Sandwich

I'm a foodie wannabe. Unfortunately my knowledge and skills in the kitchen aren’t on par with my love of food. And that explains why I pour out my love for food on Semantica (Remember the posts on croissant and cappuccino? )

Sandwich was long invented before John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (located in south east England), an 18th century English aristocrat, lent his title to it. The guy was known to be an obsessive gambler and to avoid leaving the gambling table to take supper, he favored this portable type of food. It allowed Lord Sandwich to continue playing cards, while eating without getting his cards sticky from eating meat with his bare hands.

Trivia: Be ready for some chuckles!! To the south of Sandwich is another little town called Ham. So the road leading to the towns has sign posts reading:

Ham
Sandwich

A sign that gets stolen every now and then.

And if that did not raise a chuckle, then try this, there's yet another town called Deal nearby, so there are places where road signs read.....(you guessed it!!!)
Ham
Sandwich
Deal

Sources: http://www.answers.com/ , http://en.wikipedia.org
Image: Google Images

Cappuccino

Coffee is my comfort drink. I'm not addicted to it but I love the whole ritual surrounding coffee. Wanna partake in my morning ritual? Then read on :)

A cappuccino is espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream. Espresso itself is an Italian word meaning "pressed out" and called so as it's made in a coffee making machine (first invented in Italy in the beginning of 20th century) that presses water through fine ground coffee.

Cappuccino on the other hand had nothing to do with coffee originally. It comes from the Italian word Cappuchio that means "little hood" . The colour of the coffee reminded Italians of the brown robes of one of the Roman Catholic orders of monks, namely the Capuchins. The Capuchin order of friars was established in 1525 and they wore brown silken robes with pointed hoods.

Trivia: The name of this pious order was later used as the name (first recorded in English in 1785) for a type of monkey often having a hood like tuft of hair on the head. So we also have a monkey, a native of Central and South America, that's called Capuchin.

Sources: http://www.answers.com , http://www.billcasselman.com/
Pic: http://www.capuchinfriars.org.au/

Spam

Spam - Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail

This one's origin had me in splits. Today's Yahoo news article on Spam being Hawaii's favorite food is what led me to it. Turns out Spam is the brand name of a canned seasoned pork product, created in the United States, which is really a portmanteau of "Spiced Ham". Because it wasn't rationed like beef, it was abundantly available and Spam became an all-American staple during World War II.

The term was supposedly coined from a Monty Python television skit in the early 1970s, in which every item on a restaurant menu contained SPAM, and there was nothing a customer could do to get a meal without it. A group of Vikings in the restaurant sing about the meat product, "Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam! Wonderful spam!", to drown out all other conversation, until told to shut up. The word "Spam" is uttered at least 132 times. As a result, something that keeps being repeated to great annoyance was called spam, and computer programmers picked up on it.

Trivia: The Hormel company, the makers of the meat product Spam, while never quite happy with the use of the word spam for junk email, have always seemed supportive of Monty Python and their skit. The skit is part of the company's Spam museum in Austin, MN, United States and is performed every day by local actors.

Sources: www.answers.com

Croissant

Croissant - (Pronounced as kwah-SAHN) : A rich, flaky pastry made in the form of a crescent.

I had to share this: the origin of this one had the gastronome and history-buff in moi stoked!!! There are several legends that go with the origin of the pastry but the one that rules supreme is :

In the latter half of the seventeenth century (around 1680's) , an army of Turks besieged the city of Vienna. When Turks tried to get into the city by tunneling under the walls, bakers overheard the noise and sounded the alarm that subsequently led to the Turkish defeat. Austrians celebrated the event by honoring the bakers by creating the pastry for the occasion: "Croissant" or French for Crescent to symbolize their victory over the Turks whose flag bore a crescent moon.It is first recorded in English in 1899.

The question arises why a French word when it was Austrians who were victorious. There are various theories for this one too. The most prominent ones :

1. It was called a kipfel, the German word for crescent. The pastry wouldn't become a croissant until the Austrian Princess Marie Antoinette married the King of France (1770).

2. At the time, French Language was en vogue within aristocratic circles due to the prominence of the French King Louis XIV.

Note : There are disputes over whether the place attacked was Vienna in 1683 or Budapest in 1686.

Sources : http://www.answers.com, http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html
Pic : Modern day Turkish Flag and Croissant, sourced from Google.