MG wrote:
> "Old Mother Ashby" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> Chatty Cathy wrote:
>>
>>> http://www.recfoodcooking.com/
>>>
>>> Vote now!
>>>
>>> Thanks go to jmcquown (Jill) for suggesting this survey!
>>>
>> More terminology problems! In Australia "tea" is the evening meal, as in
>> the usual family meal. "Dinner" has more formal connotations. Thus "Come
>> for tea" means join the family and nothing fancy, while "Come for dinner"
>> means get dressed up a bit and expect a three course meal with wine. Tea
>> may be as early as 5.30 if you've got little children, dinner is around
>> 7.30.
>>
>> As for "tea" at about 4.00pm, I presume you mean "afternoon tea" which I
>> would normally serve about 3.30pm, and that would consists of tea or
>> coffee and cake, possibly little sandwiches also if you're making a
>> production of it.
>>
>> Christine
>>
>
> yes Christine got in ahead of me for this...definitely use tea to mean the
> informal family meal
>
> ditto for dinner and the afternoon tea (might have scones as well)
>
>
>
Actually, afternoon tea is in sad decline these days. My Mum is 90, and
when she was young housewives were judged (in the culinary department)
by their baking. A proper afternoon tea would involve scones, dropscones
(aka pikelets), a cream sponge, little cakes and slices. Not in the
alternative, all of them at once. Just for normal domestic consumption
Mum would always have at least three different things in the cake tins.
After I was married we used to go round there for years with empty tins
to take home whatever was on offer, one of the reasons I'm not a great
baker myself (she only gave it away about five years ago).

We were a way of disposing of anything that didn't come up to Dad's
exacting standards (he'd been trained by his mother). "Have these,"
she'd say, holding out a tin of something that looked maybe a bit
overcooked. If I did not immediately accept with enthusiasm the next
thing would be "Go on, Derrick will eat them!" Poor fellow, just because
his mother was a rotten cook she treated him as a human rubbish bin. Ah,
but she used to do him a chocolate pavlova for his birthday.

Christine