These favorite foods were creatively named after parts of the human body
9 Food Names Inspired by Parts of the Body
Nose
Ever wonder what they call that fatty bump at the tail end of a cooked turkey on Thanksgiving? It’s called the “pope’s nose” or the “parson’s nose,” presumably because it does look like a nose. (In France, though, it’s called le sot-l’y-laisse, which roughly translates to “only a silly person won’t eat it.”)
Toes
In German, the word for a “clove of garlic” is knoblauchzehe—literally, “garlic toe.” In Argentina, it’s not a clove or a toe of garlic, but a diente—a “tooth.”
Arm
The word pretzel goes back to a Latin word that means “little arm.” Tradition holds that the monk who invented this knotted biscuit wanted to symbolize “arms folded in prayer.” The Latin word found its way into German as brezel and later into English as “pretzel.”
In Chile, there’s a delicious type of jelly roll made of yellow cake, filled with dulce de leche and covered in coconut, called brazo de reina or “the queen’s arm.” There are other variations of this around the world. In Spain, it’s brazo de gitano or “gypsy’s arm.”
Fingers
Ladyfingers might have a funny food name, but they are the delicious, light and airy sponge cakes used to make tiramisu, named because they resemble a lady’s delicate fingers.
Ears
The scoop-shaped pasta known as orecchietti isn’t quite as appetizing when you learn that in Italian it means “little ears.”
Hair
In Italy, if you order a plate of capelli d’angelo, you’ll be feasting on “angel hair,” so named because it’s imagined to be as fine as the hair of those heavenly beings.
In France, you don’t ask for cotton candy at the fair, you ask for barbe a papa, or “Dad’s beard.” Yum!
Eyes
Red-eye gravy is a mixture of ham drippings and coffee. While it may sound like eyes are one of the ingredients, fortunately, it got its moniker because the heavier ingredients settle into a dark red “eye” at the bottom of the bowl.
In Romania, you don’t ask for “fried eggs,” but oua chiuri, which translates into “eggs that look like eyes.”
Black-eyed peas are peas that look like they’ve been in a fight. (Maybe they should sign a peas treaty?)
Mouth
In France, a puff pastry filled with creamed seafood is called a bouch’ee—literally, “a mouthful.”
If you’re eating a plateful of “linguini,” you’re dining on a food with an Italian name that means “little tongues.”
Tummies
There’s a sweet, eggy stuffed pastry in Portugal called barriga de freira, which means “nun tummy.” There are lots of variations, but it usually involves egg yolks, sugar, butter and vanilla extract, and some of them do indeed look like tummies, although no one’s sure how these treats became associated specifically with nuns.
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Originally Published in Reader's Digest
