"Leblebi," the guest answered, referring to a dish made from roasted chickpeas.
He was referring to a dish they called (accurately, as it happens) tongue in breast, and to another they called tongue in the hole, because it was a riff on the British classic toad in the hole.
"One food we won't be serving is liver balls," Mr. Hill said, referring to a dish that he said was commonly served when Ellis Island was at its busiest, in the early years of the 20th century.
We came across dishes that one culture had borrowed and adapted from another, and then claimed as its own (falafel, anyone?); there are different names for the same thing and different things with the same name (the word "hummus", say, refers to both a dish and a pulse); and never-ending debates about provenance and attribution – whose food is this and whose dish is that.
We refer to this dish as a 'salad', but it's really a dessert, in my opinion.
Peanut butter, cocoa caramel, and something called "pear soil" don't do much to improve "the foie" — as a waitress referred to it recently — but a dish of roasted duck, spaghetti squash, raisin dashi, and chanterelles (tiny as thumbtacks) is absolutely magnificent.
Ssambap refers to a rice dish served with vegetable leaves, various banchan (small side dishes) and condiments such as gochujang (chili pepper paste) or ssamjang (a mixture of soybean paste and gochujang) to wrap them together.
"Skate-wing cartilage," he said — referring to a WastED dish in which it's fried and served with a fish-head tartar sauce, the essence of fish and chips — "is a little out there.
He referred to a noodle dish involving dried squid and fermented chilies.
"I made dal bhat tarkari," she said proudly, referring to a local dish of rice, lentils and seasonal vegetables.
