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A to Z in Foods as Metaphors:
Or, a Stew Is a Stew Is a Stew
Mimi Sheraton
Cooking style may vary from one country to another,
but certain foods inspire the same symbolism and human characteristics
with remarkable consistency. The perception of food as metaphor
is apparently more consistent than the perception of food
as ingredient.
The inspiration for some of this imagery is easier to find
than others. It is not too hard to understand, for example,
why the big, compact, plebeian-tasting cabbage is widely regarded
as being stupid, a role it shares with the starchy, inexpensive
staple potato. A cabbage head in this country is considered
to be as dull-witted as a krautkopf in Germany, and a potato
head indicates a similar, stodgy-brained individual, never
mind that both are delicious and can be prepared in elegant
ways.
Italians, on the other hand, consider the cucumber a symbol
of ineptness, and to call a person a cetriolo is to cast him
among the cabbages of the world.
Salt has been a highly regarded commodity throughout history,
and so a valuable person is described as being the salt of
the earth. Considering the bad press salt is getting these
days, however, that remark may soon be taken as an insult.
It is difficult to understand why ham is the word for a bad
actor who overacts. But no one has to explain why a pretty
and delightful young woman is considered to be a peach, or
why her adorable, accommodating brother is a lamb. With luck
the cabbage and potatoes. If he remains a lamb, he can be
counted on to bring home the bacon that is the bread and dough.
All things sweet, especially sugar and honey, inspire dozens
of terms of endearment in every language; but the lemon, despite
its sunny and so describes such things as an automobile always
in need of repairs. In many countries the nut is, inexplicably,
the metaphor for craziness, though it is easier to explain
why someone who is sprightly and hot-tempered is said to be
peppery.
Cooked foods or dishes also inspire such comparisons. To be
in the soup (it's hot) is to be in trouble and to be in a
stew indicates one is troubled. Stews and soups with many
ingredients are the consistent metaphors in many languages
for big, complicated events and procedures.
In New York the most commonly heard for such expressions is
tsimmes, referring to the Eastern European Jewish stew of
carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes, onions and, often, beef.
To make a whole tsimmes out of something is to create an event
of endlessly involved complications. In English, a tsimmes
is a hodgepodge, which in turn is named for the stew derived
from the French hochepot, which became hotchpotch or hotpot.
But a tsimmes is no more complicated than the New Orleans
gumbo, also an event of dazzling complexities derived from
the soup that may include okra, onions, peppers, shrimp, oysters,
ham, sausage, chicken and at least a dozen other possibilities.
Similarly used in their own countries are bouillabaisse, the
French soup of many fishes, and the Rumantian ghivetch, a
baked or simmered stew that can be made with more than a dozen
vegetables plus meat.
In Spain, to make an olla podrida out of something is to make
it as complex as that mixed boil of meats, poultry and onions.
And though some Italians refer to a big mess as a big minestrone,
the more popular metaphor is a pasticci, a mess derived from
the complicated preparations of the pastry chef, or pasticcere.
In Denmark it is the sailor's hash or stew known as labskaus
that signifies complications, and no wonder when you consider
that such a dish contains meat and herring in the same pot.
Some foods inspire conflicting metaphors. Fish is brain food,
but a cold and unemotional person is a cold fish. You can
beef up a program and make it better, but don't beef about
the work that it involves or you will be marked a complainer.
Instead of being given a promotion that is a plum you will
be paid peanuts, even though you know your onions and are
the apple of your boss's eye.
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