Well done, Zach. Your knowledge of British cooking terms is the tip-off that you are not so innocent and have provoked some fun. Anybody who can toss around terms such as "mushy peas" is unlikely to be a beginner (although overcooked vegetables, as much a historical remnant in the UK as in North America, is a good place to finish.) Now onward to the Great British Bake-off, known on PBS tv as the Great British Baking Show.

So British start to cook and to speak French ? Just when they brexit. >>

WoinP - we've been speaking French for a long time - actually for a long time our kings were french and didn't speak english. and have you heard of Chaucer's prioress - who spoke French as if she came from "Stratford atte Bow" so even then an East End [of London] accent was not one to be admired.

Yes I know Ann. But only educated British know it too.

Anyway I apologize if I hurt any British sensibility. I love Britain - not their food though.

And my daughter just called me before that post. One of her friends got killed on the highway by a fu..ING basterd driving on the wrong side on highway.
He was 20. And she just buried her godmother last week and a friend of hers when she was 13 and ....

So kids should just be left as kids and if they don't like liver who gives a shoot.

And I know you understand.
And i am sorry because life is so unjust.

So let us have seks or food or wine or whisky or all of it (what a wonderful idea) and you know I love you.

Err. Like you.

Life sucks sometimes. Really.

The problem with "broad beans" is that most americans think lima beans are disgusting. Goes on the list with liver - nobody wants to eat it. I admit my mother never made them and my B and I were really good kids as far as veggies were concerned and would eat almost everything - except lima beans and brussels sprouts (which have come back into fashion in the last 5 years or so - but only if roasted - not boiled).

Also I admit to a complete lack of understanding of puddings. I know some people like them a lot but IMHO puddings - of any type - are just mushy and awful. Not just trifle or My T Fine ones mom used to make - just the overall goopy texture. The only thing close I enjoy is chocolate mousse (but that is perfectly light and airy, not damp and soggy). Give me almost any pie, cake, cookie or similar but NO puddings.

nytraveler, puddings in England refer to desserts not just pudding as in Jello etc. I still remember dining with a group when someone suggested we order a pudding wine. I was familiar with the term pudding as dessert but a pudding wine seemed odd until I realized he was asking about dessert wines. Still love the idea of pudding wine.;)

"puddings in England refer to desserts"

Well it may be the case in some areas/social circles but to me (and nearly everyone I know) it's called "afters" or very rarely "sweet".

@nytraveler - it appears you did not bother to read the whole thread. Broad beans are NOT lima beans, they are known in the US as fava beans. The only things they have in common with lima beans are that they are green and they are beans.

Steak and kidney pudding is most definitely not a dessert!

StCirq, as I said we know it is wrong, but as I said it has been Anglicised to chacun a son gout, and has been that way for a very long time. Languages borrow and bastardise phrases from others all the time.

Like entree for main dish maitre d' which is so ridiculous etc.

However being frenchspeaking I will not use the wrong englicized version.

Non mais.

"Like entree for main dish"

Yes, it's always puzzled me why that's used in the U.S. to describe a main dish.

steak and kidney pudding is delicious

Steak and kidney pie is better.

pie lacks the extra heart stopping fat of a good pudding made with beef suet :-)

"Like entree for main dish maitre d' which is so ridiculous "

Only a Frenchperson could possibly be so spectacularly wrong about the history of the French language.

In the 1938 Larousse Gastronomique, we are clearly told that

"L'entrée est le mets qui suit, dan l'ordonnance d'un repas, le plat qui est désigneé sous le nom de relevé, plat qui, lui-même, est servi après le poisson (ou le mets en tenant lieu) et qui, par conséquent, vient en troisième ligne sur le menu"

Now, it is 80 years ago, so France's appalling modern education system probably turns out people incapable of understanding it (in the same way it turns out young people incapable of getting a job). Escoffier (for the benefit of Frenchpeople: a cook) makes a similar point in his 1921 Guide Culinaire: entrees are hot "made" (ie not roast or baked) dishes mideway through a meal. For most of the past 400 years, "entree" in French did not mean "first course". At least since the 1651 edition of Le Cuisinier Francais, French has used "entree" to mean a hot meat dish that's not roast.

The common use these days to mean "first course" is a silly modern affectation.

With touching loyalty to dimly remembered French snobbery, modern American keeps the ancient French usage. Modern real English of course ignores this nonsense and talks about "first course" (or if twee "hors d'oeuvres" and "main course."

The pretentious nations on either side of us make hamfisted attempts at something poncey, then get it wrong - as always.

And we're back to mince pies. Mince meat, yes meat, suet, candied fruit or apples, raisins etc. varieties of spices laced with brandy. Yum!!!! A favorite Christmas Midwestern US delicacy eaten in homes of those whose relatives came from New England. And meat was used.

No one has mentioned pasties. Again a Midwestern US staple brought by Cornish Miners.

flanner has way too much time on his hands.

I didn't introduce the term mushy peas into this thread, actually, southam. I'd done with this now anyway.

zachhealey - when you get back from your trip, please come back and let us know if you did encounter anything interesting - good or bad.

He may have too much time on his hands Vincenzo, but he's right.

<<but as I said it has been Anglicised to chacun a son gout, and has been that way for a very long time. Languages borrow and bastardise phrases from others all the time.>>

Yes, and often it's just plain wrong and doesn't make sense, as in this case. It's not THAT hard to get the phrase right, y'know. You don't have to be a genius to get the words in the right order.

And Bilbo, yes, I shouldn't have slighted Persian cooking, which is awesome!