culture smash!

[kaigou]

Actual conversation, the other day. I've been to England/Scotland (otherwise raised in the Deep South), while CP attended a Brit school as a kid. Makes for some odd culture-squishes, here and there, in the house conversations. I still don't know how this one started, but I think it was thanks to CP's trip to the grocery store.

CP: I was in the international food aisles, and you know what they have there? Right next to the Hispanic food, there's British food-- and Heinz baked beans.
Me: Say what?
CP: Baked beans, Heinz. Because it's apparently a huge part of British breakfasts to have American baked beans on your eggs.
Me: What, when you're not getting a slice or two of tomato that's been cooked until it's kinda crispy--
CP: But otherwise soggy? Yeah, that.
Me: Did that aisle have appropriately burnt toast, too?
CP: Just baked beans.
Me: Because my sister and I could never figure it out, I mean, the entire time we were in Britain, all we got was burnt toast.
CP: It's a thing.
Me: But it didn't make any sense! They'd put the toast in, it'd stay in until smoke was coming out, and they'd pop the toast out, burnt black.
CP: And I'm sure your mother scraped off the burnt parts and told you that you were gonna eat it, and you were gonna like it.
Me: She did it with a smile, too.
CP: Unh-hunh.
Me: Still, I mean, it's not like we didn't know how to set the toaster to not burn the toast. And I was eight! My sister was five! We knew about how to stand over the toaster until the bread was nicely browned and then pop it out -- if it was looking like it'd still be going -- and then we'd get bread toasted just so. We couldn't figure out how an entire country seemed to be clueless about this.
CP: Well, like the British space program...
Me: Hunh?
CP: There isn't one... and now you know why.

Snark rules this house, sometimes.

Comments

[haya5h1.livejournal.com]

Well, see, if you burn the toast, you can scrape off the charred bits until you reach the exact degree of toastedness you want. Thus you only need to make one huge batch of toast, and everyone at the table can customize their slice without fights over the toaster.

I have always regarded the fried tomatoes as a grudging nod to vitamins. Or garnish.

But beans on toast are kind of yum. especially if there's a slice of nice cheddar on top and the whole lot is shoved under the broiler till the cheese is bubbly and brown. Even better if there's a slice or two of bacon under the beans. ...mmm, heart attack on toast.

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

If I'm to eat baked beans on toast, there'd better be some bangers on the table.

Sadly, I think it's been years decades since I had a good steak and kidney pie.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

thus you only need to make one huge batch of toast, and everyone at the table can customize their slice without fights over the toaster

That's a kind of efficiency that's... not. *contemplates* And people say grits are strange.