A white is not the same in Barcelona as in Madrid. Neither is a bikini. Not an anchovy in Santander or Bilbao. Wow, it is not necessary to travel many kilometers for some food, dishes or drinks to change their names. Things get complicated if we go on a trip and although at lunchtime it is true that in one way or another we always manage to get along with whomever we need, we have prepared this small gastronomic survival manual to remember that an omelette, a bill, a donkey or a limpet can be something very different from what we think we are asking for.
What is the lamb? No looking, quick response. If you said beef, nothing happens. In the IGP Ternasco de Aragón they assume that the name by which the lamb is known in the area misleads many. It is one of the many examples of those foods that change names from one place to another and can be misleading.
The beans that in many places are beans, in others they are the green pod which, by the way, is called that, pod, in the north of the country. It is more difficult to know, for example, that in Menorca endive is called endive. True, it is not as fun as if you tell an Argentine that you are going to catch some shells, but they can also give us little scares when ordering in a restaurant or doing the shopping.
Of Neapolitans and donkeys
We started the journey by our neighbors. As everyone knows, in Portugal they not only speak perfect English but they are also able to understand and speak Spanish even if it is not a reciprocal subject. In fact, our unfortunate portuñol may make us think that the traditional and delicious bacalhau à brás is grilled cod, when in fact it refers to scrambled eggs made from cod, potatoes and egg.
These gastronomic false friends are very common in Italy. Because there the donkey that they offer us with toast is not the meat of this animal, but butter. Or broth is not the soup, but hot. Although, without a doubt, the most recurring mistake with our Italian neighbors is to think that aceto is oil when in reality it is vinegar.
Another one to note if we travel to the Abruzzo region: here to order a glass of wine or whatever they speak of a cup. But be careful with going to Milan and ordering a cup of wine, because they will look at us strangely. Indeed, it is one of those terms that varies depending on the area of the country in which we move.
Something similar happens -our French sources confirm- with the Neapolitan. To begin with, no one outside of Spain uses this word to refer to this chocolate-filled puff pastry. Of course, not in Naples either. In France this sweet is known by the descriptive name of pain au chocolat. But be careful, because if we are in the southwestern part of the country, his thing is to refer to it as chocolate. It sounds like a chocolate bar, but it's not.
Argentine invoices
But the real language problems with food come, logically, with the countries of Central and South America. Despite the shared language, the list of differences in the shopping list is very long and diverse. Zucchini? In most markets there you won't know what it is, because it's called pumpkin. Or if we want to buy limes, we will have to ask for lemons.
Leaving aside the many names for corn depending on the country (elote, jojoto, choclo…) or that in most of the continent lunch is not a mid-morning snack but a midday meal, there are some really curious terms that can lead to confusion
For example, if in Argentina they offer us an invoice, they are not inviting us to pay, but that is how cakes are known. And if we ask for the restaurant menu, we will not be requesting the list of dishes that we have taken, but rather that term is used to talk about hors d'oeuvres.
Craving for barnacles? In Lanzarote or Madeira it is a great idea. In Venezuela, they are still a bit surprised, because the limpet is a rodent, not that mollusk that we know and sometimes eat.
Bollo is another one that can cause problems, because in many countries it is a corn dough cooked in leaves, in Peru it is a bread dough in the shape of a doll and covered in sugar but also, in jargon, it is used to refer to female genitals. In any case, none of the meanings seems to coincide with that of Spain.
cane and tortilla
And for drink? If we order a red in Colombia, it will not come with a glass of wine, but with a black coffee. And be careful not to yell at the waiter that you want a cola with ice, because in many countries on the other side of the Atlantic, cola is ass. We continue with the drinks: in Chile a caña is a glass of wine, and not a beer, and in Mexico horchata is made with rice and almonds, not with tiger nuts.
In this same country, marzipan is not a Christmas sweet made with almonds, but something more timeless and produced with peanuts. More well known is the case of the tortilla, which in Mexico is not that egg-based dish but the thin, round dough of nixtamalized corn or wheat flour and cooked on the griddle used for tacos and which is one of the pillars of the country's gastronomy.
By the way, sometimes the issue is not the name but the moment of consumption. The churros are the same here as in many South American countries, but when they discover that we have them for breakfast and not for dessert, the scare face is guaranteed.
