These people don't live an hour's drive from a thousand pounds of illegal Mexican fireworks and it shows.

 

If your fireworks don't come with the words "El Boom" on the side then you're buying trash.

 

Probably the most recognizable type of meat pie you'd see in America is a chicken pot pie. It's about the only one that I've seen regularly made that includes a pastry.

Shepherd's pies are unfortunately not very commonly known, at least in my area of the US (Lake Michigan area). If I want to make one I have to make it from scratch, as opposed to the wide variety of boxed meal kits and frozen foods. That, or go to an "Irish pub" (basically just an Irish-themed restaurant), and they might have it or a boxty that has fillings somewhat similar.

I know a lot of the food related items sounded made up. The knickerbocker glory that Dudley ate in PS/SS and rock cakes come to mind. Not to mention the Smeltings uniform with its whack-people stick.

Plus I know there's some puns that went over my head because I'm not British. Spellotape being a pun on sellotape/cellotape, for example. Here in the US we'd call it Scotch tape (after the main brand of it).

 

Relevant given all the talk about firecrackers, I suppose:

 

Yeah nah bro, shepards pie real, pasty pie with mince and potato top.

 

I feel dumb. Please tell me I’m not the only one to just learn Keeper of the Keys is a real thing.

https://www.theconciergecollective....tself is French,they needed during their stay.

 

... wat.

 

I feel like shepherd's pie could mean something very different in the Harry Potter universe though.

 

One of my favourite lines from Sweeney Todd: "Shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top". Bonus points for being sung by Bellatrix's actress in the movie.

 

Bouillabaisse

 

I don't think so, it's a pretty simple dish even for the most inbred of hallway-shitting purebloods. It's mince and potatoes, not some arcane muggle mystery like rubber ducks and gunpowder. They're wizards, not Australians.

 

Croatian here. Very good topic, OP!

When I was a kid, I was convinced that I was reading about a truly unique magical world with its own school, system and government. Now, as an adult, I can see that I was reading a weird parody of Britain.
While I still love HP as one of my favourite book series, the knowledge did ruin quite a lot of my original experience and a small part of me wishes I could erase what I have learned. British fans will have no idea how much better Harry Potter world felt when everything in it was truly alien.
So, here are things that I believed to be "original".

SCHOOLS:
I was amazed by different, unique magical education. Students are sorted into different houses and weird ancient traditions are everywhere. OWLs, NEWTs.
Years later I found out that obligatory school uniforms are a thing in many countries. House system is a real thing in Britain, as are competitions between houses. OWls and NEWTs are based on a real thing.
I remember how they tried introducing school uniforms in my country and there were huge debates about it (and very convincing arguments in favour of it). But it never came to be, most people didn't like the idea.


DISCRIMINATION BASES ON SOCIAL CLASS:
So, magical Britain is obsessed about social class and family history. I thought that was fictional.
I remember clearly how my first thoughts on aristocratic Malfoys were "well, in muggle world, they dealt with the likes of you a long time ago, maybe that's why you are so scared of muggles". Remember, I live in a post communist country. Years later , when I grew older and learned that British class system is still a thing, I puked in my mouth a little. The more you know.....aristocrats are like dinosaurs here: extinct.

FOOD:
Meat pies. My first reaction was "disgusting!!!! Are wizards crazy!? Or is that a real British thing!?". I did suspect it might be real, but wasn't sure. In my mind, pies and meat didn't mix.
Years later, with the power of the internet, I found out that those pies were indeed real. What surprised me is how they didn't look bad at all. I never had a chance to try them, but I plan to when I visit London (as soon as the pandemic ends and I am able to travel again).

Amazing.
If I haven't read this topic, I probably would never find this out. Wow. Amazing.

Also, until reading this topic, I thought that rock cakes were called that way because they were as hard as literal rock. I can't remember what they were called in Croatian translation, I would have to look it up.

 

You do realise that class systems exist everywhere? They exist in every modern country, and they existed in soviet countries under communist rule. Just because someone's title was Deputy Chairman rather than Duke of Sussex doesn't make him any less upper class or aristocratic.

Its about power and influence in society, and the fact that it inevitably gets hoarded by small groups of people. Often its expressed through wealth, and sometimes its expressed through privilege. And that wealth and privilege is communicated to descendents to use or lose however they wish.

Do you think that the son of the 1950's Deputy Chairman of the Yugoslavian Soviet would have been arrested for speeding? Or would he have been sent on his way as soon as they knew who he was? Similarly the son of an English Duke would have been waved on his way by the police, or released with profuse apologies, just as soon as they found out who he was. In fact, the only real difference is that the English police officer who arrested him would likely not face any significant repercussions. The Yugoslav police officer may very well have faced unpleasant reassignment or some other vendetta from senior levels.

 

Interesting. I'm not sure I'd agree with this assessment though.

Personally, I kinda liked HP because it was different, yet so strangely familiar.

I went to a moderately well regarded boarding school in the UK and whilst Hogwarts was this amazing wizarding thing, it was almost comforting to think that for all their magic, those wizards weren't so different. It made it seem... not real, but almost plausible, helping me form a deeper connection with the setting and characters.

Hogwarts was slightly older than my school and my dorm wasn't in a tower in a castle, it was in the loft of a 300 year old building next to the Great Hall. Other than that though, Houses, latin school motto, uniforms, prefects, interhouse rivalry, housepoints, house sporting events, house choirs, school balls and christmas meals. We had 'em all. I even had a blue and gold striped house tie.

Honestly, swap the subjects out and switch Quidditch for Cricket and Rugby and I'd have slotted into Hogwarts with hardly a ripple.

 

Was kind of implying there are some magical creatures that dine on humans making a pie literally out of shepherd's.

 

I wouldn‘t be surprised if that phrase was thrown around many times in the corridors of power during the Nobby Leach administration.

 

Pumpkin juice, pumpkin pasties, Christmas crackers, schools with Houses for the students and school uniforms. Sweden doesn't have school uniforms afaik and as a little kid I assumed that was true in the rest of the world too.

 

Pumpkin juice... thanks to this thread I found out it is real... wtf.