I just learnt that black pepper is NOT made from the dried seeds of bell peppers...

[LylaLee]

I'm really surprised. I wonder what else I think I 'know' which is wrong.

But peppercorns are solid. Have you never bit into one? They’re clearly not puffed out flat seeds. And raisins do look like dried grapes.

No. I've never bitten into one.

I've mostly just had pepper from a shaker.

Baby sweetcorn and sweetcorn are the same thing. Now imagine finding out that no, baby sweetcorn is from the baby sweetcorn tree, not a corn stalk.

So pepper and pepper were the same name and same thing. I didn't know they were completely unrelated.

Paprika is made from the whole dried pepper/capsicum (the seeds are discarded), not just the skins. It’s not made from the bell peppers that you see in the shops (they are too thick and tend to rot rather than dry), but special Hungarian peppers. You hang them up to dry (we threaded cotton through the stem and dried them on a long string) and then grind them when they have completed dried out. You have to dry them somewhere that isn’t humid otherwise they just get mouldy. (Hungarian heritage here.)

Whatever about the county thing, as an Irish person I have to say that Billericay doesn't sound remotely Irish to me🤔
I can't think of a single place here that begins with Bill, though loads start with Kil or Kill, and the cay ending isn't typically Irish either.

I used to think capers were fish or seafood. I don't know why

It's the capia pepper, isn't it?

A lot of people think eastern European languages 'sound russian.' Of course, to russian speakers and speakers of those languages it doesn't sound 'russian' at all, but the an outsider there's a lot of similarity.

Bill - kill isn't a huge leap. I've you've heard loads of Irish 'Kill place names, Bill is 'in the pattern.' And yes, the ending isn't typically Irish to you, because you are Irish, but to an outsider it doesn't seem out of place.

Um. Kilmarnock isn’t in Ireland.

Shit. Gaelic/Celtic sounding, then.

No. Salame is singular, Salami is plural.
Pepperoni is American, and not Italian, and not Salami.

We use salami in English when we mean salame AND salami. Which is wrong.

Pepperoni is an Italian word, not an American English word.

I also didn’t say that pepperoni in Italy is salame. It’s bell peppers.

What do you mean County Cork??? Kilmarnock's not in Ireland... And unless I'm pronouncing it completely wrong I really do not see the similarity to either Limerick or Tip 😆.

I understand what op is saying.

To someone with crap knowledge of the UK and Ireland. And they don't live there or nearby these places.

These places sound more exotic compared to how we normally expect English towns or cities to sound. So may assume they are in Ireland or Scotland and not England.

But obviously someone from Ireland wouldn't make the same mistake.

I couldn't pick Billericay or Kilmarnock off a map and couldn't tell you which country they are in. So if someone said both places were in Ireland unless I had a reason to look it up I would probably believe them.

Exactly. Thought I was going mad with apparently Irish posters going on about Kil being a common Irish first syllable…

Pepperoni is salami in Italian. Peperone with one p and an e, is bell peppers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoni

Pepper trees are really beautiful and smell lovely.

But op said Billericay sounds like Limerick or Tipperary. It doesn't. Do you think it does? Genuinely curious.

I'd never heard of Billericay before either. Do you really think it sounds more Irish than English? Of course you'd normally believe someone if they told you where a random place was unless you'd other reason to doubt. But does it really not sound English to you? And what do you mean exotic? If someone had crap knowledge of both why would they assume Ireland over England? (Really just curious as I don't see it).

And Kilmarnock's in the UK too.

Billericay and Tipperary sound similar to me. And I could see why people would think Billericay doesn't sound like an English town.

I thought lynyard skynyrd was a bloke called Leonard skinner for ages 😂😂😂😂

I can't laugh at you OP, as in a conversation the other day I realised that I had always thought the channel tunnel was a tunnel built on the seabed, a bit like seaworld but not transparent, rather than a tunnel under the sea bed. Had to have it explained to me after I said I hated going through the tunnel because I always imagined what would happen if it sprung a leak.

There's a great scene in Benidorm where a guest has requested a pepper salad, and gets wilted lettuce and a condiment set 😊

To be honest I've never really thought about where black.pepper came from. Obviously knew it wasn't from Bell peppers.

Never given it much thought. Never really thought about where all these foods come from. So paprika was a new one for me. And also the baby sweetcorn- but just never really spent much time thinking about these things. And now know what a peppercorn looks like.

They would if they could, I'm sure, they are certainly not vegetarian.

Sea ducks eat fish eggs.

I assumed Glamorgan was in Scotland as a kid.

I think it is the _ill plus + ericay. I don't think there's any other English place name containing 'ericay' (chat got says no). It sounds Irish to me.