# "When someone mentions \[Food\], my mental image is usually totally different from theirs." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922 "2011-03-25T03:11:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/41 "2011-03-30T16:28:56Z")
This is a little broad, but if you ask around to Americans from different parts of the U.S., you’ll get wildly different answers as to what people consider to be default “Chinese food”. To me (from the New Orleans suburbs), “Chinese food” conjures up a stock mental image of (a) pork fried rice paired with (b) a fried-bits-of-chicken dish (primarily Mandarin, Sweet & Sour, or General Tsao’s). Egg-drop soup and egg roll optional. I’ve learned that a lot of other Americans, when they think “Chinese food”, they think of dim sum first, second, and third (true dim sum is virtually unknown locally). Still others can’t imagine “Chinese food” without noodles (usually something like chow mein or maybe chop suey). There are probably other variations. ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/42 "2011-03-30T17:04:10Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > There are filled dumplings, and puffy biscuit style dumplings, then there’s a third style, which are rolled out dough and would be noodles except that they’re far too thick to be. I’ve heard that type referred to as “slip dumplings.” I find them repulsive, because they’re so thick they seem to always be gummy in the middle. Thick, flat, square dumplings are the only way to enjoy chicken and dumplings! That’s how I think of the food anyway. My grandma’s weren’t gummy, maybe hers were thinner or they soaked up more broth. I never understood why anyone would want biscuits in their chicken and dumplings. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/43 "2011-03-30T18:02:06Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My Old New England Mother made a dish of macaroni, hamburg and tomato sauce that she called “chop suey.” I later dfscovered it’s short for Italian chop suey, a New England regionism and dish. > > She also made red flannel hash, colored with beets. To me, hash isn’t hash without them. Hamburg_ **er** _. The word is “hamburg **er**.” Hamburg is a city in Germany. You could probably eat it, but it might take a while. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/44 "2011-03-30T18:15:02Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Hamburg_ **er** _. The word is “hamburg **er**.” Hamburg is a city in Germany. You could probably eat it, but it might take a while. And it’s German food, so it’s going to sit heavy. Really heavy. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/45 "2011-03-30T20:24:41Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Hamburg_ **er** _. The word is “hamburg **er**.” Hamburg is a city in Germany. You could probably eat it, but it might take a while. I was about to ask **Annie-Xmas** if she was from central Pennsylvania; all of my Dad’s side of the family calls it “hamburg”. It’s the only part of the country where I’ve encountered that. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/46 "2011-03-30T22:47:32Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Um, no. :dubious: Not my Bisquick pancakes. Mine are at least 1/4" to 1/2" thick. Ah, OK, makes sense then. The corn fritters I make are similar… more on the 1/2" end. Local pancakes tend (IME) to be more like the thin end of your scale down to something close to crepes. (I had to Google “Bisquick”). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/47 "2011-03-31T05:20:43Z")
“Dumpling,” to me, denotes any of a wide swath of culinary creations, all based on some sort of dough. When I think of “dumpling,” with no other description, I think of a fluffy ball of dough that ends up in your soup, or something akin to spaetzle or knödel. Stuffed dumplings are _not_ my default. Plain dumplings are. Per the OP, “goulash” would be one of those words. To me, it’s a somewhat specific Hungarian dish, basically a stew or soup based on meat, paprika, and onions. What people call “goulash” in the US seems to be a thrown-together dish of ground beef and noodles. “Thuringer” is another one. My first experience with a sausage called “Thuringer” was the Thuringer Rostbratwurst of Germany. It’s a fresh sausage, stuffed into sheep’s casings (so, on the thin side), with a predominant marjoram and sweet spice (mace or nutmeg) sort of flavor to it. The sausage sold as “Thuringer” here is a smoked sausage, along the lines of a (smoked) Polish sausage. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/48 "2011-03-31T13:45:42Z")
When I think of blintzes, it’s always the dried cottage cheese-filled kind, not apple blintzes or cherry blintzes or whatever. Furthermore, the cheese filling is not sweetened, because that’s how my family has made it, even though it’s always sweetened at any restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/49 "2011-03-31T22:51:45Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Where are you from, please? > > I’m trying to find out if this is a regional thing, a heritage thing, or if my campaign to include corn niblets in all pancakes is beginning to be successful. Both my mom and I were born & raised in Pittsburgh, PA. I just asked my mother and she said it wasn’t a family thing, she never really cared very much for pancakes but likes corn fritters, so she began putting corn in the last few pancakes she’d make when she did a batch for me and my father, and she can enjoy them that way. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My Old New England Mother made a dish of macaroni, hamburg and tomato sauce that she called “chop suey.” I later dfscovered it’s short for Italian chop suey, a New England regionism and dish. And around _these_ parts, ground beef (usually with onion and green pepper in the saute) + macaroni + pasta sauce is called creole(d) macaroni. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922/50 "2011-04-02T07:13:11Z")
Ruggalach are never crescents here, they are [folded cookies](http://notecook.com/desserts/cookies/hungarian-filled-cookies/). Preferrably, apricot and poppy. Horseradish is hot, vinegary, and Amish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-someone-mentions-food-my-mental-image-is-usually-totally-different-from-theirs/575922.md?page=2)