Subj : Re: hi
To   : Andrew Rokhin
From : Carol Shenkenberger
Date : Tue Dec 13 2005 10:59 pm

*** Quoting Andrew Rokhin from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***


 CS> You will find more confusion though if you talk about cooking as the
 CS> words Harent quite the same.  A North American thinks of a light
 CS> fluffy white bread Hwith the word 'biscuit' but to the english it's a
 CS> cracker (hard flat thing) and Hto the Australians it's a cookie (hard
 CS> baked sugar product).  Can give some Hsuprises when following a recipe
 CS> for 'biscuits' if you dont know the country of Horigin.
AR> Ouuu shit! :) It's realy largest problem ?

Pretty much!  Normally there wont be any confusion at all when talking across 
the various languages til you get to cooking words.  And even then, it's not 
obvious at first that youmean different things with the same words.

Here's a few more that are not standard across the globe.  Pumpkin.  It's a 
specific item to the USA/Canada folks.  It's not a specific elsewhere and 
includes many items of the squash family.

Mince.  Means to chop finely.  In some areas just saying 'mince' though can 
mean what a USA/Canada person calls 'ground beef'.  An American hearing 'mince 
meat' thinks of the English dried fruit concoctionthat we've always thought had 
a strange name for a fruit item (grin).  I guess North Americans swapped over 
due to an early kitchen gadget called a 'grinder' which also handles meat so we 
call it 'ground meat' or if being specific, will say 'ground beef, ground 
chicken, ground pork' etc.

Potato is a generic word almost everyone can figure out but be careful with 
yam, sweet potato, and taro.  Radish can be equally interesting especially in 
Japan where a standard 'radish' is a Daikon (do a google to get an idea, very 
different item).  If  Japan recipe says 'grated horseradish' you will have to 
check from context to see if they mean daikon (most of the time they do) or a 
wasabi root (can substitute any hot horseradish root for that and will work 
well enough in a recipe).  In Japan, 'radish' is a generic word when 
translated.

Foretunately no one gets upset over these little variations though the european 
understanding of a 'green pepper' can get one in very hot circumstances fast if 
not corrected!  (They think it means a chile pepper vice a bell pepper which is 
extremely mild).

Enjoy!
                                       xxcarol

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