World Foods with Strange Names

Dr. Ian Grierson

Description

If you have that travel bug thing in your system and that is combined with my being a compulsive foodie for most of my life then you have someone with an obsessive interest in International cuisines. I knew many of our dishes in these Islands have weird names but the more I travelled, each country I visited or neighbouring countries had a scattering of curiously or contradictory named dishes. It became almost a hobby of mine to hunt them out to study their recipes, their histories or at least explore how they got their strange names. We may have in England foods like “sweetbreads” but in Italy there is “Jump in the Mouth”, Iran has its “Water Meat”, China “Ants Climbing a Tree” or in the US you might enjoy “Poor Boy with Debris”. I have made a number of them at home, eaten many more in restaurants or as street food but some I have never had only read about. There are no recipes as such in my book only some words about strangely named foods from around the Globe I hope you find interesting.

Sujets

• Food
• Cooking
• Feed
• La cuisine et son histoire

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781728374284
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

WORLD FOODS WITH STRANGE NAMES
 
 
 
 
 
DR. IAN GRIERSON
 
 
 
 

 
AuthorHouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK)
UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2022 Dr. Ian Grierson. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse  07/20/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-7283-7429-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-7428-4 (e)
 
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
Introduction
England
1. Periwinkles
2. Sweetbreads
3. Fish Fingers
4. Mucky Dripping
Scotland
1. Tipsy Laird
2. Crappit Heid
3. Hattit Kit
4. Clootie Dumpling
Ireland
1. Farl
2. Crubeens
3. Goody
4. Spice Bag
Wales
1. Crempog
2. Miser’s Feast
3. Laverbread
4. Oggie
Holland
1. Funfair soup
2. Hot Lightning
3. Five Breaks
Belgium
1. Boiled Water
2. Birds’ Nests
3. Blind Finches
4. American Fillet
France
1. Financier
2. Headless Larks
3. Grandma Rum
4. Crunch in the Mouth
Switzerland
1. Backpacker
2. Cholera
3. Salted Sugar
Italy
1. Priest choker
2. White Mountain
3. Music Paper
4. Jump in the Mouth
Spain
1. Nuns’ Sighs
2. Rotten Pot
3. Moors and Christians
4. A Fish Operetta
Portugal
1. Old Clothes
2. Cow’s Hand
3. Little Frenchie
4. Camel Drool
Russia and Ukraine
1. Settler’s Soup
2. Herring under a Fur Coat
3. Bird’s Milk
4. Easter
Poland
1. Pie
2. Little Pigeons
3. Little Ears
4. Hooves
Scandinavia
1. Flying Jacob
2. Cliff Fish
3. Slapped Ears
4. Veiled Country Maiden
Baltic States and Belarus
1. Hangover Soup
2. Bread Soup
3. Zeppelin
4. Rose Oil
Germany
1. Mouth Bags
2. Tree Frogs
3. Little Boy’s Penis
4. Bee Stings
Austria
1. Cat’s Tongues
2. Emperor’s Pancake
3. Cheesy Little Sparrows
4. Mozart Balls
Czech (now Czechia) and Slovak Republics
1. Grenadier March
2. Small Pockets
3. Moravian Sparrow
4. Drowning Men
Hungary
1. Snail
2. National Assembly Soup
3. Seven Chiefs
4. Chimney Cake
Balkans
1. Black George
2. Snow White
3. Small Ones
4. Under the Bell
Greece and it’s Islands
1. Bubbler
2. Pharmacist
3. Shoes
4. Bread of Basil
Other Mediterranean Islands
1. Widow’s Soup
2. Dirty Rice
3. Breadcrumbs
4. Sorrows
Turkey
1. The Imam has Fainted
2. Sultan’s Delight
3. Woman’s Thighs
4. The priest’s stew
Middle East
1. Upside Down
2. Spoiled Daddy
3. Floaters
4. Soak
Iran
1. Water Meat
2. Bottom of the Pot
3. Fried Herbs
4. Slamming
Arabian Peninsula
1. Dew
2. Pressed
3. Hit
4. Disc of Rope
North Africa
1. Local Life
2. Shaken
3. Velvet Soup
4. Gazelle’s Horns
Africa Elsewhere
1. Walky Talky
2. Zanzibar Pizza
3. Rolex
4. Pepper Soup
The Stans
1. Half Moon
2. Stretch the Dough
3. Five Fingers
4. Melt in the Mouth
Indian Subcontinent
1. Katakat
2. Bombay Duck
3. Jumping Potatoes
4. Vinegar Curry
Thailand
1. Blood Clams
2. Galloping Horses
3. Dancing Shrimps
4. Boat Noodles
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
1. Water Fern Cake
2. Fish in the Fire Lake
3. Morning Glory
4. Broken Rice
Malaysia and Singapore
1. Bread John
2. Brains
3. Burnt Fish
4. Carrot Cake
Indonesia
1. Devil’s Soup
2. Submarine
3. Spicy-spicy
Philippenes
1. Soup Number 5
2. Beer Chow
3. Berigg
4. Adidas
China
1. Thousand Year Eggs
2. Lion’s Heads
3. Dragon in the Flame of Desire
4. Ants Climbing a Tree
Taiwan
1. Stinky Tofu
2. Coffin Buns
3. Chicken Bums
4. Frog’s Egg Tea
Korean Peninsula
1. Hangover Stew
2. Rice Thief
3. Fake Meat
4. Sundae
Japan
1. Cherry Blossom Meat
2. Sliced and Broiled
3. Steamed Teacup
4. Sumo Stew
Pacific Islands
1. Sea Grapes
2. Break Crust
3. Stab
4. Jawbreakers
Australia and New Zealand
1. Snags
2. Mud Bugs
3. Hangi
4. Hokey Pokey
South America
1. Romeo and Juliet
2. Tiger’s Milk
3. Little Goat
4. Hunger Killer
Mexico
1. Drowned Sandwich
2. Little Donkey
3. Poisoned Tacos
4. Corn fungus
Elsewhere in Central America
1. Speckled Cock Hen
2. Red and Spicy
3. Black Dinner
4. Three Milks
Cuba
1. Fried
2. Midnight
3. Old Clothes
4. Cornet
Jamaica
1. Festival
2. Vital
3. Stamp and Go
4. Hummingbird Cake
Other Cribbean Islands
1. Doubles
2. Wrapped Children
3. Oil Down
4. Goat Water
USA
1. Rocky Mountain Oysters
2. Hot Dogs
3. Poor Boy with Debris
4. Grits
Canada
1. Jiggs’ Dinner
2. Beavers Tails
3. Persians
4. Big Turk
INTRODUCTION
I got the idea for this collection of oddly named dishes while I was writing books on where our favourite foods actually originated. During my life I have travelled a lot on most Continents both for work and pleasure. I always have had an interest in the local foods and classic dishes of different countries; as a result my life style suited my passion. You might say each feeding off the other (sorry about that I have a poor sense of humour).
The names of dishes are most often purely descriptive and say exactly what you will get. Take for example our British “fish and chips”, Indian “sag aloo” (spinach and potato curry), Chinese “lin-moun chi” (lemon chicken), German “bratwurst mit sauerkraut” (sausage with sauerkraut) and so on. Dishes sometimes are called after the country where they originate for example “Irish Stew”, “Russian salad” and “Swedish meatballs”. Quite often they keep their regional names such as “gasconade de gigot d’agneau” (“Gascon leg of lamb”), “murg Kashmiri” (“Kashmir chicken”), “Florida grapefruit salad” and “Yorkshire puddings”. Some foods even generate a high level of local pride so that they keep their hometown associations. Such is the case with “bistecca alla Florentina” (“Florence steak”), “Paella de Valencia” (Valencian rice dish), “Finnan haddock” from northern Scotland and “Bath Buns” from the south west of England.
Given all that already said about names of dishes, World wide there are a number of foods that are distinguished by having odd names, often nothing at all to do with the constituents of the recipe. The name of the item might be a foodie joke as is the case I suppose with “spotted dick” the British currant steamed pudding that older relatives once thrived on. How about “croque monsieur” the classic French ham and cheese toastie that roughly converts into English as “Mister crunch”? On the other hand a Chinese dinner called “fuqi feipian” translates literally to “husband and wife lung slices” - nasty! Before any cannibals get too excited this spicy Sichuan street food was invented by a husband and wife duo from the 1930s who originally did use ox lung but these days it is mixed meat and other offal.
It is these dishes that particularly interest me and bring a smile to my face. If you want to find weird names for dishes then you needn’t look much further than Britain and our traditional cuisine. China gives us a run for our money in terms of bizarre names dotted around its various cuisines while in addition USA contributes its fare share. The Americans also like to add foodie geographic confusion to the mix in their own inimitable way. What I mean is their “French fries” are actually Belgian, you can’t get “Canadian bacon” in Canada because it is a term specific to the US, “Chinese fortune cookies” were created in California by Japanese immigrants so not at all Chinese - and so it goes on.
Crazy named dishes are not restricted to the three countries I’ve mentioned up to now - they merely excel at the silly name business while many others also compete quite effectively but to a slightly lesser degree of madness. When you dig deep into cuisines from around the World they all have a few dishes whose names are worth a giggle or two. I admit freely I have not trolled my way through the cuisines of the approximately 195 countri