Text 1784, 109 rader
Skriven 2007-04-22 10:14:39 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
   Kommentar till text 1770 av Aleksej R. Serdyukov (2:5020/1042.42)
Ärende: Re: Cooking terms are universal?
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*** Quoting Aleksej R. Serdyukov from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

CS> Some misnomers:  Russians make 'Tobacco Chicken'.  No, they make a
CS> pressed chicken with butter and spices but there is no tobacco used.
CS> No one I know seems to know why the name has 'tobacco' in it.

ARS> Tobacco - tabak;
ARS> of tobacco - tabaka;
ARS> Tobacco Chicken - Tsyplyonok tabaka

ARS> Wikipedia says it's derived from Georgian (well, the language used in
ARS> Georgia) "tapaka", from "tapa" meaning "frying pan".

ARS> Didn't know that, interesting. :)
ARS> I'd been thinking it was named after someone with "Tabak" as his last

Grin, no one really knows.  Just some educated guesses.


CS> Pepper. That one word can cause a load of misunderstanding.
CS> Culturally we all have an expectation of what is meant.  A USA/Canada
CS> person will normally mean ground black pepper corn.  An Asian will
CS> think a green or red hot pod called a 'pepper'.  USA folks on recipes
CS> are the worst as they will say 'green pepper' ad mean a green bell
CS> pepper which is very hard to translate and often is a very hot pepper
CS> item elsewhere.

ARS> Here in Moscow, "pyeryets" is peppercorn (put in things like soup), re
ARS> pod (sweet-tasting), or red hot pepper.

Your 'peppercorn' would match a general USA/Canada concept for just the word
'pepper' when used.  Being aware of this sort of confusion, many recipes get
specific and say 'black pepper' to mean ground peppercorn.

They have green (and other colors) bell peppers in Europe but they have another
name forthem there and they seem to be not nearly as 'common' as a USA/Canada
usage.  We also use a fair amount of 'hot peppers' (various colors) and often
get very specific with the name to avoid confusion. Jalapeno's are a very
popular type of 'hot pepper'.  They are also called 'chile peppers' or just
'chiles'.  A common type of dish is named for their use.  'Chili'.  Chili may
be very hot, or may be fairly mild, depending on the maker.  It may use fresh
chili peppers or it may use dried ground ones.

There's a good chance you have encountered the dish 'chili' someplace even if
you've never eaten it.  Just like there's a good chance you've heard of
'peanut butter' but may never have seen it.

CS> Cream is another one.  The butterfat content can vary so wildly that

ARS> Oh, cream cannot be translated into Russian well; there is the word "k
ARS> but it's definitely not sour cream, whatever it is. :) "Krem" is what
ARS> is used on cakes, for example; or a similar-feeling substance used med

Krem from how you say it, is very well similar to the various uses of the word
'cream' which is more of a consistancy of a product and may not be a food
item. Confusing eh?

Cream in 'english' this time refers to a milk based product.  The top layer or
natural milk that comes to the top and is thicker, which may be turned into
butter, or let go sour for 'sour cream', or just used as it is while still
fresh.  Classic 'Ice Cream' is fresh cream with sugar and fruit added, then
frozen.

CS> Biscuit can be another one.  TO a USA person, its a soft fluffy bread
CS> made of flour and shortening (fat) with a little milk.  To a British
CS> person, its a hard cookie with sugar.  To an OZ person, it's a hard
CS> cracker with no sugar normally at all but lots of salt.

ARS> Definitely not salt here. :) I think I've heard something about someth
ARS> salty...

Hehehehe.  One of the more confusing ones and very easy to trip over without
realizing it.  I think I even got the type a bit wrong above.  Could be I
reversed OZ and England uses there.


CS> If i say 'olive' what comes to your mind?

ARS> A black or green berry.
ARS> We have two words for them, actually meaning the same - "olivka"(?) an
ARS> "maslina", but some people believe that one means one of the colors (a
ARS> tastes), and the other means the other one. Forgot which was which (it
ARS> differs between people, though).

Ah, then both types come to mind for you!  Americans, unless you specify will
think only of the green one.  If they mean the black ones, they say 'black
olive'.  They also will think only of a brined (very salty) green olive, not
an oil based preserved one.

Because the normal thought is the salty-brined ones, you will not see very many
'olive salad' mentions from USA/Canada people.  They would be too salty to
make an actual salad of, though they may be 'added to a salad'.

Oh, I'll add 'Salad' as another one that can be misleading.  Most (almost all)
the time when a USA speaker says 'salad' they mean a green leafy thing with
other vegetables and possibly some chopped up meat, covered with a 'dressing'.
People outside the USA use the term much more loosely to mean a far wider
variety of things.

I have encountered the name 'maslina' ad while it may have been mis-used (I
have no way to know), it was an oil based dark olive somewhat between brown
and black.  Quite large too.  It was not salty.  It was served with vinigar
and feta cheese lumps with some raw red onion slices.  It was called 'maslina
olive salad' and people used it to top fresh lettuce greens.  I quite liked
them <g>.
                                       xxcarol

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