# The British and their odd ways **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 18, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390 "2014-04-18T03:45:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/182 "2014-05-21T21:32:34Z")
Shame you missed the 80s then. Weetabix (yeah, that’s right, it’s Weetabix) decided that the ideal mascots would be a skinhead gang. What better brand ambassadors for a breakfast-centric slab of wheat dust than a yobbo youth sub-culture. Sometimes I’m really really tempted to hop under the eurotunnel and beg the French to give me citizenship. Weetabix, fucking skinheads… honestly. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/183 "2014-05-21T22:24:30Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I don’t know why anyone would imagine Britain should be known for its chocolate. We had a dispute in the EU around 10 years ago because some other members didn’t consider our chocolate to even be real chocolate. We have to have a special rule for labels as some of our “milk chocolate” doesn’t even meet the minimum requirements that apply to the rest of the EU. Even if _we_ like it, what is there to export? Dairy Milk? I can’t imagine why anyone would buy that unless they’ve developed a taste for it, like Americans have with their “cheese”. That doesn’t mean anyone _else_ wants American cheese or British chocolate. I think you’re underestimating how popular a lot of British chocolate brands are worldwide. It’s just that people often forget they’re British, including you. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/184 "2014-05-21T22:53:06Z")
> [@MahFL](#): > > Don’t tell anyone but “meat pies” often don’t contain much meat…enjoy ! The best apparently came from Fleet Street. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/185 "2014-05-21T23:34:35Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Meat pies I find gross. Probably because of the frozen chicken pot pie my Mother fed me. To each his own. Steak and kidney pie is the thing that made me believe it might be possible to live forever and never get bored. I could eat them forever. > [@](#): > > Names like “mash” and “toad in the hole” don’t help the reputation, either. Mash is just mashed potatoes. Toad in the hole contains no actual toads. Honestly, if you want to be put off by _the name_ of a food, start [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken). ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/186 "2014-05-22T00:25:42Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Rinse? Rinse?! What perfidy is this? Plates drain on their very own - its according to the rules they are given in the plate factory. > > I mean I ask you - do you take two showers? Hmm…?? > > No. Didn’t think so. > > My case rest M’lud. Remind me to explain to you the basic functional difference between a bath and a shower, sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/187 "2014-05-22T08:51:03Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > To us, the most mysterious of British food was Wheatabix. This is the breakfast food version of Marmite. It came in biscuits sort of like Shredded Wheat, but the comparison stops there. The texture of Wheatabix is sort of like compressed wood, and they would disintegrate as soon as they touched milk. > > The package said they were great with jelly, so we tried spreading jelly on them… Weetbix Downunder. Yumm. My teenage son can eat six as a snack, with milk of course. And brown sugar. Me, I prefer to eat Weetbix with butter and jam - jelly for you. Alternating with Marmite or Vegemite (another Downunderism). Lots of roughage and very filling. Mmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/188 "2014-05-22T12:17:18Z")
Weetabix with jelly? As in what we would call jam? I have never ever heard of that and cannot believe it would suggest that on the packet. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/189 "2014-05-22T13:35:19Z")
Allow me to bring light into this benighted world. [http://fresh.co.nz/weetbix-wonders/](http://fresh.co.nz/weetbix-wonders/) ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/190 "2014-05-22T13:56:11Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > Shame you missed the 80s then. Weetabix (yeah, that’s right, it’s Weetabix) decided that the ideal mascots would be a skinhead gang. What better brand ambassadors for a breakfast-centric slab of wheat dust than a yobbo youth sub-culture. > > Sometimes I’m really really tempted to hop under the eurotunnel and beg the French to give me citizenship. > > Weetabix, fucking skinheads… honestly. I’d completely forgotten about that. A very strange ad campaign given the fact that Eighties skinheads were associated with the far right political groups. I remember when I was a kid in the late sixties/early seventies almost every breakfast cereal would have some kind of freebie for kids, Batman transfers, football busts, cut-out Kings and Queens of England, car kits, Thunderbirds models, Captain Scarlet badges and many more. And Sugar Smacks were so much better than Sugar Puffs… ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/191 "2014-05-22T14:39:22Z")
Weetabix clearly had to be mashed up in the milk and then huge dollop of honey slapped in the middle, ready to be swished around. If you didn’t do that then you were doing it _wrong_. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/192 "2014-05-22T14:40:41Z")
Is it spelled differently in Australia? ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/193 "2014-05-22T15:06:36Z")
Differently? Well not really. Correctly to be accurate. Much as it sticks in my craw Weet-Bix, the breakfast cereal, was developed by Bennison Osborne in Victoria, Australia in the mid-1920s. Well done that man. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/194 "2014-05-22T16:01:40Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I think you’re underestimating how popular a lot of British chocolate brands are worldwide. It’s just that people often forget they’re British, including you. I was talking mostly about chocolate, rather than chocolate bars, of which the chocolate itself is often not the most important criterion of deliciousness. Our chocolate itself is nothing special. And I suppose I was taking being “known for chocolate” as meaning being known for the _good quality_ of our chocolate. I suspect any international popularity is largely down to historical reasons, and I bet most of them are Nestlé bars. But fair point, if true. On the other hand, if people often forget the chocolate is British, then maybe we’re not _that_ known for chocolate! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/195 "2014-05-22T16:17:22Z")
Isn’t Nestlé a Swiss company? ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/196 "2014-05-22T17:24:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Isn’t Nestlé a Swiss company? Yeah, that was part of the point. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/197 "2014-05-22T22:06:18Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I was talking mostly about chocolate, rather than chocolate bars, of which the chocolate itself is often not the most important criterion of deliciousness. Our chocolate itself is nothing special. And I suppose I was taking being “known for chocolate” as meaning being known for the _good quality_ of our chocolate. I suspect any international popularity is largely down to historical reasons, and I bet most of them are Nestlé bars. But fair point, if true. > > On the other hand, if people often forget the chocolate is British, then maybe we’re not _that_ known for chocolate! We are known for chocolate; real chocolate. Chocolate of the Milk Chocolate variety. Unlike the Dark Chocolate muck they sell in Belgium. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/198 "2014-05-23T13:42:29Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > …Weetabix (yeah, that’s right, it’s Weetabix) … Is it called Weetabix and not Wheatabix because, like _ **Froot** _ Loops that doesn’t contain actual fruit, Wheetabix doesn’t contain actual wheat? So, that stuff was actually made from compressed wood! It would certainly explain both the high fiber content and flavor. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/199 "2014-05-23T14:39:24Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Is it called Weetabix and not Wheatabix because, like _ **Froot** _ Loops that doesn’t contain actual fruit, Wheetabix doesn’t contain actual wheat? > > So, that stuff was actually made from compressed wood! It would certainly explain both the high fiber content and flavor. So that explains [Pykrete](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete). Freeze Weetabix in water. Build air base on the resulting unsinkable fiber-and-ice island. Win the Arctic War. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/200 "2014-05-23T16:08:01Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > And how are we not know for our cheese and chocolate? A few years back, there was a major effort to increase sales of British cheese in the US. Suddenly, there was real Cheddar, and double Gloucester, and Stilton, and Wensleydale, and what have you in American markets at reasonable prices. Unfortunately, it happened in the early '90s so…you know (for a short while, prices became _extremely_ reasonable). And then the dollar bubble burst. And then there was the whole foot and mouth thing… > [@](#): > > Maybe some people just don’t recognise some of the brand names. In the US, they just plain aren’t available to a large extent. Cadbury and Kit Kat are well known but, of course, Rowntree and Cadbury sold their souls to Hershey long before the Nestlé and Kraft takeovers…much to the annoyance of Nestlé and Kraft. Many British producers simply aren’t interested in getting involved in (and subsequently consumed by) the vast and crowded US market. Likewise, American companies like Heinz and Mars aren’t keen on competing with themselves. Items that aren’t already available are typically imported in relatively small quantities, generally in the original retail packaging. Since EU labelling doesn’t meet US standards, packages have to be relabelled, which is expensive and time-consuming (basically, you have to pay people to paste new nutrition labels and UPCs over the old ones). The upshot of all this is that many common British foodstuffs are only available in specialty markets and very, very small supermarket sections at inflated prices. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390/201 "2014-05-23T22:00:07Z")
Proper British and Irish cheeses are available in supermarkets in northern New Jersey, though not as much as my wife wishes. (She spent a summer doing theatre in Glastonbury, so her Yankee palate is permanently defiled.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-british-and-their-odd-ways/686390.md?page=11)