For a moment I thought I was going mad. "What's a bread bun?" asked one of my colleagues, who was joined by another bread bun sceptic.
"I've never heard of bread buns," he said, with a perplexed look on his face.
Fearing my own sanity, I flew to the internet and was reassured by many an image of bread buns, both round and crispy and soft and doughy.
The description backed up my belief that a 'bun' is a 'sweet or plain small bread or round roll'.
North Yorkshire born and bred, I have long been flummoxed by Lancashire bread terminology.
My friends here insist on calling a bread bun a teacake - how ridiculous is that?
I've been raised in the understanding that a tea cake is a doughy thing rather like a hot cross bun, with mixed currants and sultanas in it.
In Lancashire, this is known as a currant tea cake. Confused?
It threw me when I first began work in Lancashire and was asked whether I wanted a tuna mayonnaise teacake.
'How revolting', I remember thinking, imagining the currants mixed with the tuna.
Discussing the subject at work - well it was mid-afternoon and we'd long finished with last night's TV and which celebrities we hate - we quickly concluded that these small, round bits of bread present something of a language barrier.
Some people call bread buns barm cakes - in fact, before I checked I spelled it as a very tropical-sounding 'balm' cakes.
These appear to be another, identical, version of bread buns, or teacakes, call them what you will.
"What about muffins?" a colleague piped up.
True, some people call bread buns by this name, and lo and behold, there are images on muffin' websites of foodstuffs bearing a remarkable resemblance to bread buns/teacakes.
As if that wasn't enough to tip a confused mind over the edge, next came mention of 'oven bottoms'.
I once again hit Google, to find 'oven bottom muffins' masquerading as bread buns. It's a minefield.
And bap - I had heard of baps, but not really known what they were. They look remarkably like bread buns to me.
Even the straightforward 'bread roll' languishes in a grey area, with half my colleagues, and my husband, thinking it a firm round soup roll, and the other half a long thin, hot-dog, shaped bun, although I shouldn't be using the word 'bun' in this context at all.
It will only add confusion. For the record, both shapes are pictured on Google.
My mum buys Sally Lunns, also a bread bun, only bigger.
What I'd really like is a job in a bakery on the border of Lancashire and North Yorkshire.
What a challenge that would be. I'd be craving Prozac within the first hour.
My colleagues are not easy to convince as to the existence of bread buns.
I realise I'm going to have to gather evidence.
I may get support from South Yorkshire which seems to use the term to describe the aforementioned food.
Only I'm not sure I feel comfortable approaching what seems to be a strange bunch of southerners.
In one area of the county they have annual rituals, throwing 'bread buns' off a local church tower.
At least I think they're bread buns - they may be tea-cakes.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article