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More Food Terms We Loathe/Misuse


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(and you forgot 'orgasmic'!) :raz:

I didn't want to go overboard.

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

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People whose great-great-great-great grandparents came to the United States from Europe, when they over-pronounce the names of their ethnic ingredients.

Dude, your name is Trevor. Why are you pronouncing it "Mas-kar-POH-NEE?"

Reminds me of the '80s newscasters who sounded like Wisconsin natives, until the story about the Sandinistas came up. Then they were rolling their "Rs" in Ni-ka-RRRRRRRaaaah-gwa" like Ricky Freakin' Ricardo.

especially on NPR

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People whose great-great-great-great grandparents came to the United States from Europe, when they over-pronounce the names of their ethnic ingredients.

Dude, your name is Trevor. Why are you pronouncing it "Mas-kar-POH-NEE?"

Reminds me of the '80s newscasters who sounded like Wisconsin natives, until the story about the Sandinistas came up. Then they were rolling their "Rs" in Ni-ka-RRRRRRRaaaah-gwa" like Ricky Freakin' Ricardo.

I pronounce it "mas-kar-PO-NE" because that's how it's pronounced. It's not "mas-kar-PON" and it sure as hell ain't "mar-ska-PON." I'm not being a snob, or claiming to be Italian, or co-opting another culture; I'm just trying to say the word. As it's pronounced by the people who invented it (the cheese and the word).

Re: the NPR comment, out here in LA we have Adolfo Guzman Lopez, who is the world's champion in speaking in an American accent for a whole story...until he comes to his name. Hilarity always ensues (which must look strange to the others stuck in traffic on the 405, but never mind...).

"Degenerates. Degenerates. They'll all turn into monkeys." --Zizek on vegetarians

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In most instances nowadays: bacon. Bacon this. Bacon that. The notion that bacon--in the cheap, heavily processed supermarket product sense of the word--is the finest product ever, let alone finest pork product, has really caught on with the geek community (and others, too) and it drives me crazy. Anyone caught buying ThinkGeek's bacon mints should be shot.

Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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People whose great-great-great-great grandparents came to the United States from Europe, when they over-pronounce the names of their ethnic ingredients.

Dude, your name is Trevor. Why are you pronouncing it "Mas-kar-POH-NEE?"

Reminds me of the '80s newscasters who sounded like Wisconsin natives, until the story about the Sandinistas came up. Then they were rolling their "Rs" in Ni-ka-RRRRRRRaaaah-gwa" like Ricky Freakin' Ricardo.

I pronounce it "mas-kar-PO-NE" because that's how it's pronounced. It's not "mas-kar-PON" and it sure as hell ain't "mar-ska-PON." I'm not being a snob, or claiming to be Italian, or co-opting another culture; I'm just trying to say the word. As it's pronounced by the people who invented it (the cheese and the word).

Re: the NPR comment, out here in LA we have Adolfo Guzman Lopez, who is the world's champion in speaking in an American accent for a whole story...until he comes to his name. Hilarity always ensues (which must look strange to the others stuck in traffic on the 405, but never mind...).

I'm not sure if this is what ScoopKW meant, but I don't mind the proper pronunciation of a word, I find the over-pronunciation of a word rather annoying. There are a couple of ethnic-food-oriented Food Network show hosts who speak flawless, accent free English, but when it comes to a food word that is from a different language, they suddenly have to speak much more slowly, and over-anunciate, as if they don't really know the language and want to ensure they get it right. THAT is what I find annoying; not "maskarpone", but "mas-kar-po-ne" sometimes makes me change the channel.

I also find it annoying when people don't properly pronounce very common menu items with foreign words. Case-in-point: "pollo" is pronounced "poy-yo", not "po-lo". It is spanish for "chicken", not a team sport played on horse back...

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  • 1 month later...

As a food blogger who reads a lot of other blogs, I am pretty happy with just about any and all descriptive words that actually mean something. Unctuous, gelatinous, drizzle, melted - they are all good. "Tasty," "yummy," and especially the overuse of exclamation marks are what stick in my craw.

Kathy

Minxeats
http://www.foodloversguidetobaltimore.com/'>Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore

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OK so I know this is a real and meaningful word, and please do not take offense if it applies to you, but I find the word culinarian, a little dirty sounding. Like it might perhaps mean something totally different....

Can you eat that?

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"Infused"- for olive oil it's okay. But tea infused ice-cream is just tea flavored icecream!

I would imagine that it is the process of extracting the flavor that they are referring to. We use a lot of different infusions and it goes on the menu if it has been prepared via an infusion.

The perfect vichyssoise is served hot and made with equal parts of butter to potato.

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OK so I know this is a real and meaningful word, and please do not take offense if it applies to you, but I find the word culinarian, a little dirty sounding. Like it might perhaps mean something totally different....

It's only dirty if you're doing it right. :biggrin:

I don't mind culinarian. It's a recent term, (Mr. Webster says it was first used in 1949). I take it to mean "people who are involved in the culinary arts and sciences."

Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today. -- Edgar Allan Poe

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I also find it annoying when people don't properly pronounce very common menu items with foreign words. Case-in-point: "pollo" is pronounced "poy-yo", not "po-lo". It is spanish for "chicken", not a team sport played on horse back...

That would depend on context. "pollo" is of course also an Italian word and in that case, any pronunciation with an actual L in it would be more appropriate.

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  • 3 years later...

It's only dirty if you're doing it right. biggrin.gif

I don't mind culinarian. It's a recent term, (Mr. Webster says it was first used in 1949). I take it to mean "people who are involved in the culinary arts and sciences."

 

The Oxford English Dictionary dates it to 1615.

 

" 1615 E. Hoby Curry-combe v. 223 What are the Doctrines‥are they not Culinarian Theorems?    1828 Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 350 What an air of dignity he might have thrown over the culinarian roof."

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Scandinavian foods,   most of us  from the Scandinavian area dislike this term.  It is like saying American food and  meaning Canadian, Mexican and food from USA as one and the same.  Yeah right  Sweden ruled them all at one point but that doesnt mean we all eat meatballs and runs around with horns on our heads.

Cheese is you friend, Cheese will take care of you, Cheese will never betray you, But blue mold will kill me.

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"Fresh" ground pepper

Anything said by Rachel Ray - yummo, delish, EVOO

 

 

hahhahaha, I despise her. A the gym I have a choice of CNN, Rachel Ray and Hoda and Kathie Lee on the TVs..My blood pressure goes UP while Im on the treadmill and I leave angry! lol

Why must she say all these childish things? My most hated thing is "Jump in my belly!" and "lets get in the hot tub/pool"

Wawa Sizzli FTW!

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I'm sure it's been mentioned before but the idiotic, yet widespread American use of 'entrée' to mean 'main course' drives me to distraction. If you really have to use French terms, find out what they mean!

 

I'm also astonished by the number of chefs/restaurateurs who need forty words to describe a simple dish on their menu, but don't have time to say 'prepare" or 'preparation'. 'Prep', indeed. 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Scandinavian foods,   most of us  from the Scandinavian area dislike this term.  It is like saying American food and  meaning Canadian, Mexican and food from USA as one and the same.  Yeah right  Sweden ruled them all at one point but that doesnt mean we all eat meatballs and runs around with horns on our heads.

 

Regarding the term 'Scandinavian', maybe (although I've never heard anyone in Denmark express a distaste for the term), but 'nordisk' is used to mean the exact same thing (and of course, 'det er meget mere moderne'), and when it comes to acknowledging the many similarities of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish food/shared culinary traditions, that's widely accepted.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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Regarding the term 'Scandinavian', maybe (although I've never heard anyone in Denmark express a distaste for the term), but 'nordisk' is used to mean the exact same thing (and of course, 'det er meget mere moderne'), and when it comes to acknowledging the many similarities of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish food/shared culinary traditions, that's widely accepted.

Thank you. You said it much better than I could.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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