Wait, what are "oatmeal" and "flapjacks" in the UK? I would never say "flapjack" and don't think I personally know anyone who does but I do understand it to mean "pancake".
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:38 (four years ago) link
https://bakingwithgranny.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/flapjack.jpg
― john cage fighter (Matt #2), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:39 (four years ago) link
Look at them glisten, num num
― john cage fighter (Matt #2), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:40 (four years ago) link
I would never say "flapjack" and don't think I personally know anyone who does but I do understand it to mean "pancake".
Wait don't you have any friends who are characters in an O. Henry story?
― Sam Weller, Monday, 25 November 2019 14:41 (four years ago) link
American pudding
https://thepioneerwoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/how-to-make-chocolate-pudding-00a.jpg
Stay away from mee-hee
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:42 (four years ago) link
Hm, acc. to my dictionary, this also means that Americans don't say "porridge"? I think it seems m/l interchangeable with "oatmeal" to me. I'm more likely to say "oatmeal"; the missus (who grew up in the same city) is a little more likely to say "porridge" ime.
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:48 (four years ago) link
nope, ime americans do not use the term "porridge" unless they are talking about goldilocks & the bears
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:51 (four years ago) link
and even then they probably don't know they are referring to bowls of oatmeal
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:52 (four years ago) link
i thought porridge was the same as gruel until i visited the UK!
& tbh idk what gruel actually is
porridge is nice, for bears, gruel is bad, for poor children
― j., Monday, 25 November 2019 14:53 (four years ago) link
I thought johnnycakes were pancakes but are actually cornmeal cakes.
― brownie, Monday, 25 November 2019 14:54 (four years ago) link
Ha, "gruau" is what I call oatmeal/porridge when speaking French so I think I just figured "gruel" was an older word for the same thing. It's something more thin and meagre? 3xp lol
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 14:54 (four years ago) link
porridge is definitely not oatmeal, oatmeal is real, porridge is a nice bear dream
― j., Monday, 25 November 2019 14:55 (four years ago) link
Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;
― tokyo rosemary, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:01 (four years ago) link
US flapjack = scotch pancake aka dropscone in the UK UK flapjack = a sweet oat cake, generally chewy rather than crunchy
― mark s, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:01 (four years ago) link
What the Brits call 'porridge' I call 'oatmeal'.
In France, it's 'porridge' – 'gruau' is gruel (thinner and more watery).
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:02 (four years ago) link
gruel is like watery, savoury porridge, or somewhere between porridge and soup, there is a medieval restaurant in the czech republic where I once had some and it was actually very nice. I guess the congee I have about once a week is technically a gruel too.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:02 (four years ago) link
pease porridge is guacamole
― mark s, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:02 (four years ago) link
I'd never heard the word 'flapjack' used before setting foot in the UK so I'm already wired to view it as the correct referent.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:05 (four years ago) link
Oatmeal is what you use to make porridge, but is not actually porridge, isn't that it? Also, why is it Scott's Porage Oats and not Scott's Porridge Oats?
― 'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:08 (four years ago) link
Huh, is it a Europe/Canada divide? The French-speaking care workers I've known say "gruau". I've only heard "porridge" in English and tbh wouldn't know how to pronounce that in French.
https://www.deliver-grocery.ca/869-large_default/quaker-instant-oatmeal-60-packets-221-kg.jpg
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:09 (four years ago) link
isn't that it?
For you.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:11 (four years ago) link
flapjacks are lavvvly
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:11 (four years ago) link
Huh, is it a Europe/Canada divide?
Yes. 'Porridge' is not a typical breakfast meal in France. It's viewed as mildly exotic and typically English.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:12 (four years ago) link
I feel like I've only ever seen 'flapjack' used in the US in the context of maybe like diner food or advertising? I don't know that I've ever heard an actual human refer to pancakes as flapjacks. And I grew up all over so I've experienced a pretty broad range of regional colloquialisms.
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:12 (four years ago) link
Incidentally, I did weirdly find that the English spoken in Montreal struck me as more American than just inside the Ontario border.xps
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:12 (four years ago) link
xpost Like it's something a '50s sitcom dad would say. 'Boy, I sure could go for some flapjacks right now!'
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:13 (four years ago) link
a flapjack is a man's pancake, a mancake, something you would be proud to stack
― j., Monday, 25 November 2019 15:14 (four years ago) link
I've never heard the French word 'gruau' before
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:14 (four years ago) link
Sund4r, could that be kind of an urban/rural divide, or do you mean a larger city in Ontario?
― mh, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:15 (four years ago) link
xp i've only heard it spoken once, by my dog
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:15 (four years ago) link
And everybody else in the UK?
― 'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:16 (four years ago) link
mh, no, I mean even compared to Ottawa (which is right inside the border) or Toronto but idk could be a weird impression. All I know is my wife talks about "porridge".
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:17 (four years ago) link
It's true. I think it's because we get more of our exposure to English from American media due to it being a minority language. There is such a thing as a Montreal accent in English, though – it just happens to be almost imperceptible (unless you're in Saint Léonard). And there's the marry/merry distinction.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:17 (four years ago) link
Yes, that's what I meant.
... sorry, Scotland.
Rolled oats are commonly used in England, oatmeal in Scotland and steel-cut oats in Ireland.[14]
― 'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:18 (four years ago) link
Told you!
Wikipedia says rolled and steel-cut oats count as oatmeal.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:19 (four years ago) link
Cat: 'Mieow?'Me: Oh hello cat, how are you today?Cat: 'Mieow.'Me: That bad, huh? Have you had anything to eat today?Cat: 'Gruel'Me: Gruel? Where did you get the gruel from, cat?Cat: 'Grey Owl'Me: Grey owl gave you the gruel?
etc....
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:21 (four years ago) link
This oatmeal thing is complicated. Also, the French think of porridge as typically English when the English think of it as typically Scottish - or used to.
― 'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:21 (four years ago) link
Chinese whispers. Or, as the French call it, le téléphone arabe.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:23 (four years ago) link
Ha, that's "broken telephone" where I come from.
― No language just sound (Sund4r), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:26 (four years ago) link
Americans just call it 'telephone', due to their notoriously politically correct public discourse no doubt.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:26 (four years ago) link
Montreal accent
Btw Sund4r this is what I had in mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yYPD6JJtDM
Works for both languages, incidentally.
Fwiw my friends from Southern Ontario sound simultaneously more American and more Canadian to me.
― pomenitul, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:27 (four years ago) link
Americans call Chinese burns Indian burns
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:29 (four years ago) link
From the internet: "Porage: this is a word made up by A & R Scott in Glasgow when they launched Scott's Porage Oats in 1914, and combined the old Scots word poray with the French word potage."
Also from the internet: Dictionary of the Scots Language
Results of Quick Search for porayNo results were found.
Full Text Search ResultsNo full text results were found either.
― mark s, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:31 (four years ago) link
I call cream of wheat porridge and oatmeal, oatmeal. I used to really like eating instant oatmeal uncooked.
― Yerac, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:33 (four years ago) link
also sounds like 'pourage', like... something you'd pour I guess?
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 25 November 2019 15:33 (four years ago) link
this version of the porage origin story makes a bit more sense: https://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/producers/things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-scotts-porage-oats/
(though not much more)
― mark s, Monday, 25 November 2019 15:38 (four years ago) link