I second what Kate said. I don't recall gravy on chips at home in Wolverhampton

I've never had gravy on chips (as a Londoner). But brahn sauce.....now you're talking...

no no KETCHUP on chips, brown sauce on bacon sarnies

You say ketchup...

But I'm sure we agree on no mayonnaise.

You mean you've never had steak pud, chips, mushy peas and gravy! What a deprived lot you are!

I've known students to live on chips and gravy, up north!

oh yeh you can't have steak pud without gravy, that's different.

and no, not mayonnaise, ever. mayonnaise is for lettuce.

Actually in my earlier post I should have said Chicken and Mushrom pie, chips and GRAVY is a favourite of mine.
Apart from chips and gravy, chips also go well with melted cheese, fried egg, curry, salad cream, tartare sauce, but not all together. Don't care much for chips and ketchup, though.
Geico's definately got a Cockney accent, at least on adverts shown in the MidWest.

Anyone else (northern or otherwise) remember chip shops selling "scallops" - not the fishy kind but battered slices of potato? Greasy, filling and cheap! Not seen these for years - do they still exist?

Oh yes, we had scallops in Birmingham. I'll have to check next time I go to my local London chippy. And do you remember getting bags of batter bits? What were they called? And has anyone ever eaten a pickled egg more than once?

My husband & I were traveling in Wales & went into a small restaurant one evening to get fish & chips. As the young man was fixing my husband's plate, he dumped a big gob of mushy peas on the "chips" as my husband was yelling, "No!" The kid looked heart-broken until I said, "I'll take it!" (I'm not picky about food.) I really was amazed that I liked it so well. Have not had it since, though.

Culinary note. The English early on tried eating anything that seemed palatable. Flour and lard were combined to make eatable containers of 'whatever'. Welsh 'pasty'. Pie is a name derived from the bird, magpie. Someone noted that their nests contained purloined bright bits. Soon the residents of 'old blighty' were making and eating 'pies'. This is a practical way to carry a lunch to eat elsewhere. Consider that fish and chips is a 'takeaway' item. What was most practical as a container? Old newspapers!

Kate, I love pickles, but I've never eaten a pickled egg. I have a strong suspicion that even those who've only eaten one have, so to speak, eaten it more than once.

A meat pie floating in a bowl of pea soup, a "pie floater", is unique to the state of South Australia, and they can have it. SA is the most "English" of our states. A "floater" of course is police slang for a body found in the water. That to me says it all.

Potato scallops are alive and well in Australia too, usually sold from a takeway food shop by an elderly Greek couple, along with fish and chips and other greasy stuff like 'Chiko rolls' (a bastardisation of the Chinese spring roll) and usually excellent hamburgers. Serious, manly, artery-stopping hamburgers on big toasted buns with salad (fried egg & bacon optional), not those wussy American cheese-and-pickle things in soft buns. Best accompanied by chips. Real chips, of course, not those scrawny "fries".

I must be going on like this because I'm on a low-fat diet. Sorry.

Neil_Oz

That was just hilarious and a delight to read.

So, Neil,

Does the Geico Gecko sound like a Cockney or an Aussie?


What do you mean you don't get the commercial on Australian TV?

what is Geico anyway?

And is there a weblink to the ad so the Brits and Aussies on this board can give the definitive answer?

(there ARE some vague similarities between Cockney and Aussie accents, I blame the convicts).

I'm British. I live in the U.S. and the Geico voice is straight out of a Guy Richie film, probably voiced by an actor who was once in Eastenders.

Kate

Entering it into Google, would suggest "Geico" is some sort of car insurance firm?

Perhaps we should start a new thread - "so what exactly is Geico?

Geico is, indeed, an insurance firm that uses a Gecko as its spokesperson because, according to the original commercial, people always confuse the two.

He is actually a very artfully done little mascot and there is one commercial where he is the "employee of the month" (an American tradition), so he gets his own parking space really close to the building. He rolls in driving a very small red car, seated like a person.

And I don't quite get the British accent because geckos are not common to that area, but I guess it makes sense for PR. . . here we think the British are endlessly more intelligent.

Okay, you lot, Geico is an American Insurance company. Selling mostly car insurance to people who can't afford a respectable company like Allstate or Nationwide. The web address is www.geico.com.

I went to University of Liverpool on an exchange from Boston U. I really miss good chips.

I'm coming to London in October. Can't wait!