For the fifth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Concordia University. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2011."
Growing up, at about 5 p.m. or so every night, we ate "supper." This was anything from Italian family recipes to Tuna Helper to burgers and fries you zapped in the microwave. (My mom went a little micro-loco when our family first got one. Years later we all agreed that those early-days microwave meals were flipping disgusting.)
Other families I knew, who ate non-microwaved food later in the evening and possibly in their dining rooms, called it "dinner."
Hence, I grew up thinking whether one called it "supper" or "dinner" had to do with class. Middle / working class folks were supper eaters and those fancier types who went on downhill skiiing vacations called it "dinner."
Later, people told me the distinction of the two words is based on the time the meal is served. Early, like 4-6 p.m, is "suppertime" and anything later is "dinnertime."
Others believe the two words are interchangeable.
As a short-order cook to school-aged children, I tend not to use either. Every couple of hours, someone says, "I'm hungry" and I say, "What do you want?" And then I pour bowls of cereal or fire up grilled cheeses sandwich or say something mom-ish like, "You should have eaten that corndog."
However, when I cook larger meals on the weekends, we usually eat them early-ish, and yet, I think I call these meal events "dinners." I'm sure there aren't any hard-and-fast rules on this, but I'm curious what others think.
Most likely, it's just time for a brand new word, like "dupper" or "sinner" to replace these old-school terms.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
