Do things you cook have a name?

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I live somewhere with a kitchen shared by many, and often people will ask questions like "oooh that looks good what is it?" while looking at a load of chicken being cooked, and answering "errr chicken?" would seem rude, so I just get totally tongue-tied.

Or another time I'm making a curry, and someone was like "oh wow what's it called?" and like, when it's something non-specific that you just conjured up not from a recipe, I guess slightly embarrassed without even knowing what the name of something I'm cooking. Maybe I should just say "madras" or whatever since no 2 curry house appear to make the same thing they call "madras" anyway?

Or do you just make up a name? "oh yeah this is called Steve".

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Sometimes 8
Rarely 5
Often 2
Never 1
Always 0


HOOS' THE BOSS (ken c), Friday, 1 October 2010 12:33 (fourteen years ago) link

We have "Legend Pasta" (chicken, tinned tomatoes, pasta - nothing else). "Klankton Dinner" (kievs and rice with optional peas). "Nommos Boncheros" (misreading of Huevos Rancheros). The first two are named after people I used to live with and the default food they ate when I lived with them.

village idiot (dog latin), Friday, 1 October 2010 13:25 (fourteen years ago) link

Are these mini kievs or full size ones?

Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Friday, 1 October 2010 14:11 (fourteen years ago) link

you lived with someone named "Pasta"?

HOOS' THE BOSS (ken c), Friday, 1 October 2010 14:15 (fourteen years ago) link

My mom used to make a spaghetti alfredo/primavera thing with shrimp and we always called it "shrimp wiggle". I think childhood habits are key, here. See also, "roast beast," "pigs in a blanket," whatever you call an egg fried into the middle of a piece of bread (we called it "eggs in a basket"), and several unthinkingly racist references to dishes involving fried lice.

I've got ten bucks. SURPRISE ME. (Laurel), Friday, 1 October 2010 14:15 (fourteen years ago) link

I MEAN FRIED RICE, OBVIOUSLY. YOU SEE?

I've got ten bucks. SURPRISE ME. (Laurel), Friday, 1 October 2010 14:16 (fourteen years ago) link

God, one SECOND of distraction....

I've got ten bucks. SURPRISE ME. (Laurel), Friday, 1 October 2010 14:16 (fourteen years ago) link

You lived with Everett True??

dociah t. azzahole (Noodle Vague), Friday, 1 October 2010 14:16 (fourteen years ago) link

"whatever you call an egg fried into the middle of a piece of bread"

At my house, that's Kokomo Toast, due to the knowledge passed on to us by a radio dj that you can time it perfectly to the sound of the Beach Boys "Kokomo".

Three Word Username, Monday, 4 October 2010 06:49 (fourteen years ago) link

i always called it "egg in the hole"
it was the first thing i ever cooked! i didn't even eat it because i didn't like eggs, but i made it for my friend's entire family of 4, and then some. i couldn't stop making it because i wanted to get it just right. i was like 8 or so.

The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Monday, 4 October 2010 12:00 (fourteen years ago) link

they got mad at me because i used up all their eggs, but they couldn't be too mad because i had made breakfast.

The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Monday, 4 October 2010 12:00 (fourteen years ago) link

bread into pan as song begins, egg into hole at "to Martinique, that Monserrat mystique", flip it at "Port au Prince, I wanna catch a glimpse", remove from pan as the song fades.

Three Word Username, Monday, 4 October 2010 12:12 (fourteen years ago) link

YOU ARE BLOWING MY MIND!!

village idiot (dog latin), Monday, 4 October 2010 13:16 (fourteen years ago) link

seriously though, things i cook do not normally have a name
i have to give them a title when i put them into my flickr set, but mostly it's descriptive not like "chicken a la tuesday"

The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Monday, 4 October 2010 13:18 (fourteen years ago) link

xxp that's up there with 'CPR to The Bee Gee's 'Stayin' Alive''

Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Monday, 4 October 2010 13:57 (fourteen years ago) link

The only recipe I've developed myself is a bacon, eggs, cheese and green chili sandwich -- been making it for 25 years, I guess I should give it a name someday. Sometimes I call it Instant Heart Attack.

In "Bob" There Is No East or West (WmC), Monday, 4 October 2010 14:04 (fourteen years ago) link

WmC I can't believe that -- you seem like you wing it all the time. I guess I don't have any "recipes" but basically every time I cook I'm making something up. Right? Isn't that what people do?

I mean last night I made chicken soup for my sick husband in the style of my Colombian host mother (lol study abroad) but I added a dried pasilla chile (just for a few minutes until it was rehydrated) so that it would be spicy and clear up his nose. So basically chicken soup with potatoes instead of pasta, cilantro for green, lime for tang. This soup has no name aside from "chicken soup".

The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Monday, 4 October 2010 14:11 (fourteen years ago) link

(also peas and corn and carrots)

The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Monday, 4 October 2010 14:12 (fourteen years ago) link

WmC I can't believe that -- you seem like you wing it all the time.

Oh I definitely do, but I hardly ever write anything down or try to repeat it again next time. The sandwich is pretty much the only thing I've ever come up with that hasn't changed in 25 years.

I like this development of the last few years of mastering techniques rather than learning recipes. It does kind of take the emphasis off of single dishes that wind up with names.

In "Bob" There Is No East or West (WmC), Monday, 4 October 2010 14:21 (fourteen years ago) link

Usually I call whatever I am making "meely-muck-mo" because I usually sautee a bunch of vegetables together maybe with pasta or rice or tofu and season it with varied ingredients. The original "meely-muck-mo" from slacker days is a pack of ramen noodles, a can of heinz veg baked beans and a chopped up veggie burger mixed together.

peacocks, Monday, 4 October 2010 14:29 (fourteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

I like this development of the last few years of mastering techniques rather than learning recipes. It does kind of take the emphasis off of single dishes that wind up with names.

― In "Bob" There Is No East or West (WmC), Monday, October 4, 2010 9:21 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

so otm: it's all abt techniques people! who gives a fuck what some cookbook writer called it?

social-media-compost Circle of Life (jdchurchill), Friday, 22 October 2010 00:25 (fourteen years ago) link

My mom has so many different names for foods. She even calls leftovers a name: "We're eating Grab, Root, and Growl tonight, guys."

17th Century Catholic Spain (Abbbottt), Friday, 22 October 2010 00:27 (fourteen years ago) link

moms are so classic

social-media-compost Circle of Life (jdchurchill), Friday, 22 October 2010 00:29 (fourteen years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Friday, 29 October 2010 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Saturday, 30 October 2010 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link


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