Do you identify as a pescatarian, or maybe a flexitarian (or is it flexatarian)? Do you say rocket or arugula? Sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke? How do you pronounce pecan? Are you more likely to give a man a fish, or teach him to fish--and who came up with that saying, anyway? All these may qualify as future topics of a fabulous new bi-weekly blog column on cookthink.com called "Minced Words," penned by Merriam-Webster lexicographer and bar proprietress Emily Brewster. The subject? The language of food, something right up my alley (in fact, i wish I'd thought of it first). So far, Ms. Brewster has investigated the roots of political pork expressions like "pork barrel spending" and "high on the hog," questioned her own bar-restaurant's use of "carpaccio" for a dish without meat or fish (a pear dish, in this case), and waxed poetic on the subject of celestial-themed food terms like "ambrosia" and "angel food cake."
Ms. Brewster, a sort of William Safire of the food realm, has plenty of material to work with. The carpaccio bit interested me most so far--restaurant menus are notoriously loose in their terminology. Terrine, torte, deconstructed this, essence of that. What's your food terminology pet peeve?
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