(I'm indebted to Victor E. Sasson, a North Jersey resident with Syrian roots who writes a food blog, "Do You Really Know What You're Eating?," and accompanied me to the restaurant, guiding me over some formidable language barriers).
With its strict rules about flavor balance, visual harmony, seasonality and presentation, plus its lengthy apprenticeship and formidable language barrier, traditional Japanese cuisine has preserved its mystique among chefs and diners.
A formidable linguist, Hattemer-Higgins speaks six languages and is learning a seventh, Russian ("you can glide into new countries and take up living in them without too much friction").
Fluent in several languages and equipped with a formidable memory, Dr. Gasman redefined Picasso studies.
Despite Putin's triumphal language, the annexation presented Russia with a formidable logistical challenge: Crimea's physical isolation.
But parsing and categorizing language, with its ambiguity and subtlety, remains a formidable hurdle for computers.
A New Yorker by choice, Diane's love of language and dislike of pretense made her a formidable champion of civility.
However, developing test batteries for subjects from over 20 different languages, cultures and differing academic systems seems a formidable task.
Carly Fiorina showed once again that she is a formidable debater with a knack for explaining complicated concepts in simple, everyday language.
Mr. de Botton was a formidable linguist, fluent in Arabic as well as all the major European languages.
