I have measured out my life in coffeespoons

[venta]

Oh dear, I think I just misinformed an Australian couple in a café :(

They wanted "flat whites". In England (particularly in branches of Pieminister, which do marvellous pies, but really only serve coffee as a sideline) we do not understand this term.

There was some confusion. Having (I thought) had the term explained to me by quantumboo last year, I suggested they wanted filter-coffee-with-milk. Sadly, I fear Quantumboo may have told me what a flat black was, and I extrapolated.

A flat white was, said the Australian lady, like a cappucino without the froth. Aha, said the English-not-first-language serving-person, a latte. No, said the Australian lady, nothing like a latte.

I think they got filter coffees in the end. But now Wikipedia suggests I'm wrong, and they're going to have got something not nearly milky enough. Wikipedia is also rather vague about the difference between a flat white and a latte.

Does anyone understand this posh foreign coffee stuff ? What would you understand by the term flat white ?

Comments

[hjalfi.livejournal.com]

I once spent some time in an American diner trying, with much failure to understand and general amusement on both sides, to figure out exactly what fried-egg terminology we both used.

We eventually came to the conclusion that my preferred fried egg style (solid white, thick but liquid yolk) simply cannot be found in America. I think I eventually had them over easy.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

I thought that was the standard way of cooking fried eggs!

Liquid white = Bleh, undercooked!

Solid yolk = Meh. If you have to, but what are you meant to dunk the rets of the fryup in? That's overcooked, and reminiscent of salmonella-scare days when mothers insisted all poultry products were thoughly nuked from orbit...


Seriously - what are the ways americans o their fried eggs then?

[hjalfi.livejournal.com]

Sunny side up = partially cooked white that's still gelatinous on top, runny yolk.

Over easy = cooked on both sides with the yolk runny in the middle.

(Over medium / over hard = the above, but for longer.)

Fried = cooked on one side with the yolk broken, all hard.

Turns out Wikipedia has a kick ass page on fried eggs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_egg), although the reference to UK eggs being 'sunny side up' is wrong. (I might fix it.)

[hjalfi.livejournal.com]

BTW, would you consider a 'normal' fried egg to have a slightly crispy white?

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

At the very edges, perhaps. Hubby makes fabulous fried eggs - he seems to get the white fully cooked (without flipping them/overcooking the yolks) by spooning very hot oil from the pan over them towards the end to cook them from the top.

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, I'd consider that a horrible and overcooked fried egg. A normal UK fried egg in my world is partially cooked white that's still gelatinous on top, runny yolk :) Frilly, cripsy white is vile and should be stomped upon as a concept.

[venta.livejournal.com]

So, how does sunny-side-up differ from a proper UK fried egg ?