Ima huge language nerd, love word play & all things related — e.g. phonology, semantics, etymology, etc.
I bet we all have food words that we love to say. A lot of my favorites are probably Italian, a very musical language practically made for opera and food… just try to say pap-par-del-le without smiling
Besides pappardelle, tagliatelle & all the other fun pasta names, there are other fun food words. Like
baba ganoush
baingin bharta
banana
bouche
dolmadakia
Gaumenschmaus (a fantastic meal)
idli
lecker (tasty)
kumquat
pumpernickel
saganaki
schnabulieren (enjoying a great meal)
slumgullion
squash
What are yours?
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BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
2
The first one that came to mind is rico. But you really gotta lean into rolling the ‘r’. I can’t take credit for noticing it’s awesomeness, that goes to Pati Jinich. She is also a big word nerd, and the way she exclaims “que rico!” while rolling the ‘r’ for a solid 3 seconds is just so joyful and infectious. Which is funny because it’s not even a double r which is usually what gets rolled. It truly conveys the wonderful feeling food can give us. Pamplemousse is a personal fav too. Like, what a fun word to say, spell, and eat!
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Presunto
(2026 so far: El Hierro-> Gran Canaria (ES)-> Lisbon(PT)-> Valencia (ES)-> ........................................................................ [Fleeced Taxpayer])
7
Everything simply sounds lovely when I am in Spain. At the moment it is (la) paella (Valenciana).
I need to batch cook some of these for the freezer. I saw a “cheat” on youtube where the presenter used her Kitchen Aid Pasta attachment to roll out the dough. It seemed like rolling out the dough was the time consuming part of the process (at least for me). So if I can automate that step, it should be easier.
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Presunto
(2026 so far: El Hierro-> Gran Canaria (ES)-> Lisbon(PT)-> Valencia (ES)-> ........................................................................ [Fleeced Taxpayer])
12
The language.
Here in Valencia they speak Valenciano, though. Mercado is “mercat”, for instance. But everyone knows paella. Spain’s most famous dish and is king of all foods in “Valencian Community” . Just came back from a day trip to the rice producing area, 14km from Valencia where paella was actually invented (El Palmar/Albufera). Almost all restaurants there are paella and rice specialists. Rightly so.
That’s interesting, since Italian and Spanish are so very similar. I do prefer to swear in Spanish vs. Italian…
I know. It’s a Catalan dialect, and it was so cool to see signs everywhere in both Spanish and Valenciano.
I’ve only been to Valencia once with a HS friend to visit another HS friend who was learning Spanish there. She still lives in Spain!
I mastered pronouncing her address so well (Salvador Lluch) in the cab the driver asked if I was from Madrid. Never been prouder in my life at that moment
We had some great paella there.
Presunto
(2026 so far: El Hierro-> Gran Canaria (ES)-> Lisbon(PT)-> Valencia (ES)-> ........................................................................ [Fleeced Taxpayer])
14
Interesting that one of them sounds most irritating and the other lovely.
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
15
Burfi, a very tasty, healthy Indian sweet. Unfortunately it can also be spelled “Barfi”!
Japanese has a lot of onomotopoeia vocabulary, so I’m partial to a bunch of words.
wrt food, hokahoka (piping hot) works. Oddly, the first time I remember seeing it was in Jakarta; Indonesia has rubbish Japanese food chain called “Hoka Hoka Bento.”
Sticking to Japanese, sando suru means “to make into a sandwich.” One might see the abbreviation “sand” at a café, or casual food store.
Heading to Mexico, another country whose cuisine has easily won me over, here are a few of my choice verbs:
salpimentar, to salt and pepper
encanelar, to add cinnamon
birrieria, a shop that sells birria (I only like this one because I am incapable of correctly pronouncing it. oh, and birria is boss.)
In England, seeing “pud” in summaries for restaurants for the first time made me chortle.
Plenty more words that will eventually come in with the tide.
In learning and exposure to foreign languages, it’s always the food words that I’ll pick up first and most readily. Spanish has a lot of great food words (not biased because of prior Spanish study), so a few words that I oddly enjoy saying (and often eating)
boquerones
chicharrones
ceviche
spaetzle (I don’t know how to make the umlauts) - have not had this but I’ve always liked the sound of this word, and it sounds like it would be a pleasant homey dish
kouign-amann
Chinese has an interesting food/cooking vocabulary and I’m not sure I could translate all of it (some are even a mystery to me on its exact meaning), but I can’t say they are a favorite.
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