Food Funnies

Regarding spelling mistakes on labels, translation from foreign languages can often lead to hilarity. I bought a jar of hoisin sauce made in Taiwan once. Among the items in the label's ingredients list were "floor" and "monosodium grutamate".

-Paul W.

Among the items in the label's ingredients list were "floor" and "monosodium grutamate".

-Paul W.

I am reminded of the movie "Murder by Death' in which Peter Sellers played a Chinese detective, Sidney Wang.

(PS - was moved to dig through my DVD archive and found a copy so we will watch tomorrow night!)

Murder by Death is one of my favorite silly movies. You have:

o Truman Capote as the villain Lionel Twain (living at number 22--"two-two Twain's house")

o Peter Sellers as the Charlie Chan-type Detective Wang

o James Coco as Monsieur Parrot

o David Niven and Maggie Smith as Dick and Dora Charleston (Thin Man parodies)

o Peter Falk as Sam Diamond (parody of Humphrey Bogart's characters in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca)

o Elsa Lanchester as Miss Marbles, along with her nurse. The nurse turns out to be the senile woman in the wheelchair--she was nurse to Miss Marbles when Marbles was a child, and now Marbles takes care of the nurse in her dotage

o Alec Guinness as the blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum and Nancy Walker as the deaf-mute maid Yetta

This cast participate in very silly jokes, some of them in rather bad taste. All in all, it's IMO a triumph by Neil Simon and an excellent send-up of traditional whodunnit detective fiction.

-Paul W.

I think silly movie sums it up and I bet that some of the cast must have really enjoyed it given that much of their other work was quite serious.

. Among the items in the label's ingredients list were "floor" and "monosodium grutamate".

.

That gives food a rubbery taste

I coined a new food word yesterday.

We all know what "leftovers" are. What about "rightovers"? Those are yummy dishes being served in another household that cause you to say, "I'll be right over!"

-Paul W.

I don't get it, Bill.

The irony of the British hunt for spices the world over when the home food scene was fairly bland?

The irony of the British hunt for spices the world over when the home food scene was fairly bland?

Yeah but they weren't on the home food scene when the hunt for spices was on , Heinz beans only made it to the UK in 1886 and were sold only in Fortnum & Mason in London.

It was an American import.

So I still don't get it

Heinz Beanz only became popular after they reformulated the recipe to make it less sweet. I find them still very sweet so goodness knows what they were originally like

I'm thinking it might take AI to explain this joke. FWIW, AI just solved the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the Millennium Prize questions.

As Peter says, Heinz Beans are an American import to Britain. A chip butty might be a more appropriate illustration of the joke's point (the British sailed the seven seas for spices yet their traditional cuisine is bland). I don't think the observation is warranted anymore--the British have fallen in love with Indian and Pakistani cooking.

-Paul W.

the British sailed the seven seas for spices yet their traditional cuisine is bland.

Perhaps it was bland because of the lack of spices, and that's why they went in search of spices.

But that's not to say they didn't like heat in the old days. Horseradish sauce with beef can be fiery, so can mustard. 'English mustard to distinguish it from the sweet spread called French's mustard in the US

I saw the joke instantly, but it's always difficult to explain a joke. Don't overthink it. Forget blandness, forget brand names, forget importation dates, etc. It's the juxtaposition. Great Britain searched the world to find exotic and expensive spices, and yet the Brits just eat something as commonplace and lowly as beans and bread.

I found the joke humorous, and that's my take.

Afraid I have never understood the bland hot dog mustard that passes for real mustard in much of the US. We keep hot Dijon all the time but see the hot dog version only when She-who-must-be-obeyed sneaks some in and hides it in a cupboard. But then she avoids horseradish and I like it so.....