This week's Friday Five:
- What regional colloquialism in your area would baffle people from elsewhere? "Double-double" or "triple-triple," which is used to describe how you take your coffee and/or tea; a "double-double" means two creams and two sugars, and a "triple-triple" means three creams and three sugars. Apparently, this is a purely Canadian thing, but everyone uses it here, usually at Tim Hortons or McDonald's or any other place that makes your coffee for you (as opposed to Starbucks or Second Cup, where you'd put in your own cream and sugar).
- What's something you call by a name that differs from what most people in your region call it? Well, I pronounce Montreal as "Mawn-tree-all," whereas most people here pronounce the city as "Mun-tree-all." But I like to think I'm correct because the French pronunciation (a.k.a. the original way) is closer to how I pronounce it.
- What's a normal food in your region that people in other regions might be weirded out by? Ketchup chips. It's something I've eaten since childhood and it's so common here that I didn't realize that the rest of the world didn't have them until I was 16 and did a summer course in NYC. My roommates thought they sounded really gross, but they're quite delightful.
- What's something in your area with an official name almost nobody refers to it by? University of Toronto. Everyone here calls it U of T or UT.
- What are the names of some convenience stores in your area? Max Convenience Store, Daisy Mart, Handy Variety & Milk Store, Kitchen Food Fair, Hasty Market.
I've had ketchup chips from Japan! Also, the McD's there makes your coffee for you? As in it stirs in the cream and sugar? That's interesting. Here they just hand you packets of sugar and small plastic sealed cups of cream.
ReplyDeleteHow'd you like the ketchup chips from Japan? I've never had them outside of Canada 'cause they're like our national snack, lol. Most of the ketchup chips sold here are from Canada, though (every single Canadian chip brand, even American-owned ones, makes ketchup flavour), so I don't think I've seen foreign ketchup chips.
DeleteBefore McCafe, which is the cafe expansion of McD's, they used to hand you packets of sugar and those plastic cups of cream/milk and a couple stir sticks. But all of the McDonald's locations in Canada now have McCafe, so they don't do that anymore. I don't know if you have McCafe in Hawaii, but It was meant to compete with coffee houses like Starbucks and Tim Hortons, so they offer espresso drinks like lattes and cappuccinos along with regular coffee. You can request to add your own sugar and cream, I suppose, but for the most part, the barista just mixes them into your coffee for you. I don't know if they do that at all McCafes around the world, but it's like that in Canada. I think this is meant to compete with Tim Hortons, which is their biggest competitor here, and Tim's has always stirred in your cream and sugar for you.
Yeah we have McCafe here too but for hot coffee, we still get our little packets. I thought the Japanese ketchup chips were good, but not amazing. I don't understand why people think it's a weird concept. Sour cream and onion chips are flavored that way because we put sour cream and green onions on a baked potato. We put ketchup on french fries, and which is closer to a chip: a baked potato or a french fry? Ketchup chips seems like it should be regular thing!
DeleteMaybe chip companies tested ketchup chips on a variety of panels and it just wasn't a popular flavour among the subjects?
DeleteI love Dill Pickle chips, too, which apparently is also only a Canadian thing. I find this odd because the flavour has that kind of tang like Salt and Vinegar chips, which are everywhere.