my main thought on England right now is, "Trippy."

[bedlamsbard]

Today we went test-pitting at Bury Farm, where I was way, way too attached to the mattock. IT WAS SO AWESOME, GUYS. Screw the trowel and the shovel and the spade and sieve, I was all over the mattock. Also, I can't recognize flints, so I was kind of useless on the sieve, but I could break up earth like nobody's business. (I don't know, I think one of the other girls on our test pit was kind of judging me, once she found out that I have no archaeology or anthropology experience. We've got a few non-anth majors, but I think I'm the only one without any experience whatsoever. But we worked pretty well together, though we didn't find anything super-exciting.) Anyway. We were there from nine till five, and at about four I pretty much hit my point of, "I'm over this, guys," (also, they stopped letting me use the mattock because we might have been near a new soil layer) and spent the next half-hour or so scraping desultorily at our test pit with a trowel.

Also, today I found out that an English flapjack is not even remotely similar to an American flapjack. Good, though. The homemade ones (from one of the ACE people's mother) were considerably better than the packaged ones in our lunches. We then proceeded to have a slightly confused conversation with a couple of the ACE people about the difference between American flapjacks and English flapjacks. (American flapjacks are pancakes. And I think English pancakes are the same as American pancakes, although our flapjacks may be closer to drop scones? I don't know if this works without visual references.)

Tomorrow we shall be doing more test-pitting, and then we have Sunday off. (THANK THE GODS.) Monday we are in London -- at the British Museum in the morning, and then we have the afternoon free, so if anyone in London wants to meet up on Monday afternoon...

Comments

[highlyeccentric]

Oh my god pancake terminology, it kills me. Would you believe scottish, english, australian and NZ pancake terms ALL DIFFER? I wouldn't put it past the welsh, irish and cornish to have their own terms going as well.

[bedlamsbard]

The difference in terminology between baked goods and other...I mean, I still call them baked goods even if they're not baked, like doughnuts and pancakes and so on -- er, foodstuffs is kind of insane. Even when it has the same names! Like, an English biscuit is nothing close to an American biscuit, and I think an American scone is not particularly like an English scone.

[highlyeccentric]

An american biscuit is like an English scone, i think.

[aella_irene]

You know what we have to do? We have to go out for afternoon tea on Monday, to test this.

[bedlamsbard]

That is my impression. Because I think English scones are fluffy, while American scones are dense? (Dense-ish, anyway. Denser than American biscuits, which properly should be light and fluffy.)

[bedlamsbard]

I approve of this plan.

[highlyeccentric]

Are your scones more like English Muffins?

[aella_irene]

Admittedly, I then remembered that the only good tea shop I know is geared more towards teas than food... (I must be able to think of somewhere!)

[bedlamsbard]

No, our English muffins are like English muffins. Although I'm not sure how closely American English muffins match up to English English muffins. Also I'm not sure what a crumpet is.

Let me see if I can find a scone recipe...here's an apple and cheddar one from Smitten Kitchen. Our scones are usually triangular. (I could be totally making up the difference between American and English scones, though. This is clearly something I'll have to research with a little field work.)

[bedlamsbard]

I'll ask around and see if anyone has any suggestions!

[lady_songsmith]

There isn't really an English answer to the American biscuit, AFAIK. Scones are flaky or crumbly rather than fluffy, and tend to be drier - not in a bad way, but you couldn't smoosh the inside of a scone the same way you can a biscuit. If that makes sense? Gah, food terminology is so subjective! American scones are -- well, actually, I think I've only had really American scones once and my thought there is 'nasty': dry and dense like hockey pucks. I either make my own or go to a handful of places that do proper English scones.

If you are exploring, make sure you try a proper cream tea -- clotted cream (or Devon cream) is SO hard to find over here, due to our pasteurization paranoia. *eyeroll* (full disclosure: personally I'm not a fan, but then I don't like sour cream either, and it *is* something that should be tried once!)

[highlyeccentric]

Crumpets are DELICIOUS. You should try some.

[forestofglory]

I think English scones are less sweet then American scones but otherwise quite similar. I made scones with an English friend this summer and was surprised that her basic scone recipe didn't have any sugar in it. But the recipes where otherwise similar, with the light texture you get from cutting butter into dry ingredients.

[forestofglory]

In town the Michaelhouse cafe is pretty good. If you have more time (or a car) I recommend The Orchard

[gmh]

I can recommend Yumchaa (divine tea!) - but there are many very decent places for tea and cakes in the West End - have a good time!

[bedlamsbard]

HMM. I mean, with both butter and scones you cut butter into the dry ingredients...eh, I'm pretty sure this is a mystery that can only be solved by samples of all the foods in question.

[bedlamsbard]

But American biscuits are also flaky!

I have made some really delicious American scones. Or...at least I think they were scones. :)

[bedlamsbard]

Oh, that looks super cute.

[bedlamsbard]

Thanks!

[bedlamsbard]

I shall try!

[lady_songsmith]

Well, but not flaky-flaky. Like... uhm, ok, like if you bake the pilsbury canned kind and it sort of sheets when you pull it apart? That's like the far end extreme of what I mean by flaky. Biscuits from scratch are more fluff than flake. (Oh food terminology!)

[aella_irene]

That is the one I was thinking of! But it has about fifty teas, and about five cakes, so is possibly not ideal for high-tea-demonstration.

All the places I can think of are in Bath, or Frampton-on-Severn...

[forestofglory]

indeed :)

(my family mostly makes cream biscuits)