Ok, so it might not belong here, but this column just reminded me of when I was in Switzerland. I was staying with a friend and his family who told me that before coming to the United States, they would never eat corn cause it was always thought of corn as animal feed.
But did you find out what they meant by “corn”? If they meant wheat it doesn’t seem too strange that they would view the unprocessed kernels as animal food. Although I have some Ebly Wheat in the kitchen it’s not commonly used in Europe as far as I know.
Having said that, I was going to post a reply to the column you cited to say that, in Britain at least, “corn = maize” is well understood, provided it’s called sweetcorn or corn on the cob.
Yes, many Europeans consider American corn to be fit only for the pigs; they don’t raise food-grade sweet corn there, for the most part, although it can be found.
Rubbish - sweet corn is easily found in England and elsewhere in Europe, and is very popular, especially on the BBQ. (We used to have ‘corn-on-the-cob’ in our family to help dislodge loose baby teeth…)
G’day
Another anomaly you might want to mention is that in the Bible (Book of Ruth) it mentions Ruth standing “in tears amid the alien corn”. They would have been cultivating barley in Palestine in those days, not maize.
Regards,
Agback
Literary references to corn outside the USA are easy enough to find. There are plenty is Shakespeare, for instance. How about:
Titania to Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream…
Then I must be thy lady: but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
To amorous Phillida.
Yes, they meant maize - what I’ve always known as corn. We were eating it at the time - they told me how repulsed they were the first time they saw people eating it when they moved to America. But it IS growing in popularity in Switzerland, I beleive