Funny Things that Cdns say/do at Disney that make Americans go 'huh?'

We went to dinner down south once, probably and outback or something as we don't have them in Canada. When the server took my drink order I asked for a Caesar. The server stood silently for a min, then ask again, "sorry, what did you want to drink?" I again said a Caesar... Once again he just stood there with a blank look on his face. After a few more seconds of weird looks I remembered they don't have them in the US. Oh, I guess you call it a Bloody Mary. He responded with good, I was about to go ask the bar tender to blend you up a salad.....
 
When I left Nova Scotia for Toronto 15 years ago I always got ribbed for calling bags 'Sobeys Bags'. Also - in Ontario they call turnips 'Rutabegas' which I had never heard of before (cause we eat a lot of turnip down east). And they never believed me that the peanut came on top of Squirrel Peanut Butter, not Skippy like in Ontario. Deep fried pepperoni is just a mystery here (in fact there is no good pepperoni culture up here) and one can't explain what a Donair is....they have these Gyro things.... And a 24 is a case, while a case is....I don't even know. They don't know what dulse is (and might swallow it if introduced). And scallops....these are a giant mystery..... Funny regional differences


Oh one other thing - people out west call Ontario 'Eastern Canada' but Maritimers and Newfoundlanders never think of Ontario as 'east'. Ontario refers to 'Atlantic Canadians' but we never call ourselves that...just the area. We're Maritimer's with our crazy cousins the Newfoundlanders across the strait :)

I'm from Ontario and I used to eat turnips. If you asked me what a rutabega was, I'd have no clue.
Maybe you should explain what a "dulse" and a "donair" is for those that don't know. Not sure what you mean by "gyro things" as well...

A rutabaga is a type of tunnip or squash they all kind of fall in the same vegetable family.
 
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We went to dinner down south once, probably and outback or something as we don't have them in Canada. When the server took my drink order I asked for a Caesar. The server stood silently for a min, then ask again, "sorry, what did you want to drink?" I again said a Caesar... Once again he just stood there with a blank look on his face. After a few more seconds of weird looks I remembered they don't have them in the US. Oh, I guess you call it a Bloody Mary. He responded with good, I was about to go ask the bar tender to blend you up a salad.....
The Bloody Caesar is an invention in Canada the main difference between it and bloody mary is that instead of tomato juice it calls for calmoto juice which is tomato juice mixed with clam juice.
 
I'm from Ontario and I used to eat turnips. If you asked me what a rutabega was, I'd have no clue.
Maybe you should explain what a "dulse" and a "donair" is for those that don't know. Not sure what you mean by "gyro things" as well...
Gyro (pronounced Hero) is the Greek word for what the Lebanese call donair. Roughly the same thing. I have always thought that it was also where the American term Hero for a submarine sandwich evolved from (but have no proof).

Dulse is a seaweed snack that only Maritimers have the genetic code to enjoy. :sick: But then get them lubed enough and they'll even kiss a cod.

And does anyone else ever have this vision of a bunch of marketing types sitting around a US boardroom somewhere, rolling on the floor in laughter? "... and then, after we squeezed the clams, (guffaw) we mixed the leftover extract juice into some tomato juice (snort) and shipped it off to Canadians (haw). And don't they just love the stuff (Ha, Ha)! We can't ship them enough of this stuff (harharharhaaaaa....)!!!"

A little OT, but perhaps this has been going on for a long time...
 


Gyro (pronounced Hero) is the Greek word for what the Lebanese call donair. Roughly the same thing. I have always thought that it was also where the American term Hero for a submarine sandwich evolved from (but have no proof).

Are you sure its pronounced "hero"? I'm pretty sure its pronounced "yearo". No H sound. Most people say "guyro" and that's not even close. lol
 
Are you sure its pronounced "hero"? I'm pretty sure its pronounced "yearo". No H sound. Most people say "guyro" and that's not even close. lol
Either probably works. It is a very soft consonant at the beginning, just a wisp of air. When my Greek friends say it, I would describe it as a soft 'h' but it could as easily be a soft 'y'. Effectively if comes out sounding as much like 'ear-o' when they say it. Interestingly if you translate the term back into Greek from the English, it suggests the word for 'around' which probably describes both the soft sounding word for food and the hard g like in gyroscope.
 
We have an authentic Greek restaurant here and the owners who immigrated here call it "yearo". They even have commercials joking that it is yearo not guyro.
 


The Bloody Caesar is an invention in Canada the main difference between it and bloody mary is that instead of tomato juice it calls for calmoto juice which is tomato juice mixed with clam juice.

Cesaers are my beverage of choice. When I do travel to the US, I will order them...but they are not nearly as good as our Canadian version...I also have to add a little water to it sometimes as the tomato juice is a little thicker than my liking. But I will still enjoy them though!!! lol :drinking1
 
'm from Ontario and I used to eat turnips. If you asked me what a rutabega was, I'd have no clue.

A rutabaga (aka swede) is yellow and brown/dark purply and, when cooked, turns orange. A turnip is smaller and is white and purple and when cooked stays white or somewhat translucent. They're both from the same family. I argued with my mother about this for years. She insisted that what she served was turnip (it was rutabaga). Turnip has a somewhat milder flavour than rutabaga. I despise rutabaga but I like turnip. My father who is from England knew that it was rutabaga not turnip as what he ate in England was the white and purple root and they called it turnip - he gave up years before I was born trying to convince my mother that the orange thing was a rutabaga. Funny thing is, she was from Ontario.
 
A rutabaga (aka swede) is yellow and brown/dark purply and, when cooked, turns orange. A turnip is smaller and is white and purple and when cooked stays white or somewhat translucent. They're both from the same family. I argued with my mother about this for years. She insisted that what she served was turnip (it was rutabaga). Turnip has a somewhat milder flavour than rutabaga. I despise rutabaga but I like turnip. My father who is from England knew that it was rutabaga not turnip as what he ate in England was the white and purple root and they called it turnip - he gave up years before I was born trying to convince my mother that the orange thing was a rutabaga. Funny thing is, she was from Ontario.

The confusion comes mostly because the term "swede" comes from "Swedish Turnip" and the word "rutabaga" comes from the old Swedish word "rotabagge" meaning "root"+"bag".


(I love word etymology and food history!)
 
The confusion comes mostly because the term "swede" comes from "Swedish Turnip" and the word "rutabaga" comes from the old Swedish word "rotabagge" meaning "root"+"bag".

You sound exactly like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory!!!! We love useless trivia in our household too. Our oldest boy loves to tell us useless trivia. It is quirky, small talk that makes people give you strange looks but makes them go hmmmm...interesting lol
 
I read most of this thread now and it's pretty funny :) I haven't noticed the little things, to me USA/Canada is so similar most of the time I don't notice anything, but when I read this thread... oh yeah I guess THAT happens! lol
I just don't get Canadians being "hot" down in Florida from November to March.... While it's true there is no snow in Florida, I have been freezing down there during the winter and usually won't swim. Even if it's heated ;)
To me 14 degrees high (mid 50's which we often experienced in January in FL) is far from "balmy". In fact we've had temps in the mid 50's most of the winter here in SW Ontario this year. I guess it just depends. For me Florida is hot in the summer. In the winter it's just warm and often down right cool. I guess I'm not a true Canadian... eh? ;)
 
I read most of this thread now and it's pretty funny :) I haven't noticed the little things, to me USA/Canada is so similar most of the time I don't notice anything, but when I read this thread... oh yeah I guess THAT happens! lol
I just don't get Canadians being "hot" down in Florida from November to March.... While it's true there is no snow in Florida, I have been freezing down there during the winter and usually won't swim. Even if it's heated ;)
To me 14 degrees high (mid 50's which we often experienced in January in FL) is far from "balmy". In fact we've had temps in the mid 50's most of the winter here in SW Ontario this year. I guess it just depends. For me Florida is hot in the summer. In the winter it's just warm and often down right cool. I guess I'm not a true Canadian... eh? ;)
Where exactly are you in SW Ontario??? While we didn't have as much snow as some other years i had to dig out the long undies MANY days! Yes we had a few spikes in temps but there were also a several stretches of -20's

We were in Florida for 3 weeks mid jan- early feb and didn't need to dig out the car when we returned to Toronto but by the time we drove north of the escarpment we found it!
 
Where exactly are you in SW Ontario??? While we didn't have as much snow as some other years i had to dig out the long undies MANY days! Yes we had a few spikes in temps but there were also a several stretches of -20's

We were in Florida for 3 weeks mid jan- early feb and didn't need to dig out the car when we returned to Toronto but by the time we drove north of the escarpment we found it!
then April wasn't so nice... no

London - we were above 0 most of winter, but had a very cold couple of weeks with a lot of snow in January. March break was cold too, I remember that.

We lucked out because we were down in the Caribbean when we had the coldest week here and snow in January :)
Overall I think it was a very mild winter with not a lot of snow.
Regardless of how mild or cold the winter is here though I always find Florida to be on the cooler side in January. Not so much Miami area, but Orlando... yes.
 
You sound exactly like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory!!!! We love useless trivia in our household too. Our oldest boy loves to tell us useless trivia. It is quirky, small talk that makes people give you strange looks but makes them go hmmmm...interesting lol

Let's put it this way...between my quirks and my husband's quirks it is 100% unsurprising that our son is autistic. :rotfl:
 
To me 14 degrees high (mid 50's which we often experienced in January in FL) is far from "balmy".
That's spring weather in Toronto or at least late spring early summer. But we have some crazy extremes with temperature. It gets as cold as -30C in the winter all the way up to plus 30C in the summer. it sometimes feels colder or warmer depending on the windchill or humidity.
 
That's spring weather in Toronto or at least late spring early summer. But we have some crazy extremes with temperature. It gets as cold as -30C in the winter all the way up to plus 30C in the summer. it sometimes feels colder or warmer depending on the windchill or humidity.

Yes usually spring weather.. but this winter past it was often the high... it was weird..
It's usually a few degrees warmer in London than Toronto, especially lately. My parents live in Toronto and we joke they should move "south" to London for the hotter weather, haha. Some days we were warmer by about 6-8 degrees, so odd.
I agree about temp extremes though, some days during the winter it gets so low, then up again.
Last week here we had temps +32 and even +34 feeling like 40 with the humidity. It's often our summer days, way too hot. I remember coming back from FL late August last year, kind of had enough with the heat down there - came back to exact same thing home ;) A week later, 20.
Totally agree about the extremes, welcome to Canada!
Love Toronto by the way :)
 
The east coast Donair, the main difference is the fries that are in there. From Quebec you get to dip you fries in Mayo, yum, i mix mayo with ketchup and dip. And when living in the west we called the 2-4 a flat of beer. Took just a weekend to get used to that. Plus getting offsales. Beer to go home with after the bar closed. Ahh youth days.
 

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