Food Jargon I Hate

[Deleted]

OK, I like food. I love it, in fact. When I was growing up in a very small town in the 70s, cookbooks were one of my escapes from provincialism and a glimpse into a far more glamorous life than I had any reasonable expectation of leading. I had a Larousse Gastronomique with tiny black and white photos and etchings of Carême's creations. One of my prized possessions was the Time-Life book Classic French Cooking by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey that had the most evocative photographs of food I had ever seen. I would attempt to recreate some of the dishes with mostly laughable results, because I was a 14-year old with Super-Valu ingredients and minimal cooking skills (you don't want to know about the paté de faisan en croûte I made for a party). But eventually I traveled and experienced good food and learned to cook reasonably well for myself, and thankfully, I recently married a man who appreciates my efforts.

What the hell happened to food since the internet was born?

First off, I am not talking about Any Port. I love the food discussions here, the acknowledgement of the sublime in unexpected places, and the non-fetishization of what is, after all, a basic bodily requirement. I find the food discussions here human-scaled, humorous, down-to-earth and practical, but with a touch of whimsy.

What i don't get are foodies. I hate that word, as if they have somehow smugly labeled themselves in an attempt to set themselves apart from the lard-asses and plebs who mindlessly consume. They search out the newest and trendiest. They write reviews of their meals while they are still at table, snapping photos of their artfully arranged plates, the flash blinding nearby diners. Eating has become a competitive sport. Yes, I know there were always gourmands, but somehow they took pride in indulging quietly and somewhat anonymously, and refused to pass on the name their favourite restaurants for fear they would lose their exclusivity.

I also decry the word "gourmet" stuck on things like potato chip bags and mid-priced pizzas. I say, if you have to describe something as gourmet (such a 1950s concept!), it ain't.

I won't even get started on menu descriptions of dishes in restaurants that feature polished concrete finishes and bizarre counter-intuitive food combinations that exist simply because they sound shocking.

I'm wondering if this bothers anyone else, or am I simply being cranky and curmudgeonly? I'm willing to shut up if anyone thinks I'm being unreasonable, but I can think of one or two regular contributors who might share my sentiments. Is there anything to be done?

[bixaorellana]

Not unreasonable! So much of what "those in the know" enshrine as wonderful seems to mark them as the admiring mob in the emperor's new clothes story.

Food presented in the form of foam? Bit and pieces stuck together in an abstract tower? Come on! It's not just the new and fiddly that "they" co-opt, either. Suddenly they're experts on such things as classic soda fountain offerings, pronouncing owlishly on things that ceased to exist before they were born. That sort of posturing reminds me of Fran Liebowitz's description of a true classic. In her Glossary of Words Used By Poorer People, meatloaf is "a gloriously rough kind of pate".

But I rant, especially since you specified food jargon. Actually, the very first thing that occurred to me is a non-word that never fails to set my teeth on edge: "veggies".

[Deleted]

Oh, Bixa, I love you!

I once went to the website of a restaurant I had considered visiting. There was a video of the creation of their Nitro Frozen Salmon Mousse. The entire dish was put together with tweezers. Between my husband and me, "tweezer food" has become code for "let's not go there".



And yes, "veggies" is terrible. What are we, three years old?

[mossie]

I'm with you Lizzy, I hate "mucked about" food. We were brought up on good old fashioned plain cooking, with recognisable ingredients. Not "nouvelle cuisine" with gravy drizzled in a thin stream round the outside, looking like an incontinent dog's efforts

[bjd]

Well, I admit that I like food when it is well presented. If that means having something drizzled around the plate, so be it. (Mossie -- there is no gravy in nouvelle cuisine! ;D)

What I don't like is the pretentiousness of it all -- people who will reserve months in advance to go to a restaurant where the food has been foamed into ludicrous shapes, and pay hundreds of dollars or euros to be allowed to eat it. I keep thinking that the chefs -- like the one near Barcelona whose name escapes me -- are just seeing how far they can go making fun of people. The Jeff Koons of cooking.

But, Lizzyfaire, if you grew up in Ontario in the 1970s, you must remember Fran's Restaurants, with their glorious descriptions of salads made of deliciously crisp (iceberg) lettuce, accompanied by slices of (pinkish hothouse) tomatoes, served with Fran's own yummy salad dressing (out of a bottle).

[Deleted]

Ah, bjd, I think you're thinking of Ferran Adria and elBulli. It's since closed but apparently is reopening in 2014, not as a restaurant but as a "creativity centre".

I was stuck in the backwaters of Vancouver Island in the 70s, I didn't get to Toronto and Fran's until the late 80s. I'm afraid I got my food pretensions from a childhood sojourn in Europe, where I remember marble dining rooms and waiters in coats and trout in tanks. My Dad once asked for vinegar for his frites in Germany, and it was served in a tiny silver pitcher on a doily on a silver tray.

[bixaorellana]

"Garden Salad" -- don't know if that's still ubiquitous, but it used to be the standard term for the house salad. I guess "Salad" just sounded too bald. Probably most cities in the US & Canada had menu descriptions very similar to Fran's.

Aug 22, 2013 19:39:02 GMT bjd said:

(Mossie -- there is no gravy in nouvelle cuisine! )

No, it has "reductions".

Hee hee on tweezer food, Lizzy. I suppose people who dine at such places would use the expression "Let's get the pincers out!", rather than "Let's put on the ole nosebag!"

Here's a term I don't really understand, even though it irritates me: pop-up. I keep checking on things deemed pop-up, hoping to glean a meaning. One article used it for restaurants that keep opening in different locations or in borrowed venues. That sort of makes sense, although it doesn't make them sound appealing. Someone here where I live touted a "pop-up event" at my local market. I went. It was the market, the regular old market. To illustrate the meaningless of the term, today I found this from Bon Apetit's facebook page:
Host your own ramen pop-up with this authentic, step-by-step recipe: is.gd/Y4kPtw.
The link directs you to fetch exotic ingredients, then spend three days preparing noodle soup. Eh?

[lagatta]

I have friends in Barcelona - the can't abide "molecular cuisine", "foams" and the rest of that El Bulli nonsense. Normal food there is above all seafood, simply prepared. And of course the staple tortilla, which is not a corn galette as in Mexico, but a thick, cooked-through omelette (like the Italian frittata) made of eggs, potato and onions. You can't get much more basic than that, but it is delicious. (Abundant olive oil doesn't hurt).

Lizzy, you won't believe the ad I'm viewing beside the foams video: Tampax Pearl Actives (tampons) - Leaks Guard brand - helps stop leaks before they happen. Somehow befits the foam video.

There have always been pretentious food writers. I think the problem is the internet and social media, so everyone who has visited a restaurant or public market thinks he or she is a food critic.

Lizzie, I'm sure Vancouver Island back then was nothing like it is now, in terms of food.

[Deleted]

Gravy = reduction, essence, coulis, infusion, nectar, gastrique.....The tweezer food restaurant has a dish that has "pine" as a main ingredient. What form does that take, do you suppose? Bark, needles, sap?

No, these days V.I. is quite the gastronomic destination. I still had a hard time finding a place in the Comox Valley to host my wedding reception, though.

[Deleted]

Lizzy, I'm sure that you have noticed on that "other site" that I am regularly in conflict with the foodies. I live in the Paris of real and ordinary people who eat normal food, use shortcuts during a busy week, don't mind some frozen items... and who don't live at all on the same planet as the fans of "gastronomic Paris" which I'm sure is worth visiting to look at just like Versailles is worth visiting... but not as a place to want to live. I am afraid that a lot of the Paris foodie fans really seem to think that every meal should be a visual and gustatory masterpiece... and it's obvious also that money is not a problem for them.

[Deleted]

Kerouac, it was the "other site"'s post today about "Area to Stay in Paris for Foodie" that got me started on this whole rant, as if any area in Paris is a wasteland of gastronomic despair. Heck, I can find good food in Fort St. John on a Sunday night if need be. It all depends on what one's expectations of good food are. I learned from school touring rural British Columbia in a van that no, sushi and burrata are probably not going to be easily found. Wings and a micro-brew, however…

I really want to go to a place like Le Grand Véfour, if only for the history and the decor. Not sure the food would be to my liking as much, though.

I recently picked up a second-hand book, Bouquet de France, An Epicurean Tour of the French Provinces, published in 1952, and previously owned by a merchant marine from Illinois (gleaned from internet research on the bookplate within). It's a wonderful slice of history about authentic cuisine in a France that was just coming out of deprivation. It's travelogue, criticism, restaurant listing and cookbook all rolled into one. Unfortunately, that world is long gone and will never return.

[patricklondon]

Here's a term I don't really understand, even though it irritates me: pop-up.

I can't say it particularly bothers me, though I suppose it does carry associations of being ambushed by someone trying to force-feed you cupcakes or whatever.

"Veggies" is ambigous: to me it means a vegetarian (what they live off - if abbreviated - is known in the UK just as "veg" - though you need to be wary of the phrase "meat and two veg", as this can have an additional slang meaning).

What does annoy me is "home-made", "chef's own" or "home cooking" for things that have come in a flash-frozen bag from the catering supplier. Fortunately, I have the impression that the flowery "Fresh from the dew-encrusted meadows" type of menu language has disappeared.

[lagatta]

Found that - I post at chowhound sometimes,mostly to suggest places to eat or find food on a limited budget here in Montréal, and sometimes weigh in about other cities I know. There too, there was the idea that only certain arrondissements were acceptable. I'm sure most people writing such queries, unless they were from Central London or Manhattan,lived in cities, suburbs or exurbs infinitely more far-flung. A recent case was someone worried because there were no public markets or even small supermarkets on Ile-St-Louis.

Ile St-Louis is probably no longer than the few short blocks I either cycle or walk almost every day to go to Marché Jean-Talon and other food shops, small and large. And I live in a place that has a "walkability" of about 98%. What on earth is the problem with crossing Pont-Marie and going into the Marais or even a bit beyond? You are on holiday - you want to explore. Obviously if people have severe disabilities I'd answer differently and look up alll possible resources.

[patricklondon]

The tweezer food restaurant has a dish that has "pine" as a main ingredient.

Are you sure that isn't part of a hip new gastronomic adventure into interactivity to enhance the gourmet experience... by getting you to "pine" for something substantial to eat?

[patricklondon]

I am afraid that a lot of the Paris foodie fans really seem to think that every meal should be a visual and gustatory masterpiece

And - naming no names - I'm a bt bemused (not much more than that) by those who write quite long reports of virtually nothing else, except perhaps brief mentions of friends they eat with (but who appear to do nothing else). Still, each to their own. I expect my gustatory habits would seem oddly unadventurous and impoverished to them.

[Kimby]

Patrick, perhaps it's an american thing, but I only associate "veggies" with vegetables, not the people who eat them, who are always referred to with all 5 syllables. Though the ones who also eschew eggs and dairy go by the inelegant "vegan".

[Deleted]

patrick, here is the ingredient list of that dish:

Anderson ranch lamb loin, buckwheat, carrots, pine, béarnaise sphere

Béarnaise sphere? I should hope so. I hate when my sauce has right angles!

[bjd]

I just googled Bearnaise sphere -- it probably leads back to your restaurant, lizzy.

www.starchefs.com/events/studio/techniques/brian_mccracken_dana_tough/html/index.shtml

They do admit they put chemicals in it to keep it together.

[Deleted]

That is so dreadfully ridiculous.

[tod2]

I thought it dreadfully ridiculous to be served a grilled sole with Bearnaise sauce today at lunch! It tasted OK so I suppose I should embrace the chef's decision..... I always marry it up with steak.

[Deleted]

That reminds me that I have a plastic pouch of "sauce à l'oseille" in my refrigerator that I should use soon.

[Deleted]

No, it's not the restaurant, but I'm sure they're talking about the same technique. And of course, Béarnaise isn't quite rich enough, it cries out to be deep-fried.

[Deleted]

Great thread topic!
So much of the jargon makes me nuts!!
It's as though all these people have discovered something new, novel only to their generation.

Along with the aforementioned peeves are "concepts" such as artisanal, slow food, foraging, along with others that will come to mind that I can add.

I can wrap my head around some of this in some respects but, these so called "concepts" have been around for a very long time and to present them as though they are something unique makes me gnash my teeth as Bixa noted.

Nouvelle cuisine, fusion, are a couple more that come to mind.....

[Deleted]

I do like the fact that a few places in Paris which like to mix up some of the trends but which don't like the pretentiousness of it all, claim that they serve "confusion food."

[patricklondon]

béarnaise sphere

Oh my Lord. They hadn't turned the béarnaise into a scoop of ice-cream, had they? or had they?

[Deleted]

I think it all comes down to the "consumer society" we belong to now. Everything has the marketing hustle driving it. If it's not new, fusion, molecular, spherical, there's the fear we won't buy. And that approach works, for a small minority of the population.

No, patrick, not ice cream. They mix béarnaise with calcium lactate. Then they drop it into an alginate bath, which forms it into a ball. They then deep-fry that and place it on your meal.

"The ball instantly breaks and oozes sauce and flavor – not thick or dense, but perfectly warm and thin. It’s delicious, tasty, and fun."

Yum.

[Deleted]

Gastropub. AHHRGGHHH!!

Sounds like some horrible infectious disease.

[Deleted]

I think they are getting us ready for those vats of cultured flesh which we will be eating instead of animals. It is sure to be moulded into all sorts of interesting shapes.

[Kimby]

(I have lately taken to reading the Any Port posts on my iPhone with the identities of posters off the left side of the tiny screen to make the messages large enough to read. Though this makes the posts anonymous, in effect, I can always recognize K2's special dry curmudgeonly posts.)

[lagatta]

While I agree that there is a lot of pretentious tosh in these terms, "slow food" was a deliberate antithesis to "fast food" and springs from an association in Italy, and the protest against the opening of a McDonalds in Rome, decades ago. There is nothing arcane about it.