Food idioms

Food idioms!

"An idiom is a word, phrase, or expression that cannot be taken literally because the meaning is figurative. Idioms are a form of expression peculiar to a language"

The English language has many idioms that mentions food. How can food add a bit of spice to the English language and where do they come from? This is what we are going to try to find out in this article.m of expression peculiar to a language".

Take a physiological necessity essential to human survival: eating. Mix it for several centuries to the only way of communication that humans have: language. Sprinkle the whole with a few grams of customs, locals particularities, infliuent

ial personalities... you will finaly get a nice array of food expressions!

For example, have you ever heard of the expression "to go cold turkey"?

It is usually said when you want to quit something, it can be alcohol or cigarettes as well as chocolate or soda, without weaning yourself off it. It is said that tje original idea was that a person withdrawing from using drugs would find his or her skin turning hard to the touch and translucent to look at, with goose pimples all over - like the skin of a plucked turkey. It ha salso been suggested that the phrase is a comparison between eating a no-prep meal of cold turkey and stopping heavy drugs use without preparation...

Also, have you ever "buttered someone up"?? This idiom is used when trying to persuade someone to do something for someone else. It's easy to assume that the idea behind this phrase has to do with the smoothly way of how butter can be spread on bread. But that is not it. It is said that it comes from an ancient Indian custom of "throwing butterballs of ghee (clarified butter comonly used in Indian cooking) at the statues of the gods to seek favor".

You could also hear "to have a bun in the oven". It refers to a woman who is pregnant. The origin of this term are unclear but is has been used since the early mid 20th century to compare pregnancy and baking. TThe bun aka the baby, has to be cooked for a specific lenght of time in the oven, or the mother's womb.

But the most basic ingredients of food expressions are fruits and vegetables. For example you can hear:

"to go bananas": go crazy, mad or wild with excitment, anger, frustration or any strong emotion. No one really knows where this expression comes from but it is said that it might have been originated in the 60's when rumors spread across universities campuses that roasted banana peels had psychedelic propertis and that ingesting them could lead to hallucinations similar to LSD or magic mushrooms...

"to be like two peas in a pod": to say that two people are like two peas in a pod means that they are very similar in appearance. The phrase, which is sometimes given as "like as two peas", is quite old and versions of it date from the 16th century.

"to be as cool as a cucumber": when someone is as cool as

a cucumber it means they are not anxious, but relaxed and non-emotional. This expression was first recorded in John

Gay'sPoems, New song on new similies, in 1732. "I...as cool as a cucumber could see The rest of womankind"

"a hot potato" is a problem or topic so controversial an sensitive that it is hard to deal with. This term dates back from the mid 1800's.

Why did all these food idioms emerged in English language throughout all these years? Probably because all these expressions using food are instantly very recognisable by everyone. I think that the key to a good expression is that it needs to be very easy to picture for everybody. Food is good for this reason because it is an experience that we all share and that we can all understand. Maybe in the future we will start to hear expressions about more recent culinary imports!?

SPICES

 The story and the scent of spices

The variety of the spices makes its definition very complicated. However, all of us can determine spices. We spontaneously recognize them, although some of them are less famous, such as the Chinese Fagara, practically unknown out of its native land.

The spices are parts of some aromatic plants, which have a strong and unique flavour. People use spices in small quantities in cooking as preservatives, for seasoning or as a food-coloring. The spices are almost exotic products. They were one of the most expensive commercial products during the middle ages and the medieval period. A very great number of spices was used in medicine.

The origin of spices:

Myrtaceae

The spices do not belong to one unique vegetable family, even though some of them pertain to the one determined specie: ginger, cardamom and turmeric belong to the Zingiberaceae or ginger family; myrtle, clove and allspice to that called Myrtaceae or myrtle family; cumin, caraway, coriander and ajwain on the other hand are called Apiaceae or unbellifers. 

Zingiberaceae

Apiaceae

    The benefits of Spices: 

    Do spices stem from the same part of the plant?

    

      No. There are spices that are seeds, like mustard, juniper or sesame, but cinnamon is a bark; clove, a bud; saffron, a stigma; pepper, a fruit; and ginger, a rhizome (the underground part of the plant which is the junction of the stem and the root). 

 

 Bud  

Stigma

     

Seed

Rhizome

    

Bark   

Fruit

                                   

       During the medieval period, the spices made reference to merchandising or trading (spices) coming from the East, along with silk, cotton and metal. Progressively, the meaning of this term has become more restricted by designating only the edible substances that nowadays we call spices.

      In general terms, we agree with the fact that spices come from plant excluding salt, give off flavours, that they add colour to food sometimes, and that are subjected to a preparation after their picking, which differentiates them from herbs.


      

Condiments

Spices cannot be eaten as they are; they participate in the elaboration of the dish, which distinguishes them from condiments, served aside. therefore, mustard served on the table is a condiment, but the seed of the mustard is a spice. Although, spices do not embrace all the plants which perfume our kitchen, we also have garlic or onion.

      Spices arouse tropical reveries and vision of opulence. they fill the large caravans running right across the road of silk through the deserts and the mountains of Arabia and Asia. they perfume the wind that blows up the caravel's sails on the oceans.

    

            As a result, the best criterion for characterising the spices seem to be the one of the imagination. Full of exoticism, adorned with myths and beliefs, richly endowed of magic or healing powers as they were attributed in the past, spices are those which make us dream besides flavouring us.

Sick of Fast-food? try Slow-food!

Do you know about Slow Food?

Everybody know about fast food restaurants, these places where you go to eat quickly. You just need to enter, order and go sit to eat your hamburger and your french fries. If you do not have to wait in the queue, eating will only take you 10 minutes! This is good for people who are in a hurry. But the main disadvantages about these kind of places are that what you eat there is not very healthy and you do not take time to eat calmly.

In reaction with the frenetic Fast food concept that standardize tastes, the Slow food movement was created. The Slow Food movement started twenty years ago in Italy. It promotes a different approach of gastronomy, in order to restore the cultural and ecologic values.

This new concept is an “ecogastronomic" movement, a new way to eat and as you will soon read, it has non-negligible positive effects on the body and mind.

Indeed, research has established the importance of sitting down and taking the time to eat a proper meal with other people, as opposed to guzzling down drive-through coffee or gulp down fast food at traffic lights, all alone.

In order to find again all the benefits provided by a good meal, it is necessary to reconsider our way of eating, hence the creation of this movement called the Slow Food, that reminds us that eating slowly and healthy is beneficial for our health.

The main focus of this movement lies in sustainability and sourcing of local food. The movement also organizes "taste education" as well as other educational programs in schools and colleges to help people rediscover the joys of eating and understanding the importance of caring about where their food comes from, who makes it, and how it's made.

To reach these objectives, the creators of the Slow Food movement think that we need to slacken up the pace: take time to choose correctly our food, to know it, to cook it properly and to savour it in good company.

The tenants of this movement want to make sure that there will always be a place for home-made food. They consider that the alimentary heritage of the humanity and the environment are endangered by the food industry that offers all the products to quickly satisfy our appetite.

Today this movement is international. There are more than 82 000 members in more than 50 countries, but Italy, with its 35 000 members is still the epicenter of the phenomena.

Most importantly, Slow Food is fun and easy. It doesn't require confrontational forms of protest against Fast Food, it just involves eating local, organically grown foods prepared well, served with consideration, and enjoyed by all. So in a word, take time to eat, and to eat well.

Barbecue: origins and regional variations

Today I'm going to talk about an interesting topic that many people probably don't know. This post will deal with the different ways people use barbecues in order to roast meat in some countries. I'll also add a bit of history about the etimology of the word.

• The origins of barbecue (etimology)

The origins of the word "barbecue" are not completely clear. It is said that "barbecue" derives from the word barabicu found in the language of the Timucua of Florida( you can see this region in the picture below) and the Taíno people of the Caribbean, which entered European languages in the form barbacoa. This word is translated into English as sacred fire hole. This word describes a grill for cooking meat, consisting of a wooden platform which rests on sticks. You can see in the right picture below a pit smoker, which was the basis for roasting meat in old times.

This word, "barbacoa", and the technique it implies, moved from the Caribbean to other countries which had other languages and cultures, and these languages (Spanish, French, English, etc) adopted that word, modifying it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "barbacoa" was used in English for the first time in 1697.

• Variations of the word "barbecue" in English.

We all know that "barbecue" is the most common spelling in English, although we can find regional variations, such as: barbeque, bar-b-q or bbq. In the United States, depending on the area, "barbecue" involves different kinds of meat to be roasted.

• Regional variations of barbecue: there are several factors that make "barbecue" to be different depending on the region we are. For example, factors like the type of meat used, the different sauces or the techniques used for roasting meat. I'll only discuss some variations, concretely, those which are more interesting.

• The barbecue in UK.

Barbecuing in the UK is an activity usually done in the garden. Most popular are range-style barbecues, with wheels to facilitate moving them. Permanent brick barbecues are also common, although they tend to be more expensive. In recent times, people in such countries like the US, the UK and Ireland are organizing barbecue competitions. Some of these barbecue competitions also allow teams from Ireland and the UK to compete against each other. These competitions are a borrow from those of the US. You can see, in the following video, the way people is organized in a competition of this kind, in Tennessee, US:

The most common foods cooked on a British barbecue are chicken, hamburguers, sausages, etc. Barbecue in the UK is also influenced by traditional English, Scottish and Welsh cuisines. Overall, British barbecue is a mixture of American, Australian and Mediterranean styles. In the image below, you can see the typical permanent brick barbecue:

• The barbecue in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil.

These countries are very similar when talking about barbecue: they share the same system, called Asado. Asado is a technique for cooking cuts of meat, usually beef along with other kinds of meat, which are cooked on a grill, or open fire. There are slight variations among these regions, mainly related to the usage of different ingredients. In the picture below, you can see a typical Asado Argentino.

• The barbecue in South Africa.

The inhabitants of South Africa have an specific name for barbecue: this is braai, an abbreviation of braaivleis, the Afrikaans word for saying "meat grill". The word braai is very popular in South Africa, and it refers to a technique which is identical to that of the English barbecue. So we could say that the only difference between braai and the English barbecue is found in the name. As a curiosity, in South Africa people don't say wood for the barbecue; they say braaiwood. In the picture below, you can see a braai.

• The barbecue in Korea.

In Korea, we find a popular dish (called bulgogi) made by using a similar technique to barbecue. Bulgogi literally means "fire meat" in Korean, what refers to the technique employed to cook this dish, technique which consists of placing the meat over an open flame. Nowadays, bulgogi is served in barbecue restaurants in South Korea. You can see this dish in the picture below.

There are many other styles of barbecue in the world! Which of them would you like to taste?

Bread, bread, bread

F r e n c h b r e a d

"Bread: a common food made from flour, water, and usually yeast (a substance that makes the bread grow larger). Bread is usually sold in a large piece called loaf or made into smaller pieces called rolls. You usually cut bread into slices to eat it."

Bread is one of the most emblematic symbol of France. In French gastronomic culture, it is always present. To buy bread is something completely normal and common in France since 9 out of 10 Frenchmen buy fresh bread everyday.

At the end of the 19th, the French consumed around 600 grams of bread per day, which represents something like 3 baguettes per day and per person (!). It was indeed the basic food for people, they would eat it accompanied with a fruit or with a piece of cheese and it would serve as a whole meal. Nowadays the French only consume 140 grams per day. However the drop in the consumption of bread does not change the fact that bread has been at the heart of the French culture since many centuries, in constant creation and innovation. It is a constant element in the Frenchman's everyday life that is associated with the idea of pleasure, quality and balance.

Only 3% of the French consider bread as a "fattening food". 50% of them think that it is "something essential to a balance diet" and the rest think that it is "a pleasant garnish for meals". The older you get, the more you consider bread as something essential and not only something that we eat by pleasure or by weakness for good food.

It is even considered an art! In 2004, the designer Jean-Paul Gaultier even created dresses made out of bread, brioche or Viennese Pastry!

In France there are more than 37000 bakeries... and at least as many ways to make bread! It even exists a national event called "Bread Festival", to celebrate, promote and share the bakers know-how to everyone for one whole week.

What does bread provide for us?

A normal ration (about 200gr/day) will provide 25% of the recommended daily energetic requirements, without making you fat and its sating effect will help avoid misplaced nibbling.

Bread contains 55% of glucids, that is to say "carbs" that will release energy throughout the day, contrarily to fast sugars. It also contains fibers, which will help you regularize the transit of your bowels, slow down the digestion and help lower cholesterol. Depending on the bread you eat, it will provide minerals, vegetal proteins and vitamins.

To conclude, there is only one thing left to say: "Eat bread!"

BARBECUE VS. JAFFLE

  
Barbie

   In Australia, the most traditional meals involve around the barbecue, the “Barbie” as they say in Australia.

  Coal or Gas?

The Barbie, as a real science, starts with the purchase of the barbecue itself. Since the models which are available are enormous, there are even specialized stores for that!!! Australian frequently eat barbecue grills, but since those of coal are known to be carcinogen, in Australia they prefer the gas system.

Either way, it becomes almost impossible to make a charcoal barbecue, since it is difficult to find the bags of coal without taking and walking for miles until you can identify where it is.

And what we can eat with all this?

Chicken sausage

Differently the rest of barbecues, the Australian one is much more sophisticated… At the butcher or supermarket, we can find a variety of sausages that will make the choice very difficult!!! Beef sausages with dried tomatoes and basil, chicken sausage with cheese, sausages with honey and ginger, chicken sausage with lime and chili… we will also find several varieties of “balls” of meat called “Rissoles”, honey lamb and cheese, garlic and herbs, traditional beef, etc.

Buying and Australian barbecue recipes cookbook is obviously something indispensable!

   JAFFLE: a toasted sandwich

   The exact origin of this new culinary concept is still uncertain, but all the hints point at Australia where the most probable trace of the jaffle background was found.

Nomadic aborigines of this country cooked their game’s meat of the day by squeezing it between two slices of dough over a wood fire, with a large clip.

However, a slight shift in the manufacture of the mold has transformed this “squeezed” sandwich into a “hermetic sealed sandwich”.

    It was then that two adventurer travelers, great lovers of new culinary discoveries, brought in their trunks the new sandwich from the middle of nowhere and decided to make it known among their fellows…

     But for that, they had to replace the Australian desert fires by means more suited to urban areas. The name of this sandwich stems from the word “waffle”; from the Australian vocabulary.

    Thus after thousands of kilometers and many culinary adaptations and manipulations, the jaffle was born, as a sort of crunches, smaller, more closed and more useful and handy to eat.   

    A marvel of flavors wrapped in toasted bread, a concentration of delight and pleasure to crunch, sweet or salty, which combines tradition, travel and imagination.

    Indeed, that explains why, while crunching natural flavors, one begins to dream of somewhere else.

WEIRD FOOD

There’s some food we hate, specially the green one. Most of us don’t like peas, cauliflower, spinach or beans, but you’ll be surprised of how much weird food is cooked and eaten all around the world. You are going to discover the weirdest food top 10, I hope you enjoy.

10. ESCAMOL

Escamoles are the larvae of ants, harvested from the roots of some plants in Mexico. Those ants are very aggressive, so Escamol is very expensive. According to Mexican cuisine, escamoles are a delicacy and it is called “insect caviar”. It is cooked in omelets, tacos, and fried with butter or eggs. It is rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals, and it is said that it tastes a little spicy.

9. WEASEL COFFEE

If you want to stay awake easily or to enjoy a new hot beverage you must go to Vietnam, where a very interesting coffee is made. Weasels eat red coffee berries as part of its normal diet (along with insects, small mammals, small reptiles, eggs, and fruit) The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but it has been in contact with enzymes in the stomach that give coffee a bitter taste. The beans are defecated; they are washed, and given only a light roast to keep the complex flavors that develop through the process.

8. BEER & BONES

Some Indians from a tribe called Cocomo, in Peru have a very original way of making beer, with human bones. When a member of the family dies, the tribal warlock produces beer using the death man’s bones. According to the Cocomos, the deceased will be always part of his/her descendant and, in addition, part of the tribe.

7. ANTLIX

It is a peppermint flavoured lollipop, which contains real farm raised ants!
The Ants are Polyrachis Black Ants, and they have a spicy peppery taste similar to chilli peppers, Ants are said to be good for giving you an energy boost, and the peppermint is great for freshening your breath and it’s sugar free!!

6. CAMBOYA SPIDERS

Forget about insecticide, there’s a better way to keep spiders away. In Camboya, a spider is a regional delicacy. Inhabitants from Camboya fry spiders as a snack. These spiders are a species of tarantula called “a-ping” and they are incredibly big (about the size of a human palm) They are tossed in a mixture of sugar and salt and fried in oil until the legs are stiff.

5. BIG-COBRA-MAC

King cobra is a very venomous snake in Indonesia, but it is a tasty dish too. King cobra can be cooked as fried rice with king cobra, soup of king cobra, burger and steak. Some experts said that king cobra meat is it is rich in proteins. Some people think that king cobra meat can stimulate their sexual desire, curing skin problems and rheumatism. The blood of king cobra can be drink directly until the dish is ready.

4. MACKEREL SEMEN

Don’t try to look for another connotation, it’s Mackerel semen. It is the new ingredient of luxury “cuisine” and a Spanish chef was the first one who try to put it in our mouth, Ferrán Adria. He revealed that Mackerel semen has a creamy texture and a delicate taste. This strange ingredient is rich in Omega-3 and the experts say it´s a powerful aphrodisiac.

3. CASU MARZU OR FORMAGGIO MARCIO

It is a sheep milk cheese from Sardinia, Italy, which contain live insect larvae. This strange cheese is considered a delicatessen because of its soft texture with some liquid seeping out. Casu Marzu goes beyond fermentation to a decomposition stage brought by the digestive action of the larvae. These larvae are introduced to the cheese and they eat and defecate it, making Casu Marzu a delicious dish. Larvae are translucent white worm which measure between 8 millimeters and 15 centimeters and they can jump for distances up to 15 centimeters. But you must be thinking “Oh, ok, you put the larvae out and eat the cheese.” But, Casu Marzu is eaten without clearing the larvae, and still alive!! (although some people do clear them). Think about it, it would be like a party in your mouth.

2. BALUT

A Balut is a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell, no kidding. Is characteristic from the Philippines. This food is rich in protein and it is said to be aphrodisiac. Balut eaters have them with salt or chili, garlic and vinegar. This dish is known for its mixture of textures and flavors because all the contents of the egg may be consumed. Fertilized duck eggs are kept warm in the sun for 9 days, after that, the eggs are held to a light to reveal the embryo inside, eight days later the Balut eggs are ready to be cooked.

1. MONKEY BRAIN

I bet you all have seen Indiana Jones, did you remember the scene in which Kate Capshaw is scared of eating a monkey brain? so don’t think it is just an invention for that movie. Monkey brain is a Chinese dish and it is said that eating the monkey’s brain can cure impotence. It is eaten in some different ways: the brain can be eaten cooked or raw (occasionally directly out of the dead monkey’s skull). It can also be eaten fresh, spooned out of the skull while the monkey is still alive. It is served on banana leaves and coconut palms, but normally is served in its skull.

So, which do you think is the strangest or the most disgusting dish? Would you try any?