Biscuits and More

To highlight the potential hazards of using English around the world, George Bernard Shaw said “England and America are two countries separated by a common language”. Our little expat community in France that we now call home, includes mostly residents from the UK. No problem for us we thought since theTravelsketcher made many business trips to the UK before he retired, and I worked with researchers in the UK. In addition, we have enjoyed many vacations in the UK, so with all that exposure we thought we had a pretty good understanding of the language differences. Not so fast!

We have had some confusing and amusing interchanges with our neighbors since arriving in March. But first I want to point out that none of these are right or wrong, they’re simply different word usages or expressions that take getting use to. Here are a few that stand out.

1. Biscuits

If you answered all three, you are correct! All of these are biscuits, depending on where you live. As part of getting our cat, Neville, settled in France, we purchased several different brands of cat food. Our neighbors, who have become good friends, also have a cat, and generously feed some local stray cats, so we arranged to give Neville’s rejects to them, hoping the food wouldn’t go to waste. They were away when I stopped by to drop off the food, so I left the packages on their porch. When chatting with them later they thanked us for the biscuits. They could tell from the puzzled looks on our faces that we were confused; we hadn’t left them any biscuits. Next came a lively and entertaining discussion about the differences between biscuits, cookies, and crumpets. When we think of biscuits, we think of the light, fluffy, savory, delicious creations our dear friend Tim so expertly bakes.

They can be served at any meal, and are usually accompanied with butter and jam, or honey. A popular, and filling breakfast in the US is biscuits with sausage gravy.

2. Hose Pipes and Garden Hoses

On a hot day last summer, my neighbor was telling me about a “hose pipe ban” that was in effect in the UK. Again, that puzzled look crossed my face and she pointed to what we refer to as a “garden hose”. I think of a pipe as a solid piece of tubing, not at all flexible. Again, we chuckled at another new (to us) term.

3. “Pinch, punch, it’s the first of the month!”

My neighbor said this to me as she pinched and then punched my arm, leaving me, once again, with that deer in the headlights look. I googled this one to find it dates back to old England when people believed in witches. A pinch of salt and a punch were ways to prevent wizardly shenanigans.

4. Greetings

We quickly noticed that our greetings are quite different. Our neighbors ask: “are you alright?” To us this indicates that perhaps something is not quite right, that maybe one looks ill or upset. I was quite puzzled the first few times I was greeted with this. A common greeting in our part of the US, which our neighbors may find odd is: “hey, how’s it going?”

These are just a few of the differences we have come across since moving to Europe. There are many more that have resulted in fun discussions. Whether you take a holiday or a vacation, call the sweet treat served at the end of a meal pudding or dessert, say you’re chuffed or pumped when excited about something, or refer to something expensive as posh or fancy, the main point is that we are communicating. Embracing the differences, and learning to accept others for who they are and where they come from is all that really matters in the end. And learning some new expressions helps to expand our understanding of others.

I’ve grown to really like some of these expressions, and use them as part of my regular vocabulary. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, our neighbors have become good friends, and the differences have brought us closer together as a result.

As always, I would love to hear from you, so please leave a message if you’re so inclined.

Cheers!

Tricia

Special thanks to Tim and Lisa for their contributions to this post.

Tim’s buttermilk biscuits supreme

These are perfect for breakfasts (slathered with red raspberry preserves or drizzled with honey), to accompany soups (dip ’em!), even–our favorite–as a superior replacement for shortcake in summer berry desserts.

 

2 cups sifted flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk in the fridge? Substitute yogurt mixed with a little milk)

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

 

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Cut in that cube of butter until it resembles bread crumbs.

 

Now flour the surface on which you’ll be pressing and cutting the dough.

 

Back to the mixing bowl: add the buttermilk–and here’s where I get lusciously tactile with these primal elements: I flour up my hands, plunge in, mix the mass to a yummy dough, and toss it onto my floured surface. I press it out with my fingers instead of rolling it…the biscuits just turn out better for some reason. (Effect of body heat in fingers on the butter crumbs? A rougher, more textured biscuit topography rather than slate-smooth?) I prefer thicker rather than thinner biscuits, maybe 1/2 inch, although I stack them in pairs (see below).

 

Cut out the rounds with a sharp-edged cutter, not a mere drinking glass. (Reason: the rounded-edged glass doesn’t cut the dough as much as squish and seal the sides–which inhibits the biscuit’s baking process.) I stack the rounds two high on a cookie sheet, so the biscuits break easily in halves after they’re baked.

 

(Family tradition requires, at this point, to save some slivers of the uncooked dough that I walk around and feed to whomever’s in the house, directly to their mouths. It is considered a treat. I always feel like something between a father bird feeding nesting babies, or a priest giving a biscuity sacrament to household parishioners: “The body of Christ, broken for you…dinner is in ten minutes…go now, my child, and wash your hands…”)

 

Bake around 10 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Depending on how thickly or thinly you press your dough, and assuming you stack the rounds in pairs like I do, this recipe makes about 8 biscuits. It doubles well for larger gatherings.