I’m being a bit vague not to bias the poll. The question is pretty simple.
If I told you I was eating a food called “rocket,” would you know what I was eating?
My sister found this in an iPhone game where she had to name foods using scrambled letters. There was no other word before the word “rocket,” and the more common U.S. name was not acceptable.
Yes. Born and bred in the US and I’ve known what rocket was for awhile.
same as arugula
May I ask where in the U.S.? Maybe it’s regional.
I was born in Western NY, college in Boston, lived in Pgh, St Louis, San Deigo, CT and back to NY.
Honestly, I don’t know where I was living when I learned the name.
I posted in the poll thread. I heard the name from a friend who spent time in France, otherwise I have never heard the name used.
I know it. Midwestern US. I like cookbooks and cooking shows.
I think a cookbook is exactly where I learned it from. Probably this one:
I have even and heard it used elsewhere. The Silver Palate cookbook was a pretty common one back in the early-mid 1990s, and was my go to cookbook for many years.
I’m not American and had never heard of a food called rocket. Trying to guess I thought maybe a sausage or some type of bread or pastry thing. Would never have guessed it was arugula.
I know what it is… pretty sure I learned it from a cookbook years and years ago, quite possibly The Joy of Cooking (“Your Greens…”).
To be clear, I don’t think I have ever heard an American use this term in speech, that I can think of.
I’d associate it with at least UK English, definitely. I know what courgettes and aubergines are, too, and some similar terms.
Zucchini and eggplant
If I only saw the word “rocket” as your sister did, I would not necessarily make a connection. If I heard the term used in the context of dining however, I would assume that I heard “roquette” and would know that it was a salad green.
Salad green or pain-in-the-butt weed, just like dandelions.
The only rocket I’ve ever heard of is related to NASA and space travel. And the 4th of July.
I’ve never ever heard “rocket” (ETA: “roquette”?) used in this way.
OTOH, I’ve also never heard of “arugula” until it became famous in connection with Obama, and I’ve barely ever heard it since except in that context. (Typically, mentioned by anti-Obama types, apparently to make him sound “elitist” or something. Is there something “elitist” about arugula?)
Why is arugula not acceptable for the OP’s word game? Is it not an English word? Is it Spanish?
More ETA: What is arugula anyway? Is it == cilantro?
Agreed, its right next to aubergine in my brain, filed under “shit British people say.”
Arugula is an Italian word, and probably arrived on our shores via Italian immigration. The British, I think, got “rocket” from the French.
Never ever heard of it before. My guess would have been some type of hot dog with toppings.
Arugula is a peppery salad green. The book I linked to up thread describes it pretty well.
I know what it is, but I’ve been under the assumption it’s a phonetic misspelling of roquette.
Never heard of it before, never used arugula in my cooking either though, and wouldn’t be able to point out arugula in a line-up of various salad greens. US citizen, born and raised in Oregon and moved to Houston for several years now. Never once ever heard it, and cooking is a hobby of mine.
I’ve known it (and grown it) under the names rocket, roquette, and arugala. And it is not the same as cilantro (coriander).