A straw... berry??

There have been many different ideas that have been suggested over the years for the etymology of the English word "strawberry". The "berry" portion of the compound word makes reference to all the berries, so hypotheses for the word's origin have focused on the "straw-" prefix, which means “paja” in spanish. Here are some of the more common proposed etymologies:

- The practice of mulching strawberry plants with straw, or the growth of the wild plants amongst matted hay or straw, led to the fruit being so strongly associated with straw.

- The practice in the past, in various European locales, of selling the fruit after it had been "strung" together on a piece of straw.

- The stolen ("runners") of the strawberry plant cause the plant/fruit to appear strewn over the ground.

- The color of achenes ("seeds") of many strawberries is the same as that of straw.

Dr. William Sayers, in his article "The Etymology of Strawberry" says that the use of the term "strawberry" pre-dates both : of the aforementioned practices, as well as the creation of the Fragaria ananassa strawberry hybrids, which are the strawberry varieties whose pronounced stolon formation and "straw"-colored achenes led to the previous etymological hypotheses (the woodland strawberry, Fragaria vesca, was the only strawberry variety ever in England prior to the use of the word "strawberry").

Another possibility for the origin of the word strawberry; from at least the time of Aristotle until well into the 17th century, there was a belief in an errant hypothesis called "spontaneous generation". According to this hypothesis, living things spontaneously formed from non-living things (i.e. flies from rotting meat, mice from garbage). While spontaneous generation may not have been widely known as a hypothesis, the basic belief was likely more commonly held.

Now consider, too, that farm animals were allowed to graze in fields. In these fields, they not only ate grass, but anything else that they might come across, including wild strawberries.

With these things in mind, one can imagine that the animals' manure occasionally contained strawberry seeds, and that when farmers found strawberry plants sprouting up from amongst their animals' straw (and manure), they easily assumed that the plants formed from the straw. Hence a "straw"-berry plant would have simply been a plant that spontaneously generated from straw.

And even when the plant was sometimes found in the wild in the absence of straw, it may have been assumed that straw had been there previously, but that either all of the straw had converted to strawberry plants, or that any remaining straw had simply blown away.

It is unlikely that anyone will ever have a completely convincing explanation about the name of this fruit But it's still fun to think about!

The Entrée: when do we eat it?

Here I am now again to show you another of the most typical dilemmas related to food that you can find in Great Britain, the United States and also in France. That is not a dish or a misguiding name of some recipe, as usual. But today the problem is in any menu of any restaurant.

The word “entrée”, which you can easily translate into Spanish as “entrante”, refers to a dish served before the main course, as we logically thought. It is actually its original meaning, since it literally means “entrance”. The problem arises when you go to America and see the menu of any restaurant. You will find a three-course meal consisting of appetizer, entrée, and dessert, which leads us to the next question: how can a word which was created specifically to separate two concepts have changed so dramatically, turning its meaning into “main course”?

Analyzing its etymology more deeply, we find out that it exactly meant a hot meat course eaten after the soup and before the roast. Then, while the word was travelling around all this modern languages, it was losing its “sense of entrance”, since the soup was considered the entrance, suffering from a kind of transition to what it means nowadays in America. The complete change came in the middle 20^th century because, as every single cuisine in every single part in the world is so different, the disappearance of main course such as a roast as a common part of the meal in some areas has produced that change in the original meaning of the word at that point.

Leaving America and France aside, England had to perform a distinguished role from these countries, as usual. There, the word entrée has been disappearing from the common vocabulary of common people. This way, the English borrowed another French word to name it: hors d'oeuvre, more complex than the American one, but of course different. Anyway, appetizers, starters or the first course are also common names in the English-spoken language to refer to the food items served before the main course.

Milkshake; for everyone

As you probably already know, what we understand nowadays by milkshake is a sweet and cold beverage made from milk (or malted milk powders) and ice-cream whose typical flavours are chocolate, vanilla and fruits, and which is prepared by shaking it in an automatic machine until foamy, adding later whipped cream and syrups. But, if we take into account its history, this drink had different associations in its past, apart from what we know;

The first time the term “Milkshake” appeared in print, it was in 1885 in the United States and the term made reference to a drink which contained whiskey, and not ice-cream. This type of drink was very popular during that time and was served as a tonic.

A little later, it was invented the malted milk powders as a digestive restorative. It was designed to fortify the diets of older or infirm adults and for the infant’s food and it was the principal base from which the milkshake that we know today appeared.

It happened around 1900 and its creators could be various, but the one who made this cold beverage exists in the map was Ivar “Pop” Coulson.

He took a traditional malted drink and added a couple of scoops of ice-cream; this fact took off in popularity, especially among young people, as the number of malt shops (places where this drink was sold) in cities and small towns grew across the nation, and those sites were used by students as a meeting place or hangout. At the same time, the automatic blender or mixer was created, making easier the preparation of milkshakes at home or even in bars and restaurants, and all this helped this drink became one of the most popular of its time.

Apart from these two that were developed during their history, the milkshake had different names through the years, some of them, of regional origin;

In some parts of New England and Great Britain, a milkshake is referred to a “frappe”, that is, a kind of coffee covered with foam which is very popular in Greece and Cyprus, and that is apparently similar to the American “Iced Cappuccino” or to the European “Frappuccino”.

In the 50s, milkshakes were called “frosted”, “velvets” and even “cabinets” in places such as Rhode Island because of changes in the way of pronunciation of the some drinks or other affairs and, in the 80s, with the popularization of milkshakes in restaurants, these began to add broken bits or cookies and candy bars to this beverage, calling it “Blizzard”.

At these modern times, this drink continues being at the top, and it has also been used in dentist queries to relax patients and cool their mouths after certain procedures. On the other hand, bars have returned to the habit of selling it with alcoholic content, making a circle in the history of Milkshakes.

My last point about "Milkshake" succeeding among people can be seen in a song, of Kelis, which became known around the world. In this, we can appreciate a malt shop where the drink is all the time from one side to the other because it's been asked by many youths. It's presented in a daring way, as if it were something that attract you.

Finally, the fact of mixing is what gives the name to this drink "Milk" + "Shake" (whatever its form), and from my point of view, it’s the rapid expansion of certain things that provokes their confusion with others (as this beverage with Frappe Coffee), while really, they're slightly different. What do you think?!

Hope you enjoyed! =)

Doughnuts, a symbol for a country

Everyone knows what a doughnut is but, if there are no nuts in them, why do we call them that way? Doughnuts, as so many food names, have an interesting and complicated history. Even the history about how its hole was invented is full of conflicting evidences.

The earliest known recorded usage of the term dates from an 1808 short story that described the spread of “fire-cakes and dough-nuts”, though the most commonly cited quote as the first written recording of the term is from History of New York written in 1809 by Washington Irving. In it, he described the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (later New York) and wrote that "The table...was sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks." (a Dutch word literally meaning “oil cake”). Therefore, the doughnuts come from Holland and not from America as some may think.

Because the centre of the cake did not cook as fast as the outside, nuts were placed inside of the ball of dough to prevent the uncooked centre, since they did not require cooking. That´s the reason why it is called “doughnut”.

These Dutch doughnuts were what we called now doughnut holes because, as Irving said, they were just balls of dough; there was no hole. It was in the middle of the 19^th century when they acquired this characteristic (though not all American doughnuts have the hole, they may be filled). The inventor of the ring-shaped doughnut was Hanson Crockett Gregory, an American ship captain of Rockport, Maine, who was only sixteen years old. He solved the problem of the uncooked centre by punching a hole in the centre of the dough ball, that way the hole increased the surface area, the exposure to the hot oil, and therefore eliminated the uncooked center. There are some versions of this invention that tell that Gregory impaled a doughnut on the ship´s steering wheel so that he could use both hands to steer, or that it was delivered to him in a dream by angels.  

Something interesting about this name is that there are two different spellings depending on where you are, doughnut is the most traditional spelling and it is more used in the UK, whereas the shortened form, donut, is normally used in the US, though both of them are correct.

Finally, doughnuts are a very famous food throughout the world; there are large doughnut chains like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Dunkin Donuts, but they are not the only ones, little by little there are more specialist doughnut shops that are creating different flavours and toppings. It could be said that doughnuts are not just for dunking anymore, but for enjoying each one of their flavours.  

Besides, doughnuts appear in the popular culture of some countries like Australia, where the largest donut was made up of 90.000 individual doughnuts as part of the celebration for the release of The Simpsons Movie in 2007 by Donut King and entered in the Guinness Book of Records; Canada, the country that consumes the most doughnuts and that has the most doughnut stores per capita; and particularly the United States, where it is celebrated the National Doughnut Day and there is a race called Tour de Donut in Staunton, Illinois. Apart from their appearance in culture, doughnuts have also appeared in some films, video games, and songs.

As you may have noticed, doughnuts are not just what police officers have in their break times, but also something else.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Cuppa tea?

The tea, after water, is the most widely consumed beverage in the world and what I´m going to talk about is the way in which Great Britain and United States consume it. Tea is not only a beverage but also includes aspects of arts, ceremony, society, history, health and education.

First of all, why this beverage is called tea? Well, there are some theories but the most widely accepted is that in Chinese dialects, pronunciation of "tea" is divided into two classes based on phonetic similarity. In mandarin, "tea" is "CHA"; in XiaMenese, "tea" is "TAY".

It dated back to the 5th century that CHA went beyond the Chinese border. Japanese simply use the Chinese character of tea (Left picture). In Persia, tea was CHA and then later evolved into CHAI in Arabic, CHAY in Turkish and CHAI in Russian. Tea was also brought to India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh where it's called CHA.TAY started spreading later than CHA but had reached much further than CHA did. Near the end of the Ming Dynasty, AD 1644, British merchants set up trading posts in XiaMen and came into contact with Chinese tea. What the XiaMen people called TAY, the British spelled as TEA. "Tea" then later has become wildly accepted by the English-speaking world.

Tea is commonly consumed at social events, and many cultures have created formal ceremonies for these events. Western examples of these are afternoon tea and the tea parties.

Different regions also favor different varieties of tea and use different flavourings, such as milk, sugar or herbs. The temperature and strength of the tea likewise varies widely.

In the United Kingdom, The British are the second largest per capita tea consumers in the world (the first one is China), with each person consuming on average 2.1 kg per year. The popularity of tea dates back to the 19th century when India was part of the British Empire, and British interests controlled tea production in the subcontinent. It was, however, first introduced in Britain by the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza queen consort of Charles II of England in the 1660s. As tea spread throughout the United Kingdom people started to have tea gardens and tea dances. The tea gardens lost value after World War II but tea dances are still held today in the United Kingdom.

Much of the time in the United Kingdom, tea drinking is not the delicate, refined cultural expression that the rest of the world imagines—a cup or a mug of tea is something drunk often, with some people drinking as many as 15-20 cups of tea a day, although the average is around 5. This is not to say that the British do not have a more formal tea ceremony, but for the working class of the United Kingdom, tea breaks are an essential part of any day. Employers generally allow breaks for tea., The British concept of a 'tea break' during working hours is a term used almost uniformly across the working environment, regardless of whether any tea is actually consumed. The term is often simply shortened to 'tea', essentially indicating a break.

In the UK Tea is not only the name of the beverage, but also the name of a meal. Even more confusing is that the kind of meal that a person means when talking about tea depends very much on their social background and where they live.

Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford creates the idea of taking tea accompanied by cake, buns, scones or sandwiches between lunch (served between 12 and 2 pm) and dinner (usually served after 7pm) at the beginning of the 19^th century. The tradition continues to this day. The slang term "cuppa" (as in a "cup of tea"), is used in the United Kingdom possibly to counteract this confusion, but is more likely just an abbreviation.

The Republic of Ireland has, for a long time, been one of the biggest per-capita consumers of tea in the world. The national average is four cups per person per day, with many people drinking six cups or more. As with the United Kingdom, tea in the Republic of Ireland is usually taken with milk and/or sugar and is slightly spicier and stronger than the traditional English Blend.

Some scholars suggest that tea played a role in the British Industrial Revolution. Afternoon tea possibly became a way to increase the number of hours labourers could work in factories; the stimulants in the tea, accompanied by sugary snacks, would give workers energy to finish out the day's work.

In the United States, tea can typically be served at all meals as an alternative to coffee, when served hot, or soda, when served iced. Afternoon tea, the meal done in the English tradition, is rarely served in the United States, although it remains romanticized by small children; it is usually reserved for special occasions like tea parties. Rather than drinking tea hot, many Americans prefer tea served with ice. Iced tea has become an iconic symbol of the southern United States and southern hospitality, often appearing alongside summer barbecue cooking or grilled foods. Iced tea is often made as sweet tea, which is simply iced tea with copious amounts of sugar or sweetener.Many restaurants dispense iced tea brewed throughout the day from upright containers. In the United States, about 80% of the tea consumed is served cold, or "iced".

Summering up, tea has a huge importance in these countries because it is a healthy beverage and also because it helps people to socialize or even take a break.

The Garbage plate; a food made with real garbage?

Reading at the heading we were wondering… will it be possible that a plate made from leftovers can exist?! Well… the truth is that it is! But it’s not made from leftovers but from different kinds of food arranged in any way!!

This dish was born in Rochester, New York, in a landmark fast-food restaurant very popular for its great examples of extreme American cuisine and whose name is “Nick Tahou Hots”.

At the time of its launch in 1918 it was called “Hots and Potatoes” although regular customers called it by the nickname “Hots and Po-tots”. This name was quite right because the dish was served with hot ingredients and potatoes; that is, the name of this food was composed by the name of its constituents. But, the peculiar of the dish is that it was composed by just about everything the kitchen could cook and it was so disorganized that college students asked for it with the sentence “Can I get one of those plates with all the garbage on it?”, since they don’t know what this was composed of! Besides, the content used to be mixed with ketchup and hot sauce, what made this food more difficult to identify.

By the 1980, the place was much known among students and this strange but successful dish acquired the name by which its customers called it; the Garbage plate! This name became trademarked.

The Garbage plate is considered a great late-night snack, and this restaurant used to be packed with diners from midnight to 4 a.m. approximately. Besides, young college men living in Rochester (who like to have contests to see how much beer or food can they consume), consider this dish a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood!

As soon as this food began to be so consumed, other restaurants included some variations of this in their menus although sometimes they changed a little its original name. The more interesting examples of restaurants which varied the name of the Garbage plate are: “Big Deal Pizzeria” that called it the “Big plate”, “Bill’s Gray’s restaurant” called it “Make Your Own Dinner”; name which makes reference to a random choice or chaos, the “Empire’s Hot” and “Paradise Pizza” called it “Trash Plate”, “Hungry’s Grill” called it the “Hungry’s plate”, “Mark’s Texas Hots” called it the “Sloppy plate” and it was called even the “Dumpster Platter” by “Silver Lake Drive-In restaurant”!

As we can see, all the names that refer to this food are related to this idea of chaos, combination, hunger, confusion, and so on… what makes stronger the original name; “The Garbage Plate”!!

Now, remember; if you go to Rochester or any nearby area don’t forget to ask for one of these! Taking into account what people say, you cannot miss the opportunity to taste a great and so famous dish!

P.S: I know that the photos are not as nasty as you probably expected... but it's supposed that this food was so famous because it caught people's attention at a glance! ;)

Eggy Soldiers, a British culinary institution!

I´m sure that if you hear “eggy soldiers” the last thing you would think of it would be a dish. You would probably think of an insult or something like that, but never of something edible. The reason why I´m saying all this is that you would be completely wrong thinking that.

The “eggy soldiers” are the quintessential British breakfast, and perfect for breakfast in bed. It consists of soft-boiled eggs, commonly served in eggs cups, where the top of the egg is cut off with a knife leaving a jagged shell edge and using a teaspoon to scoop the egg out. They are accompanied with a buttered toast cut into strips, so that they can be dipped into the runny yolk. And here comes the most curious fact, these strips of toast are called “soldiers”.

There are two theories about the origin of this peculiar name: On the one hand, it may come from the similarities these strips have with the formation of soldiers on parade, then we could say that they seem to be lined up ready for dipping!

On the other hand, the second belief is that it may come from the childhood rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the King's horses and all the King's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty was a large cannon which was mounted on the protective wall of "St. Mary's Wall Church" in Colchester, England. It was intended to protect the Parliamentarian stronghold which was temporarily in control of the Royalists during the English Civil War (1642 - 1649). A shot from a Parliamentary cannon succeeded in damaging the wall underneath Humpty Dumpty causing the cannon to fall to the ground. The Royalists (“all the King's men”) attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall but, even with the help of “all the King's horses”, they failed in their task and Colchester fell to the Parliamentarians after a siege lasting eleven weeks.

Now I guess you will be wondering what this rhyme has to do with the eggy soldiers, so here it´s the answer: Humpty Dumpty is typically portrayed as an egg, due to it was a colloquial term used in the 18^th century in England to describe someone who was obese and clumsy, and the strips of toast refer to the soldiers who went to rescue Humpty Dumpty when he has his “great fall”.

Something worth mentioning is that the popularity of this breakfast is so big that there are some devices for cutting the bread into thin strips and also into soldiers, as The Daily Telegraph reported in 2005 when the first one was invented by Mike Minton, an electronics engineer. Apart from that device, remember, you can also use your imagination and surprise your little visitors!

Hope you enjoyed it!