The Fake Internet Court of Australia
POTATO CAKE v POTATO SCALLOP [2025] - Judgement
H3483/1
It has come to this fake internet court's attention that across this wide brown australian land that we call Australia, that there is a dispute across state lines which divides the nation.
This is the use of the terms 'Potato Cake' and 'Potato Scallop' to describe that small, golden brown, texture like sun, fried potato thing, which may or may not be battered, and distinct from a hash brown.
Judgement Praecido:
As for the people in the far north of the Northern Territory who have decided to just stay out of the argument entirely and call it a 'Potato Fritter', this fake internet court applauds you and admires your pragmatism. You are weird but we shall allow this.
Back to the case at hand:
In a classic case of using formal epistemology to define the case, we need to ask what is a 'cake'?
A 'cake' in its broadest possible sense, is a thing which has been shaped and/or moulded. This is why a bread like object which has been made from flour and eggs and placed into a tin to bake is a 'cake', and equally why cakes can be made of soap, mud, concrete, ice cream, fudge, and a whole host of other shapeable and moldable substances.
Thus the term 'Potato Cake' is apt, as this object which has been shaped from the constituent parts of potato and batter, is properly a 'cake'.
On the other side of the argument, we need to ask what is a 'scallop'?
A 'scallop' is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Pectinidae. The absolute classic example of a scallop is the animal which lives inside the shell which is used for the Shell Oil company. The term 'scallop' can also refer to the kind of ruffled edge of that same shell and a pattern which follows, but this is materially irrelevant to the case at hand.
Since we are not talking about that marine animal, this warrants further information.
We are in fact talking about something adjacent to the marine animal, by virtue of a 'potato scallop', also being cooked in Fish & Chip Shops; quite possibly at the same time.
This means that the reason for a distinction between a fried scallop and a 'potato scallop' exists because of the immediate proximity of the two things.
The English Language has a long and proud history of stealing from everywhere, from everything, and from everyone. Thus, stealing a term from a thing which is close at hand, is perfectly normal for the language.
Consider that tins are not made of tin, that a pencil lead has never been made out of lead, and that a pineapple is actually derived from the older use of the English word 'apple' which encompassed every kind of fruit and it's just that this is an 'apple' that looks like a pine cone.
Thus, the existence of the term 'scallop' in reference to a fried thing which happens to have 'potato' as a qualifier, is historically consistent when set against the backdrop of a language with a fifteen hundred year history.
Judgement:
Let it be known that this fake internet court understands the historical reasons why this crunchy comestible should be called a 'potato scallop' but just because something has been around for a long time, is neither just cause for its continued existence, nor does it make it fit for purpose.
If a thing is bad, then it should be gotten rid of.
This court hereby orders that the term 'scallop' in reference to a cake made from potato, be gotten rid of and erased from the collective consciousness.
A 'potato scallop' just is not a 'scallop', no matter how hard you try to convince us that it is. In the olden days when we were told something that blatantly is not true, then we would have used that now old fashioned word 'lie'.
This fake internet court hereby orders that the correct and proper and true term is a 'potato cake' and that it should supplant and replace all existences of the lies sold as truth, immediately and without exception.
The people of Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and most of the Northern Territory, do in fact have it correct. A cake made from potato is a 'potato cake'. This fake internet court also accepts the weirdness in some parts of the Northern Territory.
As to all the people of Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia, who continue to use the term 'scallop' when very clearly a more truthful term exists, you are guilty of both conspiracy and deception. You have brought hateration and holleration into this fake internet court and as you have no business mucking with a language that doesn't even bear your name, we order you to cease, desist and stop this egregious pretense. If we ever see you back before this court, the penalities will be severe. Get out; lest you make a mockery of my courtroom. We are already perfectly capable of making a mockery of this fake internet courtroom as it is. You are malevolent and have now ensnared others in your villainy. Can you not see what trouble thou hast wrought?
- ROLLO75 J
(this case will be reported in FILR as H3483/1 - Ed)