My grandmother used to make what she called doyos - little rolled up cinnamon pastries made from leftover pie dough, so it wouldn’t go to waste. When I moved to Quebec, I found out it’s actually something you can buy at the store here. It’s labeled as “Pets de Soeur / Nun’s Pastry”. It took me a minute to realize that the french would more literally translate as “Nun’s Farts”
1 Like
So the Mormons took potato kugel, added a can of soup, and pretended they invented it. Hey, maybe it cures gay.
1 Like
In Brazil we also eat a cake called cuca. But as far as I know, we do not use that word for any part of the female anatomy.
Don’t forget Chicken Tikka Masala.
2 Likes
Preach it, good sir! Decent people engage me or one of my colleagues to turn their starches into merciful oblivion when they have sorrows that need drowning; but certain deviant sects insist on cutting out the experts and attempting it themselves.
Came here for this. Not disappointed.
1 Like
Pretty sure i saw a Brazilian spirit named Cuca a few years back, made me giggle.
Edit: Found it… Cuca Fresca would translate in some Latin countries as fresh vagina. I had a good laugh over that one.
1 Like
There was this american soft drink called Josta. Josta is a slang for fecal matter of animals or a bad and cheap contraption.
Fortunately they didn’t release it in Brazil.
1 Like
Ah, cuca is an old slang for mind. “Lelé da Cuca” is someone out of his mind, a crazy guy. Cuca Fresca is someone who is cool, with a mind in state of bliss.
1 Like
One of the things I found most interesting in American culture, which I saw in the movies, was precisely this habit of offering a banquet on the return of the graveyard. All those people in black, eating all kinds of food, was something very exotic. I believe that this has something to do with rural communities, people living on farms, some away from others, and that offering a good lunch would be grateful for the presence of all, as well as appease hunger.
This Potato Funeral stuff is a way to save time, isn’t it? The country changed, nobody have time to spent hours cooking and I think keeping the tradition is important too.
1 Like
As with British food, not all American food is terrible. Most isn’t. Various types of barbecue. Various styles of pizza. Buttermilk fried chicken. New England clam chowder. Crab cakes. Biscuits and sausage gravy. Chicken fried steak. Hamburgers. Grits. Gumbo. Cornbread.
I grew up near NY and surrounded by good food, and didn’t realize recipes like this even existed except as a joke until at least my late teenage years. A few years ago I saw this NYT article suggesting that a lot of weird things were recipes designed to make interesting photographs, as Cold War propaganda. It’s the only semi-reasonable explanation I’ve ever encountered.
Others, probably including this one, were designed to be cheap and convenient, back in an era when food an appliance companies were really pushing convenience as hard as possible, but before anyone actually knew enough about food science to do so and retain any semblance of color, texture, or flavor. Then they became “traditions.”
3 Likes
Man, comfort food for me means something really different.
1 Like
2 Likes
We’ve been in it officially ever since 1746.
“… well, now that we have the recipe …”
1 Like
Chicken Tikka Masala was created by Bangladeshi/Pakistani immigrants in Glasgow. They moved to Britain and stayed in Britain, therefore they are British and any new food they created is also British.
Chicken Tikka is Punjabi though
2 Likes
Well, my quote wasn’t entirely accurate:
(Video is cued.)
I was raised Mormon and ate this potato casserole at Mormon potlucks and even at dinners held after funerals - mostly in Southern California. I never knew that they were called funeral potatoes.
Years later when my wife and I lived in Salt Lake City for a couple of years in the '90s so she could be close to her family I ate them again and thought that they were delicious, even though they are very rich with fat and super high in calories and sodium. I’ve just loved all kinds of casseroles since I was a kid.
I liked them so much when we were living in Utah that I got the recipe for them and came up with my own variations, including adding cubed ham and/or crumbled bacon. Really freaking good, but I didn’t make them too often.
I don’t eat them at all anymore and it was only a few years ago that I learned that some people call them funeral potatoes. I thought that was a weird name but I got the reference right away.
3 Likes
I don’t actually remember seeing it on the menu.
I’ve seen buffets that have “cheesy potatoes” that are sliced thick w/ cheese but it’s not the same thing
