Delicious destinations: Find out the secret stories
If you have the appetite for travel, think about this: how come there are so many places in the world named after food?
By Reshmi R Dasgupta, TNN |
Have you ever thought of the number of places in the world that are named after food? Some may insist that food has taken the name of a place but I prefer to think the reverse. Either way, they would underline the symbiotic relationship that food and travel share. Each one helps appreciate the other!
In the west everyone knows, for instance that Cheddar is a picturesque village that is mecca for lovers of that variety of cheese even if it is now produced all over the world — including Kodiakanal, Kalimpong and Karnal in India! Ditto for Roquefort in France.
But do you know how America’s most famous cheese Monterey Jack originated? The story goes that David Jacks, a big landowner in Monterey, California branded his cheese with his name and city in the 1880s. The ‘s’ in his name dropped out somewhere down the decades but the cheese is now an icon!
Hamburg and Frankfurt, of course, are the birthplaces of meat patties and sausages now known by that name — just add an ‘er’ at the end. Parma is the name of an Italian city and an excellent ham too. T
he French carry on this tradition when it comes to wine with Chablis denoting a delectable white wine that comes from that region just as Champagne and Cognac designate their own varietals of distilled grape juice! And of course there’s Port from Portugal....And to stretch it a bit, Havana denotes cigars, right?
And how can we forget geographical evocations like Peking Duck and Baked Alaska, Welsh Rarebit and French Toast, even though they may not necessarily be from the places their names suggest!
For Indians its not an easy thing to understand perhaps since we don’t exactly have places say, called Basmati or Biryani, but even they at least evoke a region, so you get the idea: Rossogolla begets images of Bengal as much as appams elicit visions of verdant Kerala....
So next time you travel, keep your tastebuds alert too!
In the west everyone knows, for instance that Cheddar is a picturesque village that is mecca for lovers of that variety of cheese even if it is now produced all over the world — including Kodiakanal, Kalimpong and Karnal in India! Ditto for Roquefort in France.
But do you know how America’s most famous cheese Monterey Jack originated? The story goes that David Jacks, a big landowner in Monterey, California branded his cheese with his name and city in the 1880s. The ‘s’ in his name dropped out somewhere down the decades but the cheese is now an icon!
Hamburg and Frankfurt, of course, are the birthplaces of meat patties and sausages now known by that name — just add an ‘er’ at the end. Parma is the name of an Italian city and an excellent ham too. T
he French carry on this tradition when it comes to wine with Chablis denoting a delectable white wine that comes from that region just as Champagne and Cognac designate their own varietals of distilled grape juice! And of course there’s Port from Portugal....And to stretch it a bit, Havana denotes cigars, right?
And how can we forget geographical evocations like Peking Duck and Baked Alaska, Welsh Rarebit and French Toast, even though they may not necessarily be from the places their names suggest!
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For Indians its not an easy thing to understand perhaps since we don’t exactly have places say, called Basmati or Biryani, but even they at least evoke a region, so you get the idea: Rossogolla begets images of Bengal as much as appams elicit visions of verdant Kerala....
So next time you travel, keep your tastebuds alert too!
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