After I moved to Texas, the first time my parents came to visit from
California, I took them out to dinner. Dad ordered chicken fried steak and was
perplexed and surprised when he got a beef dish. He thought it was a chicken
dish. A fried steak of chicken. My
momma, may she rest in peace, actually often made a similar dish for Dad and I,
growing up in California. But she called it "Swiss Steak." “Why didn’t they tell me I’d be getting
swiss steak?,” Dad asked.
Similarly, the first time my good friend Javier came from Mexico City
to visit me in Texas, I took him to dinner.
He was confused about an item on the menu- chicken fried steak. I
explained to him that it was a Texas version of a "milanesa."
"Ahora me acuerdo," he said.
And come to think of it, analogously, when I had colleagues come over
from Europe, I had to explain to them that in Texas, "chicken fried
steak" is the equivalent of what they know as "wiener
schnitzel." And, to confuse them further, the place named "Der
Wienerschnitzel" doesn't serve wienerschnitzel, or chicken fried steak,
but instead, is a place to get hot dogs. Which are frankfurters. Not made from
dogs. And now Burger King sells something called "grilled dogs," and
every time I see that on the sign at the Burger King down the road, brings to
my mind that they are barbecuing puppies or something awful like that.
I love these mysteries of culinary linguistic geography!
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