Most fancifully named dishes

[Kent Wang]

Chinese cuisine is filled with them. A few copied from Wikipedia, which is better at describing them than I am.

Shanghai steamed buns (上海小籠包 seong hoi siu lung bau, 上海小龙包 Shànghǎi xiǎolóngbāo)

These "little juicy dumplings" are filled with meat or seafood and are famous for their flavour and rich soup inside. Shanghai steamed buns can be recognised by their unique design, as the filled wrapper is gathered up into fine folds at the top, prior to steaming. To eat this you must make a small hole in the buns, suck out all the hot soup inside, then dip it in Chinese vinegar, finally you can eat it.

This is actually literally translated as Small Dragon Bun. I don't know what it has to with dragons, but 龙 (lóng) may also refer to the steaming vessel in which the buns are served. Being from Shanghai, this is my absolute favorite dim sum dish.

Phoenix Talons (鳳爪 fung zau, 凤爪 fèngzhua)

These are actually chicken feet that are marinated and then steamed in a black bean sauce. One may also sometimes get clear, steamed chicken feet that is served with a vinegar dipping sauce. This version is known as "White Cloud Phoenix Talons" (白雲鳳爪; baiyunfengzhua; Cantonese: bak wun fung jau)

I've had it many times and is quite good. One of my dim sum favorites.

In Guangdong, China, cat is reportedly served along with snake in a dish called "The Dragon and the Tiger".

Never had cat, though I've had snake which is quite good.

Of course, not all fancifully named dishes have to be exotic but nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

[Pan]

Hmm...I've always liked the name "alla puttanesca," which means "in the style of the whore" in Italian. Various theories have been put forward to explain the name, but I just like its colorfulness.

[SuzySushi]

My favorite fanciful Chinese food name has to be "Ants Climbing a Tree."

In Japanese, I like "Oyako Donburi," literally "Parent-and-Child Bowl" because it contains both chicken and eggs.

[Kent Wang]

My favorite fanciful Chinese food name has to be "Ants Climbing a Tree."

Good one! This is ground pork stir-fried with a vegetable of some kind. The ground pork looks like ants. Can you name the vegetable? My mom usually makes "ants climbing bricks" (蚂蚁上转, ma yi shang zhuan) which is with squash cut to into squares, which resembles bricks.

[SuzySushi]

My favorite fanciful Chinese food name has to be "Ants Climbing a Tree."

Good one! This is ground pork stir-fried with a vegetable of some kind. The ground pork looks like ants. Can you name the vegetable? My mom usually makes "ants climbing bricks" (蚂蚁上转, ma yi shang zhuan) which is with squash cut to into squares, which resembles bricks.

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I've always understood it to be ground pork stir-fried with cellophane (mung bean) noodles, with the noodles representing the branches of the tree.

[anzu]

China also has 'Crossing the bridge noodles'. (Guoqiaomian)

This one has a long story to go with it about how a dutiful daughter used to carry a freshly made bowl of noodles in broth every day to her father working in the fields (crossing a bridge along the way). By the time she arrived, however, the dish had cooled down.

Then, one day by chance, the broth had a thicker layer of fat on top. Lo and behold, the dish retained its heat all the way to the field.

So crossing the bridge noodles is a winter dish consisting of noodles in broth with a fairly noticeable layer of fat on top. It's very delicious, too.

Moving away from China, there are many other fancifully named dishes I can think of in other places too. I'll name just one:

Angels' double chins - the version I know of is Brazilian and is a egg and flour based sweet baked in the oven and then drenched in sugar syrup.

[moosnsqrl]

"The Priest Fainted" is (as I recall...middle age memory happy to be corrected by more authoratative source) a dish involving eggplant and quality olive oil. Because of eggplant's ability to absorb EVOO and it's relative cost, this dish got it's name (or so the lore goes). I first learned about this via "The Frug" but have seen it in many sources since.

[Daniel Rogov]

"The Priest Fainted" 

The dish is imam ba'aldi in Turkish. Another Turkish dish the name of which I like is Kadin Budu (woman's thighs) a chopped meat dish, some claiming they were given their name because of their "plump, round shape" and others (mostly men) say that that they are called this because they are "as juicy and as tender" as the thighs of a woman.

And of course the French cuisses des nymphes (nymphs' thighs) - those of course being frogs' legs.

[M.X.Hassett]

and do not forget Buddha jumping over the wall, whole thread on it in China http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=75151

Edited October 5, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Capezzoli-di-Venere which are Roman chestnuts in brandied sugar ... a truffle ... and a delightful surprise!

[Kent Wang]

Capezzoli-di-Venere which are Roman chestnuts in brandied sugar ...

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Oooh, those were featured in the film Amadeus.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Oooh, those were featured in the film Amadeus.

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which I remembered vividly .. or Vivaldily ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

the poetry of some Japanese dish names

Japanese restaurant menus, could be mistaken for poetry, especially those that are penned in flowing brush strokes on gossamer rice paper scrolls. Dishes with names such as tsukimi wan ("moon-viewing" broth), momiji oroshi ("red maple" sauce), and shigure ni ("autumn rains") read like an ode to autumn. As fall turns to winter and icicle radishes reach their peak of flavor, furofuki ("steaming hot, hot-tub" vegetables), and mizore ae ("sleet" sauce) appear frequently on menus in traditional-style restaurants.

Tsukimi wan will most likely contain a perfectly round poached egg, or perhaps bean curd cut in a perfect circle to mimic the full harvest moon. Momiji oroshi signals the inclusion of fiery red togarashi pepper in the grated radish condiment often served with fried or simmered foods. Shigure ni alerts diners to expect an intensely ginger-flavored soy stewed food.

[jackal10]

Nun's farts (Pets des soeurs)

Venus's Nipples

Peach Melba

Airline chicken (a corruption of aileron de volaille)

SLightly off-topic are poetic Chinese or Japanese name for firework effects:

Dragon (comet-like trail of sparks)

Pearl (single star), so for example "dragon chasing pearl" means a coloured star with a tail of sparks

Kamuro "haircut" trailing sparks like a japanese childs bowl haircut

Chrysthantemum: spherical burst shape

Dahlia: cone burst shape (stars ejected fro a canister)

Fish: stars that "swim"; Bees; Hummers

etc etc

Edited October 5, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Rehovot]

Tortellini...Venus's bellybutton!

I'm also fond of Mont Blanc....sublimely, if not fancifully, named...

[gourmande]

Pope's nose!

[Chris Amirault]

Rocky Mountain oysters.

[ludja]

Classic Austrian and Hungarian pastries and desserts named after notable figures of the past or with other historical references always have a fanciful ring to me and often have stories attached to them as well:

Esterhazyschnitten (Esterhazy slices): nut meringue slices

Malakofftorte: (Malakoff Torte) Ladyfinger Rum Cream torte

Kaiserschmarren: Emperor's pancake/omelette

Spanishe Windtorte (Spanish 'Wind" Cake); a baroque fantasty fashioned out of meringues and filled with wild strawberries and whipped cream

Mohr im Hemb (Moor in a shirt) steamed chocolate pudding covered in a meringue cream sauce.

A couple of non-Austrian dishes that come to mind:

Nesselrode Rudding

Pavlova

Robert E. Lee Cake

Edited October 6, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Floating Island! Also...

Caca Chicken - Something my dad used to make, and you can guess what it looked like.

Baked Alaska - To this day, I've never had it, but I'm fascinated by it and love the name - so evocative!

And most Italian names for pasta shapes (capellini (angel's hair), gnocchi (little fists), farfalle (butterflies), orecchietti (little ears), vermicelli (little worms))...I love that they're named for what they look like.

[moosnsqrl]

the Robert E Lee post reminded me of "Watergate Cake" from the bad old days.

Croque Madame et Monsieur

...and less famous but another recipe I've lost is called Dave [somebody's] "I have seen God" Clam Chowder. If anyone else has it, let me know. All I remember is that it is loaded with bacon and butter (maybe that's why Dave what's-his-name saw god?)

[browniebaker]

I love the name Stargazey Pie, a savory Cornish pie of pilchards with their heads poking straight up through the pastry crust.

[schnitzel]

Pigs in Blankets

Angels (or Devils) on Horseback

Devil's Food Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Lady Baltimore Cake

Hummingbird Cake

Mississippi Mud Pie

Hush Puppies

[Shalmanese]

toast soldiers

[The Hersch]

Moors and Christians.

[Megan Blocker]

Moors and Christians.

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Can you describe this dish, Hersch?