In the US, the larger chain movie theatres sell everything...ice cream, popcorn, nachos, and actual meals...along with candy and what not. The thing that I found odd about UK movie theatres is the 2 types of popcorn..sweet? Popcorn here has salt and an unnatural, but almost required butter flavored stuff that you squirt on top of it..sounds odd, but actually quite tasty.
Salt = as you describe, only I think the fake butter is pre-squirted. Sweet = fake butter and powdered sugar Both sold warm. I think sweet has gone out of fashion - my local
Also bags of popcorn with hard caramel all over, eg Butterkist. Think this took over the sweet popcorn market.
I've never had UK sweet corn, but have you ever had kettle corn in the US? Popular at fairs, carnivals, outdoor events, etc. It uses white sugar and vegetable oil instead of salt and butter.
LOL I remember asking for popcorn the first time I was in England and how surprised I was when it was sweet! Not exactly Kettle corn, but sweeter almost. :P
So I guess the question is do you prefer salty or sweet popcorn? ^_^
I live in a wee suburb in Pennsylvania and the theaters around here offer the usual salted, buttery popcorn, sodas and candy, but it's usually the bigger theaters that get obscene with snack choices like ice cream and hot dogs. However, mine DOES have a Dippin' Dots vending machine (for those of you unfamiliar with the glory of Dippin' Dots, it's basically "space age" ice cream that instead of coming in one solid goop, it's a bunch of tiny microbeads of ice cream that come in a pouch). If I drive 45 minutes to the state capitol, I'll find that super yummy food variety in theaters.
I think "donut" and "doughnut" all depend on if someone's trying to be commerical and trendy.
my daughter went to see The Corpse Bride with my cousin when we were in America the other week. She came home waxing rhapsodic about buttered popcorn - it was a revelation for her, and she normally ALWAYS has sweet in the UK. Now she's like, "why don't we have buttered popcorn in our cinemas?"
We had some kettle corn at a theme park we went to - that was much nicer than UK sweet popcorn, because it was sweet and salty at the same time. The UK stuff's just sweet. I'd never had it before - I guess it post-dates my emigration. Anyway, I loved it and totally wolfed it in the car on the way home.
I made my own version of kettle corn while I was living in the UK. I would just go to the self-serve station and mix the salty and the buttered together. It was brilliant. And, of course, the other people looked at me as if I was out of my mind.
Oops. That was in response to ice cream being seen in movie theaters. California seems to have a plentiful selection of ice cream bars.
As for doughnuts, I went to the Brighton pier where they were selling ostensibly "American" doughnuts. So you can imagine my shock when I found out they were these disgusting cake things that were too thin with no flavor to speak of.
I never found an adequate substitute for "real" American doughnuts during my time in the UK, but then again, I didn't exactly want to look too far, for the sake of my waistline.
Were these bun-like doughnuts, or the classic end-of-pier doughnuts which have to be eaten hot - piped into a conveyor of boiling oil, lifted up at the end and rolled in sugar, eaten out of the paper bag while burning your fingers?
The latter, eaten at night in the drizzle, snuggled up with a hot date, are to die for. They used to have some really fit guys making them, too [/nostalgia]
But not at all American, admittedly. Slightly like funnel cake, I guess.
Your version (the drizzle, the hot date, etc) sounds decidedly more romantic than my experience with them. The guy making them was leering at us and had no teeth.
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Sweet = fake butter and powdered sugar
Both sold warm. I think sweet has gone out of fashion - my local
Also bags of popcorn with hard caramel all over, eg Butterkist. Think this took over the sweet popcorn market.
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So I guess the question is do you prefer salty or sweet popcorn? ^_^
I live in a wee suburb in Pennsylvania and the theaters around here offer the usual salted, buttery popcorn, sodas and candy, but it's usually the bigger theaters that get obscene with snack choices like ice cream and hot dogs. However, mine DOES have a Dippin' Dots vending machine (for those of you unfamiliar with the glory of Dippin' Dots, it's basically "space age" ice cream that instead of coming in one solid goop, it's a bunch of tiny microbeads of ice cream that come in a pouch). If I drive 45 minutes to the state capitol, I'll find that super yummy food variety in theaters.
I think "donut" and "doughnut" all depend on if someone's trying to be commerical and trendy.
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We had some kettle corn at a theme park we went to - that was much nicer than UK sweet popcorn, because it was sweet and salty at the same time. The UK stuff's just sweet. I'd never had it before - I guess it post-dates my emigration. Anyway, I loved it and totally wolfed it in the car on the way home.
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As for doughnuts, I went to the Brighton pier where they were selling ostensibly "American" doughnuts. So you can imagine my shock when I found out they were these disgusting cake things that were too thin with no flavor to speak of.
I never found an adequate substitute for "real" American doughnuts during my time in the UK, but then again, I didn't exactly want to look too far, for the sake of my waistline.
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The latter, eaten at night in the drizzle, snuggled up with a hot date, are to die for. They used to have some really fit guys making them, too [/nostalgia]
But not at all American, admittedly. Slightly like funnel cake, I guess.
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Your version (the drizzle, the hot date, etc) sounds decidedly more romantic than my experience with them. The guy making them was leering at us and had no teeth.
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That "american donut" is a jelly donut. Althought there are all varieties depending on where you go. From cake to yeast, etc..
Doughnut? Are you crazy?
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