Funistrada
Funistrada is a fictitious food item. The term was inserted in a U.S. Army survey of soldiers circa 1974[1] regarding their food preferences. Funistrada along with a fake vegetable dish called "buttered ermal" and a fake meat dish called "braised trake" were inserted "to provide an estimate of how much someone will respond to a word which sounds like a food name or will answer without reading."[2]
Funistrada scored higher in popularity than eggplant, lima beans, and cranberry juice.[3][4] All three items, however, had the highest percentage of "never tried" responses.[5]
Appearances
- Bill Bryson cited the food in his 1990 book Mother Tongue[6] as an example of a word that is made up for a specific purpose.
- The Book of Lists 2 also cited funistrada, braised trake, and buttered ermal in a list of favorite and least favorite US Army foods.
- Braised trake appears on Conservapedia,[7] apparently cited as a real dish, and is improperly defined as "a traditional Norwegian dish, made of codfish, vegetables, and salt".
- A restaurant in Michigan named Trattoria Funistrada used funistrada in the name for its restaurant.[8]
- It appears in CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food by Paul Dickson[9]
- A Breeders' Cup horse took the name in 1985.[10]
References
- ^ Armed Forces Food Preferences
- ^ Armed Forces Food Preferences p. 4
- ^ Entry about the term at Slugsite.com
- ^ Davidson, Alan. "Funistrada." The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- ^ Armed Forces Food Preferences p. 54
- ^ Bryson, Bill (1990), The Mother Tongue, London, UK: Hamish Hamilton, p. 77, ISBN 0-380-71543-0
- ^ http://www.conservapedia.com/Braised_trake
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=874736085937553&id=134530113291491
- ^ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-dickson-9/chow-a-cooks-tour-of-military-food/
- ^ https://equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=932738®istry=T
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