The things you learn

[gemfyre]

How many of the Americans out there know what Hundreds and Thousands are??

I just discovered that they have a very different name in the U.S. A name nowhere near as exciting.

ETA : I had read on Cook's Thesaurus that they had the weird name of Nonpariels.

To me Hundreds and Thousands are the small round coloured bits of sugar.
The longer, softer ones, I've often referred to as Dollar Fives (which is a brand name).
And the silver ones that break your teeth have always been cachous to me.

Comments

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

what do they call them then?

[aurickandrien.livejournal.com]

They just call them sprinkles don't they? Like in American movies where they ask for a donut with sprinkles?

[riverstar.livejournal.com]

sprinkles are differnt
they are straight rather than round i beleive
and softer

[aurickandrien.livejournal.com]

Can't hundreds and thousands be either round or straight?

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

So Hundreds and Thousands are just sprinkles? I think I'm adopting your name for them!! It's much more exciting.

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

I have NO idea. But it was on "Look Around You" the other night. A doctor was feeding them to his robot. They looked like tiny candies.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Hehe. Cultral differences in English. When I was teaching in Japan, one of the American teachers couldn't understand why myself and the other Aussie were sniggering when she kept going on about her fanny pack.

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the peculiar looks we get when we talk about taking off our thongs before going for a swim...

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

Actually heard at a Walt Disney World resort the other day:

Aussie guest: It is all right if I wear my thong to breakfast?
Puzzled American cast member: I guess it's okay, as long as you're wearing pants ... ?

Yank here

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

No idea what that means. I'm sure I've heard it ages ago but I've long forgotten. Now I'll go look it up and feel stupid.

Re: Yank here

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Gotcha.
The fun part of that is that in the US they have different names depending on what region you are in. In New England, they are called "jimmies" which causes snickering among people from neighboring New York. My mom called them "shots;" you especially heard people ask for "chocolate shots" when I was growing up. Due to mass culture homogenization, everywhere seems to have swtiched over to calling them "sprinkles."

Re: Yank here

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

see chocolate sots means something totally different here and it has nothing to do with food...

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

I can assure you, after having passed through Houston, New Orleans, and Mobile en route to Orlando, that our American culture is not NEARLY as homogenized as our media would wish it to be. XD

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Nonpareils is the UKism for them. Gleefully stolen from the frogs, of course.

And in both the UK and here the plain chocolate ones have a different name to the multi-coloured ones. (Hundreds and Thousands/Nonpareils vs chocolate sprinkles.) I have also heard the same term used for both the long ones as for the beads. Except the silver ones, which are always just 'silver balls', no matter the size.

[daizy18.livejournal.com]

In South Africa we used to call them hundreds and thousands. Americans (at least on the West coast) call them sprinkles. I think they can be round or straight :)

[pixidance.livejournal.com]

10 x 10 = 100 !

It appears you're really talking about sprinkles, though :P Nonpareils are the round ones. I'm on the west coast.

[glittery-girl.livejournal.com]

Interesting comments!
I call the round ones hundreds and thousands, the straight ones, sprinkles and cachous I call silver balls!

[linniekin.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[bethaniej.livejournal.com]

100s and 1000s are the round ones, sprinkles are the long ones, (or yes, the dollar 5s) and cashous are the silver balls of course!!!

[princessapphire.livejournal.com]

I always call them sprinkles. No matter the color or shape. (I do live on the west coast) And the silver balls are actually called dragees. They are now recommending that you do not eat them because they do contain trace amounts of silver.

http://www.fancyflours.com/site/dragees.html