A Takeaway Memory Test

[steepholm]

I've been trying to remember (without looking it up) at what point in my lifetime certain kinds of takeaway restaurant became commonplace in the UK. By "commonplace" I don't mean "available somewhere in the country" but "available in a typical mid-sized city" - say, a Derby, a Southampton or a Swansea.

This is my impression (but remember I lived my first 18 years in a small market town, so my knowledge is limited):

Common from before I was born: Fish and Chip shops, Chinese takeaways

1960s on: Indian takeaways and other curry houses

Around 1975-80: American-style hamburger and pizza places (Wimpys had been around longer than that, but seems a bit different in my mind, and not that commonly encountered)

1980s: Kebab houses

1990s on - everything else.

Is that reasonable? Have I left anything out, or got anything badly wrong? Remember, I'm not talking about London or the other really big cities - and of course cities with large immigrant populations from a particular country would probably have that country's food ready in takeaway form earlier.

Also, when did people start saying "to go" instead of "to take away" in this country? My impression is that this Americanism started in coffee shops like Starbucks and spread from there, which would put it the early years of this century. Do you agree?

And, on a different topic, have you noticed that "tsunami" has now almost entirely replaced "tidal wave" in common usage? It was not always so! On the other hand, I sense that "rickshaw" is being edged out by "tuk tuk", so the tide of Japanese-origin words is not entirely unchecked.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

"To go" versus "to take away": that matches my much scantier evidence, yes. My relevant visits were in 1997, 2001, 2005--2001 was for a whole month, thanks to a research grant and sleeping with a loaned Toshiba laptop in a crowded hostel. In 2001, I had to say "for takeaway" or get the stinkeye between St Pancras and Bloomsbury. In 2005, sometimes the person ringing me up gave me a second look and asked whether I wanted my meal to go. (They couldn't always get it from my accent--I blend, partly consciously and partly not.)

Between 2001 and 2005, speaking of takeaway, there was a steep increase in the number of Pret a Manger shops in London in kind of a triangle made by Euston Sq, Covent Garden, and Oxford Circus. I was still able to eat sandwiches at the time, and it was markedly easier to feed myself in 2005 than 2001 without sitting down at a pub or for a full restaurant-style evening meal.

(I went outside London for all three trips, but London has my clearest memories of planning meals.)

[steepholm]

I'm a big fan of Pret - and indeed of the founders' more recent chain, Itsu.

[legionseagle]

Kentucky Fried Chicken? I'd say late 70s (I definitely ate in one in Preston on the day of Charles and Diana's wedding, because it was the only thing open.)

Spud-U-like was the 70s - are there other ones which were popular and then went away (which is how I rate Wimpy)? Obviously there are the UCPs in Lancashire, though perhaps tripe doesn't quite count in the same way.

When did Greggs show up?

[steepholm]

I forgot both Kentucky Fried Chicken and Spud-U-Like! Of course. Does that latter even exist any more, I wonder?

[green_knight]

You forgot Little Chef, though I have no idea how to characterise them...

I've encountered 'to go' in Ireland before I've encountered it in Britain (then again, in 1985 Ireland seemed to have more Americanisms overall); and I still say 'to take away' - I'm eating a takeaway, not a go, dammit - but I've had the puzzlement earlier mid 1990s, but occasionally earlier.

I'm hearing both tsunami and tidal wave; haven't heard tuk tuk in the wild.

[steepholm]

Does/did Little Chef do takeway? Either way, it's a chain I'm rather fond of, though mostly for reasons of nostalgia - which probably isn't a great business model.

Thanks for the tuk tuk and tsunami data points!

[green_knight]

I *thought* they were doing takeaway - not as their main point, but I've always associated them with takeaway. I've found the food consistently underwhelming, both the few times I've eaten there and the many MANY times I've delivered leaflets. (I had several on my rounds, and numerous pubs; and very frequently had to cross the lunch rooms - and almost everywhere else I'd look at plates and go 'one day, I'll have time to eat here'. That never happened at any Little Chef.

[lilliburlero]

I associate Little Chef--and Happy Eater!--entirely with roadside services rather than takeaway. Little Chef was considered by my family the classier choice, I think because fewer of them had a children's play area, which, at age 4 or 5, disappointed me much. There was a particular Happy Eater play area, visible from the A1, which contained a fascinating-looking brown monster with swings on its arms and a slide protruding from its gaping mouth. Some years later (I think I must have been in my early teens) I saw it again, in considerable dilapidation, and realised that the 'monster' was actually meant to be an anthropomorphic tree. I never got to play on it. /deprived child

[rushthatspeaks]

This fascinates me, because it is of course totally different in the U.S. both chronologically and linguistically.

One thing I find interesting is that, at least during the last five-ten years, a restaurant asks if you want something to go if you've been eating there and are having an overlarge portion sent home with you, but if you're going to the restaurant with the express purpose of picking up food and eating at home, it is neither to go nor takeaway: you are getting takeout. If we're debating eating restaurant food at home, it will be 'does that place do delivery, or just takeout?'. Does that one exist in the UK?

And, having been born in middle-of-nowhere Ohio in the early 1980s, I can say with some certainty that the first Chinese restaurant within fifty miles of my birthplace arrived in 1988. They still don't have Indian, and someone is missing a bet by not yet having set up a fish-and-chip shop, because the major form of quick food there is small local-ish chains that deep-fry everything, as well as the national fast-food chains and a few things in the diner style. Greek gyro shops, interestingly, popped up all over Ohio in the nineties, as did a very U.S.-ified sort of Mexican place which smothers absolutely everything in cheese. I can't get the bad Mexican of my youth in Boston at all, and I miss it.

[jadelennox]

Even outside of Boston, I remember our first Indian restaurant arriving in the northern (urban, immigrant-packed) burbs until 1989-90.

We got Pret a few years ago and I adore it.

[steepholm]

The word "takeout" is familiar to me as something Americans say, but I don't think I've (yet) heard it here. I'll ask my daughter whether it's something her friends would say, but I'm fairly sure "Does that place do takeaway?" is more likely.

Taking home overlarge portions is less of a custom here, but when it happens it's usually called "asking for a doggy bag".

[cmcmck]

Indian was early in where we lived before and Chinese came a little later.

[hunningham]

Tsunami became common usage after 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. I remember the BBC had several days of "giant tidal wave, also known as tsunami" before someone decided that yep, the audience had learnt their new vocabulary word, and they dropped the giant tidal wave bit.

[steepholm]

Yes, I think that's exactly right about "tsunami".