When looking for German chocolate cake recipes on Eat Your
Books, I found a recipe that, along with the usual directions
and ingredients, explained the origins of the cake. I was surprised
to learn that German chocolate cake is not German at all. The cake
is an all-American creation originally called German's Chocolate
Cake after the sweet baking chocolate used in the recipe. German's
Sweet Chocolate in turn was named for its creator Samuel German, an
employee of Baker Chocolate Co., who invented the sweet
confection in 1852. Over the years the possessive ending was
dropped and the cake became known as German Chocolate Cake, leading
people to believe that the cake was of German
origin.
This discovery prompted me to look into other
recipes or foods with deceptive names. I found plenty. Let's start
with more foods named for countries where they weren't invented or
discovered. There's the Jerusalem artichoke, which didn't even
originate on the same continent as Jerusalem and isn't related to
artichokes. It is actually a member of the sunflower family. London
broil is unknown in London or elsewhere in the United Kingdom,
and no one seems to know why it was named after the
city. Similarly, Caesar salad was not named for, nor invented
by, Julius Caesar. It's not Roman or even Italian. The
salad was purportedly invented by Caesar Cardini in Tijuana in 1924.
Enchiladas suizas (Swiss enchiladas) were definitely not
created in Switzerland. And while many people think a Swiss chef
invented the dish, a Mexico City restaurant owned by Americans actually lays
claim to the title.
Sometimes the place names are correct, but the
food itself is not. Bombay Duck isn't duck, it's fish. Welsh
rabbit (or Welsh rarebit) is another example. It might be Welsh,
but there is no rabbit, only cheese. And what does "rarebit" even
mean? Then there's Colonial Goose, a New Zealand dish made of
lamb, not goose. Rocky Mountain oysters are iconic in the American
West, but they aren't oysters at all. (I prefer the
alternate name of swinging beef.)
Occasionally the food resembles an object or
evokes an image. The Norwegian omelet (aka Baked Alaska) is not
Norwegian, Alaskan, or an omelet. However, this French
invention of cake covered with ice cream and meringue does bring to
mind a cold and snowy landscape. Ropa
vieja somewhat resembles old clothes, and elephant ears,
the deep fried thin pastry, do look rather like big ears. Sometimes
the resemblance is a bit of a stretch - toad in the hole doesn't really look like
toads coming out of a hole. (And in typical fashion, toad in the
hole means something different in the U.S. than it
does elsewhere). Pico de gallo (rooster's beak) also
misses the mark. However, "the stinking rose" is an apt alternate
name for garlic, even if it's not very
rose-like.
Then there are the real head scratchers, foods
with names that don't quite make sense. Sweetbreads are a prime example, being neither
sweet nor bread, but instead made from an animal's pancreas and
thymus glands. Putting that on a menu is probably a bad idea, but I
still don't understand how "sweetbread" came to be the moniker.
Husband and Wife Lung Slices (fuqi feipian) is not a bad Chinese
menu translation; it's an actual Szechuan dish. It's made of thinly
sliced beef and beef offal with plenty of spice. There doesn't
seem to be a reason to name it after a married couple. Or
is there? And after researching that bit of lore, I thought it
prudent not to inquire about Spotted Dick.
What weird names did I
miss?
Photo of toad in the hole from The Telegraph