From the downright outrageous to the uproariously funny, weirdly named dishes offer an interesting insight into the culinary ethos of several countries around the world.
By Raul Dias
Growing up part Anglo-Indian on my Mum’s side, my initiation into the realm of oddly named dishes was complete the moment I, a preternaturally ravenous two-year-old, had had my first helping of pish-pash. Simply put, the rather onomatopoeic dish is an Anglo rite of passage every toddler must endure. Made with soft rice and some form of protein (mostly chicken), pish-pash as a dish was first spoken of by English writer Augustus Prinsep in the mid-19th century where he called it “a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery.”
Egg banjo, on the other hand is an Anglo snack that was invented by the military during WWII and sees a sunny-side-up fried egg sandwiched between two slices of bread, all doused in the quintessentially British brown sauce. Though the etymology of ‘banjo’ in its name remains a mystery, the sandwich still lives on here in India in the form of the slightly tweaked (both in name and composition) ‘egg benjo’—an insanely popular snack made famous by Indore’s nightly food paradise of Sarafa Bazar. Here, the runny egg is substituted with a more practical folded masala omelette, the sliced bread with a toasted burger bun and brown sauce with tomato ketchup.
Blighty bites
As a university student in the UK of the mid-2000s, as I navigated my way around various college and dorm cafeterias, I was hit in the face with even more inappropriately named British dishes. Take spotted dick, for instance.
Now, before images of some virulent, male appendage-related medical condition begin to swirl in your mind, let me assure you of the name’s rather benign innocuity. This traditional British pudding (as desserts are referred to there) is made with flour, suet (a kind of animal lard), caster sugar, lemon zest and dried currants or raisins making up the ‘spotted’ component. The ‘dick’ part being an old English term for a pudding. Served warm with a thin custard sauce, this steamed pudding has been a mainstay across Britain for centuries.
I am told that the wildly popular Stinking Bishop cheese from Dymock in South West England’s Gloucestershire county apparently gets its nausea-evoking name for the juice of the Stinking Bishop Pear that it is immersed in for its ripening process. Not for its equally putrid odour that is said to be a cross between that of a wet dog and old socks.
Another such bizarrely named specimen is the rather tasty baked savoury dish called toad-in-the-hole. Eaten as part of a light dinner that the Brits call “tea”, the easy-to-prepare dish is a bunch of fried pork sausages (or to use the more colloquial term—bangers) cooked in what is essentially a buttery Yorkshire pudding. But in America, the unfortunately named dish refers to an egg cooked in the hole cut out of a piece of white, sliced bread.
Servings across the pond
Speaking of America, the land of the free too has its own posse of quirkily named dishes. Some like the molten cheese-exploding burger called the juicy Lucy and the soppy, meat sauce laden sandwich named sloppy Joe paying homage to particularly messy individuals! While others are in honour of “sleepy critters” like the 1970s cocktail party classic of pigs in a blanket that sees tiny, cocktail pork sausages wrapped in flaky pastry and then baked.
Devils on horseback is another iconic 70s party snack where pitted, dried prunes are wrapped in bacon strips and then baked. Interestingly, this snack has evolved from another strangely named turn-of-the-century one called angels on horseback, where freshly shucked oysters stood instead of the prunes.
Deep fried oysters also find a place for themselves in the New Orleans po’ boy sandwich ensconced within the crusty confines of a sliced mini French baguette. A shortened version of the original ‘poor boy sandwich’, the po’ boy was named after the conductors of the local streetcar company, who in 1929, were given the sandwiches free of charge for their daily lunch by a local restaurant during their four-month long strike for better wages.
South of the US in the Caribbean twin island nation of Trinidad & Tobago, a strangely named iteration of our very own Malabar parotta has been the number one snack for over a century. The buss up shut which is the local vernacular for “busted up shirt” is a flaky paratha that is smashed up by the cook using their hands after frying on a griddle. Thus, leaving the flatbread to resemble a torn-up shirt, pieces of which are dunked into spicy chickpea and potato curry and eaten with Trini-style mango achaar.
Found in translation
Adidas. Helmet. Walkman. Any guesses as to what this trio could possibly mean in the context of food? Well, in the Philippines they are all nicknames given to popular street food snacks, I discovered on a recent trip to the archipelago nation. So, while Adidas is what barbequed chicken feet are called, helmet is the code word for roasted chicken head and walkman is bite sized bits of grilled pig ears.
Still in the Philippines, Bicol express is a spicy stew made with pork, shrimp paste and coconut milk. It is named in honour of the passenger train service of the same name that plies between the capital Manila and the Bicol region that is well-known for its spicy cuisine.
Imam bayildi, as translated onto the English menu cards in restaurants across Turkey reads “the imam fainted” and is an old Ottoman heirloom dish. Here, whole eggplants are stuffed with a mixture of onions, garlic and tomatoes and simmered in olive oil before being served with rice and a dollop of yogurt. It is said to have got its name when an imam who was so overcome by pleasure after eating the dish, fainted.
Or maybe, the imam had just gotten a whiff of the stinking bishop…?
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Toad-in-the-Hole
INGREDIENTS:
180 gm all-purpose flour
450 gm pork sausages (can be substituted with chicken sausages)
½ tsp salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs, beaten
350 ml milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
METHOD:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the salt and a pinch of pepper. Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour in the eggs, milk, and melted butter into the well and whisk into the flour until smooth. Cover and let the batter stand for 30 minutes.
2. Grease the bottom and sides of a medium-sized, rectangular baking dish with a little vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 220°C and place the empty dish in it.
3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat remaining oil on medium flame and fry the sausages till golden brown.
4. Put the sausages in the hot baking dish and pour the batter over the sausages and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the batter is risen and golden.
5. Cut in wedges and serve warm alongside caramelised onions, brown sauce and buttery mashed potatoes.
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