Starters

When I was a little girl, and would eat at a restaurant with my paternal Grandmother, my “Nana James”, she would always say, “For starters, I’ll have…..”.  She would then proceed to tell the waiter or waitress what she would like to eat prior to the entrée.  I thought this quite a normal practice and followed her guide.  As I grew into my teen years and even later as a single adult eating out with friends,  I would be handed a menu and tell the server “For starters” I’ll have”…..

Most of the time the servers didn’t question what I was saying, but many of my friends did.  What do you mean, for starters?  Don’t you mean, appetizers, they’d ask?  Well, I was used to hearing my Nana and my family say “starters”, so that was the norm for me.

When I moved away from home to continue my career, I continued the habit and it just stuck.  Sometimes I’d dine in a faux English pub and voila!  There would be the word I was searching for – “Starters”, not Appetizers, not “Hors D’oeurves”.  Starters.  Of course, in the US, these were not “real” English restaurants, usually just part of a chain, but it still made me feel better.

Then two things happened that gave me satisfaction.  Validation, even.  First, when I retired from the federal government after 35 ½ years of service, my husband Jay and I and another couple traveled to the United Kingdom on an 18 day tour of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  For a small town girl, this was a chance of a lifetime and a dream come true.  Not only would I get to see many places that I had read about in literature, history or geography, but I would get to walk through the cathedral where Princess Diana had walked in her wedding procession. 

On the first night of our tour, we were in London.  We were told not to fall asleep or jet lag would consume us and we would be miserable for the rest of the tour.  A bus tour of London took up much of the afternoon.  After dinner we stopped for a glass of wine (or beer for the husbands) at an old English pub. A real English pub.  Perusing the menu, what did my eyes first see at the top of the menu but “STARTERS”!  At last!  The British did use that term for appetizers.  Validation!  Not appetizers, not hors d’oeurvers, starters!  Whoo hoo!

Second, I have been researching my Father’s family ancestry and recently discovered that my Nana’s first husband came from England, so he was a British citizen.  Get the picture?  That’s where she learned to say starters and some of the other interesting expressions she used.  More on those another time. 

So I’ll end my first  blog in the hope that you enjoyed why I say what I do when I dine out and will probably never change.  It’s a part of me.  Starters, appetizers, hors d’oeurves, they all mean the same, but time and time again, for me, it’s starters.