Research reveals: these are the most incomprehensible words on a menu
Menus with complicated terms are hopelessly exhausting. Do you know, for example, what okonomiyaki is? More than seventy percent of restaurant diners in an American study by OpenTable don’t. We’ve listed the top 10 most complicated terms for you.
One-third of the restaurant diners surveyed find menus far too complicated. They also feel that incomprehensible words negatively affect their dining experience. The researchers compiled a top 10 of the words that are least understood and immediately explained what exactly they are:
Most incomprehensible words on a menu
1. Okonomiyaki: savory Japanese pancake
2. Gochujang: Korean chili paste
3. Piri piri: chili pepper commonly used in Portuguese and South African sauces
4. Yuzu: tart yellow citrus fruit widely used in Japanese and Korean cuisine
5. Bibimbap: Korean rice dish with vegetables, beef and egg
6. Gougère: savory cheese puffs
7. Guanciale: cured pork cheek
8. Shiso: a Japanese, mint-like plant
9. In brodo: Italian for ‘with broth’, referring to the dish tortellini in brodo
10. Ballotine: stuffed poultry
For those who have developed a taste for it, there is an online food dictionary where you can find all the difficult terms. So the next time you’re in a restaurant and don’t understand the menu, you’ll know exactly where to go for an explanation.
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Image: Saskia Lelieveld, gougère from The Bible of French Cuisine
