to not understand why Americans call a main course an entrée?

[flummoxedworried]

Does anyone understand why this happens?

I'm heading to Toronto later in the year, can any Canadians tell me if I'll be able to find dry pasta & cheddar in Walmart? Also frozen peas? Would be handy to know there's definitely something the DC will eat!

Give them poutine. It's all you need.

I didn't think "entrée" was particularly American. I thought it was used here in the UK too.

But anyway, it means "brought in", and the main course is called that because traditionally it was brought in after you'd finished the starter. Unlike the starter itself, which would be already on the table when you entered the dining room. (I'm saying traditionally - I must admit I don't know where or when this was.)

Mayo. We put mayo on sandwiches because butter is just wrong. Married to a Brit for 10 years and he still forgets I hate butter on a sandwich. We also put wayyyy more filling in sandwich. And we have subs/hoagies. We microwave tea. I'll grant you that microwaving tea is also wrong. We don't do Easter eggs in the British sense. We give our kids a whole Easter basket full of lchocolate (including some little eggs) and toys. It's brought by the Easter bunny.

So, riddle me this: why do Brits pronounce steak fillets with a hard t sound? Surely that's not the right way?

Why do Americans pronounce it croissant with a hard "T" on telly? I dunno. We do it with any kind of fillet or filleting knife.

off topic why do they pronounce twat as twot?

AGnu I used to live in Canada and Walmart will have almost every kind of dried pasta known to man, and every Walmart I've ever been in has a huge cheese aisle. Cracker Barrel's Old Fort variety is a particularly nice strong ish cheddar type that Walmart stock, they also do an Old Fort extra strong which is lovely. My DS loves Walmart's own marbled cheddar, its our standard weekly cheese now.
Yes they will also have frozen peas.

Isn't there some law in America to do with unpasteurised cheese? That it has to be pasteurised or aged a certain amount or it's illegal and that's why you don't get as many European cheeses there or different versions of instead.

Wait, what? Hotel rooms in the US don't have kettles?

No, they have coffee makers. There are usually tea bags, and you can heat water in the coffee maker. Or sometimes they have a Keurig with k-cups.

Hear you on the confusing 'entree' language, to me it translates as starter. I've stayed in hotels with kettles in the US, so not buying that. But I know from my straightens they take fucking years to hear up. So voltage or wattage is crap compared to the UK.
What I ducking detest about the US (hotels) is water softeners. Never a clean hand, face or hair in my whole visit (X-20), the arseholes.

... What I hate a little more is my auto correct not allowing me to swear properly!

Most of the hotels I've stayed in over here have kettles in the rooms, but a lot of hotels around the world I've stayed in, particularly in South America don't have kettles in the rooms, just coffee makers so I don't think its that unusual.

Yy to straighteners, or cell phone chargers - I've always found to get the best results you need appliances from the country you're in. My US straighteners are lethal.

I am American, and I don't know why we call main courses entrees.
I always thought "I could care less" was sarcasm.
One thing to know about language in the US is that it is different depending on where you are. Pronunciation and word use vary from place to place. Some Americans refer to all fizzy drinks as "Coke", which leads to misunderstandings in other parts of the country.
Biscuits are kind of like a savory scone (but flakier). They're associated mostly with southern American cooking.
The idea of eating kidneys in ANY context sounds pretty revolting to me.
Hotel rooms here generally have small coffee makers or Keurigs. They might have an electric kettle as well.
Maybe you can explain a Britishism to me. We eat three meals a day- breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some people call dinner supper, though I think this is becoming less common. I know that what we call lunch, you call dinner. Is tea what we call dinner, or is it something like a snack between lunch and dinner? We have breakfast shortly after we get up, then lunch is around noon and dinner is sometime between 5pm and 9pm.

Isn't there some law in America to do with unpasteurised cheese? That it has to be pasteurised or aged a certain amount or it's illegal and that's why you don't get as many European cheeses there or different versions of instead.

Yes, you can buy cheese made from unpasteurised milk but it has to have been aged at least 60 days.

Which is ironic, as you can you buy unpasteurised milk, in my state at least...

Solicitor = prostitute
Attorney = solicitor

Solicitor does not mean prostitute in the US, at least I have never heard it used that way. There is a crime called "soliciting for prostitution," but we don't call sex workers "solicitors."

Also the lawyer who represents the US government before the Supreme Court is called the Solicitor General. But it is true that we don't have the division between solicitors and barristers/advocates that you have in the UK, so the term is either attorney or lawyer.

As for butter in sandwiches, some Yankees do that. I know because I married one. I am from the South so would never do that.

SenecaFalls when I've been on vacation in the south some of the restaurants do fantastic grits, way up here grits tend to be very grim

Sorry posted too soon. It does just show how different the supposedly same foods are in different parts of the US.

Meals are

Breakfast - obvious

Lunch - Midday meal that may be a full hot meal or a sandwich/soup light meal.

Dinner - Evening meal, full dinner usually hot.

Tea - Usually cold light meal eaten if lunch was a full dinner.

So you can have breakfast lunch and dinner or breakfast lunch and tea but never EVER breakfast dinner and tea. There will be many people coming on to say that this isnt correct, but they are wrong, WRONG WRONG :o

Supper is a snack you may have between dinner and bedtime.

Thinking about it, if you are so inclined you can have breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea about 4 ish (tea scones and sandwiches) to keep you going until dinner at about 8, but thats not common these days.

I watched an episode of Friends the other day where Rachel is try to cop off with the new neighbour and says she is going to a "Regatta Gala" except instead of saying Re-gatt-a Garla, she says Re-garta Gal-la. She gets the pronounciation completely the wrong way round, whats that all about?!

There is definitely a knack to cooking grits, LoupGarou. Shrimp and grits as a dinner "entree" is a low country (coastal Carolina and Georgia) tradition and the best way to eat grits in my opinion.

Yes definitely SenecaFalls I've tried to home cook them but they're never the same. DH loves them with Shrimp. Our local diner did a southern food evening a while back as a trial, the Alaskan take on southern food was barely recognizable "but not as we know it" sort of thing

Pyong it is perfectly possible to have breakfast, dinner and tea !

Breakfast = Meal at the start of the day

Lunch = generally the meal in middle of the day. Possibly more likely to be cold food in some parts of the UK.

Dinner = more likely to be the evening meal but could be used for the meal in the middle of the day. More likely to be used for middle of day if the food is hot and/or you are in the north.

Tea = evening meal. More likely to be used in the north and/or for an evening meal had earlier in the evening.

Supper = small snack before bed or a late dinner eaten by posh southern folk .

I generally eat breakfast, lunch and tea (even at 8pm) these days. 20 years in London has ended the lunchtime dinners but tea is always tea!

Mmmm, shrimp n grits! Almost as good as a Low Country Boil, right Seneca? I've always wanted to try fixing one, but I've never had the courage. Something that sounds so simple (according to my friend) and tastes so wonderful is usually 'tricky'!

Just to throw one more 'meal thing' in the mix; We always ate breakfast, lunch, and supper. 'Dinner', if we had it, meant a huge cooked meal, usually a roast beef, turkey, or ham plus all the fixings/trimmings. And you would have that 'dinner' instead of lunch or supper. We always ate 'Sunday Dinner' in place of 'lunch', but 'Birthday Dinners' instead of supper.

Dare I mention the other countries that purport to speak 'English'?

Put your thongs on to go out shopping?

thongs/jandals/slops = flip flops

And yy to pp about emphasis on first or last syllable eg. photograph

US = FOtograff
UK = fotoGRAHF
AUS = foedah

I've never fixed cooked a Low Country Boil myself, Across, but I do love to eat 'em.

In the Southern US, supper is still commonly used for the evening meal, especially an informal one.

May I say how lovely this thread is, and fascinating! (And LoupGarou, I love your name. Eons ago when I was doing French at High School, we studied a children's book called "Pouk et ses Loups-Garous". I've never forgotten it for some reason!)
Going back to I could care less, I had the same problem with the UK saying Every little helps. To me (Australian) it is just wrong and nonsensical - a phrase that is missing a word (bit?) that would make it work. I get the meaning, but I bump into and fall over it every time I see it written down.