Two countries separated by a common language...

[graculus]

One of my favourite pastimes is mocking books written by American writers ostensibly set in England, in particular crime and mystery series - you can discover all sorts of things about what people outside England think goes on over here, usually wrongly.

For example, I just picked up the first book of a series (published in 2005) with the following obvious errors:

Given that this is supposed to be England, what exactly are you doing talking about 'murder one'?

We don't have 'prosecuting attorneys', we have the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)

What is this obsession with 'popovers' at meals? What the hell are they anyway and why are you serving them with steak & kidney pie? And just what is a 'stuffed potato'?

Food is always a good place for all sorts of issues to creep in, as the obsession of the HP fandom with 'bangers' can testify. ;)

Comments

[cycnus39]

Is this another con panel? :-D

[graculus.livejournal.com]

You know my pedantry should never be let loose in public... ;)

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no idea what a popover is. I know what a Pop Tart is.

Ah, a stuffed potato -- I can help you there.
The recipe varies depending on what you want to put in it, but here's the gist of a stuffed baked potato:

6 lg. baking potatoes
1/2 c. or more low-fat cottage cheese
Garlic to taste
4 green onions, minced
Paprika
2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese

Wash and dry the potatoes. Prick the skins. Bake at 425 degrees for 1 hour or until done.
Cut a slice from the top of each potato and scoop out the pulp. In a blender, whip the cottage cheese until creamy. Mash the potato pulp and blend enough of the whipped cottage cheese to make light and fluffy. Stir in green onions. Spoon the mixture back into the shells, mounding it slightly. Place stuffed potatoes on a baking sheet; dust top with Parmesan cheese and paprika and return to the oven until browned.


Basically, you bake the potato, then scoop all the potato out of the skin, mix it with all sorts of stuff and then shove it all back into the skin.

[lovellama.livejournal.com]

A popover is a bread thing made mixing milk, egg, and flour, then cooking it in a tall/deep muffin type pan in a bit of HOT fat. It puffs up tall and becomes hollow inside. The recipe is the same as Yorkshire pudding, but cooked in a different pan.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Mutant Yorkshire puddings? But a) we don't, and b) why do they appear at three different meals in this book? ;)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Which is all very well but this novel had one of the main characters with this as takeaway food... ;)

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

Bangers are sausages, right?

[graculus.livejournal.com]

They are indeed.

[space00.livejournal.com]

Oh yes.. bangers and mash, or pie, mash and liqor!
Stuffed potato? but thats a Jacket potato... ;)

lol! I love the way it all goes pear shaped in those novels.

It's like watching 'Murder she wrote' when its set in England.. aparently we are all either dead snobby posh or very bad mockney ( Dick van dyke style)
Being from London I find it very funny when watching these shows. And why is it the 'Londoners' are always the badguys? pffft!!

I cant decide however, which is worse.. the books or the tv shows..

You got some good points there!

:D

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I also spent a chunk of time trying to decide when the book was set - they have computers, but one of the main characters can take his dog everywhere without any problems and can smoke in the pub. Meanwhile the police are driving Rovers, which they pretty much stopped doing in the 1990's.

[space00.livejournal.com]

Actually.. what is a 'popover'?

Are they chips? or popcorn?

????

=-)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's some kind of mutant Yorkshire pudding that this particular author seems to have an obsession with as they appear at three meals during the course of the book...

[space00.livejournal.com]

Oh I see! So it's like the morrisons or iceland's version of a yorkshire (uneven)? Or aunty bessies non ready made ones that defrost when you get them home and the batter goes everywhere..
Or.. even better!! - Toad in the hole!! *snicker*

;)