Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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‘Shrooms, Marry, Sustainable [Food Words We Love To Hate]

Posted Aug 14, 2012 by Jeff Houck

Updated Aug 14, 2012 at 01:27 PM

Last weekend I wrote about food terms I truly cannot stand.

Then I included a follow-up here in The Stew from Michael Switzer of Tampa, who harbors a serious distaste for “sketchy,” “dive” and “mouthfeel.”

Now, others are joining in:

MARRY — as in the flavors must marry. I think this is ridiculous! Whatever happened to the flavors blending? Why do they have to marry? I thought only PEOPLE married. I watch the food network and I am so tired of every cooking show host using the word marry when they are mixing something…Who decided Food should marry? Does it need a license???           

Dianna Warner
Tampa

* * *

Who ever was the first to come out and say, “How about an order os “shrooms” with that?” ought be “shroomed”!

That’s the worst word I ever heard. Makes my skin crawl to read it or hear it.

“Would you like some ‘uba read’ (cuban bread) with your morning café solo? That’s what they’ve done to perfectly fine word, i.e., mushrooms.

Probably invented by a lazy oaf who’d put bologna on white bread and call it a uba wich…..

Love your column, read it every Sunday.

Kindest regards,

Bil Sidwell
Dade City now,
but Tampa/Ybor City native

* * *

Jeff,

Love your columns in the Trib and would like to nominate “sustainable” as a food term to be banned.  It ranks right down there with “green” and “eco.”  It’s just a feel-good term with no actual meaning.

May I share a related ancedote: Recently on one of those cooking competition shows on TV a chef prepared a dish that one of the guests refused to eat because it was “endangered” (Chilean Sea Bass perhaps).  I just shook my head thinking, lady whether or not you eat the damned fish it’s still dead and your not eating it won’t bring it back to life to swim off to cavort with its buddies.

This woman’s thinking was in line with the “sustainable” crud.

John Weiss
Spring Hill