I hadn't really thought about it before, but once I read this article, I realized how right they are about the use of restaurant words. Phrases like "grilled to perfection" (what is "perfection?") or "world famous" or "garden fresh" or "homemade" or steak "melting in your mouth" are all odd, when you think about it.
Yes, these words and phrases do nothing but pad out the menu. One, similar to the "Garden Fresh" mentioned in the article is "Dew-fresh". Huh? Dew can settle on anything if it's left out overnight; it doesn't confer any special level of freshness.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
while I was in college in Madison, Wisconsin I worked in a restaurant that I'll call the Beautiful Door. When asked if the asparagus was fresh, the wait staff were instructed to answer "it's fresh-frozen", probably on the theory that anyone stupid enough to ask, in Wisconsin, in December, if the asparagus was "fresh" deserved any answer they got.
In Colorado, my wife was intrigued by one dish which she thought would only be found in a seacoast city -- mountain oysters. Against my better judgement I asked the waiter what they were.
Also on the menu, which was their idea of a joke, in the beverage column along with Coke, coffee, tea, milk, and others was "aerated moose urine." We passed on what they had passed.
Also on the menu, which was their idea of a joke, in the beverage column along with Coke, coffee, tea, milk, and others was "aerated moose urine." We passed on what they had passed.
Good idea, those carbonated beverages are never any good. Next time ask for the still version.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
I don't remember hearing dew-fresh, but I have heard fresh as the morning dew.
From the the OED Online:
quote:
dew n. 1. a. The moisture deposited in minute drops upon any cool surface by the condensation of the vapour in the atmosphere; formed after a hot day during or towards night, and plentiful in the early morning."
2. fig. Something likened to dew in its operation or effect: a. as coming with refreshing power or with gentle fall; b. as characteristic of the morning of life, of early years, like the ‘early dew’.
Generally dew is formed in the evening and burns off the next morning. Hence, it is relatively fresh.
