Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies: From Spare Ribs to Humble Pie--A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names [Paperback]

Martha Barnett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 1998

"Everything in [this book] is delightful to learn. Barnette takes us through languages and across millennia in a charming style . . . that offers endless food for thought." --The New Yorker

What makes the pretzel a symbol of religious devotion, and what pasta is blasphemous in every bite? How did a drunken brawl lead to the name lobster Newburg? What naughty joke is contained in a loaf of pumpernickel? Why is  cherry a misnomer, and why aren't refried beans fried twice? You'll find the answers in this delectable exploration of the words we put into our mouths.

Here are foods named for the things they look like, from cabbage (from the Old North French caboche, "head") to vermicelli ("little worms"). You'll learn where people dine on nun's tummy and angel's breast. There are foods named after people (Graham crackers) and places (peaches), along with commonplace terms derived from words involving food and drink (dope, originally a Dutch word for "dipping sauce"). Witty, bawdy, and stuffed with stories, Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies is a feast of history, culture, and language.

"Why didn't anyone think of this before? . . . What fun Martha Barnette has made of it all, every name for every dish explained and traced and jollied." --William F. Buckley, Jr.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's a browser's treasure of culinary etymological lore, but there's a table of contents that bespeaks a structure, starting with foods named for what they look like (such as rambutan, the sweet, red-bristle-covered fruit named for rambut, the Malay word for hair; or cabbage, which arose from the Old North French caboche, meaning head, making the phrase "a head of cabbage" redundant). Next comes a chapter on food names associated with religion and the supernatural (from angel-food cake and cappuccino, named after the brown cloaks of Capuchin monks, to pumpernickel, which supposedly means devil fart). There's a section on foods named by mistake, covering misnomers like geoduck, Bombay duck, and cold duck, none of which is related to the fowl, and a chapter on foods named for people and places, like Beef Wellington, Fettuccine Alfredo, Tootsie Rolls, and even Carpaccio (named after Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio, whose work often displayed a predilection for red).

Barnette delves into the stories of foods named for what's done to them or what they do to us (such as bangers, British sausages that'll explode if not pricked before cooking, and aubergine, which derives, via Arabic and Persian, from the Sanskrit for antifart vegetable.) And finally, there's a chapter on words derived from other words about food and drink, such as the dog term mutt, which came from muttonhead as an insult applied to dull people, which came from the assumption of stupidity of sheep, i.e., mutton.

Its index makes it a bona fide language reference, but it's more than just an academic resource. It's an etymologist's dream, a food lover's fantasy, and a general delight for anyone who takes joy in words and trivia. In telling the stories behind the names of foods, Barnette proves, as writers M.F.K. Fisher, Harold McGee, and Calvin Trillin have before, that a love of food and a fascination with language are not incompatible. --Stephanie Gold

From Booklist

Barnette delights in uncovering the plain facts and sentencing to oblivion the fiction about food words we know and maybe love. In a frothy, tongue-in-cheek manner, she uses detective skills to expose six categories: foods named for what they look like (bow-tie pasta); religion and the supernatural (various meanings of angel food); mistakenly named foods (Jordan almonds); eponyms and toponyms (Cobb salad); foods named for what is done to them or vice versa (pesto); and words derived from food and drink lingo (bagatelle). The surprises don't stop with, for example, her note that seersucker is from the Hindi word for milk and sugar. In effect, we're introduced to a wealth of new and unusual phrases, from geoducks to the pope's-eye, that will enrich, amuse, and edify gastronomes and linguists alike. Barbara Jacobs --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Vintage Books ed edition (November 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375702989
• ISBN-13: 978-0375702983
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm co-host, along with bestselling language expert Richard Lederer, of the word-loving public radio program, "A Way with Words," produced by KPBS radio and distributed by NPR via podcast.

Our show's similar to NPR's "Car Talk" -- but our topic is language. We discuss everything from word origins to weird slang phrases, puns to punctuation, diction to dictionaries.

My books about language and word origins carry on that spirit of fun and love of lifelong learning. So does my blog: www.marthabarnette.blogspot.com

We at "A Way with Words" hope that, if nothing else, our show will help you to do one thing:

EMBRACE YOUR INNER NERD!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "feast of words" for any lover of food and language., March 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies: From Spare Ribs to Humble Pie--A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names (Paperback)

I LOVED this book! The author has an amazing range of knowledge, both about the kitchen and about words, but what's truly wonderful is her terrific sense of humor, which makes learning all this stuff so much fun.

I mean, who knew that Tootsie Rolls were named after a little girl or that Twinkies were named after shoes? Or that German chocolate cake isn't really German and Swiss steak isn't really Swiss? Or that the Italians like to nibble a plum they call a "nun's thigh," while the Dutch like to chow down on a dish of string beans and navy beans with a picturesque name that translates: "bare buttocks in the grass"?

This is the perfect gift for the cook or food lover who has everything!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously funny AND nourishing for the mind, August 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies: From Spare Ribs to Humble Pie--A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names (Paperback)

I've never written one of these reviews, but I just had to stop by and say what a big kick I got out of Martha Barnette's clever book. I bought it because I love food and cooking, but after reading "Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies", I also bought a copy to send to my sister, because she's one of those people who're crazy about words and their origins.

If you're like us, you'll learn a whole lot from this little book -- and enjoy a whole lot of laughs in the process!

5.0 out of 5 stars Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies -- Positive Review!!, December 3, 2009

By 

J. Jines (SW Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names (Hardcover)

Ordered this unusual book (after reading about it in a newspaper article) and ordered it thru amazon.com. The book was received very quickly and was in excellent condition. The only thing I could find the slightest bit wrong was that the Goodwill stickers had been left on it -- and Goodwill's price was less than I'd paid!!

Otherwise, a very interesting book about how foods got their unusual names.