Eight misused restaurant menu descriptions

[Katy Lied]

Because I am an insufferable foodie, I’ve noticed these things lately.

1. Amuse Bouche vs. Appetizer
If the first one is free, and the second one can’t be had at any price, it is an amuse bouche. If it’s on the menu and you can order as many as you care to pay for, it is an appetizer.

2. Prix Fixe with wine pairings
If the prix fixe menu contains suggested wine pairings for an additional cost, it’s not really prix fixe, you know. Get those off the prix fixe menu.

3. Bleu Cheese
If it’s from Italy, it’s Gorgonzola, if from England, it’s Stilton, if France, it has several different names, depending upon the region. Or bleu cheese if it is from France but you’re not sure which region. If it’s from the happy cows of California, it’s plain old blue cheese.

4. Teriyaki
The shiny luster comes from the mirin in the teriyaki sauce. Pineapple juice and sugar, or any other ingredients, makes unglazed pineapple chicken. I’ve no objection to the substitution of sake and sugar for the mirin, although that is cheating.

5. Seared to Lock in the juices
Searing just does not lock in any meat juices. I refer you to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking for the scientific explanation.

6. Mesclun salad, or mesclun mixed green salad
Mesclun already means salad of tender mixed greens; thus we have the unnecessary description of a tender mixed green salad mixed green salad.

7. Tiramisu
Authentic tiramisu contains 1) raw eggs, and 2)crème fraiche. I always ask; if it doesn’t have both it’s just coffee flavored cool whip. And don’t get me started on Caesar Salad without the anchovies and raw eggs.

8. Aged Beef
Hold the beef joint until the outside is literally rotten, and you have what the French call mortification. Yum! However cooler space is at a premium, and most aged beef is not held the necessary 10 days to 3 weeks needed for the best taste and texture. Beef is usually “aged” in the refrigerator truck on the way to market.

[PaloAltoCougar]

This is a post I'm going to study a bit more, and I'll look forward to the responses it evokes from a couple of the other resident foodies. That said, however, I must tell you that posting such things on a Fast Sunday morn is a bit a sadistic.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Because I am an insufferable foodie, I’ve noticed these things lately.

1. Amuse Bouche vs. Appetizer
If the first one is free, and the second one can’t be had at any price, it is an amuse bouche. If it’s on the menu and you can order as many as you care to pay for, it is an appetizer.

2. Prix Fixe with wine pairings
If the prix fixe menu contains suggested wine pairings for an additional cost, it’s not really prix fixe, you know. Get those off the prix fixe menu.

3. Bleu Cheese
If it’s from Italy, it’s Gorgonzola, if from England, it’s Stilton, if France, it has several different names, depending upon the region. Or bleu cheese if it is from France but you’re not sure which region. If it’s from the happy cows of California, it’s plain old blue cheese.

4. Teriyaki
The shiny luster comes from the mirin in the teriyaki sauce. Pineapple juice and sugar, or any other ingredients, makes unglazed pineapple chicken. I’ve no objection to the substitution of sake and sugar for the mirin, although that is cheating.

5. Seared to Lock in the juices
Searing just does not lock in any meat juices. I refer you to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking for the scientific explanation.

6. Mesclun salad, or mesclun mixed green salad
Mesclun already means salad of tender mixed greens; thus we have the unnecessary description of a tender mixed green salad mixed green salad.

7. Tiramisu
Authentic tiramisu contains 1) raw eggs, and 2)crème fraiche. I always ask; if it doesn’t have both it’s just coffee flavored cool whip. And don’t get me started on Caesar Salad without the anchovies and raw eggs.

8. Aged Beef
Hold the beef joint until the outside is literally rotten, and you have what the French call mortification. Yum! However cooler space is at a premium, and most aged beef is not held the necessary 10 days to 3 weeks needed for the best taste and texture. Beef is usually “aged” in the refrigerator truck on the way to market.

I think you just made DDD's pants tight.

[Fiyero]

Pizza with "canadian bacon" and "pineapple." aka sliced ham, and syrupy preserved pineapple bits from a can.

[il Padrino Ute]

I guess I will never be considered a foodie. There are only two requirements I have for a meal: that it tastes good and is served in generous portions.

[Surfah]

I guess I will never be considered a foodie. There are only two requirements I have for a meal: that it tastes good and is served in generous portions.

Mine too. When is the Padrino family inviting us over for dinner?

[OhioBlue]

Because I am an insufferable foodie, I’ve noticed these things lately.

1. Amuse Bouche vs. Appetizer
If the first one is free, and the second one can’t be had at any price, it is an amuse bouche. If it’s on the menu and you can order as many as you care to pay for, it is an appetizer.

2. Prix Fixe with wine pairings
If the prix fixe menu contains suggested wine pairings for an additional cost, it’s not really prix fixe, you know. Get those off the prix fixe menu.

3. Bleu Cheese
If it’s from Italy, it’s Gorgonzola, if from England, it’s Stilton, if France, it has several different names, depending upon the region. Or bleu cheese if it is from France but you’re not sure which region. If it’s from the happy cows of California, it’s plain old blue cheese.

4. Teriyaki
The shiny luster comes from the mirin in the teriyaki sauce. Pineapple juice and sugar, or any other ingredients, makes unglazed pineapple chicken. I’ve no objection to the substitution of sake and sugar for the mirin, although that is cheating.

5. Seared to Lock in the juices
Searing just does not lock in any meat juices. I refer you to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking for the scientific explanation.

6. Mesclun salad, or mesclun mixed green salad
Mesclun already means salad of tender mixed greens; thus we have the unnecessary description of a tender mixed green salad mixed green salad.

7. Tiramisu
Authentic tiramisu contains 1) raw eggs, and 2)crème fraiche. I always ask; if it doesn’t have both it’s just coffee flavored cool whip. And don’t get me started on Caesar Salad without the anchovies and raw eggs.

8. Aged Beef
Hold the beef joint until the outside is literally rotten, and you have what the French call mortification. Yum! However cooler space is at a premium, and most aged beef is not held the necessary 10 days to 3 weeks needed for the best taste and texture. Beef is usually “aged” in the refrigerator truck on the way to market.

Good post. You might (or might not) be impressed to hear that I worked in 'amuse bouche' and 'creme fraiche' to a paper presentation at a psych conference last week.

[wuapinmon]

Pizza with "canadian bacon" and "pineapple." aka sliced ham, and syrupy preserved pineapple bits from a can.

Six years at Pizza Hut in Provo.

"Thank you for calling Provo Pizza Hut. Is this for delivery of carryout?"

"I want a Large Pan with bacon and pineapple and 2 liters of rutbeer."

"Ok, do you want it delivered or do you want to come get it?"

"deliver"

"What's your phone #?"

"383-8743"

"Brent Jensen, Alta Apartments, #213?"

"How'd you know?"

"What can I get for you again?"

""I want a Large Pan with bacon and pineapple and 2 liters of rutbeer."

"So you want a Large Pan Pizza with ham, pineapple, and a 2-liter bottle of rootbeer?"

"No, I want bacon."

"Breakfast bacon?"

"No, the Canadian stuff."

"Okay, so a Large Pan Pizza with 'canadian bacon,' and pineapple, and a 2-liter bottle of rootbeer?"

"No, I want 2 liters of rutbeer."

"One bottle, or two?"

"Two"

"So, you want 2 2-liter bottles of rootbeer?"

"Yes."

"Okay, that'll be $17.84 and it'll be there in about 35 mins."

At least twice every day.

[CJF]

Six years at Pizza Hut in Provo.



At least twice every day.

Not sure what's more sad. The fact that someone made that order twice a day for six years or that someone worked at the Provo Pizza Hut for six years.

[TripletDaddy]

Good post. You might (or might not) be impressed to hear that I worked in 'amuse bouche' and 'creme fraiche' to a paper presentation at a psych conference last week.

Hey, was that before or after you went to eat hot dogs and pizza?

[cowboy]

Because I am an insufferable foodie, I’ve noticed these things lately.

1. Amuse Bouche vs. Appetizer
If the first one is free, and the second one can’t be had at any price, it is an amuse bouche. If it’s on the menu and you can order as many as you care to pay for, it is an appetizer.

2. Prix Fixe with wine pairings
If the prix fixe menu contains suggested wine pairings for an additional cost, it’s not really prix fixe, you know. Get those off the prix fixe menu.

3. Bleu Cheese
If it’s from Italy, it’s Gorgonzola, if from England, it’s Stilton, if France, it has several different names, depending upon the region. Or bleu cheese if it is from France but you’re not sure which region. If it’s from the happy cows of California, it’s plain old blue cheese.

4. Teriyaki
The shiny luster comes from the mirin in the teriyaki sauce. Pineapple juice and sugar, or any other ingredients, makes unglazed pineapple chicken. I’ve no objection to the substitution of sake and sugar for the mirin, although that is cheating.

5. Seared to Lock in the juices
Searing just does not lock in any meat juices. I refer you to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking for the scientific explanation.

6. Mesclun salad, or mesclun mixed green salad
Mesclun already means salad of tender mixed greens; thus we have the unnecessary description of a tender mixed green salad mixed green salad.

7. Tiramisu
Authentic tiramisu contains 1) raw eggs, and 2)crème fraiche. I always ask; if it doesn’t have both it’s just coffee flavored cool whip. And don’t get me started on Caesar Salad without the anchovies and raw eggs.

8. Aged Beef
Hold the beef joint until the outside is literally rotten, and you have what the French call mortification. Yum! However cooler space is at a premium, and most aged beef is not held the necessary 10 days to 3 weeks needed for the best taste and texture. Beef is usually “aged” in the refrigerator truck on the way to market.

To be honest, except for points 5 and 8, this entire post was Greek to me. I have a one-word description for anything that didn't eat grass and have its hide seared with a branding iron sometime before it reached my plate: Trimmings. And trimmings don't matter much to me. I prefer my potatoes baked, and my salad with blue cheese (doesn't matter to me where that cow that provided it's ingredients lived.) Everything beyond that usually gets pushed aside, or I stir it around with my fork to avoid hurting my host's feelings.

On point 5, I disagree somewhat. I've cooked a lot of steaks, and I sear all of them. While the primary purpose of searing is to provide the extra flavor of the blackened exterior, I believe that it does help the inner portions of the meat retain moisture. I know, the studies don't show it, but I'll demonstrate over and over that a seared steak leaves more juice on the plate than a baked steak.

Point 8 is a good reason to buy a rib and throw it in the fridge for a week or two before cooking it. It's much better when it ages, which is one of the primary reasons I believe that beef out of my freezer tastes better than beef from Costco.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Hey, was that before or after you went to eat hot dogs and pizza?

Food snob fight!!!!

[Solon]

Wow. Nice work, KL. I don't know anything about fancy food, but I know a thing or two about language. A few misused food words used to drive me nuts, but now I just shrug. Here they are:

Decadent This word almost always shows up somewhere on the dessert menu, usually with something chocolate. I like chocolate a lot, which is why I don't really want it to be decadent. The word is derived from the Latin decadentia, which implies death,decay, and decline. I know that people use the word to imply the moral decadence that such luxurious hedonism as eating rich chocolate denotes. I get it. But, that's not really all that morally decadent. If you want to use the word metaphorically, try it on something applicable.

Drizzle I've only run across this word in two contexts: to describe rain and to describe how some kind of sauce is applied to some dish. As a word for rain, I find it completely legitimate. It really means "spray" or a fine mist. When it's drizzling outside, the rain isn't falling very hard.

Too bad this isn't the way it's used in food preparation. Strawberry sauce "drizzled" on cheesecake usually means it's poured on in a zig-zaggy way. Tell me, chef-people. Have you ever seen it rain in zig-zags? The patterned pour, coupled with this word's rhyming with "whiz" makes me want to stay away. Anybody want some "whizzled" lemon sauce?

Savoury. There are multiple meanings, the most common being something that is very appetizing, agreeable, etc. Too bad this word has come to mean "things that are not sweet that we can serve at cocktail parties." So, by this definition, a chocolate chip cookie isn't "savoury" but, by the most common understanding of the word's meaning, chocolate chip cookies are (usually) amazingly savoury (appetizing).

It's probably gastronomically important to make this distinction, but can't someone come up with a different word? Like "salty"?

[Katy Lied]

Decadent This word almost always shows up somewhere on the dessert menu, usually with something chocolate. I like chocolate a lot, which is why I don't really want it to be decadent. The word is derived from the Latin decadentia, which implies death,decay, and decline. I know that people use the word to imply the moral decadence that such luxurious hedonism as eating rich chocolate denotes. I get it. But, that's not really all that morally decadent. If you want to use the word metaphorically, try it on something applicable.

This reminds me of an overused food word I cant stand: enrobed. "Enrobed in decadent chocolate, drizzled with caramel."

[TripletDaddy]

My observation of common misused restaurant menu descriptions:

1. Mexican
2. Chinese
3. Italian
4. Deli