Origins

“Food should come from the place of its origin, and stay there. It shouldn’t spend its time crisscrossing the globe for the sake of profit.”

Paolo Bacigalupi

Part One

How many of you reading this have traveled outside of your country and have had to show proper documents such as a passport. I know Tilly and I have. Well what if I told you some of the foods you eat today have done the same thing.

Tilly: Most foods still travel more than humans these days, given the explosion in international cuisine in a majority of countries. 

When people travel or move to a foreign country they tend to take with them that one special food or ingredient in most cases such as Sichuan peppers.

Then there are those foods that are named after not just the area they are from but as an ingredient.

Enjoy the read.

1. Hamburger: NO, this did not come off your grill or out of a cast iron skillet. Another bit of interest for you. What a hamburger does not have is ham in it. So where did the name hamburger come from? Hamburg, Germany of course. It is short for hamburger Steak which is the way they are still made in Hamburg today. The version we eat today was not what they ate then. Hannah Glasse in her cookbook published in 1758 “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy” has a recipe called “Hamburgh sausage”  “roasted with a toasted bread under it.”  So the next time you fry one of those patties up, not only thank Hannah Glasse, but raise a glass of wine to Hamburg, Germany. Tilly: Gosh, I thought the name came after President  Kennedy announced, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’ Positive he also said he was a hamburger … The best hamburger I have ever eaten was in a small Italian restaurant in Kennebunkport. It was fantastic and oh-so memorable! Given up trying them in the UK because the law demands they should not be served pink and juicy. Gah.
2. Turkey: Well is it a bird Americans eat once or twice a year? That the president pardons every year? Or is it a country on a peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean? So how did our bird and this country have the same name? You can thank someone in history for misclassification. In the 1500’s, Western Europe citizens received edible guinea fowls from the Turkish merchant hence the name Turkey. In the 1590’s a close friend of Tilly’s, you remember Shakespeare right? – mentioned turkey 5 times. Of course, one of the five mentions the country “Turkey” Tilly: Seems the name “turkey” originated from a 16th-century confusion with the African guinea fowl, imported to Europe through Turkey. English traders, dubbed them “turkey-cocks,” which stuck when similar-looking American birds were later imported. English speakers associated the bird with Turkey, but other languages have different origins. In Portuguese, it’s Peru, while in many other languages, it is associated with India. ‘Turkeys know their names. The come when called and are totally affectionate. They’re better than teenagers.’ – Elayne Boosler.
3. Scallions: onions with small bulbs with long leaves used to flavor salads to omelets. So where does the name come from? The ancient eastern Mediterranean city Ascalon. Of all foods, scallions have traveled far and are a staple in dishes around the world. Another name is of course French, they are called shallots. Tilly: I first heard them called scallions in Eire, but elsewhere as spring onions. Shallots and spring onions (often called scallions) are distinct alliums with different uses, flavors, and appearances. Shallots have brown papery skin and a mild, sweet, onion-garlic flavor, whereas spring onions feature long green stalks with small white bulbs, providing a fresh, crisp, sharp taste. The French call them oignons nouveaux
4. Wiener: okay gentlemen get your mind out of the gutter. So what is a wiener? For the Americans and that country north of the U.S. it is a hot dog. In Germany, wiener is called wienerwurst, which is German for Viennese sausage. Wien in,Vienna, German, and wurst as in sausage. Naturally when Germans immigrated to the U.S. they took the sausage with them.  A word of note on the rumor that dog meat was used to make this great sausage. Dog meat was NEVER constituent of hot dogs. . Tilly: Wrong country for that content … need to travel east quite a long way for dog meat.  “A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz” – Humphrey Bogart “Nobody, I mean nobody, puts ketchup on a hot dog” – Dirty Harry.
5. Cantaloupe: Is a variation of melon that is part of the gourd family. Historians think here are two origins of how the fruit got its name. One is Italian, the Papal estate Cantaluppi which is near Rome. They claim it is the first of the melons grown. Now enter the French. The French word for this fruit is named after the village of Cantaloup in Languedoc. Is there a difference between the North American Cantaloupe and the European Cantaloupe? Having eaten both I can tell you the European Cantaloupe has a much sweeter taste and is really very good.  Tilly: I was surprised to learn  they are an excellent source of vitamins, antioxidants, and water, supporting hydration and overall health. True European cantaloupes have slight ‘netting’ on the skin, North American cantaloupes are technically muskmelons, often called rockmelons in other regions. A ripe, sweet cantaloupe should feel heavy for its size, have a beige-to-yellow undertone to its rind, and have a strong, sweet aroma from the stem end.

‘My dog hit a cantaloupe and appears unhappy. He seems kind of melon-collie …’ – Anon.

“I followed my heart and it led me to the fridge.”

End of Part One

Olive and Tilly