# Your weird names for food items **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379 "2025-04-22T21:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/61 "2025-04-24T01:41:58Z")
My dad used to refer to Burger King as “B.K. Steakhouse” ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/62 "2025-04-24T01:52:56Z")
My nephew, when he was a youngster, shortened Fruit Cocktail to ‘frocktail’. That name has remained in the family. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/63 "2025-04-24T06:00:33Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > My dad used to refer to Burger King as “B.K. Steakhouse” So you went to Burger King, instead of that fine Scottish restaurant? ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/64 "2025-04-24T06:32:17Z")
Long, thin sausages of a kind common in the Czech Republic: monkey dicks. When I was 16 or 17, one of the various terrible dinners served in my family was some kind of puke-green vegetable-based mush highly reminiscent of one of the dinners cooked by the Mom in “Calvin and Hobbes.” What followed was a brief transaction that was oddly reminiscent of “Calvin and Hobbes”: Me: “This tastes like nuclear waste!” Dad: “Don’t call my food ‘waste’!” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/65 "2025-04-24T06:53:34Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > For St. Patrick’s day, I eat Porn Beast and Crabbage. My ex-wife made an excellent pot roast. Although she only ever made it with beef, it became known as “roast beast.” ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/66 "2025-04-24T10:38:08Z")
My mother used to make cinnamon rolls which she always called “barn doolies”. I have no way of knowing if I am even spelling this correctly. I just remember the pronunciation. Through the years I have asked family members if they know the etymology of the word and have never been able to clear up this mystery. I do not make or eat cinnamon rolls so the word rarely comes up in my mind. However this thread brought up this long unsolved baked goods mystery. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/67 "2025-04-24T10:56:40Z")
For several years I have thought about making a sort of dessert roll that contained raisins. I don’t care for raisins in bread or rolls. I feel “cheated” when a cookie has raisins instead of the chocolate chips I thought were there. But I couldn’t resist the idea of putting raisins in these. The only reason these rolls or cookies would exist would be to contain those raisins. I would then call these rolls/cookies “Raisin Deeters”. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/68 "2025-04-24T12:27:11Z")
A friend of mine hates raisins and calls them “little pus pods”. My mom made for my dad a dish called “frickin chickazee”. My kids called Sriracha Sauce (the original green lid, not the compromised other brands) “chicken blood” (due to the rooster on the label) and soy sauce was called “bug juice” because it resembles grasshopper throw-up. We call any Americanized ethnic food “Gringo-”, such as tacos with a slice of American cheese is Gringo tacos, lemon and orange chicken is Gringo Chinese, California roll is Gringo sushi, etc. My son, when he was little, called a stick of cheese rolled into a slice of bologna “ba-woney-woah-up”, so now anything we make that gets rolled up gets that name. My friend’s son, when he was a tyke, misheard “beef jerkey” as “beef turkey” so that’s what we call it now. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/69 "2025-04-24T13:09:21Z")
This one isn’t exactly a name, but it’s kind of related. My youngest grandson is a picky eater. When he was younger and at our house a lot being babysat, he always asked for mac and cheese to eat. But not just any mac and cheese, it had to be the shells and cheese with the cheese sauce pouch. There was one time I couldn’t find the shells and cheese at the grocery store, so I just bought the regular elbow mac with cheese powder mac and cheese. When I fixed some for my grandson, he looked at it and said “I don’t like _this_…” and he held up his index finger, slightly bent. “I want _this_…” and he curled his index finger all the way up. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/70 "2025-04-24T13:21:29Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > Me: “This tastes like nuclear waste!” > > Dad: “Don’t call my food ‘waste’!” When you turned out the lights, did it glow? * * * > [@Spoons](#): > > My ex-wife made an excellent pot roast. Although she only ever made it with beef, it became known as “roast beast.” My late husband and I called it “roast pot.” ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/71 "2025-04-24T15:29:58Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > My ex-wife made an excellent pot roast. Although she only ever made it with beef, it became known as “roast beast.” [Xmas in Whoville!](https://www.chuckjonescatalog.com/grinch-limited-editions/roast-beast-feast-litho) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/72 "2025-04-24T19:47:34Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > The Big Breakfast was “Big Breastusess”. That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. It just screams Youthful Employee Humor. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/73 "2025-04-24T20:29:44Z")
Ah! You might have also enjoyed our song parody of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus, “Eat Me, I’m a Danish”. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/74 "2025-04-24T22:13:20Z")
Back in my early USAF days there was a guy who referred to the then-trendy Piña Colada as a “penis colossus”. We once went out for Chinese and he ordered one from a very cute, very young oriental waitress. Some older guy, probably her father, came out from the kitchen with a cleaver and “suggested” we dine elsewhere. We did. For years afterwards I feared making a Freudian slip and ordering one by that name unwittingly / unawares of what I’d done. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/75 "2025-04-24T23:32:50Z")
I mostly remember, um, unkind nicknames we made up for regulars. One was named Superchunk. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/76 "2025-04-24T23:36:03Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Ah! You might have also enjoyed our song parody of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus, “Eat Me, I’m a Danish”. 😁 Mt wife uses this all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/77 "2025-04-25T01:06:18Z")
As long as I can remember, my mom called Ralston Purina “Space Patrol”. I think it may have been a sponsor for the show and I picked up on it. Sorta food, I was always reminded that as a toddler I called water “aylum”. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/78 "2025-04-25T01:50:12Z")
My mom would fry up potatoes, ground beef, and eggs, and called it either slumgullion or graveyard hash. I learned later that “graveyard hash” is another name for milktoast. Just now I looked up slumgullion and evidently it can refer to a meat stew or watered down coffee or tea. She called a lot of dishes by other dish’s names, like goulash (hamburger, mac and cheese, onions, and ketchup) was “homemade spaghetti.” Hamburger gravy on bread was hush puppies. Fried potatoes were hashbrowns. I really don’t know why she did this. Maybe she didn’t know the proper name so she picked a name that was close enough in her mind. My dad was the one who came up with unkind nicknames, like calling corned beef hash “dog food,” and shredded wheat “hay bales.” ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/79 "2025-04-25T17:51:38Z")
Any kind of thick sauce or gravy was referred to in our family as “gunge”. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379/80 "2025-04-26T03:12:03Z")
My mother once picked up a cookbook at Goodwill that had a recipe for “Dump Cake.” As I recall, it was a lot like pineapple upside-down cake, but with a greater variety of fruit. A woman I used to know sometimes called spaghetti “spus-ghetti” because her brother did when he was little. There’s an Asian brand of canned fruit I used to buy that has a crowing rooster as its trademark. The brand name is “Cock,” so that’s what I always called it: “I’ll pick up a can of Cock bananas in syrup when I go to the store.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-weird-names-for-food-items/1017379.md?page=5)