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"Deli Style" and other nonsensical packaging lingo

Fat Guy

By Fat Guy
in Kitchen Consumer

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
Posted

Today I bought some Pretzel Crisps, which are flat crackers that taste and look sort of like pretzels. They are, incidentally, the "World’s First Spreadable Pretzel Cracker."

But what really caught my eye was that, on the packaging, above the product name, it says "DELI STYLE."

Now, I have been to quite a few delis. I've been to many real delicatessens rooted in the major deli traditions (Jewish, Swiss-Austrian-German, Italian, etc.), as well as just about every variant of bodega, mini-mart and fruit stand that is incorrectly referred to as a deli. But never once have I seen anything like Pretzel Crisps on offer. Pretzels, of any kind, are simply not a deli staple, in any kind of deli I know of.

There's so much crazy stuff like this written on packaging. Please do share your favorite examples.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

gfron1

gfron1

Posted
Posted

Mine aren't as silly as that, but I've been on a tirade lately about the use of fresh, gourmet and specialty. My primary target du jour is Subway with their "Fresh" sandwiches...the only thing fresh about that stuff is the air that hits the ingredients when they rip open the bags.

For the sake of the topic I picked up the first bag I saw in my kitchen - tortilla chips: "100% Real Mexican Style" Huh...very different from the stuff I get when I go to my nearby border town.

Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Sneakeater

Sneakeater

Posted
Posted

I think you're missing the history of the pretzel crisp.

The original "deli-style" snack produced by this company, before pretzel crisps, were bagel crisps -- the same idea, but made from pieces of bagels (or some simulacra thereof).

Now maybe pretzels aren't deli staples, but everybody knows that bagels . . . aren't, either.

Oh well.

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Today I was in a supermarket and saw a sign: "Hotel Style Turkey Breast."

Is there a particular style of turkey breast that people associate with hotels? Granted I don't visit as many hotels as I do delis, but still . . .

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

MSRadell

MSRadell

Posted
Posted

Bland, dry and overpriced about some of my thoughts of hotel Turkey. Never had a good Turkey in one and don't even bother looking anymore.

I'm not sure why they would even claim to be Hotel Style for any food item, especially Turkey. Hotels aren't generally noted for having great food unless you go to some of the very exclusive ones. Normally the food is fairly generic. Maybe that's their thoughts for the Turkey?

I've learned that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Just for the heck of it I Googled "hotel style turkey breast." I was immediately buried in an avalanche of results. I guess I was the last to get the memo on hotel-style turkey breasts. Actually, you guys were the last.

Anyway, the first search result is a Q&A from Good Housekeeping. The questioner asks: "What's the difference between a turkey breast labeled hotel-style and one that isn't?"

Good Housekeeping's "food director," Susan Westmoreland, explains: "Hotel-style breasts have whole wings attached and usually include portions of the back, neck, skin, ribs, giblets, and neck. They're mainly sold in the Northeast . . ."

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

DerekW

DerekW

Posted
Posted

So 'Hotel style' = uh, a legless turkey?

Not on 'food' packaging [does food arrive in packages?], but perhaps related. Any item of kitchen equipment bearing the word 'Professional'.

Isn't.

Moopheus

Moopheus

Posted
Posted

One can probably generalize that any time the word "style" appears on food packaging, it means "almost entirely unlike the thing we are comparing it to, a poor imitation at best."

Kosher-style. Means "not kosher."

"I think it's a matter of principle that one should always try to avoid eating one's friends."--Doctor Dolittle

blog: The Institute for Impure Science

snowangel

snowangel

Posted
Posted

What does "artisnal" mean in a supermarket or at Target or at Costco?

Does "Home-Style" mean like your grandmother made -- just with a whole mess of ingredients that you can't pronounce and add an entire day's worth of sodium?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
rooftop1000

rooftop1000

Posted
Posted
  Pierogi said:
  snowangel said:
What does "artisnal" mean in a supermarket or at Target or at Costco?

It means it costs at least twice as much as the regular stuff !!! :laugh:

Nah...that just means a company that hasn't been bought by Nabisco yet

years ago we had a local bakery that claimed to make "artesian bread"

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

"It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything."

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Moopheus

Moopheus

Posted
Posted
  snowangel said:

Does "Home-Style" mean like your grandmother made -- just with a whole mess of ingredients that you can't pronounce and add an entire day's worth of sodium?

Actually, I think that is just like what my grandmother made.

"I think it's a matter of principle that one should always try to avoid eating one's friends."--Doctor Dolittle

blog: The Institute for Impure Science

Reignking

Reignking

Posted
Posted
  snowangel said:
What does "artisnal" mean in a supermarket or at Target or at Costco?

Does "Home-Style" mean like your grandmother made -- just with a whole mess of ingredients that you can't pronounce and add an entire day's worth of sodium?

CostCo, in Atlanta, recently had a local goat cheese. Local, for cheese in Atlanta, means Belle Chevre goat cheese in southern Alabama. Still, I was surprised to see something like that there.

Technically, artisanal cheese would be those made by hand, and not mass-produced.

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Finally heard back from the "deli style" people:

  Quote
We decided to refer to them as "Deli Style" since we market them in the Deli

department of your local grocery stores.  They are the first spreadable

pretzel cracker created.

What-ever.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted (edited)
  Fat Guy said:
Finally heard back from the "deli style" people:
  Quote
We decided to refer to them as "Deli Style" since we market them in the Deli

department of your local grocery stores.  They are the first spreadable

pretzel cracker created.

What-ever.

So that's how it works! I guess that means they can call all of the slop in the warmer in the deli department Deli Style too. Mmmmm... Deli Style reheated frozen egg rolls. :biggrin:

Edited by Tri2Cook (log)

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Conal

Conal

Posted
Posted

My personal favorite is "chocolatey".Otherwise known as this product contains no actual chocolate.Nothing more delicious than chocolatey flavor coated pretzels.Though "cheese product" does get an honorable mention.

Florida

Florida

Posted
Posted
  David A. Goldfarb said:
That's a bit like "cheese food"--as if they need to remind you that it's food and not, say, plastic.

I going to have to disagree. "Cheese food" is a legal term:

Per US Code of Federal Regualations, Title 21, Part 133

  Quote
§ 133.173 Pasteurized process cheese

food.

(a)(1) A pasteurized process cheese

food is the food prepared by

comminuting and mixing, with the aid

of heat, one or more of the optional

cheese ingredients prescribed in paragraph

(c ) of this section, with one or

more of the optional dairy ingredients

prescribed in paragraph (d) of this section,

into a homogeneous plastic mass.

One or more of the optional ingredients

specified in paragraph (e) of this section

may be used.

Please note use of the phrase "homogeneous plastic mass"

Personally, I take the term "cheese food" to be similar to the government warning on the side of a pack of cigarettes.

Just Jim

Just Jim

Posted
Posted
  cathrynapple said:
My favorite is the "Home Squeezed" orange juice. It's not home squeezed. Not at all.

Now if you opened the carton and 3 oranges and a juicer fell out........

Audiofan2

Audiofan2

Posted
Posted

I enjoy the term "commercial" on cookware and other kitchen equipment. If I want to purchase commercial quality products I shop at a restaurant supply store. When Linens and Things went out of business I purchased a non stick pan that used the term "commercial" and NSF. A similar pan that I purchased years ago at a restaurant supply store has held up much better.

Twitter: Audiofan2

www.sacramentocook.com

CdnLifeguard

CdnLifeguard

Posted
Posted
  Fat Guy said:
Today I bought some Pretzel Crisps, which are flat crackers that taste and look sort of like pretzels. They are, incidentally, the "World’s First Spreadable Pretzel Cracker."

What is a spreadable pretzel cracker?

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