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Food words often misused

Fat Guy

By Fat Guy
in Food Traditions & Culture

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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I'll start:

"Ahi tuna."

Ahi is not a variety of tuna. Ahi is the Hawaiian word for tuna. Saying ahi tuna is redundant (tuna tuna) and meaningless. Sometimes it's yellowfin, sometimes it's bigeye . . . it doesn't mean a damn thing. And no, if you see ahi tuna on a menu, it doesn't mean it came from Hawaii, it doesn't mean it has to be only the species caught in Hawaii . . . it doesn't have to mean anything. It might, it might not.

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)

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beans

beans

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Hmmm. Along something similar and will annoy me so some clarity is requested! U-15 shrimp being labeled as "prawns." I remember learning something that prawns were freshwater and shrimp are saltwater. Are they interchangeable? Why the confusion?

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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As I understand it, prawn = big shrimp is one of a few acceptable uses of the word. The term also refers to the freshwater prawn, and to the various mini-lobsters like langoustines and Dublin Bay prawns. English is not a particularly accurate language when it comes to differentiating among this category of crustaceans.

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)

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beans

beans

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Eeks, this is verring in a different direction, but I remember something horseshoe crab like in the land downunder that they capture and are a micro step away from lobsters that they call "bugs." What are those? I think I saw one once on some FN show and they were added to some salad. They looked odd, but I bet they were WONDERFUL!

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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They usually call them Moreton Bay bugs or mud bugs. I think in the American food press, on the rare occasion they're mentioned, they go by slipper lobster. I ate about a zillion of them in Singapore. Yum.

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)

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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Oh yes, that famous steak used for housing and repairing aircraft.

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)

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beans

beans

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They usually call them Moreton Bay bugs or mud bugs. I think in the American food press, on the rare occasion they're mentioned, they go by slipper lobster. I ate about a zillion of them in Singapore. Yum.

:wub: Thanks Fat Guy! I'll keep that info in mind and an eye open on my travels! I've got to try them!

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Niall

Niall

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They usually call them Moreton Bay bugs or mud bugs. I think in the American food press, on the rare occasion they're mentioned, they go by slipper lobster. I ate about a zillion of them in Singapore. Yum.

These are two varieties of these; Moreton Bay bugs and Balmain bugs. Both are delicious.

'You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.'

- Frank Zappa

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britcook

britcook

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Fresh

What, as opposed to stale? Meaningless.

Farm

So where else are you going to raise animals/grow crops? Usually applied to the output of an agricultural factory. And you can combine the two to give

Farm Fresh

As if!

Special

As in "our special recipe" or "today's special". It means our normal recipe or what we are trying to push today.

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richw

richw

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They usually call them Moreton Bay bugs or mud bugs. I think in the American food press, on the rare occasion they're mentioned, they go by slipper lobster. I ate about a zillion of them in Singapore. Yum.

I always wondered why there is so little mention of them in the US. There's a restaurant (CLICK HERE) in Fort Lauderdale that has been proudly serving them for 15+ years. The late owner Mike Hurst loved them and felt that their uniqueness would make them a great seller. He was right. The place is PACKED with tourists year-round, most likely due to its proximity to many hotels, not its food.

DISCLAIMER : I am not recommending this restaurant

Edited by richw (log)

South Florida

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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Do you think we could create a menu of just the redundant terms:

Ahi Tuna

Shrimp Scampi

Cholesterol-Free Vegetable Oil

Any others?

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)

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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At least I can relate: Maillard reaction doesn't sound particularly good on a menu. "Maillard reacted duck breast."

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)

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