When did you stop calling it tea?

It's tea in this household and has been in every one I've ever lived in.

steve

I gather it's a Northern thing, and "having us tea" seems to be the norm "oop 'ere". 

Breakfast in the morning, lunch at lunch time, tea in the evening, supper a late snack in our house.

It's dinner in this house and that's what I've always called it. Tea is for drinking!

I did find it strange in my younger days however, when I could either have a 'school dinner' or a 'packed lunch'.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner here. 

Finkfan posted:

It's dinner in this house and that's what I've always called it. Tea is for drinking!

I did find it strange in my younger days however, when I could either have a 'school dinner' or a 'packed lunch'.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner here. 

I was similarly confused! Dinner and lunch are used interchangeably around here. When I was a youngster, tea was served with slices of buttered bread and, erm, tea.

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

I grew up in London with Irish parents, and the evening meal was dinner. I moved to Yorkshire about 10 years ago, where the meal is definitely tea.  My 30 year old niece accuses me of having become Northern if I don't adapt when back South. 

'Tea' is at tea time (ca. 15:30 to 16:00 hrs) and is a minor repast, dinner is ca. 19:00 and is a full meal.

sjbabbey posted:

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

Ah but if you have dinner in the middle of the day, why do you have a lunch menu at a restaurant? 

sjbabbey posted:

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

Quite so! But then we used to have a Sunday lunch of a roast dinner, usually between the time we'd usually have lunch and tea. And Sunday tea would be later than normal tea time and consist of sandwiches, cakes, jelly etc. (and tea). Not tea at all!

So why is a dinner party held between tea and supper times and no tea is served?

Finkfan posted:

sjbabbey posted:

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

Ah but if you have dinner in the middle of the day, why do you have a lunch menu at a restaurant? 

O tempora, O mores! We've made a right dog's dinner/breakfast/lunch/tea/supper/snack/snap/repast of this.

VladtheImpala posted:

sjbabbey posted:

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

Quite so! But then we used to have a Sunday lunch of a roast dinner, usually between the time we'd usually have lunch and tea. And Sunday tea would be later than normal tea time and consist of sandwiches, cakes, jelly etc. (and tea). Not tea at all!

So why is a dinner party held between tea and supper times and no tea is served?

Ah, Sunday Dinner (about 3 p.m. after getting home from the pub/parish club to watch the footy on ITV and fall asleep). Happy days.

Dinner parties between tea and supper? How many meals did you have a day?

Finkfan posted:

sjbabbey posted:

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

Ah but if you have dinner in the middle of the day, why do you have a lunch menu at a restaurant? 

I never went to restaurants for my school dinner.

sjbabbey posted:

VladtheImpala posted:

sjbabbey posted:

it's quite clearly tea time around 6 p.m. After all we had dinner money if we stayed for school dinners.

Quite so! But then we used to have a Sunday lunch of a roast dinner, usually between the time we'd usually have lunch and tea. And Sunday tea would be later than normal tea time and consist of sandwiches, cakes, jelly etc. (and tea). Not tea at all!

So why is a dinner party held between tea and supper times and no tea is served?

Ah, Sunday Dinner (about 3 p.m. after getting home from the pub/parish club to watch the footy on ITV and fall asleep). Happy days.

Dinner parties between tea and supper? How many meals did you have a day?

 

Looking in the mirror, far too many! Not that I was ever invited to dinner parties.......... (cue sound of distant violin).

When I was growing up in a lower-middle-class house in London and Kent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, lunch was 'dinner' and dinner was 'tea'.

When I went to grammar school in 1974 I learned from middle class people that lunch was lunch and dinner was dinner.

At University my best friend was an upper-class  girl. She called lunch 'luncheon' and dinner 'supper'. 'Tea' was a cuppa, cucumber sarnies and dainty cakes, taken at about 4pm.

My daughter recons you can determine the ‘Class’ of somebody by how much they spend on lunch. Mind you she’s only come to this conclusion since she moved down sarrf, and been unable to buy her usual lunchtime meat and potato pie and sausage roll.

Apparently London’s a culinary blackspot, pies are filled with fruit and you can’t get a steak pudding anywhere.

Anyway, I’m off to get my supper. Peanut butter on toast, a Cadbury cream egg and a couple of bottles of lager.

I love it - even mealtime designations are class related.  Presumably in a truly socialist state there will be a standardised terminology

If you wanted to eat like a hobbit...

Breakfast - 7am.
Second breakfast - 9 am.
Elevenses - 11 am.
Lunch - 1 pm.
Afternoon tea - 3pm.
Dinner - 6 pm.
Supper - 9 pm.

Still call it tea at SinS towers. If we have friends around or we go out to eat then it's evening dinner, but we regularly bring in fish and chips home  for tea.

Hook posted:

If you wanted to eat like a hobbit...

Breakfast - 7am.
Second breakfast - 9 am.
Elevenses - 11 am.
Lunch - 1 pm.
Afternoon tea - 3pm.
Dinner - 6 pm.
Supper - 9 pm.

No biscuits? And tea?

It's dinner here but middle class friends call it supper or tea.

It's all food at at the end of the day but everyone's got their own name for it.

We haven't even got into the whole fraught debate about what to call the last course yet.

Sweet? Afters? Dessert? Pudding?

And don't get me started on the whole napkin/serviette thing... 

As Assistant Chief Deputy Under-Secretary for Nutrition in the Department of Administrative Affairs, I am delighted to give all forum members a sneak preview of new legislation to be announced in the Queen's speech next week. This has come after many meaningful and insightful meetings with the august DUP.

Henceforth, under the new Meal Times (Nomenclature) Regulations 2017, made under the enabling Angel Delight Act 1963, meals shall be described thus, and in no other way:

1. Morning Meal (Praise the Lord)

2. Mid-day meal (Praise the Lord)

3. Evening meal (Praise the Lord)

4. Late evening meal (Praise the Lord)

5. Antacid meal (Praise the Lord) (sponsored by Gaviscon)

In Schedule 1 of the Regulations, we deal with the nomenclature of courses (and anticipate Brexit)

1. All course names will be in English

2. Service shall be Russian (and not French) as a result a an online-poll.

3. Where more than one course is served, the order shall be: starter, main, afters. Only greedy b***ards need more courses.

4. Afters may be modified depending on the offering. Thus, you may only refer to pudding if you are actually serving a pudding, sweet if you are serving something sweet and dessert may consist of fruit with a dairy product.

Regards,

The newly knighted Sir Vlad of Everton.  

Tabby cat posted:

It's dinner here but middle class friends call it supper or tea.

It's all food at at the end of the day but everyone's got their own name for it.

Interesting, around these parts it's tea... more landed gentry and aspiring middle class types refer to it as dinner.. the middle class types tend to call it this in front of others... supper is definitely for toast after having come back from the village local or a night out in town... obviously stereotypically.

Kevin-W posted:

We haven't even got into the whole fraught debate about what to call the last course yet.

Sweet? Afters? Dessert? Pudding?

And don't get me started on the whole napkin/serviette thing... 

Yes I used to be summoned with Afters.

Puddings and Desserts are differentiated by the spoons.  A big shovel and it's a pudding, with a Dessrt spoon it's a , well..

"Tea" was something I had as a snack after coming home from school to keep until dinner.

I remember getting such a bollocking when I used a cloth serviette to blow my nose in when eating a hot curry at a fancy curry house.