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liuzhou

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Everything posted by liuzhou

  1. Nonsense. While most dictionaries will list meanings by most common to less common, good ones will include minority meanings too and award them equal validity. I'm not saying that the American uses of barbecue to mean a sandwich or a bit of grilled pork are invalid; I'm just saying they are minority usages. "Quaint" is not a word any linguist would use to describe any word.
  2. Yes, that is what the word means to the vast majority of the English speaking world.
  3. People have been saying that since language began, yet we survive. Just about. "Chef" just irritates me more than most because there are several real chefs in my family and I feel this general usage downgrades them!
  4. from the CNN article which triggered this topic She is not a chef! She is a food writer and cook. Grrr!
  5. from the article She is not a chef! She is a food writer and cook. ...to be carried over to the Culinary Terms that Should be Banned topic.
  6. Please not 'a stick'. That is a purely American concept. Butter isn't marked in sticks in most of the world. Also, tablespooon is an inaccurate measurement for butter. Give us weights, preferably metric!
  7. I'd say "the place next door."
  8. liuzhou

    Dinner 2020

    Chicken and Chips - Piri Piri Sauce dip
  9. Aaargh! I just heard someone say "toast up the bread". I need to lie down!
  10. and often the waiter will have been told to tell you what the chef/buyer/owner wants to shift first.
  11. Here are some of the early citations
  12. Language history is not with you. The original meeaning of barbecue as a noun was This dates from the late 17th century. A later 18th century meaning is Your preference is more modern. Defintions from OED.
  13. liuzhou

    Lunch 2020

    No. Two different, but adjacent provinces. I get confused even though I lived in one of them for a year! Shaanxi. There is no confusion in Chinese. Well, there is a huge amount of confusion about Chinese, but not over these two provinces' names.
  14. liuzhou

    Lunch 2020

    dāo xuē miàn dāo xuē miàn dāo xuē miàn Knife cut noodles (刀削面 dāo xuē miàn) are from Shanxi (山西), not Shaanxi (陕西.) Confusing, I know.
  15. Not in any Russian equivalent.
  16. Well, whenever it was first used, and opinions clearly vary, it doesn't change that it is a relatively recently invention and remains a most unwelcome one!
  17. My numbering is a bit random and changes from day to day.
  18. Yup. First mention in writing was 1926. Which means it was used colloquially for some time before that. When I was was growing up we never had one! That wasn't the 1920s though!
  19. Fridge doesn't bother me. It has been around around a hundred years. It ain't going nowhere. Veggies originally meant 'vegetarians' but now seems to be attached to the victims of the vegetarians' food lust! I'd just ban vegetarians! 😁
  20. Definitely my meat mincer / grinder. I only ever used it once. If I want to mince meat, I use a haché technique with two cleavers. Quicker, easier to control how fine you want it and minimal washing up.
  21. When is ice cream season? Russia is or was the largest consumer of ice cream in the world and mostly eats it in winter. The vendors set up stalls by the roadside with huge block of icecream, but no refrigeration other than that supplied by nature. I remember buying ice cream in Moscow when it was -18°C (just under O°F) . It was wonderful.
  22. There are certain words and expressions which are commonly used in describing culinary matters - here on eG, on television, in the press, in books, on YouTube etc. Most of these are relatively innocuous, but there are a few that annoy the heck out of me! Illogical, inaccurate, pretentious, childish and BLOODY IRRITATING! (Please do not get offended if these are words you use. This is meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek*) * No is isn't! (editor) So, here are my top ten, in reverse order of exasperation. 10. 'Off' and other prepositions. Why is that suddenly no one "cooks" anymore? Why don't they "fry" anymore? They suddenly have to "cook off" and "fry off" instead. At first, I thought maybe it meant completely cook or fry until the dish is done. But, then I heard some clown on YouTube frying something "off until nearly done." Grrrrr! The "off" adds nothing to the meaning, but just sounds more technical? A certain Mr. G. Ramsay is a serial offender, but it seems to be coming ubiquitous. And it isn't confined to "off". I hear "cook out", "fry up". I even heard one YouTuber, who thought he could cook, suggesting that I "wash over" my mushrooms! What the hell does that mean? "Fry off"? "F Off!" 9. Chef No one is a cook anymore. They are all chefs! Except, very few really are. I am particularly exasperated by the donkeys on YouTube who call themselves "Chef". Always with a capital C. They've never actually been inside a commercial kitchen, never mind head of the brigade. "Chef Brian here with my latest how to boil an egg video! Please hit subscribe!" "Chef" is a job description; not a royal title. Use it in your kitchen by all means, if you realy are a chef, but you come across as an idiot when you do it at home. I don't go around introducing myself as "Plumber Dave" (partly because I'm not a plumber and my name isn't Dave, but you get my meaning). I don't even use the titles I am entitled to use. 8. In a timely manner Another video cliché. 99% of the time it just means "quickly" but they find a slower way to say it! Duh! 7. Bánh Mi I'm sorry, but bunging random ingredients into a baguette does not make a bánh mi in my book. I frequently have bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwiches for breakfeast using baguettes, but would never call them bánh mi as some idiot did on a YouTube video I unfortunately stumbled upon recently. I am all for variation, but at least stick with something that may be vaguely recognisable to a passing Vietnamese person. 6. Entrée As a Francophone, if I ever find out what idiot mistranslated the French and decided that it meant the main course of a meal, I will personally send him or her to the guillotine. Not that they are still alive but I do know where there is a guillotine. According to "Le Littré", the French "entrée" means "mets qui se servent au commencement du repas" which translates as "dishes that are served at the beginning of the meal". If you really want to be French, the main course is the 'plat'. This travesty has been until recently an American abberation, but recently creeping into the UK, too. Merde! 5. Flavour/Flavor Profile However you spell flavour is of no concern to me. "Flavour profile" on the other hand is a perfectly useful expression to describe something quite specific. But now, writers and YouTubers cannot bring themselves to write or say "flavour" without adding "profile". Most of the time they just mean flavour. 4. Prep I am constantly amazed by chefs who take up half a page of a menu to describe a starter of dazzling simplicity in 300 words, but are far too busy to say "prepare". Then every YouTube idiot follows them. 3. Authentic Utterly meaningless. Food, like language, is constantly evolving we don't say Italian food is inauthentic because it contains tomatoes which they didn't have until the Americas were "discovered". We don't say Sichuan food is inauthentic because they use chillies which they didn't have until the Portuguese brought them in the 17th century. But I still say a BLT is not a bánh mi! 2. Foodie This obnoxious, unnecessary word is relatively new. First recorded in print in 1982 in "Harpers & Queen" whatever that might be. Ugly, condescending and intolerable! I am always amused by people who use it to self-describe. What are they thinking? 1. Yummy Seriously, I am a strong opponent of capital punishment but will happily make an exception for anyone using this after their thirteenth birthday. It is so childish and makes me want to scream and scream and scream! Deep breath! What rattles your cage?
  23. Yes. Very popular. Every supermarket and corner store has it. There are also a huge number of competitors in the hot sauce aisles.
  24. Largely, yes. Also for hot pots.
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