Just to prove that American submarine food slang is both more sensible and more entertaining than that practiced by our Brit brothers, let's collect all the American submarine food slang here in the comments. I'll start off with an easy one: "Vent covers" for the breaded veal cutlets. Let's fill us the comments with the other ones you remember!One officer on board said: "To qualify as a submariner, there is a long training period including a two-hour oral board. If it goes well, there is normally a final question – you have to name 10 submarine foods". Here is a taster:
* Bits – baked beans
* Spithead pheasant – kippers
* Elephant's footprint – battered spam fritter
* Baby's head – steak and kidney pudding (the smooth pastry rises like a shiny baby's head)
* Black on black – chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce
* Action Man pillows – ravioli
* Teddybears' ears – Chinese prawn crackers
* Seggies – grapefruit segments
* Snorkers – sausages
* Gary Glitters – gammon steaks (as in Glitter's song chant "Come on, come on" or the submariners' version "Gamm-on, gamm-on")
* Cheesy-hammy-eggy – a traditional Navy dish, Welsh rarebit with ham and a fried egg
* Pom – powdered potatoes
Submarine Food Slang
An article in the Telegraph about how the crew is fed on board HMS Tireless (S 88) has a side story about what the British submariners call various "food" items; like most things involving Brit food, it makes no sense. Here's what they say: