Rupert

[Elkhound]

Thank you, you've just made me hungry for a homemade pizza with pesto sauce, topped with grilled or roasted chicken, roasted red peppers, bacon, feta cheese & mozzarella.  And I'm stuck at work all day.  I could cry now....

That does sound good.

[Elkhound]

When I was about 10 we went to England for a summer and stayed mostly in B&Bs; my mother taught several of our landladies how to make American-style Deviled Eggs.

[Evie]

And a vegetable called paprika? Paprika is a spice, no?

We have paprika the spice here, but evidently in the Netherlands, that name refers to what we would call bell pepper over here.  Or at least that's the sort of "paprika" that was on my friend's BK chicken sandwich.

Yes, we have bubble and squeak, and toad in the hole. We also have pigs in blankets, devils on horseback, and Welsh rabbit, amongst other fun food names. And in school we used to have suet pastry, spread with jam, rolled up like a Swiss roll and baked, and it was known as dead man's leg. I always thought it was a nickname peculiar to our school, but apparently it's a legit name.

I love the colorful names!   The UK imported foods section of my local Publix grocery store also has a few cans of "Spotted Dick" on the shelf, which elicits the same sort of snickers from American shoppers that the movie title "Free Willy" probably did to UK moviegoers.  I'll confess I've not gone out of my way to buy a can and try it, though I've almost managed to master the urge to smirk whenever I browse that aisle.   

Snickerdoodles are absolute yum!  <3

And yes, Aerlys, threads on this forum can end up veering off in very random and unexpected directions.  That's half the fun, IMO!  I remember going away for a long weekend once and returning to read pages of comments on one of my story chapters about which opera singers might portray which Deryni characters if there were ever an operatic version of the Deryni Chronicles.  And no, my story chapter had absolutely nothing to do with opera!     (Though I didn't mind the discussion straying off course; it was quite educational, and led to me listening to several YouTube clips to figure out what everyone was going on about.)

[Aerlys]

Oh, I take no issue with straying off-topic. It's fun and amusing! That's one of the many things I like about this forum.

So now that I'm craving snickerdoodles, I am also reminded that I need bring the (grumble, grumble) fundraising pamphlet for orchestra to (grumble) sell cookie dough.

Hey, trivia question: as a kid, we grew and ate something called a cucuzzi. Now that's something probably less known than "auburgene."  Any guess as to what it is, without any help from Google? 

[DesertRose]

And this particular section of the forum is specifically for straying off-topic. 

[Evie]

Hey, trivia question: as a kid, we grew and ate something called a cucuzzi. Now that's something probably less known than "auburgene."  Any guess as to what it is, without any help from Google? 

Ummmm... let's see... "cu-" comes from the Middle English word for "cow" (our humble cucumber was alternately called a cowcumber in earlier times), and "-cuzzi" is obviously related to "jacuzzi," so a "cucuzzi" must be a jacuzzi for cows!  Though why one would eat such a thing, I have no clue.  You must have very strong teeth!   

[Aerlys]

Ummmm... let's see... "cu-" comes from the Middle English word for "cow" (our humble cucumber was alternately called a cowcumber in earlier times), and "-cuzzi" is obviously related to "jacuzzi," so a "cucuzzi" must be a jacuzzi for cows!  Though why one would eat such a thing, I have no clue.  You must have very strong teeth!   

ROTFLMBO!

[Aerlys]

It's pronounced ku-koo-za, or "goo-gootz" (abbreviated speech of Campania, Calabria, Sicily, and all regions of southern Italy.)

My grandmother was Sicilian, so we always called them "goo-GOOTZ."

[Elkhound]

Hey, trivia question: as a kid, we grew and ate something called a cucuzzi. Now that's something probably less known than "auburgene."  Any guess as to what it is, without any help from Google? 

Some sort of squash?

[Elkhound]

And yes, Aerlys, threads on this forum can end up veering off in very random and unexpected directions.  That's half the fun, IMO!  I remember going away for a long weekend once and returning to read pages of comments on one of my story chapters about which opera singers might portray which Deryni characters if there were ever an operatic version of the Deryni Chronicles.  And no, my story chapter had absolutely nothing to do with opera!     (Though I didn't mind the discussion straying off course; it was quite educational, and led to me listening to several YouTube clips to figure out what everyone was going on about.)

Yes, I remember that one.  I imagined Charissa as being like Mozart's Queen of the Night, while someone else pictured her more like Puccini's Princess Turandot.

[AnnieUK]

I had to Google snickerdoodles when I came across them. And spotted dick is yummy. You should give it a go!

[Laurna]

Hehe  I had missed two pages of this thread earlier.
I had to give Wikipedia a lot of attention to figure all this out. here is some of the list: rutabagas=Swedes= neeps(turnips) and tatties(potatoes) (commonly served with haggis), Cucuzzi= a very odd looking ... (Opps  hide spoiler), bubble and squeak (which was totally new to me), and spotted dick (which I would have guessed to be canned fish, not a fruit cake like pudding.
At least I know what a snickerdoodle cookie is. 

The spotted dick reminds me I need to order the family fruit cake to have it by the holiday.

I was looking up broccoli two days ago and I learned that it was originally Italian from 6th century BC. The Romans ate it; although it did not get to England until the 1700's.  Knowing this, do you think that broccoli would be found in our Deryni cuisine?

And Elkhound congratulates on your mousier.

[AnnieUK]

And let's not forget clapshot, which is bubble and squeak's less famous cousin.

Aw, man, now I want mince and clapshot!

[DesertRose]

I had to Google snickerdoodles when I came across them.

Okay, so apparently snickerdoodles are NOT A Thing in the UK.    That's a damn shame.  Snickerdoodles are delicious.

[Aerlys]

Hey, trivia question: as a kid, we grew and ate something called a cucuzzi. Now that's something probably less known than "auburgene."  Any guess as to what it is, without any help from Google? 

Some sort of squash?

Ooh, so close! It's an Italian edible gourd that resembles a green bean on steroids. And if you think you're in trouble when you miss a zucchini for a few days, you haven't seen how huge cucuzzi get! I brought one to school to show off when I was 11 that was a big as I was.





Cucuzzi are quite mild and tender. My grandmother used to slice them, dip them in egg, bread them in Italian bread crumbs, and fry them. I'm not so crazy about fried foods, but that was tasty. She also made a veggie/tomato stew with it that was my favorite.

I think I only heard of snickerdoodles about ten years ago, and thought they would taste peanut-buttery, like a snickers. It just wasn't a cookie we ever made, for some reason.

Clapshot sounds more like "claptrap" to me than a food.  But, since I like bubble and squeak, I'll look it up!