April 30, 2013

 

Mainers have an interesting habit of changing the sounds of vowels when they occur at the end of a word.  They change anything ending in "er" to sound like "ah."  Everyone is probably familiar with the name "Bah Hahbah," (instead of Bar Harbor) which sounds similar to a Bostonian accent.  What most folks probably don't know is that Mainers also change words ending in "a" to sound like "er."  As in, "Linder" instead of "Linda," "bananer" instead of "banana," etc.

I've wanted to try out the China Dine-ah since I first heard about it years ago, and Jed and I finally did just that for lunch today.  I got something that positively scandalized Tracy - beans and franks.  It's like ordering a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - who does that at a restaurant?  But let me tell you, it was outrageously good - homemade baked beans (not as sweet as in the south, but still good), two grilled hot dogs, and 2 sliced of brown bread, which I still haven't quite figured out but like very much (it's not just whole wheat bread, as the name implies).

What puzzles me is the name of the diner...I know it's cute to rhyme and all, but really, it should be The Chiner Dine-ah.  Now that's a name!  :)