Things you were shockingly old when you learned

xp its u and tom d that know how to hurt us most ime

That "scallops" in chip shops are not made of seafood.

I used to eat them when I was a kid but didn't really know what was in them, never had a seafood scallop until I was much older and my wife introduced me to them, asked me if I'd had them before I said yeah, battered from the chippy, they used to be really cheap, like 12p each, so I used to get them for snacks. She was confused by the cheapness because scallops are usually expensive. Not the same thing! I just found this out now. I'm 40.

I've never heard or seen scallops in a chip shop? What are those?

Battered potato. Maybe they don't have them down south which would explain why I haven't eaten one in 20 years.

"Potato scallops originate from central England and are common in fish and chip shops there."

There you go then. I also originate from central England.

They have scallops in my (Scottish) chip shop that are definitely scallops (the expensive kind).

(potato) scallops have different names regionally so ppl might have encountered them in a different guise. at home in cov a scallop batch was a personal favourite. when i was in lancashire the same thing was called a dab teacake.

Getcher fried challops here!

Though it sounds like a bit like rarebit/rabbit and truffles, where there's two or more levels of meaning that have conflated. This cheese thing is a Welsh rarebit, which someone turns into a bad ethnic joke about the Welsh being so poor they'll eat cheese and call it rabbit, so you start hearing "welsh rabbit."

Ditto someone comes up with the bad folk etymology that "asparagus" once was "sparrowgrass," except that in Greek "asparagos" means "vegetable shoot," etc. Somebody makes a chocolate candy shaped a bit like a truffle, calls it a "chocolate truffle," then after a while the modifier "chocolate" wears off and hey presto you have two totally different things both called truffles.

Somebody in a chip shop makes a scallop-sized or scallop-shaped fried potato, calls it a potato scallop, which gets shortened to scallop, then someone turns round and says ha ha, lolz English, trying to pass off a common potato as if it were fine seafood, etc.

I am also from central England and was incredibly confused about scallops until I was in my late 20s. I mean, I figured out that most people meant the seafood and the other thing was regional but I didn't know what the other thing actually *was*.

Never heard of potato scallops. Don't think our chippies had anything like those. I would eat them.

I think of scalloped potatoes as a casserole dish. I knew of that for many years before I learned about the seafood.

(although way the hell before age 40)

xposts! Scalloped potatoes are a thing in the US and I never understood the nomenclature, not sure what relation (if any) there is to UK potato scallops:

Gratin (French pronunciation: ​[ɡʁatɛ̃]) is a widespread culinary technique in which an ingredient is topped with a browned crust, often using breadcrumbs, grated cheese, egg and/or butter.[1][2][3] Gratin originated in French cuisine and is usually prepared in a shallow dish of some kind. A gratin is baked or cooked under an overhead grill or broiler to form a golden crust on top and is traditionally served in its baking dish.

...

Potatoes gratiné is one of the most common of gratins and is known by various names including "gratin potatoes" and "Gratin de pommes de terre". Slices of boiled potato are put in a buttered fireproof dish, sprinkled with cheese and browned in the oven or under the grill.[8] In North America, the dish is referred to variously as scalloped potatoes, potatoes au gratin, or au gratin potatoes. (Note that the term scalloped originally referred to a style of seafood dish rather than to one specifically based on the scallop.)[9] In French-speaking Canada, the dish is referred to as patates au gratin. Australians and New Zealanders refer to it as scalloped potatoes or potato bake.

Challops.

What are *they* made of, you midlands people?

Scalloped potatoes are called that because the layers of sliced potato end up looking scalloplike. That's different from the chip shop product.

Compare "hush puppies," which are not made from actual puppies (in my experience).

Pretty sure "Welsh rabbit" is the original name. It's like Bombay Duck or Birmingham Screwdriver; "rarebit" is a later affectation.

Don't think that's the same thing. The thing I used to get from the chip shop was a round bit of batter a couple of inches diameter, I know what potato gratin is and it's not that.

It might seem unfeasible that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between battered potato and battered seafood, but it was over a decade later when I first ate seafood scallops and it seemed reasonable to assume there was a tiny bit of seafood in amongst all the batter in the mysterious scallops of my youth.

Oops xpost to Old Lunch

Hush puppies used to be fried dough balls loaded with dog tranquilizer, iirc?

Welsh rabbit is the original, mahb is right. Which reminds me that all of these falsely-named foodstuffs confused the fuck out of me. How am I supposed to know Bombay duck isn't duck?!?!?!

Bombay duck isn't duck?!?!?!

Well that's 2 things I'm shockingly old to have learned today.

I don't think I've ever eaten that though.

Mince pies seem pretty straightforward, right? Like, a steak and ale pie has steak and ale in it. So a mince pie has mince in it. WRONG. (tbf I learned this one when I was a kid and not when I was "shockingly old" but still - whyyyyy?)

I only recently learned that the E Street Band is named after a street called E Street. I always thought it was an abbreviation for East Street Band, bolstered by hearing live recordings in which Bruce says the name and I thought he was saying East not E.

news flash: Sweetbreads are not bread, and sweetmeats are not meat.

Sweet Sweetback's song is not baadaaaaaaass

A mince pie did used to have mince in though (and still does in our house) because it uses raw mince rotted down to provide some of the sweetness in the mincemeat.

http://oakden.co.uk/mince-pies-1861-recipe/

I am told you can't buy Bombay Duck in the UK any more (certainly all our local takeaways stopped doing it) because of import health & safety laws or something.

Which was disappointing to my Dad, as was the time he, yes, bought "scallops" in a fish&chip shop, ordering several bags full as he couldn't believe how cheap they were. They're not a common thing round here but there must be at least one place in Wiltshire that did them 30+ years ago as I've heard the tale many times.

I'd always imagined they must be puffy and ridged like a scallop shell, but a quick image-google suggests they are p. much just discs of potato. Would still eat them.

yeah if the name does come from some supposed visually similarity that was a prodigious feat of imagination.

I think I was as old as 18 when someone had to tell me that Pub Landlord wasn't a real guy. Embarrassing.

that my fellow Americans are not really that committed to good government and democracy

http://i.imgur.com/nqIhP2z.jpg

- "I don't know why you keep calling them scallops. They're clearly potatoes."

- "Maybe you're right."

apparently in american football you can substitute players pretty much nonstop??

as soon as one gets a brain injury, yes

the strokes had a fifth album

that only boy dogs lift a leg to piss, because girl dogs just squat

sorry, i never had a dog

apparently in american football you can substitute players pretty much nonstop??

― jason waterfalls (gbx), Wednesday, November 30, 2016 11:23 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

p much a substitution every play

Girl dogs do lift a leg sometimes, depending what they want to piss on.

I have a girl dog who lifts her leg to pee, although it looks more like that Karate Kid pose.

Scallops is a contentious word down here too - theyre called scallops in NSW/QLD, and potato cakes in VIC.

Which always made me wonder, how to they differentiate potato scallops from actual ones, given those are also a thing in many chip shops (well, any where seafood's cheap and fresh anyway)

I love potato caaaakes

http://northeasthub.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/scallops.jpg

I just read that whenever you eat a fig, you're eating either a dead wasp or wasp larvae! I love figs and feel conflicted about eating them from now on.

^^ Debunked!

I've learned to stop worrying and love dates as much as I do, even though the occasional date I eat contains a (visible) small worm or larvae of some sort. Iranian dates are my fave, and I've seen it, but life's too short etc.

hmm, chance of either eggs and larvae or decomposed wasp, yeah feel a lot better about figs after that debunking

the female fig produces an enzyme that digests this wasp completely
I never knew figs were so interesting!
I was reading this http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/06/08/the-disturbing-truth-about-figs/

Scallops (chip shop potato ones, not seafood) are called fritters up here.

that Ghetto Superstar interpolates a Rogers/Parton smash

armadillos carry leprosy

well, duh. how do you think people get leprosy in the first place?

Leprosy always seemed like an unfair tradeoff for people who are clever enough to have figured out how to fuck an armadillo.

I was a teenager when I found out that Ku Klux Klan were not a cartoon or a band but something more serious. My first guess would have been a cartoon about chickens. Clue Clucks Clan: Chicken Detectives.

I seen 3 Women a few weeks ago and its shockingly late to learn that Shelley Duvall is really beautiful.