Popular Food Names and History Behind Them

[ctt template=”8″ link=”f9db4″ via=”yes” ]Ever wondered how some of your favourite food delicacies got their names?[/ctt] From the ones that sound weird when you hear for the first time to those that take up the names of kings and emperors, when was the last time you traced or went on a virtual trail to find out the history of food items? Well, if you are here with some appetite for knowledge. We have information ready for popular food names and history behind them.

Sit back, relax and gear up for a virtual culinary heritage tour.

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Benedict is known to be one of the best breakfast dishes to cure hangovers. Well, if you trace back its history, the purpose of its invention was pretty much similar. It was over a century ago that an aristocrat named Louis Benedict arrived at the Waldorf Hotel and complained of an intense hangover. When he ordered an a-la-carte off the hotel’s breakfast dishes served, he figured out that the mélange of the dishes served could be a probable cure for his hangover. And voila, a new dish was ready, took his name and found a permanent place in the hotel’s menu card.

Biscuit

A very colloquial and household name for a snack when we are bored or hungry, the name biscuit literally translates to cooked twice in French. However, the original meaning of the term biscuit referred to their cooking procedure and appearance of being thin, flat and crisp. Chefs and cooks from the United Kingdom used this cooking technique to increase the shelf-life of cookies when they were on long voyages. Hence the name!

Barbecue

One of the most popular delicacy or a cooking procedure has multiple theories attached to the name’s origins. While some claim that the name comes from the phrase in French called de barbe a queue (which translates to beard to tail),another theory claims that the word barabicu was found in Caribbean and North American dialects, which translates into sacred fire spit!

Deviled Eggs

We would like to share that the names of this delicacy has no evil connection of any sorts. Back in those days, the term devilling referred to the process of making a dish spicier. That’s it!

Hotdogs

Hot Dogs are one among the popular food names. Its another fan favourite, the term hotdog came into practice during the late 1800s. While sausage makers were blamed to be adding dog meat to the sausage mixtures. Dog was colloquially referred to as sausage at that time.

Caesar Salad

What sounds like a dish from Greek origins has its roots in Mexico.Its another popular food name. However, you can find this in most of the Italian restaurants around the world. History has it that the dish made of lettuce, parmesan cheese and veggies was discovered in 1924 in Rome. It was discovered by the Italian immigrant restaurant-owner called Caesar Cardini in Mexico.

One fine day, when his restaurant witnessed a sudden burst of tourists, he had to cook up something with
whatever ingredients he had in hand. What resulted is what we now call the Caesar salad.

Do you feel enlightened already? These food delicacies have been pleasing our taste buds for long. Along the fact that you know the history behind their origins simply makes it more special. So when you are out there on a dinner with friends or family, you can pull up the menu card, pretend you are looking for something to eat and share a fact like how Sheldon Cooper would do!

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