beach, and hungry. (Payback for oeil, beaucoup, and oeuf. Ha!
I've heard Indian accents in call centres shift over the last ten years shift, as they are starting to sound more American to my British ears.
A raincheck is also used if a store had an item on sale, but it's out of stock. They used to allow rainchecks to allow you to buy at the cheaper price within a timeframe.
There's a whole Butte County in California. Also, just for clarification, the word was originally a French word for an isolated hill. Another flat topped land form is a mesa. But where a mesa is Spanish for a table, you can recognize a butte as looking more like a stool.
And a Teton is a word for...
butte montana
I live in butte county California lol
I was a geography teacher in England, so I know what a butte is, (even before I'd seen one) it's a recognised geographical term for a flat topped rocky hill. Just like a crevasse is a French word that is the official term for a crack in an ice sheet or glacier.
@@mickell241 I grew up in beautiful Butte, MT. Visit several times a year
In parts of Canada, elephant ears are called beaver tails.
In pars of America you can get slapped for saying you want some beaver tail.
It’s also called this in some parts of the us (or that could just be me)
On the northern Gulf coast MS, AL, & Pensacola... lol
We call it a funnel cake. I guess because the batter gets poured through a funnel into the hot grease.
Sort of. It's not exactly the same but similar enough that I say they're sort of like elephant ears when explaining beavertails to Americans. The couple who own the franchise invented them in my hometown. ❤
@@laurahinrichsen3917 I live in ny on the Canadian border so I’ve personally never heard of an elefant ear before tonight but I just assume they are basically the same as a beavertail with less flavours
In Florida, and the southeastern U.S. in general we usually throw some chopped green onions into the hushpuppy mix before frying, gives them a slight sweet taste in addition to the onion flavor. (onions generally turn sweet when exposed to heat or an acid (vinegar)) YUM!!
Here in Texas, it's fairly common for them to have jalapeno peppers added to the batter.
And if we (here in Florida, particularly) add chopped conch (pronounced konk, with a hard ‘k’ sound at both ends, never a ch!) to a hunch puppy, it’s a conch fritters and is gloriously delicious! Hush puppies are generally awesome, though. So there we are 😁
@@randlebrowne2048 hatch green chilis with some grated cheese are good too.
I'm from Savannah, Ga - we do onion & pepper - sometimes green, sometime jalapeno.
That sounds delicious. I have never tried this. I think I will look up how to make this. As a Brit living in America, I will say that the best food I have eaten has been in the South.
Hi I’m an American from New York living in England since 1975. I really enjoy your videos ,hugs
My mom was a roller skating car hop in the 70’s in Door County Wisconsin.
I know where that is! It just out the top
@@JJJRRRJJJ yup, the top of Wisconsin’s thumb
My first trip to London I was amazed to see that establishments advertised that they had "facilites" ... wash rooms, etc. ... often with very large signs on the top of the building. Dyslexia ... these signs actually said "TO LET", which in US is said "TO RENT".
In Roger Miller's song 'King of the Road' he sings room to let, 50 cents.
In Sweden if someone has a room to rent they just put up a sign with the word 'Rum'.
@@williamgarner6779 "No food, no phone, no pets. I ain't got no cigarettes!"
I remember seeing the carhops when we went to the drive-in in our station wagon. We had to be careful not to spill the A&W in the "wayback". Remember waybacks? The third bench seat that you could fold down to make a platform to sit on,(while your parents drove on your roadtrip) or you could make the seat face backwards?
The Way-Back was what we called the extra space behind the back seat in our 1970 VW Beetle.
The wayback is where you got carsick. It wasn't well insulated from exhaust vapors.
In our family, we called it the “back back seat”
We definitely called it the "wayback" in our suburban
It just brings me joy that when you talk about the US, your personal experiences are in IL and IN. I grew up in and currently live in the Chicagoland area, went to school in central IL, and lived for a few years in Michiana (North central IN), so I know where most of the places you talk about are 😊
Spent a year in Edinburgh as an exchange student. The first time I heard the expression "knock up" used as the Brits do (or did) was quite amusing. "Why don't you come knock us up at 8?"
it's better to be knocked down than knocked up; it's better to be pissed off than pissed on.
Vaguely related, but I've always enjoyed the sentence: "He didn't like her apartment, so he knocked her flat".
@@PamJernigan Just like elevator shoes give you a lift.
We still use the term "knocked up" not as often though since its kind of weird to go to someones house knowing that they're still asleep. Most people use alarm clocks now. You would only use really if someone called late at night as opposed to early in morning as it was used.
If you was to tell someone you will "knock them up in the morning"
The reply would probably be "you bloody will not! Call round after breakfast"
The term would more likely be used as
"Dave came home shitfaced last night. Lost his keys and knocked me up"
Or bloody 5,0 knocked me up at daft o'clock again"
Knocked up can mean pregnant in the US. But, by all means, sling it around and let hilarity ensue.
Surprised Sonic's wasn't mentioned, it a chain Drive-in. I've been to a few where they wore skates. Also Drive-in can be an outside movie theater that you watch from your car.
Grits are also close to polenta, if you can believe the Food Network.
Close, but no cigar. Polenta is made from ground corn and, sometimes, other grains. Grits are traditionally made from hominy, which is corn that has been treated with an alkali, such as lye.
A drive-in movie theatre, when it rains, will issue rainchecks.
“What if I told you both have things that the other country doesn’t even have words for!”
Germany: Hold my beer.
I mean, technically they have a word for it. They just don't know it. Because as soon as we tell them what it is, then they have a word for it.
I didn't have a word for sauerkraut till I went to a German restaurant. Well, spoiled cabbage maybe. But now I have that word. It's mine, and you can't take it from me.
"Schadenfreude' is a German word that no one else has a word for, so we all have to use, 'schadenfreude'.
@@renejean2523 We have *multiple words* (iow, a phrase) for it, which is why we now use schadenfreude instead. Americans: always on the lookout for a more efficient way of doing things!
@@DarthPoyner how do you not know what sauerkraut is? LOL
@@DarthPoyner culture shock is when, as an American, I went to a Swedish pizzeria and nearly everyone had sauerkraut put on their pizza. People warned me how Italian pizza is different from what we Americans eat, but sauerkraut on pizza? Since then I've also had pickle slice pizza from a "Domino's" in southern Mexico, where they also put "salsa de inglés" (Worcestershire sauce: can't really blame them for that translation) on pizza.
In the South, where I live, grits was once known as 'southern ice cream', due to it's creamy texture, and you can't have fried fish without hush puppies. And though Sonic is one of the few modern fast food places with carhops, here in Atlanta we have the Varsity, who have had carhops serving chili dogs, chili burgers and onion rings down the way from Georgia Tech since 1929.
You've no doubt heard that Nipsey Russell, the comedian, got his start as a Varsity carhop. Native Atlantan here! Chili dog, onion rings, fried peach pie and an FO* are my faves, but I haven't been in quite a while.
* Frosted Orange. Often referred to only by the letters.
@@henryhall9623 I love hearing the wait staff calling out to the cooks. "Walk me a naked dog".. and other orders
I have lived all over the U.S. and I have always been fascinated with the differences in regional foods.
For example, I am from north central Ohio and the bratwurst that we have there are nothing like what I have had in other parts of the country or Germany for that matter. They are way more spiced and flavorful. (shout out to Carle's Bratwurst!)
Aldi occasionally have bratwurst are imported from Germany. They are very good but mush different form what is sold by Johnsonville. There are really good brats from the west side market in Cleveland. Stadium mustard!
Shout out from Cincinnati, where you can get grits and Goetta in one amazing breakfast, and spicy metwurst/bland bratwurst on a single grill.
Cincinnati here too. There are good butchers who have flavorful brats. They're even better if you cook them in beer. Many brats bought at grocery stores and at ballparks tend to be blander, but still great with kraut, relish, onions, and ballpark mustard.
@@JW-eq3vj hell yeah, I love brauts cooking in beer and kraut all day. Take em out of the slow cooker and char them on the grill. excellent!
@@epistte Stadium mustard was the only reason I went to Indians games in the 1970s.
The back of a baesball ticket is usually the raincheck ... if the game gets rained out before it's an official game, that raincheck allows the ticket-holder to attend a later game without paying for a new ticket
The Giants had tickets with a tearable stub on the end. The ticket taker would tear off the stub and give you the remainder of the ticket (which also served as souvenir). That remainder served as the rain check if the game was rained out before the 15 outs was scored by one team and the outcome was known (end of the top of the 5th and the home team was leading, or the end of the bottom of the 5th, regardless). If you arrived at the gates for the original game with a missing stub, they would not admit you, assuming you had already been in and had been ejected for some reason.
@Randall Johnson I was surprised this definition wasn't in the video. It's the first one I thought of. I'm a baseball fan and I had forgotten about the origin of the term!
More fried bread: Zeppole - fried rounds of dough tossed into a paper bag with powdered sugar. Popular on the east coast and at any street festival in an Italian-American neighborhood.
out west we call it Indian Fry Bread or a scone
Churro: The Mexican version of fried dough, but it's actually extruded through a star-shaped die as it falls into the hot oil. Then they cover the finished product with cinnamon-sugar.
So basically donut holes
I live in Canada and have only heard three of these used here: s'more, raincheck, and jay walking. I'm originally American but moved to Canada when I was only six. Some of these words you used brought back very distant memories indeed! Like "elephant ears." Do you ever do Canada? We've got a bunch of words they don't use in the UK or the States, like "toque"!
"Raincheck" is still part of my regular vocabulary. Usually it's used if I made plans with someone and one of us, for any reason, cannot or do not want to make it but would like to hang out again soon. It's super informal. I'd use it to tell my friend I wasn't up for going to the bar a particular night because I didn't feel like leaving the house.
A rain check is also a voucher that a store will issue if they run out of an item that's on sale, so that the customer can get it at the sale price when it is back in stock, after the sale is over.
@@tgeliot Pretty sure it means looking out the window to see if it's raining.
Grits are an art form. You will find them in high end restaurants in New Orleans as one of the side dishes alongside the main course. So they can be part of a lowly breakfast mixed with eggs or a delicious shrimp n’ grits for dinner, for example.
Waffle House usually makes good ones too.
Delicious as cheese grits too!
Garbage food
Grits are just america's polenta.
Buy a box of Cream of Wheat and fix it up according to the instructions. You've got grits!
Hush puppies used to be tossed to dogs to keep them quiet.
That's why they're called hush puppies.
During the Underground Railroad, runaway slaves used to mix hemlock root in with corn bread balls. They'd leave them on the trail, and the hound dogs pursing them would eat them, and very soon, be hushed.
@@richardm3023 When I first learned about the Underground Railroad, I assumed that Harriet Tubman's last name was a nickname given to her because she constructed a "tube" (a literal underground railroad). Eventually, I realized that it was not underground and was not really a railroad, but I still say "Harriet Tube-Man"...
Usually made from whatever was left in the pan after cooking.
I also remember learning that when kitchens used to be separate from the house, hush puppies were used to lure dogs away from the meal when brought to the house.
Thanks for that comprehensive explanation of what Jaywalking is, Lawrence. Really cleared that up....
I think a lot of the words that we have here in the states that don't translate to the UK are words that originate within certain parts of the US. Grits is a southern styled food. Fajitas are something that you would normally find in the Southwest. And depending on which part of the Midwest you are from some words can only be translated after a beer or tree.
You can definitely get fajitas in the UK
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o But do they call them fajitas?
Back when I played Neopets, which is owned by a British company and lives on a British internet server, there was a food item whose name always made me roll my eyes. It was called "Cheese Tortilla". The reason it made me roll my eyes is because here in the southwest US, we call that a quesadilla.
So, my wife and I went on a trip to England, we were sitting outside of St. Paul's Cathedral, and we had tea and crumpets. Later on that week, we met up with a co-worker who works at the Crawley plant of the company we both work for. He had come over to the states for training and we would keep in touch because I would answer most of his technical questions. Well, we were talking in a pub somewhere in Brighton, and I told him I had my first crumpet. The guy next to him almost spit out the beer he just drank and looked at me with a grin. I had no idea what I had said, then my friend said to not say that too loud because that was slang for having a girl the night before. Man did my wife laugh.
That's awesome!
Tea and crumpetS (plural) are typically a breakfast thing over here, a quick and simple meals when in a hurry - such as when you want to get out of someone's house quickly, but you're too polite (British) to refuse their offer of breakfast (or when you want them to leave to spare your embarrassment), hence "crumpet" as slang for a one night stand.
Tip for the Americans: both types of crumpet are good with peanut butter smeared on them...
@@andylintott9339 I don't know if my last crumpets would've wanted to be spread with peanut butter, but what do I know, I'm american.😢
My friend mentioned your channel to me and we just LOVE talking about the topics you bring up! Thank you so much for your channel and enriching our lives 🌞🥰💯👍👍👍👍
Leon's frozen custard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 50's drive-in started in 1947. Has hot food as well. Definitely has roller skates on their servers. Also, Ardy & Ed's Drive-In in Oshkosh. There are about 5 more drive-ins for Wisconsin.
An old southern saying is "i put my whole foot in it" meaning that a person made some food and they were at their best when they made it. My great grandmother from Alabama used to say that when she made a dish she was particularly proud of
In England putting your foot in it means you have made a mistake such as I have just told my sister about her surprise birthday party, I really put my foot in it.
@@johnshufflebottom7907 Yeah, that's what can get confusing about some terms, because there is this phrase "put my foot in my mouth", it means to have said something that you didn't mean to or weren't supposed to say. I guess it's kind of like the term "two left feet" but for your speech.
To elaborate on Shufflebottoms explanation, the phrase refers to saying/doing a thing that causes considerable embarrassment, and now, like stepping in quick drying cement, you have put your foot in it, and are stuck with the shame of your idiocy. We Brits derive a perverse joy from watching people do this, especially down the pub, where such moments will live in eternal infamy
Particularly "put my whole foot in it" is a Black American term coopted by Southern culture at large (and is far from the only example of that happening).
A popular way to say you kicked someone's ass (as in you beat them very thoroughly) was to say you "broke your foot off in their ass" so a kind of cheeky way to say you cooked something extremely well (as in you beat the meals ass) was you put your whole foot in it.
My aunt from Georgia said that about something I cooked and confused the heck out of me. I thought I’d messed up.
Stoop - A word taken from the Dutch. In New York City and parts of New Jersey the word stoop refers to the front steps / stair cases that lead into most apartment buildings. People from the building usually congregate on the stoop and socialize for hours on end.
There are similar things in Chicago, only they are places to meet and get shot at.
Yes! Thank you! And if you’re a REALLY old native New Yorker, you’ll know what a Spaldeen is!
In New York we had a ball game called "stoop ball"
There's a burger chain called Sonic that uses carhops and in-car dining. It is pretty good!
A&W also when I was younger. Think there is still one in Vermont.
@@usermuch4155 There are still quite a few of them in rural Wisconsin. I wish my home state of Minnesota hadn't let them go so easily. I miss them.
@@CarlGorn Going to A&W was something I looked forward to. Still have Mugs bought when I was a kid. Think they still sell them online.
I've been getting Elephant Ears at a bakery in Rockport, MA for more than 30 years. They have always been a sweet flaky pastry, close to filo dough, in the giant shape of a baby elephant's ear, topped with cinnamon sugar. 100% a different thing than fried dough. I mean, America is gigantic, and regional dialects change food names, so I understand the confusion
I was told by my mother, who admittedly was not always the best source for obscure trivia (because you could never tell whether she was making something up or not) that hushpuppies (a cornmeal ball with seasoning added) are used to take the fishy flavor out of oil after you have deep-fried fish in it, so the oil can be used again. That is why hushpuppies at a catfish house (seafood restaurant) are so good.
I heard that too but I know from experience it doesn't remove gulf shrimp flavors LOL still good though!
@@EmeryJude Royal Red shrimp are my favorite 😋😋❤
I was so glad you used the term "catfish" house because we called it the cathouse and were sternly reminded of our error.
@@haroldwilkes6608 Yes, an hushpuppy at a Cathouse would be the bouncer at a brothel.
Never knew that!
When I was a young girl, back in the 60's, A&W had carhops. It was a real treat to jump in the Ford Falcon station wagon on a hot summer day, with my mom at the wheel, and head out for a "Black Cow" (root beer float) served up in a frosty mug. Under other circumstances, my older brother would tease me endlessly, but he was always on his best behavior when a stop at A&W was in the offing. They lost my Mom's business when they lost the carhops.
My favorite from childhood was Dog n Suds. That and Tastee-Freeze.
I remember those days. Except our station wagon was a Plymouth.
There is still an A&W with carhops in Belleville, Michigan
My first job was as a car hop at A&W but it was later, although that's still been a day or two ago.
@@LindaC616 Our station wagon was a Ford and it had fake wood on the side.
Those were the days. Mom and Dad in the front seat, Grandma and Grandpa in the back seat, and little old me rolling around in the cargo area with my pillow, my blanket, and a stack of comic books.
As George W Bush once said, “the trouble with the French is, they don’t have a word for entrepreneur”.
I always laugh at that quote! :D
☺️
That's actually an urban legend.
www.snopes.com/fact-check/french-lesson/
@@Nulono I knew it was an urban legend... GW doesn't know how to pronounce "entrepreneur" so he would never have used it.🤣
W said a lot of stuff. Some of it funny and some of it dumb or ignorant. I'd still drink a beer with the man any day.
As a fellow Hoosier, I would pay money to hear a play by play of your first state fair experience
Imagine his first fried twinkie or cheese curd!
As another fellow Hoosier, I second this!