My boyfriend, Chris, wrote me an e-mail this afternoon describing what he wants to do this weekend. At one point, he said, "We'll make tea and soldiers."
I became confused. Tea and soldiers?
At first I thought that perhaps "soldiers" is a euphemism I'm not familiar with. Or, perhaps, there was some obscure definition. So I looked up "soldiers" in the dictionary. And there is an obscure definition:
A sexually undeveloped form of certain ants and termites, having large heads and powerful jaws.
For some reason, I don't think that's what he meant.
So it was off to Wikipedia. Nada.
With that depressing result, I realized I had to do some further research.
First, I turned up a comment on a political blog:
And to think, our founding fathers went to war over some taxes on their tea and soldiers sleeping in their barns. How much will we put up with?
I mean, sure, the sentiment is kinda cool. But I have not found my answer.
Next was some more history from Peter Parley's Universal History, On the Basis of Geography, by Peter Parley, Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne and Nathanial Hawthorne. Page 474 reveals the following:
They made so strong an opposition to the Stamp Act that parliament was forced to repeal it But a tax was soon afterwards laid on tea and soldiers were sent to America to enforce the payment of the duty.
Oy. That can't be it, either.
My final discovery was a thread having to do with childhood memories. In one, a woman talked about cooking with her mum. Her final fond memory was:
Staying at Grannie's and having half a grapefruit, boiled egg, tea and soldiers in her little kitchen.
Hmmmm. She did say "mum." Which means she must be British. Chris did live in England during his boyhood. Hmmmm. Interesting. It must be a whacky English thing. That's it!
Of course, I still don't know tea and soldiers entails. So help me out and let me know.
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6 comments:
I think it means cookies or biscuits or something similar.
Maybe he wants to creat a little army of soldiers. You know, a bunch of Becca/Chris hybrid robots. Beccabots if you will!!
Let's try this again:
Try here.
Or here.
DB from Bristol Connecticut:
While boiled eggs and soldiers sounds absolutely dreadful (I have a general distaste for runny foods), I think I may be a little in love with you.
OK, I was close. I knew it was something with carbs.
I don't do the runny eggs bit. I'm not a fan of undercooked egg-products because, having lived in England, I have a stark terror of salmonella poisoning (and any time an Englishman cooks eggs, there's a 70% chance of salmonella, I swear).
But heavily buttered and/or marmite-spreaded soldiers are lovely with tea.
However, I promise not to subject you to marmite, British baked-beans on toast, mushy peas, treacle, steak-and-kidney pudding, or semolina with jam. I realize these things do not appeal to the... well... palatte. But they conjure sweet memories of good times prior to my ability to distinguish basic tastes and flavors.
On the other hand, remind me and one of these days I'll fry up a genuine English heart-clogging, blood-pressure-raising, wheezing-when-you're-finished breakfast. Mmm-mmm good.
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