Cooked to Mediocrity

The structure and format of menus is not unlike that of the table of contents found within a cookbook. Menus are divided into sections dependent upon an arbitrary classification schema. Similar to the table of contents (see previous blog), some menus organize dishes according to which of the "three daily meals" it's generally eaten. So, since in our culture, pancakes are usually considered a "breakfast" food, you'd find them listed under that heading. This menu option is really only a possibility for restaurants that serve more than one "meal" (e.g. diners). Another categorical layout involves which component of a meal the dish belongs to (appetizers, entrees, desserts, etc.). Rarely, if ever, will you see a cake listed as an appetizer. Some menus divide according to the principal ingredient. For example, seafood gets its own category, distinct from pasta or poultry.

As for the specific linguistic forms found within the menu, the first thing one notices is the name of the dish. Some have titles that can give you an idea of what is in it or how it is prepared (blackened sea bass, smoked sausage patties, breaded chicken wings, beer-battered fries, etc.). Other menus use names that have a bit more "artistic license" and are generally just an advertisement. "Mouth-watering filet mignon," "world famous hamburger," and "pancakes fit for a King" really say very little about the item, other than its supposed superlative value. I've yet to find a particularly fancy/up-scale restaurant that uses these kinds of titles. They seem more at home in the menus of chain-restaurants/theme restaurants. As mentioned in the Zwicky article, many restaurants adopt foreign words (especially French) as names for their dishes, even if the dishes don't actually belong to the foreign culture. It's funny how often this happens with French. Restaurants that aren't even French have been known to have an entire menu in the French language. I'd love to start a new pretentious trend. I'm going to use mandarin on a menu. But I don't mean the "pinyin" pronunciation, I mean the actual characters. This way the menu will consist only of a bunch of incomprehensible (at least to many people) symbols, along with the respective prices. My, how chic.

Sometimes a small description will follow the name. This is generally a declarative sentence(s) that elucidates more specifically how the food (noun) is cooked (verbs, nearly always in the past tense/participle form) and what it tastes like (adjectives). "Fresh potatoes baked to a golden crisp." And yes, everything seems to be "cooked to perfection." Why wouldn't I want that? Is that an option? Too bad for them I like my food "cooked to mediocrity." Yet another example of advertising embedded into the menu descriptions.

The "post-title" blurb may also include greater detail concerning the particular ingredients utilized, even if it's just in a horizontal list format. For example, I found after the title "Winter Simple Salad" came the list of what was in it ("fennel, beets, apples, spinach grapefruit, citrus oil"). Many entries also list what else the dish comes with (possible side orders).