Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Martha Barnette's Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies is like a chocolate soufflé: it's a light and fluffy indulgence, yet too delicate and complex to have been concocted by anyone other than a master. Sections on foods named after body parts, foods associated with religion, foods named by mistake, and others give a whole new meaning to the term food groups. The lollipop, it seems, is named for the smacking pop it makes when pulled away from an eager lolly (a northern-England dialectal term for "tongue"); the Reverend Sylvester Graham, an 1820s Connecticut minister who espoused the use of unrefined wheat flour, was the impetus behind graham crackers; the passion in passion fruit has more to do with the torture and crucifixion of Jesus than with erotic fervor; and Fig Newtons take their name from the Boston suburb of the same name.

For some reason, though, the food meanings that provoke the most visceral reactions are the ones that most fascinate. Would linguine and vermicelli be so popular if it were widely known that they mean "little tongues" and "little worms," respectively? How about avocados, whose name derives from ahuacatl, the Aztec word for testicle? Prik khee noo, those teeny little hot-hot Thai chilies, translate as "rat droppings." And there are many etymologists who believe that pumpernickel comes from the German for "devil fart." They would be well advised to follow that corned beef sandwich with a bit of eggplant, which goes by aubergine in England and France; aubergine derives from the Sanskrit vatingana, or "antifart vegetable."

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (April 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812921003
• ISBN-13: 978-0812921007
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,162,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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 If Your Recipes Include Foods AND Words..., June 30, 2004

By	Elliot Essman (Larchmont, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 admit I'm a lover of both food and words, so this delicious book seemed the right menu choice when I borrowed it from the library recently. I was not disappointed; I have since purchased my own copy for reference in my food writing. The book is erudite, of course, but delightfully so. The origins of many of our food terms may indeed be obscure, but now that I have feasted on this little masterpiece, I no longer feel comfortable eating things with titles I cannot explain. Martha Barnette does go off on tangents that some may find vexing, explaining word relations that only begin with cuisine, but in doing so she adds richness to the stew. Both food and language are quintessentially civilizing; she's melded the two into an important book for any culinary or literary shelf.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com