"modom (palindrome guy)" > wrote in message
...
> If a goat may offer a point on the topic: a brochette is a skewer in
> French. A dish cooked on a skewer is cooked "en brochette." While it
> is two words in the original and not one, it is not a fabrication made
> of whole cloth to name a dish of proteins grilled on skewers "X
> enbrochette." Such language mutations are most common in Cajun and
> creole constructions. That the restaurant in question calls itself
> Atchafalaya even though it's in Houston would locate its cuisine
> outside standard French usage but squarely inside rural Acadiana.
>
> While there is certainly not any single recipe for "X en brochette" or
> even "X enbrochette," I'd assume the cooks at Atchafalaya in Houston
> do follow something like a consistent method and ingredient list when
> they prepare their evidently tasty dish.
>
> More about the Atchafalaya can be found he
> http://www.newyorker.com/archive/198...ARDS_000347146
>
> I mean the river in Louisiana, not the restaurant in Houston. John
> McPhee is a great writer, and the subject is his equal in that piece.
> Having seen at an early age the rivers and bayous he mentions in the
> essay, I may have more of a sense of connectedness than many to the
> story. I've fished in Old River, and most RFCers haven't. But I think
> I can say that McPhee's story is wonderful, anyway.
> --
I love Louisiana and Texas. They are like foreign countries in some
delightful ways.
Where the "asshole" bit came into this thread, for me, is when people who
delight in "correcting" others hopped in. As usual, I automatically assumed
that I was wrong, and sheepishly said, "oh, haha, that's how I remembered it
from the menu 20 years ago." When in fact that was what was ON the blinking
menu. It's a dish, not a gd French lesson. One of the elders in my family
used to be a teacher, and is rude enough to "correct" people all the time.
She uses the fact that she used to be a teacher to "justify" this. It
doesn't help. She just comes off as petty, tightassed, and looking for any
kind of ego boost she can get. Because she is so quick to do this, it often
happens that she is wrong. Ahhhh. Happy moments for me come in most unusual
places.