Spoilers for Monday 23rd February 2026 (Series 93, Heat 36)

[Gavin Chipper]

Susie said geezer could probably have stuck an S on QUINOA for QUINOAS. It's not valid on Apterous. Should it be allowed? What are the rules these days? Is there not a restaurant rule or something? People eat this stuff don't they?

[Philip A]

This “restaurant rule” is rubbish. Scrap it.

But I’m going to ticket QUINOAS anyway. https://www.apterous.org/ticket_view.php?ticket=7389

[John Garcia]

This “restaurant rule” is rubbish. Scrap it.

Agree 100%. The issue isn't whether you could feasibly use a word in a particular way in real life, but whether it is specified in the dictionary. It doesn't make sense to have a single rule overriding the dictionary for one type of noun (foods), but not other types of words.

[Gavin Chipper]

It does seem crazy but I think it was originally because some nouns listed as mass nouns had plurals given because they were "irregular" plurals which led to an asymmetry. I think BRANDIES was valid because plurals of nouns ending in Y were listed, whereas it wouldn't have been valid if BRANDY was spelt differently. And I think maybe foods / drinks tended to be things that had plurals listed in these cases.

I think we're going back to the NODE days but maybe the dictionary has improved since then anyway. What is the entry for BRANDY now?

[Fiona T]

Says "plural brandies" and labels it a mass noun

But yeah allowing quinoas and disallowing nougats seems daft

[Gavin Chipper]

Some discussion about BRANDIES being allowed but not LAGERS in the olden days.