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Quiz about American Diner Slang Order Up
Quiz about American Diner Slang Order Up

American Diner Slang: Order Up! Quiz


Cooks and waitresses in American diners have developed slang for their cooking and ordering partnerships. Here are some you might hear yelled across the counter. Sadly, there's not much evidence of how these phrases originated.

A multiple-choice quiz by smeone. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
smeone
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
370,528
Updated
Nov 20 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
748
Last 3 plays: Guest 76 (5/10), Guest 104 (10/10), Guest 99 (5/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. You are breakfasting in your local diner in New York City where you order an English muffin. You tell your waitress you want it toasted. Which of the following instructions does she yell out to the cook? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. You are having a quick lunch with a friend in an American diner. You both order the same thing - hamburgers with extra onions. What does the waiter shout when ordering your meal? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. You just want a quick coffee and doughnut to take away from an American diner. The waitress yells for a "Joe to go", which you recognize as the coffee, but how does she order your doughnut? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. You sit down at an American diner for lunch with friends. The waitress asks the bus-boy to bring a round of "Adam's Ale" to the table. What are you going to get? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. You are visiting the U.S. You have never been to one of their diners before. You order your breakfast and ask for the eggs to be scrambled. You are very worried when the waitress calls out your order to the cook. What would she have said? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. You are sitting at an American diner counter starting to eat your Blue Plate special when you notice that there is no salt and pepper within easy reach. You ask the waitress to get you some. What does she ask another diner to slide along your way? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. You order a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch at an American diner. The waitress says there is a special that day - you can have a "splash of red noise" with it for the same price as the sandwich. What is she offering you? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. You order a roast turkey sandwich on rye in an American diner. You want mustard, but no butter. When letting the cook know about this last request, the waitress passes it along by saying the following: "Hold the ____________". What does she ask the cook to hold? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. If you want anything served on toast in an American diner, what will you hear being relayed to the cook? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. You are so familiar with American diner ordering slang that you decide to ask for your meatloaf "painted red". What is it that you want? Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 24 2024 : Guest 76: 5/10
Mar 24 2024 : Guest 104: 10/10
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Mar 18 2024 : sophiedog19441: 5/10
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Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. You are breakfasting in your local diner in New York City where you order an English muffin. You tell your waitress you want it toasted. Which of the following instructions does she yell out to the cook?

Answer: Burn the British

"Burn the British" means to serve an English muffin toasted. Of course, this slang also contains some ironic American Revolutionary fervour based on historic events, which, since I am a quiz writer born in Britain, I quite enjoy. Obviously you would not return to a diner where they actually burned the muffin, or the British (although that's debatable), but most good cooks wouldn't take that order literally, I'm sure!
2. You are having a quick lunch with a friend in an American diner. You both order the same thing - hamburgers with extra onions. What does the waiter shout when ordering your meal?

Answer: Two cows, make 'em cry

"Two cows, make 'em cry" is pretty obvious when you think about it. It does have much more grace and wit than those other three dreadful answers I made up!

What is interesting about this piece of slang is the almost poetic imagery. I have not been able to find out how this originated, but obviously whoever invented it is a master or mistress of wry humour. Such is often the nature of slang terms which stick around to delight us for a long time.
3. You just want a quick coffee and doughnut to take away from an American diner. The waitress yells for a "Joe to go", which you recognize as the coffee, but how does she order your doughnut?

Answer: Life-preserver

Obviously the slang name of "life-preserver" for a doughnut comes from its ring-like shape. But I think there is more wit here of an almost allegorical nature. If you want a quick sugary fix to jump-start your day, someone needs to throw you a life-preserver, and the doughnut, with all its glazings and sweet coatings, is the thing that is going to do it!

No wonder doughnuts are a favourite at office coffee counters.
4. You sit down at an American diner for lunch with friends. The waitress asks the bus-boy to bring a round of "Adam's Ale" to the table. What are you going to get?

Answer: Water

Obviously (and some might say sadly) for Adam, there were no breweries in the Garden of Eden. For inventors of this piece of slang, therefore, it is not an unwise assumption to presume that water was all that would be available in that first Paradise when a thirst-quencher was required. It is also quite poetic to realize that water means purity and that one cannot be made drunk by it, and so be led into sin.

And if you wanted the water with no ice, don't forget to ask for Adam's Ale without the Hail!
5. You are visiting the U.S. You have never been to one of their diners before. You order your breakfast and ask for the eggs to be scrambled. You are very worried when the waitress calls out your order to the cook. What would she have said?

Answer: Eggs, wreck 'em

Again, as with many slang phrases, it is hard to find their origins, and even when theories are in place, they are only suppositions. In this case, therefore, the idea of scrambled eggs being eggs which are wrecked is a nice little turn of phrase. There they sit in the bowl, pure white and pure gold in all their symmetry until the cook sticks in that whisk and destroys their integrity. My goodness, I so surprise myself with metaphor sometimes!
6. You are sitting at an American diner counter starting to eat your Blue Plate special when you notice that there is no salt and pepper within easy reach. You ask the waitress to get you some. What does she ask another diner to slide along your way?

Answer: Side-arms

Well, there you are at the diner. You have your Adam and Eve on a Raft (poached egg on toast), and on one side of the blue plate you have one salt shaker and on the other you have the pepper. What else could they be but side-arms?
7. You order a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch at an American diner. The waitress says there is a special that day - you can have a "splash of red noise" with it for the same price as the sandwich. What is she offering you?

Answer: Tomato Soup

Well I can understand the splash of red for a good heart-warming bowl of tomato soup, particularly with a grilled cheese on the side. However, I am not sure, nor could I find the origin of "noise" in this phrase. Strange. I see tomato soup as calming rather than noisy, but it is what it is in the weird world of diner lingo.
8. You order a roast turkey sandwich on rye in an American diner. You want mustard, but no butter. When letting the cook know about this last request, the waitress passes it along by saying the following: "Hold the ____________". What does she ask the cook to hold?

Answer: Axle grease

Yep. That's right. Axle grease is butter. Not an appetizing description, nor particularly accurate. Axle grease is black, while butter is gloriously golden. I'd say that "artery grease" would be a better term, wouldn't you? Better, but wrong!
9. If you want anything served on toast in an American diner, what will you hear being relayed to the cook?

Answer: On a raft

So much of my imagination has to go into these descriptions, since origins are hard to find. But, again, whatever is served on toast, be they eggs, cheese and so on, all are essentially sitting on that toasty raft. If you are at a greasy spoon diner, then the raft is in a sea of oil.
10. You are so familiar with American diner ordering slang that you decide to ask for your meatloaf "painted red". What is it that you want?

Answer: Ketchup on it

Ketchup on top of meatloaf is a diner classic, not to mention extremely delicious. I like the imagery here with this piece of lingo. Not only is the cook literally painting the meatloaf red with ketchup, but more figuratively speaking you are painting it red in the sense that we "paint the town red" - going all out for a fun time!
Source: Author smeone

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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