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What were they thinking when they named it . . .

Ellen Shapiro
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Ellen Shapiro

Ellen Shapiro

Posted
Posted

No I'm not talking about the names movie stars give their kids. I'm talking about names of foods. I understand that if a food has a historically derived name then we have to stick with it. But if you're sitting in the here and now and you have the opportunity to name a food then there is no excuse for giving it a name that sounds like, for example, a disease.

The worst example I've seen lately is this new (three years old I am told) hybrid of a nectarine, apricot and plum. It is called the "Nectacotum," as in "Wow, this fungus on my nectacotum really itches," although I mean that in jest because we all know that girls don't have nectacotums.

Ellen Shapiro

www.byellen.com

Busboy

Busboy

Posted
Posted

My wife and I used to pick up a close cousin of broccoli marketed under the name "aspiration." Aside from how stupid the name was generally, it always reminded our addled brains of Jimi Hendrix's untimely demise.

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government.

Susan G

Susan G

Posted
Posted

I'd like to add the "pluot" to the list of names-of-new-foods-lacking-romance.

I'm a canning clean freak because there's no sorry large enough to cover the, "Oops! I gave you botulism" regrets.

Terrasanct

Terrasanct

Posted
Posted

Speaking of names, I realized the other day that croque monsieur must mean something like Mr. Crispy. That's about how good my French is. I suppose it sounds more classy if you call it by its French name.

Delicious Books
Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
Posted
Ugli Fruit is not particularly desirable yet clementines are positively Churchillian ...

See I'm in favor of Ugli Fruit -- I think it's a fun, almost self-effacing name (to the extent a fruit can be self-effacing by having a name given to it by others). I would be much more repelled by something like Pretty Fruit as a name.

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)

Oceangroveguy

Oceangroveguy

Posted
Posted

The scrod joke:

A man, about to take a trip to Boston, is told by a friend that there are many fine seafood restaurants in the city and that scrod is a local speciality.

The man hails a cab outside his hotel and asks the driver "Hey driver, where can a fellow go to get scrod around here?"

The driver replies "I've been driving a cab for 20 years, and have been asked that question a thousand times or more, but never in the past pluperfect subjunctive".

bad-dum, bad-dum, crash.

Hector

Hector

Posted
Posted (edited)

There's a chopped meat dish stew which in Sweden is called "hachis" wich can be very easily confused (when spoke about) to the drug Haschisch!

There's a brand of Swedish Chocolate called "Plopp", think mainly Brits will understand that one.

There was a French drink called Pschitte!

Edited by Hector (log)
jhlurie

jhlurie

Posted
Posted

Sticking with the fruit, does anyone really want to eat a Grapple? It sounds like you have to fight it before you eat it.

It's actually NOT a hybrid by the way. It's just soaked in grape juice. Seriously. And for that they charge about $1 per. They should call it "Crapple".

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

Posted
Posted
Sticking with the fruit, does anyone really want to eat a Grapple?  It sounds like you have to fight it before you eat it.

Actually, there is a thread for anyone interested in this fruit right here... and to me, grapple is something one did on a first date .. oops, I am revealing my age here ... :hmmm:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

ingridsf

ingridsf

Posted
Posted
It is called the "Nectacotum," as in "Wow, this fungus on my nectacotum really itches," although I mean that in jest because we all know that girls don't have nectacotums.

Exactly. I've got a nectacotA. Yes, it's real. And it's SPECTACULAR.

My fantasy? Easy -- the Simpsons versus the Flanders on Hell's Kitchen.

Genny

Genny

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Posted

I can't believe no one has mentioned the English favourite: Spotted Dick...just where the heck did this name come from??? Sounds awful.

Toliver

Toliver

Posted
Posted
I can't believe no one has mentioned the English favourite: Spotted Dick...just where the heck did this name come from???  Sounds awful.

Here is one explanation of the name.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Megan Blocker

Megan Blocker

Posted
Posted
There's a brand of Swedish Chocolate called "Plopp", think mainly Brits will understand that one.

That is just so wrong. You've ruined all my good feelings about chocolate, though I'm sure I'll recover quickly. :biggrin:

"We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air." - Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

Queenie Takes Manhattan

eG Foodblogs: 2006 - 2007

phaelon56

phaelon56

Posted
Posted
Hydrox

Can someone explain why anyone would choose this as a name for a cookie?

Yes of course - after all.... this IS egullet!

excerpted from a Fortune article posted on Spacefem.com

Back in 1908, Sunshine's founders were looking for a product name that would evoke purity and goodness. After deciding that water was the purest thing they could think of, they drew upon water's atomic elements--hydrogen and oxygen--to come up with Hydrox. Alas, as Keebler's market research has confirmed, this is a much better way to name a cleaning fluid than a cookie.

'We had very negative feedback on the name, even from loyal consumers,' says Carolyn Burns, Keebler's marketing director for cookies. After toying with a few replacement monikers, including Hydihos, Hydunks, Twisters, and Choco Twists, Keebler settled on Droxies.

MelissaH

MelissaH

Posted
Posted
Back in 1908, Sunshine's founders were looking for a product name that would evoke purity and goodness. After deciding that water was the purest thing they could think of, they drew upon water's atomic elements--hydrogen and oxygen--to come up with Hydrox. Alas, as Keebler's market research has confirmed, this is a much better way to name a cleaning fluid than a cookie.

'We had very negative feedback on the name, even from loyal consumers,' says Carolyn Burns, Keebler's marketing director for cookies. After toying with a few replacement monikers, including Hydihos, Hydunks, Twisters, and Choco Twists, Keebler settled on Droxies.

Are these still around, under any name? I always preferred them to Oreos, but haven't seen them in quite a while.

MelissaH

MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

foodblog1 | kitchen reno | foodblog2

fiftydollars

fiftydollars

Posted
Posted
Hydrox

Can someone explain why anyone would choose this as a name for a cookie?

Yes of course - after all.... this IS egullet!

excerpted from a Fortune article posted on Spacefem.com

Back in 1908, Sunshine's founders were looking for a product name that would evoke purity and goodness. After deciding that water was the purest thing they could think of, they drew upon water's atomic elements--hydrogen and oxygen--to come up with Hydrox. Alas, as Keebler's market research has confirmed, this is a much better way to name a cleaning fluid than a cookie.

'We had very negative feedback on the name, even from loyal consumers,' says Carolyn Burns, Keebler's marketing director for cookies. After toying with a few replacement monikers, including Hydihos, Hydunks, Twisters, and Choco Twists, Keebler settled on Droxies.

Thank you!

phaelon56

phaelon56

Posted
Posted
[Are these still around, under any name? I always preferred them to Oreos, but haven't seen them in quite a while.

Keebler bought Sunshine and discontinued them. Hydrox aficionado's suggest the following store brands as very close facsimiles:

Shop-Rite - Chocolate Sandwich Creme cookies

Safeway - Tuxedo's

Aldi - Mercer Chocolate Waves Sandwich Crème Cookies

Melissa - if there isn't one in Oswego there is an Aldi in Syracuse on Erie Blvd.

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