The FastDay Forum

We have lunch midday and dinner in the evenings. Lunch to me implies a light meal, with the sole exception of Sunday lunch which is a roast dinner. We don't eat a full meal at lunchtime even on Sundays, as we are too busy outside.

Tea implies a late afternoon/early evening meal, but always a light meal, and it must include cake! Tea is what you have the evening after a midday dinner. Tea would traditionally be served with tea or coffee.

Supper is what you have before bed - never a dinner.

It's a minefield for all you foreigners, isn't it?

Haha! Let's keep on making it as difficult and confusing as possible
as the posts on this thread have been highly amusing and diverting

Nobody has mentioned Brunch which we always had on a Sunday after Church or a long lie depending on your religion. It was always a fry up and eaten at 12.30. The first meal of the day.Hows that for adding to the confusion. Now I am trying to do 16/8 I have Brunch every day. In fact I will be having it in 30 min. time. As it happens it will be soup today but could equally be porridge or boiled egg and toast.

Not to mention All Day Breakfasts!

When I was growing up dinner was always the evening meal when Dad got home, except on Sundays when it was at lunch time!!

[wildmissus]

When I dish up the evening meal I always shout 'teas ready'. However when the girls are at school at lunch time they have school dinners. Then on Sunday we often have brunch and Sunday roast dinner. 'Dinner' from my childhood was a posh sit down evening meal with pudding, oops, I mean dessert.

Not to mention All Day Breakfasts!

Yes, and that is probably based on the assumption that you are taking that as the first meal of the day which can be at any time of the day.

[janeg]

Brunch in the sandpit is a boozefest! Usually on a Friday, the first day of the weekend, taken in a hotel and usually deteriorates into a drunken rabble. I've only done it twice, was alcohol free for both and really don't want to do it again.
Brunch at home is much nicer, with good food and coffee. Fizz at Christmas too.

@ Janeg, know exactly what you mean - what is it about expat life that booze plays such a central pivotal role? probably no family, like aunties, cousins, your mum etc. I always drank too much on brunches in different countries, just to fit in as much as anything. Don't miss the ex-pat lifestyle, have to say....sometimes the weather though !!

I am from Mexico where we eat 3 main meals but at very different hours than in the US where I live now. In Mexico we usually eat breakfast (desayuno) before going to school/work so it could be around 6-7am, then lunch (comida) around 2-3pm and dinner (cena) is around 8-9pm. Now having a family in the US we follow the local times during the week (breakfast around 8am, lunch at noon and dinner at 6 or 7pm) but during the weekend we really have no strict hours and sometimes we are having our second meal around 5-6pm and my daughters always get confused: is this lunch or dinner?, and of course they will ask for a third meal even if it is only one or two hours later before they go to bed (they may get something light then). I can not imagine having to adjust to more than that: breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, high tea, low tea, medium tea, dinner and supper...

I know people who call dinner tea, but I'd never heard of anyone who calls lunch dinner! I always find it confusing that Americans call the main course of their meal the entree, as for me that would be the starter. The first time I saw entree as a main course it was in a translation and I thought the translator had made a mistake before I asked an American colleague!

In NZ tea and dinner are used interchangeably but both mean the evening meal. Tea tends to mean earlier, more family, dinner might be a bit more formal. We also have afternoon tea. I was always impressed with the descriptions in Enid Blytons famous five books of high tea, always sounded so great.

To add to confusion, asking someone if they would like a cup of tea, or just a cuppa is really a more general offering of refreshment, and the person is expected to ask for what they would prefer!

The entree thing in the states confused me too on my first visit, and I ordered 2 and did get a funny look from the waitress, and a lot of food!

Here in Scotland, tea is dinner, dinner is tea!