Columbo

[benhall.1]

I'm just watching an old Columbo episode. By the way, I think Columbo is probably the best television series ever produced, anywhere in the world.

Anyway, in this episode, Columbo asks for a "cream soda". What on Earth is that? I've never come across that in my life.

[Nanohedron]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_soda

It was a favorite when I was but a lad. Basically, it's a vanilla-based soft drink. I decided to check Wiki, and apparently it was drummed up in the States, but over time has found such a worldwide availability that I'm surprised that the UK would be utterly bereft of it. It's of a comforting flavor, but if you go looking for it, be warned that IMO any colors other than a pale tan are abominations. Blue cream soda - the very idea. It's probably going to taste just fine, though.

I used to be an avid Columbo watcher, myself.

[benhall.1]

As far as I know, it is completely unknown in the UK. I have certainly never come across it.

[benhall.1]

... however, Columbo is just totally and utterly wonderful.

[an seanduine]

Oh, there´s just one more thing. . .

In the UK, google tells me there is a brand, Barr´s with Cream Soda on offer. Naturally, Schweppe´s as well. A US brand, Ben Shaws, is available at The British Cornershop (online).

Bob

[benhall.1]

Oh, there´s just one more thing. . .

In the UK, google tells me there is a brand, Barr´s with Cream Soda on offer. Naturally, Schweppe´s as well. A US brand, Ben Shaws, is available at The British Cornershop (online).

Bob

Really? Honestly, I've never heard of it ...

[Nanohedron]

As far as I know, it is completely unknown in the UK. I have certainly never come across it.

You might have to go out of your way to find some, by the sound of it. Not necessarily impossible though, but the kind of specialty shops to carry it might be few.

... however, Columbo is just totally and utterly wonderful.

It's where I learned that being purposely underestimated - by cultivating a rumpled appearance and a seemingly absent-minded aspect - posed a valid strategy when getting scofflaws to be hoist with their own petards. And do you know what? I've become naturally rumpled and absent-minded, and people do underestimate me, but often when I don't want them to. Oh, well.

[Nanohedron]

Oh, there´s just one more thing. . .

In the UK, google tells me there is a brand, Barr´s with Cream Soda on offer. Naturally, Schweppe´s as well. A US brand, Ben Shaws, is available at The British Cornershop (online).

Bob

And there you go. It is time for you to be inducted into the fold, Ben.

[Moof]

I remember it from the 1970s in the UK, but I'm sure it was red or pink. Tasted vile, but we drank it anyway. Not a patch on dandelion and burdock, though.

Columbo was genius. It always reminds me of my late mum, she loved it – she must have known some of the episodes off by heart.

Oh, yes, and Dad's Army. More genius.

[an seanduine]

Peter Falk´s book Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life is highly entertaining.

He lost his eye to cancer at 3 years old. Once, playing Little League Baseball, he was called ´Out´. Disagreeing with the umpire, thinking he was ´Safe´, he handed his glass eye to the umpire saying: ¨Here, you need this more than I do!¨.

Bob

[Nanohedron]

Tasted vile, but we drank it anyway.

Bear in mind that outside the US, "cream soda" is not one thing when it comes to flavor. Some of the variations listed in Wiki wouldn't be called "cream soda" at all where I come from, no matter what it might say on the bottle; the US concept is generally pretty specific apart from the strange, unnatural colorings given it at times, and I don't touch those on general principle; a little caramel coloring is all it needs, if it "needs" anything. If you were indeed tasting a US brand, Moof, I have to say that (with eyes closed so you can ignore the weird pink) "vile" isn't the first word I'd use. Now, Marmite: that's vile. But from what I understand, ranch dressing (a US favorite, and one of mine, too) is largely detested by the British, and that's flat-out incomprehensible, so who knows what state your collective taste buds might be in.

Not a patch on dandelion and burdock, though.

Tell me more.

[an seanduine]

Nano said ¨Now marmite, that´s vile¨.

Not so! Bearing in mind the original meaning in French is a large soup-pot suitable to make slow cooked soups and stews, such as the famed french onion soup. A dear friend owns and operates a restaurant named ´Marmite´, a remarkable Bistro. It derives its name from an 80 gallon electric marmite he managed to acquire. He is far renouned for his soups and stews.
Now, as to how the Brits managed to contort it to meaning ´a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, salty, powerful flavour and heady aroma.´ is beyond me.

Bob

[PB+J]

Cream soda was common in the US in my Childhood, in the Philly area. It was basically vanilla soda. I never liked it. I don't see it much anymore, but it was really common fifty years ago

[benhall.1]

Cream soda was common in the US in my Childhood, in the Philly area. It was basically vanilla soda. I never liked it. I don't see it much anymore, but it was really common fifty years ago

See, we're coming up against another little Transatlantic puzzle: soda. I'm aware that Americans use that word for what we call 'pop', but I don't really understand why, because such products usually don't actually contain any soda. Soda, in the UK, is what you guys call 'Club Soda', except that, for it to be called 'soda' at all, it should contain at least some soda, i.e. bicarbonate of soda.

Out of interest, I've never come across vanilla pop, either ...

[benhall.1]

Nano said ¨Now marmite, that´s vile¨.

Not so! Bearing in mind the original meaning in French is a large soup-pot suitable to make slow cooked soups and stews, such as the famed french onion soup. A dear friend owns and operates a restaurant named ´Marmite´, a remarkable Bistro. It derives its name from an 80 gallon electric marmite he managed to acquire. He is far renouned for his soups and stews.
Now, as to how the Brits managed to contort it to meaning ´a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, salty, powerful flavour and heady aroma.´ is beyond me.

Bob

Isn't it that the French dish (meal) is named after the pot it is cooked in, which is called a 'marmite'? And that's the picture on the front of a jar of marmite, which is also made to be shaped like a 'marmite'.