Language Mishaps at the Supermarket

[clickerish]

If it makes you feel any better, for some reason, in Peru they call "cilantro" "culantro" and I have accidentally typed it in that way at times without realising it.

[anna7602]

May 27, 2012 5:11:52 GMT -5 dorothyinAus said:

The other confusion I have is that I still think in terms of pounds and ounces and I sometimes have trouble with the conversion to grams/kilos. That's how I ended up with 2 kilos of potatoes when I really needed 2 pounds.

I do this, too! I end up with way more than I need because I am still not used to the conversions, especially when I have a long line of people behind me at the butcher counter and I get flustered.

[trotamundos]

I think I've gotten lucky... in El Salvador I lived with a family, but ate whatever was available at the comedor (the little cafeteria in town), since they couldn't always afford gas for the stove; in Guatemala my now-DH and I shopped together, so he knew what we were looking for at the super or in the market, and in the Dominican Republic I lived at the campus where I worked and the kitchen was off limits to anyone except the cooking staff (so I knew where to buy snacks, but never was allowed to cook anything on my own--which I actually would have really liked, the food was one thing I didn't like about the DR, but I'm not sure if it was the mass-produced cafeteria food or the actual food...) One place I have had language issues though is trying to get my hair cut; it took me years to figure out how to correctly ask just for a trim!

[dorothyinAus]

May 28, 2012 5:31:02 GMT -5 GilliC said:

I can never remember the names of the cuts of meat in Norwegian. It drives me nuts. Aside from the ridiculous price, this is the biggest reason I don't buy meat very often!

I have problems with the names of cuts here and they are supposedly in English! I have decided that now when I need a particular cut, I am going to take the pages from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook with me and point out to the butcher which cut I need on the map of the cow/pig.

[jupiter2311]

May 28, 2012 4:55:51 GMT -5 VillainV said:

It took me a really long time to realize that "rocket" is arugula, and that "coriander" is actually cilantro (they come from the same plant...the leafy part is what americans call cilantro, and the seed is what americans call coriander -- but to the Brits it's all just coriander). Oh yeah, and that "courgettes" are zucchini.

This. I lived here for almost a year before I realized cilantro was coriander! Finally I talked to my mom and MIL and they were both like "LOOK FOR CORIANDER!" as if i were the biggest idiot in the world. A friend here did the same thing and she brought me some from her boss's garden saying "I can never find cilantro here!" (it's in every.single.grocery store.) But since I made the same mistake, I can't hate on her too much about it

[bugabean]

When I first moved here, there was a big, long topic on a local expat message board about how it sucked not to have cilantro in Denmark. It went on for *months* before someone said, "actually, it is here but it's called koriander." D'oh!

[oneslybookworm]

Popcorn - sprinkle some sea salt on the popcorn after you microwave it. Te sweet + salty is delicious!!

[GilliC]

I was lucky in that I learned the coriander/cilantro thing from one of my Indian friends before it came up at the grocery. I remember arguing with her that coriander wasn't leafy before I finally caught on that they came from the same plant. D'oh.


I actually keep all my spices labeled in Hindi (and English), because she taught me to cook using the Hindi names. I still feel like "cumin" goes in TexMex, and if I'm making curry, it's "jeera." (And ground coriander is "dhania" so that handles the coriander/coriander problem.)

[anna7602]

May 28, 2012 19:04:23 GMT -5 dorothyinAus said:

May 28, 2012 5:31:02 GMT -5 GilliC said:

I can never remember the names of the cuts of meat in Norwegian. It drives me nuts. Aside from the ridiculous price, this is the biggest reason I don't buy meat very often!

I have problems with the names of cuts here and they are supposedly in English! I have decided that now when I need a particular cut, I am going to take the pages from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook with me and point out to the butcher which cut I need on the map of the cow/pig.

I loooooove the picture of the cow I have with all the different parts/cuts labeled in French. It's one of the first things I picked up when we moved and it has been very handy.

Funny enough, though, in the U.S., for a long time I tried to stick to Spanish-language butchers because I had a bunch of recipes of my grandmother's with the cuts of beef specified in Spanish. In a pinch, I even went to an Italian butcher in Boston for a while who understood what I was talking about. I'm still not very good with English terms for cuts of meat, but if I am following an English-language recipe at home then I can deal with an English-speaking butcher.

Ah, food! There are so many particular words for things even when you supposedly speak the language well. I was horrified to find out "callos" meant tripe when I was in Spain. I had never heard that term in my life before living there.

[popcorn]

May 29, 2012 4:11:18 GMT -5 oneslybookworm said:

Popcorn - sprinkle some sea salt on the popcorn after you microwave it. Te sweet + salty is delicious!!

Thanks! I actually did this the first time because I usually add salt even if it's the salt kind (this sounds bad...I am a salt addict). It's very good with the sweet & salty mix and I am of course going to eat the popcorn, but I was just surprised that I didn't notice it was the wrong thing before I left the store!

Cilantro in Spain was hard to find because it is not in most grocery stores. The fruit shops in my neighborhood had it usually, but I think that was because I lived in an area with a lot of Mexican/Central American/South American immigrants. Spaniards don't use cilantro. It's spelled the same way though, no name change or anything. And they only sold it in these huge bushels that I could never use it all. I started putting cilantro in all my salads in addition to my homemade salsas. I have not looked for it here yet, but I'm betting I'll find it.