Potato cake or scallop? Aldi’s clever solution to Aussie food debate
An item spotted at one of the country’s largest supermarket chains has reignited one of the biggest food debates to hit Australia.
An item spotted at one of the country’s largest supermarket chains has reignited one of the biggest food debates to hit Australia.
Since the beginning of time, there have been debates on what to call certain food items, such as the ongoing parmi or parma debate.
One of the other rigorous debates is what to call a battered and deep fried piece of potato typically found at a fish and chip shop.
Now, a hilarious addition to the debate has been spotted at Aldi, which sells Bespoke Foods Mini Potato Cakes/Scallops/Fritters.
Popular content creator Oh So Busy Mum shared a snap of the product at Aldi, stating; “Well I’m glad that ALDI have covered every name possible. What do you call them?
“P.S. They’re so good cooked in the air fryer with chicken salt.”
And, despite the $4.99 Bespoke Foods product literally covering every name imaginable for the product, social media users were quick to put in their two cents.
“Biggest way to start an argument in a food group,” one social media user said.
Another commented: “Fritters are battered, cakes are desert and scallops are shell fish so they’re fritters.”
“Potato cakes (I’m in Vic). And notice they put ‘cakes’ first,” one added.
One social media user said: “It depends on what is on the inside. If it’s a slice of potato covered in batter it’s a potato scallop. But, if it’s mashed potato on the inside it’s potato cake and potato fritter is grated.”
“Potato cakes but now I live in QLD everyone makes fun of me and tells me they are potato scallops,” one social media user said.
Another said: “These are so good that I ate a whole bag the other night oops.”
“Keeps everybody happy — but they are potato scallops,” one commented.
One social media user said: “Aldi like ‘I don’t wanna hear any of you whinging!’ like a parent totally sick of their kids fighting.”
“Potato Cakes are their proper name, that's all I have known, never heard of the other names,” one person said.
Another added: “Scallops and we had them last night. Really good!”
“What ever you want to call them, they’re quite good,” one said.
Another social media user added: “How inclusive of them.”
“It’s a scalloped potato. Scalloped refers to how they are cut,” one declared.
In 2015, three linguists from Melbourne decided to document which parts of Australia predominantly used certain turns of phrase. The survey found that Western and South Australians predominantly referred to the deep fried treat as a potato fritter.
Meanwhile, New South Wales and Queensland referred to it as a scallop as Victoria and Tasmania stood firm on the belief it was a potato cake.
Even an Aldi spokesperson weighed in on the debate.
“We know some Australians call it a potato cake, scallop or fritter, but no matter what you call it, we can agree it’s a crowd-pleaser,” the spokesperson told news.com.au.
