There are some things that just go together: fish and chips, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, bangers and mash, beer and more beer, ice cream and extra virgin olive oil with sea salt. OK, not so sure about that last one, but I did see it on the menu at a café today in Sonoma. I am afraid that I cannot confirm if it tastes as bad as it sounds, after trying chilli ice cream in Dar-Es-Salaam, I have become less adventurous when eating ice-cream.
Size Matters
A few years ago there was a definite wave of anti-French sentiment in the US; so not very different from the UK in that regard. In March of 2003, the chair of the relevant committee required the restaurants in the US House of Representatives to rename French fries and French toast to Freedom fries and Freedom toast. The menus reverted to normality in 2006.
However, there still seems to be instances here in the US which involve ignoring French contributions to language. I went to a newly opened Fentons creamery yesterday; this being a fancy word for an ice-cream parlour. I ordered a “petite” portion. I failed my French O-Level, twice, but I pretty certain that petite means small. However, what arrived was a mass of ice-cream, albeit rammed into and on top of a small cup. It was probably enough ice-cream to feed two European adults; I shudder to think how much ice-cream would have arrived in the regular, large or jumbo portions.
