The thread dealing with North vs South (US) cuisine brought back a childhood memory. Being of British parentage, I have always put a little ketchup on my french toast. I mean, it’s eggs, right?
When I was about 7 years old, I stayed over at a friend’s house, and the next morning french toast was served. Seeing no ketchup on the table, I asked for some. The disbelief and horror on the face of my friend’s mother is something I still remember after 30 years. It was only then that I found that most Canadians (?North Americans?) use icing sugar or syrup on their f.t.
My question is this: do various cultural groups tend to prefer sweet to savoury toppings on their f.t.? Is the use of ketchup a British thing, or am I some kind of Hideous Mutant Freak and evolutionary dead end?
One more thing: travelling in the US about 15 years ago, I noticed there was never any vinegar at the table in restaurants and diners, and our request for some drew looks that brought back memories of the French Toast Incident.
“A friend will help you move house. A best friend will help you move a body.”–Alexi Sayle
I too am of British parentage (well on one side, anyway) and I have always had jam or syrup on my french toast. This would seem to support your theory that you could be a “Hideous Mutant Freak”, although I’m sure your mummy still loves you.
That having been said, I have been looked at askance for such combinations as chutney and grilled cheese sandwiches, a culinary oddity my British mother instilled in me.
I don’t know anyone who puts ketchup on french toast, though. What do the french do?
Your average US restaurant would only make vinigar available in the case of fish and chips or perhaps a salad.
My wife is British and favors some rather strange (to me) combinations of food. Alas, and thank God, ketchup on her french toast isn’t one of them.
One thing she has taught me is to avoid is anything offered to you by a Brit with the word pudding in it. I grew up with the kind of pudding that was creamy and chocalatey and came in little disposable cups like the stuff Bill Cosby hocks. Pudding to her can mean anything from coagulated pig’s blood (black pudding) to a sausage casing filled with sugary lard (white pudding?)
She also has a proclivity for putting things on toast: Beans, sardines, corned beef (the gross kind that comes in a can) and peas.
Yet she cringes in revoltion at the sight of a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. There were MANY good reasons for the American Revolution and I aint talking about taxation!
I like mayo on my french fries. I also like catsup on french toast.
When I was a kid, we had pancakes and eggs with maple syrup on the cakes and a couple eggs on top with catsup on them. YUM!
Everybody liked it, except Mikey.
Most cultures enjoy sweet and savory together.
Peace,
mangeorge
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything” Mark Twain 1894
I should have perhaps specified that while my father was English, my mother is Scots.
My father and I would actually have to leave the building when my mother prepared an atrocity called “Finnan Haddie,” which to the best of my recollection is salt mackerel boiled in milk.
Fried mealy (or white) pudding, fried tomatoes, Ayrshire ham and eggs, with soft baps (floury rolls) and hot tea is a breakfast fit for God’s Own Prophet, and prepares a man for a day’s scurfing in the shipyards.
“A friend will help you move house. A best friend will help you move a body.”–Alexi Sayle
The true culinary weirdnesses come from south of the border, IMHO. That’s right, you Yanks do some strange and disgusting things to food.
Exhibit A: Corn dogs. Eeeewwwww.
Exhibit B: Grits. I don’t even know what they are, but I wouldn’t want to eat anything that brings to mind that feeling you get between your teeth after driving for five hours on a dirt road in a drought.
Exhibit C: Chicken-fried steak. No elaboration necessary.
Exhibit D: Pizza pops
Exhibit E: A morbid fascination with non-foods like aspartame and olestra.
Exhibit F: Pork rinds
I could go on, but I’d rather not lose the bagel I ate for breakfast. Wacked out Limeys indeed. Hmph.
My dad was from Nova Scotia and did similarly strange things to fish, particularly kippers.
I forgot to add earlier that ketchup does belong on eggs, if that was in doubt. I always had ketchup on omlettes and scrambled eggs as a kid. Just out of curiosity, did anyone else’s mom make scrambled eggs in a saucepan rather than a frying pan? I was under the impression that my mom’s scrambled egg method was a Brit thing, but it may have been just a family thing.
I’ll take a corn dog over beans on toast anyday. No wonder the Brits lost their empire! Your tank hits a bump in the road on the way to squelsh the whirling dirvishes; you got beans all over your lap! If you’d had corn dogs, you could have ruled the world forever!
Eris: you just reminded me of my mum’s “steamed egg,” which is essentially scrambled eggs (with milk, pepper and parsley), cooked in a covered saucepan. Served, naturally, on toast.
My mother will still occasionally have bully beef (the tinned kind) and cabbage. And always steak pie (no kidney) on Hogmanay (New Year’s Day), and of course, haggis on January 25, with bashed neeps.
“And what do you think the Argylls ate in Aden? Arabs!?” -old Monty Python skit
“A friend will help you move house. A best friend will help you move a body.”–Alexi Sayle
>>One more thing: travelling in the US about 15 years ago, I noticed there was never any vinegar at the table in restaurants and diners, and our request for some drew looks that brought back memories of the French Toast Incident.>>
Vinegar is not one of the top condiments on tables in the US. In Maryland, there are several french fry establishments (“Thrasher’s” in Ocean City and “Boardwalk Fries” elsewhere) which conspicuously serve vinegar. In fact, Thrasher’s provides apple-cider vinegar for your fries at the cash register, under a big sign which announces “NO KETCHUP”. The sign, of course invites thousands of “Got any ketchup?” questions per day. In most other restaurants, however, ketchup is on the table and vinegar is not.
On top of French toast? Well blueberry jam and whipping cream. If there is no bluberries, the strawberries. In desperation syrop will do fine.On top of toast? Why pickeled herring and slided boiled eggs of course!
Yes, that’s essentially it. Except there’s some genetic mutation in my family that’s caused none of us to like parsley, hence no parsely in the scrambled eggs. My mom added a bit of butter & salt, too. And of course it was served on toast!
Nice to see another Victoria resident on this board. Beautiful day, isn’t it?
Well, on my French toast, it has to be butter, maple syrup, and powdered sugar. Mmmm, mmmm. Is anyone else on this board normal.
My dad always mixed ketchup in with his chicken noodle soup. Is this a common thing, or shall I continue my thinking in that this combination would cause anyone else to hurl?
Speaking of weird toppings, I guess this isn’t that unheard of, but my uncle won’t eat ice cream unless he has some Rice Krispies or Cornflakes to put on top of it.
“Give a man a match and he’ll be warm for an hour… Set him on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Ooh, that reminds of some good sandwiches I used to make a lot myself. There was the fried egg and cheese sandwich (no ketchup, though), plus the always popular peanut butter and banana.
When I was a kid, my grandma (my Coors-drinking, baseball-fanatic, non-domestic type grandma) used to give us vanilla ice cream with Cheerios on top. This was a very rare, very special treat and MUCH better than it sounds.
Jess
Don’t take life so serious, son… it ain’t no how permanent.
-Porkypine
Since we’re admitting to strange food combinations, I’ll throw in my favorite: Peanut butter and cheese. It’s good, really! But it has to be JIF peanut butter, not a sweet brand like Peter Pan.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island