You say biscuit, I say scones...

Ok, so it took the me- the British-English educated Singaporean- a while before I finally figured out that cookies (U.S.) are biscuits (U.K.), biscuits (U.S.) are scones (U.K.), scones (U.S.) are in fact just giant rock-buns (U.K.), and no one I know in the U.S. knows what rock-buns are...

One of my favorite travel writers, Bill Bryson has an entire book on the humorous trivialities of the the English language, and more significantly, the differences between the American and British varieties. The Mother Tongue had me so tickled that I once burst out laughing out loud on the bus as I read his description of the consequences of the confusion between "lift" (U.K.) and "elevator" (U.S.).

But I digress from the point of this post... So I made biscuits (U.S.) today, and really, they tasted more like scones (U.K.) and nothing like scones (U.S.). Back home, many of the places (see here and here particularly) still serve scones the British way- small, warm, flaky, buttery, with jam, and uncompromisingly, to be had with tea. The biscuits (U.S.) I made today were savory (with goat cheese and green onions) so they're not quite the same; but the moist, buttery consistency had a definite scone-like (U.K.) quality. For those of you reading in Singapore, remember the time when McDonald's had two types of breakfast sandwiches? McMuffins and biscuits- the latter is the richer, more buttery one. I think it was a little too rich for the Singaporean palate, especially with a sausage patty so it was discontinued (they won't have biscuits (U.S.) for breakfast but Singaporeans will have greasy fried noodles and coconut-rice with fried fish and eggs at 8 in the morning... I miss nasi lemak!!)


The biscuits (U.S.) I made today are from Simply Recipes, fast becoming one of my most favorite food blogs next to Orangette. It was really easy to make and the only thing I had to keep note of was to not over-knead the dough to keep the final product light and fluffy. I'd recommend a tad more goat cheese and salt just for a little more depth of flavor, but on the whole, it was quite good for a first attempt. Maybe next time, I'll make it a sweet biscuit (U.S.) with more sugar and dried fruit, then they'll really become scones (U.K.)! Or add less butter and baking soda for scones (U.S.)!

“England and America are two countries separated by the same language.”
—George Bernard Shaw

“England and America are two countries separated by the Atlantic Ocean.”
—Eddie Izzard