# "What Do They Call French Toast in France?" & Similar Questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 1, 2007, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300 "2007-06-01T04:06:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/121 "2007-06-04T22:51:58Z")

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Has anyone metioned The English Dease usually meaning syphilis, if not flogging. The Engish call them French deseases. Hennce the Frech letters. Long tradiirtion of calling your enemy is reponsible for STD’s and “pervertions”. What do other cultures call their little mistakes.?

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**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/122 "2007-06-05T00:22:42Z")

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[QUOTE=Christopher]  
Oh yeah, and what about Venetian blinds?  
[/QUOTE]

cieco

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**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/123 "2007-06-05T02:21:42Z")

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What do they call French doors in France?

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/124 "2007-06-05T06:01:53Z")

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[QUOTE=betenoir]  
Has anyone metioned The English Dease usually meaning syphilis, if not flogging.  
[/QUOTE]

I thought the latter was ‘the English vice’?

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/125 "2007-06-05T08:56:12Z")

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[QUOTE=minor7flat5]  
How about a couple of fun ones from Brazil:

_chave inglesa_ / “English Wrench”  
_soco inglês_ / “English Punch (fist)”  
_jogo americano_ / “American Set”

Take a guess what English speakers call these items  
[/QUOTE]

Without looking for other responses, Spanish _llave inglesa_ is a wrench that has a screw to regulate it - methinks the English for that is “monkey wrench.”

What’s the second, boxing?

The third, no idea.

Tapas are mostly eaten pre-lunch, as an appetizer. You can also have a Sunday brunch of tapas. They can be eaten as a light _merienda_, mid-afternoon snack. The origin is that sometimes you get “bity” but it’s not quite late enough for the next meal and if you eat too much you’ll spoil your appetite and anyway some of those inventions are better in small portions (a whole dish of _pimientos verdes rellenos de cebolla y boquerones_ would send most tummys rocketing for the TUMS).

IME, people who are not dining out actually do not eat that late. Yes, we have dinner at 9pm rather than 7. But lunch at 2 rather than noon and breakfast also goes two hours latger… our hours are just shifted with regards to those of other cultures. People who are going to dine out, oh my, those can easily not start the real dinner until 11pm, but that’s another animal.

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**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/126 "2007-06-05T09:47:47Z")

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[QUOTE=GorillaMan]  
I thought the latter was ‘the English vice’?  
[/QUOTE]

In a similar vein, “take a French leave”, in French, is “_filer à l’anglaise_”.

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**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/127 "2007-06-05T18:00:35Z")

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[QUOTE=Nava]  
Without looking for other responses, Spanish _llave inglesa_ is a wrench that has a screw to regulate it - methinks the English for that is “monkey wrench.”  
[/QUOTE]  
Actually, it’s a Ford wrench :).

I heard that term exactly once in my life, twenty years ago, when the other mechanic asked me to fetch a Ford wrench from the shop. He looked at me mighty strange when I admitted that I had never heard the term. It turned out that a Ford wrench is yet another name for a monkey wrench.

In other words, you got that one right.  
The second is not exactly boxing – it is an object.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/128 "2007-06-05T21:22:38Z")

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I inheirited an actual Ford wrench (part of a Model T’s tool kit,) and it’s the same as a monkey wrench. The stationary and movable jaws are parallel, and both are perpendicular to the handle. The Ford wrench also has a screwdriver or something at the end of the handle.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/129 "2007-06-05T21:45:04Z")

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Remember that silly spasm a few Americans had, where they renamed French fries “freedom” fries? There’s a breakfast roll we called a Persian roll. A rope of cinnamon-dusted dough is wound into a spiral and baked or deep-fried. Then a buttery caramel frosting is slathered on top.

I bought one at a bake shop last week, and the sign called it a “Pershing” roll. :rolleyes: Maybe that’s from Iran’s (formerly Persia’s) president and ours calling each other names. Jack Pershing was a distinguished general in one of our past wars.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/130 "2007-06-05T22:54:49Z")

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[QUOTE=Shecky]

Who do they make fun of in Poland?

[/QUOTE]

It used to be the Russians, and somewhat the Germans. I don’t know if that’s still the case or not.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/131 "2007-06-05T23:01:35Z")

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Let’s see, what else…

In Hungary, “French sex” refers to oral sex. An “American (blue)berry” is a cranberry. (“Afonya” is the word for “blueberry” or “bilberry,” but it sounds a little silly calling something red a blueberry in English, hence my parenthesis). “American pizza” has corn on it, [at least at one place](http://www.chew.hu/desk_test_american_pizza_myste.html). “French salad” is frozen vegetables in mayonnaise, while here in America, “French dressing” is some sort of sickly sweet concoction of ketchup, sugar, vinegar, and oil.

edit:

But more in keeping with the thread, “Hungarian goulash” is _pörkölt_.

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**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-call-french-toast-in-france-similar-questions/406300/132 "2007-06-05T23:58:04Z")

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During the cartoon controversy in Denmark, there were stories that shops in Iran were calling Danish pastries “Flowers of the Prophet Muhammad”.

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