Help us settle an important debate!
29th January 2013: It's all kicking off. Who would have thought just one word could cause so many problems?!
DINNER.
Is this a meal you eat in the middle of the day or in the evening? Adam and I were chatting in the office earlier this morning and we couldn't agree. Both of us were convinced we were right.
The argument:
"Dinner is eaten in the middle of the day" - Me
In my house, dinner is a meal eaten in the middle of the day. It's another word for lunch. In the evening, you eat supper or tea - unless you're going out, when it's sometimes acceptable to say you're "going out for dinner". When I went to school, we had "dinner ladies" who served up "school dinners". They didn't hang around until 8pm, so "dinner" was something we ate just after the bell rang at 12.30pm. DINNER IS EATEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!
"Dinner is eaten in the evening" - Adam
In Adam's house, dinner is a meal eaten in the evening. According to him, it's the only name for that particular meal. If you go out to a restaurant you go out to dinner. If you go out for food in the middle of the day, you "do lunch". That means dinner is NOT a midday meal. It's an evening meal to be consumed after 6pm. Fact. (Apparently.)
We couldn't agree. And the texts coming in were about 50/50 in both camps.
So we put it to an expert. Here's Charlotte from the rather swanky restaurant at Bowood House:
What do you think? I'm still not convinced....