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Mon 4 Sep, 2006 12:44 pm
When I was a kid my mom would order her hamburger "educated". This meant that she wanted mayo and catsup on it. How this came to be called "educated" I have no idea, but she could order it in a restaurant and they always knew what she was talking about.
When I lived in Chicago I learned to order coffee as a Boston coffee which meant that I wanted strong coffee with cream. An art history teacher later explained the expression by tracing the westward progression of Americans running low on coffee beans and dairy products so they began drinking their coffee black.
Do you know any other interesting food terms like this? I'm not talking short order terms - those deserve a thread of their own - but terms that a customer might use to order their food prepared in a specific way?
Thanks!
Interesting, Boomer. Most places I've visited, if you order your coffee "regular", you will get black unsweetened coffee. In Boston, however, "regular" means with cream and sugar. Go figure.
I'm from here and I still can't get that through my head, Merry. I still think regular means caffeinated. And, I think that that specific coffee order goes down like that at donut shops, not cafes..... no?
I wonder how the Boston coffee lost it's sugar by the time it reached Chicago.
Of course, this was before the whole Starbucks thing where ordering a coffee became a tongue twister.
Mr. B likes "dirty" martinis - skip the vermouth, add a shot of olive juice and add extra olives.
During the WW II my mother ordered groceries from the local store which delivered. I can remember her asking for schmeercase.
Do you know what that was, Noddy?
In Chicago, when I order "coffee", I get a 1/2 cup coffee +
1/2 cup cream and lots and lots of sugar.
Very tasty.
eBeth, I can't get your link to work. Was it an explaination of cottage cheese?
Thanks, Noddy! Why do you think she called it schmeercase? Is it a foreign word.
Miller - you get that automatically when you order coffee or is this from a barrista that knows your preference?
from the link
Quote:Perhaps a final note on the original posting:
Cottage cheese among my Pittsburgh dwelling grandparents was called "schmeer case" [to my ears,] as recently as the late 1960's.
The German word for cheese is "der Kase" [don't have the accent marks available in this post.]
"Schmiere" is a word for a paste or salve. When used with a noun like soap - it means "soft."
So - "Schmiere Kase" was cottage cheese, or soft or pasty cheese.
So, your memory has served you well in this case.
Christine
must be some kinda Pennsylavania thing. I don't think of cottage cheese as something spreadable.
I
Schmercase is Dutchy--Pennsylvania Dutchy. I also remember "vasserpunkin" and "brunschavger (sp?)"
Cottage cheese could be spread on bread or toast. We weren't allowed plain jelly sandwiches--we had to have jelly and peanut butter or jelly and cottage cheese.
In Holland if you want a coffee with milk (a latte, basically), you have to order a "koffie verkeerd", literally a "wrong coffee" or "coffee the wrong way".
Did they have barristas in 1982?
those were the days ...
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If you ask for a "coffee, regular" in Toronto, you'll get a (caffeinated) coffee with one cream and one sugar. No milk, unless you specifically ask for it.
Noddy, I remember braunschweiger. It was a liver spread, pate really, just not fancified.
boomerang wrote:eBeth, I can't get your link to work. Was it an explaination of cottage cheese?
Thanks, Noddy! Why do you think she called it schmeercase? Is it a foreign word.
Miller - you get that automatically when you order coffee or is this from a barrista that knows your preference?
Automatically. Same is true with a visit to Dunkin Donut.
Swimpy wrote:Noddy, I remember braunschweiger. It was a liver spread, pate really, just not fancified.
It comes in a tube in the deli section of the supermarket.
schmeer kase or Schmierkaese is just like Philadelphia cream cheese,
you smear it on as opposed to cutting.
Braunschweiger is good, I actually have one here...
Quote:It comes in a tube in the deli section of the supermarket
Aka known as "liverwurst". For experts the vapid stuff in the tube is a white-bread shadow of Braunschweiger.
CJ--
Thanks for the proper spellings.
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