British people. I need clarification

[Steaktartar]

So how many different types of ' tea times ' do you have? Is high tea the fancy one with sandwiches and cakes? And just 'tea'? Is that lunch? Also how often do you have high tea? Someone told me everyday or as often as possible? Surely you can't eat cake EVERYDAY?

Not even an ice cream if you were out for the day?

It's called a fish supper here(Glasgow) no matter when you buy it. It's just the local term for fish and chips. I never hear the term supper used in any other context.

Burns Supper?
Have you have an overnight in any Lanarkshire hospital - Supper is served at noon! Confused the heck out of me.

I wonder what else we could confuse the OP with?
Bread Rolls, also known as rolls, baps butties or cobs. May have more names.

A Black pudding roll or roll n black pudding = a bread roll with black pudding in it.
A roll n sausage = a bread roll with sausage

A sausage roll however is totally different it's a pastry with sausage meat in it!

Op are you clear enough?

Oh yes, Burns Supper! I'd forgotten that one. I've never attended such an event.

I try to avoid Lanarkshire personally. ducks

I have just this second remembered my FIL- who came from Southern Ireland - talking about a “meat tea” or “tea with an egg to it” to describe wht people are calling high tea....

Loo derives from the first flush toilet in France, installed at the Palace of Versailles and known asLe lieu Anglais.

Among other theories on the etymology of loo - there are other possible sources.

"Question for the fish supper people - I understand that the supper part actually means 'and chips'. Do you still call it that if you have it at lunchtime?"

Yes. The "supper" part just means it comes with chips as opposed to a single fish, pie, etc.

I might go to the chippy to get a pie supper for my tea.

Tea is what people in some parts of the country, usually the north of Engalnd, call the evening meal and can be anything - hot or cold, light or substantial

Nope :)

Tea in my regional dialect is a light evening meal.

Dinner is your main meal, whether in the middle of the day or evening. Tea would be a smaller meal in the evening, lunch a smaller meal in the day.

So if i have lunch, my main meal will be dinner in the evening.

If i have dinner in the day, i will have a lighter tea later on.

Clear as mud?!

So supper can mean:

adding chips to pie, fish etc from a fish and chip shop (as it happens I recently had a fish but no supper as I was only a little hungry from a mobile fish and chip van in rural Scotland, it was very nice and just about as good as my native Yorkshire - most Not Yorkshire fish and chips are a bit shit)

a casual evening meal for posh people, or

milk and cookies or similar after the evening meal but before bedtime, especially for children.

And we all live in the same relatively small country and allegedly speak the same language.

I wonder what else we could confuse the OP with

The rules of cricket?

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that’s in the side that’s in the field goes out and when he’s out comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.

Sometimes there are men still in and not out.There are men called umpires who stay out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out.

Depending on the weather and the light, the umpires can also send everybody in, no matter whether they’re in or out.

When both sides have been in and all the men are out (including those who are not out), then the game is finished.*

(Author unknown).

(*Except when it's not, and you get something called a Champagne Super Over. )

Tea is also what they call the afternoon break on Test Match Special, BTW. Just so I don't completely derail the thread.

I don't know what 'high tea' is, it sounds kinda like afternoon tea with the fancy cakes and sandwiches without crusts... neither of which happen regularly. We went for afternoon tea for Mother's Day which was nice.

'Tea' is your main evening meal, but also what you drink to get yourself through the day😂

Ssh I think we should keep up an illusion that we all stop for high tea every day.

it was very nice and just about as good as my native Yorkshire - most Not Yorkshire fish and chips are a bit shit

Best fish and chips i’ve ever had were from Tipton, of all places

Scottish fish tends to be excellent, as most towns are coastal so the fish is very fresh and good quality. They generally can’t manage chips for some reason though.

I visited a relative who recently moved to west yorks and I have to say the fish and chips have so far been disappointing. Although I am delighted to be offered scraps again after years of living in areas where I was looked at as if I was insane, so I stopped asking . North yorks is far superior on the chip front, especially over toward whitby.

London tends to be a bit wanky. Monkfish kebabs, salmon and seabass are taking it too far.

Most areas I’ve lived it’s trial and error until you find that chippy that gets it right. Coastal towns for the best fish.

I totally feel like writing a “round the world in 80 day” type book reviewing chip shops as I go.

Is a burns supper, just dinner in a specific place or in honor of burns?

I have been invited to one for Burns, not sure haggish is ever going to be a favorite of mine.

A special highlight of that dinner, was when the host cut the haggish and it poured out, as imagining it would with an actual stomach. I nearly bafed over that image, but managed to eat it 🤣.

A Burns Supper is Haggis, Neeps ( mashed turnip / swede) and Tatties (mashed pototes).

Burns Supper events are held in honour of Burns where the above is served as part of a 3 course dinner!

Burns suppers are held around Burns night which commemorates the poet Robert Burns. You get lots of food usually involving haggis, neeps and tatties, listen to poetry and often have a piper.

High tea was my favourite meal when I visited my gran in Scotland as a kid. Usually proper Scottish butchers steak pie then cakes. Yum.

I have to say my ILs never seem to refer to Tea or Dinner they always tall of "meal" or "evening meal".
Seems odd to me who generally used Tea or Dinner.

Edtthebear: Burns Supper?
Have you have an overnight in any Lanarkshire hospital - Supper is served at noon! Confused the heck out of me.

But what is this then? and yes we had the whole works, including the host reading burns poetry.

If I was only inviting them for a drink I would say 'come round for a cup of tea or coffee'. But to be honest I would never specify coming round for a cup of tea, as tea would be offered to anyone who crosses the threshold....

It is very odd now I think about it - but when people have asked me around for a hot drink and natter or I've asked them in - it's always do you want to pop in.come in for a coffee in some areas it has been cuppa but it's normally coffee.

Once in tea or coffee is offered. I've never heard come in for a tea.

tea (the drink) all day and every day.
Otherwise tea is an afternoon/evening meal:
'Afternoon tea' properly 'High tea' is a main meal of savouries, cakes, and tea served late afternoon, where a supper will be served later rather than a full dinner.

Breakfast is served as the first meal of the day. Luncheon (lunch) is at noon(ish).

It is 'Dinner' which muddies the waters. All the others have a specific time of day. Dinner is the main meal of the day, and can be eaten at lunch time ( eg Sunday Dinner or Christmas Dinner) or in the evening.

Those who have dinner in the evening don't generally have a tea and supper as well, but combine these into a single larger meal. In the North this is colloquially called Tea even though it is a dinner served at tea time forgoing supper.

evening meal -is a phrase used a lot in school letters for over night trips - maybe it's to avoid confusion.

The real confusion is the perception of tea-drinking as a dainty and effete thing replete with bone china and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

For most British people, a cup of tea is a sturdy mug. The tea is made in the mug with a teabag. It is a drink of the common people, in contrast to lah-di-dah coffee.

It is 'Dinner' which muddies the waters. All the others have a specific time of day. Dinner is the main meal of the day

Ahh maybe that's why it's so confusing for my family as the main meal will shift according to that days schedule – some times main meal is midday others early evening.

Though not sure we are all fully aware that's the exact meaning of dinner - it would often be applied more to larger cooked meal than anything else.

Dinner to me is the evening meal regardless of size. If I eat a big lunch when out and have a sandwich in the evening, it's still dinner.

Whereismyfigleaf

What bit of the post confused you?
I was replying to a poster from Glasgow who couldn't think of Supper being used out with the Chippy.

NHS Lanarkshires caterers seem to do 3 meals,
Breakfast - typical served 8ish.
Supper - hot food served midday
Dinner? - I think is what they call food served at 5ish.

I could understand if Dinner was midday and Supper later but not the other way round.

edtthebear sorry thought there was some areas calling dinner/supper /tea burns 😁. Got the two sentences muddled together, sorry.