A – F
This glossary is a work in progress, and suggestions are not only welcome, but encouraged!
A
amuse-bouche: From the French, amuse-bouche translates to “happy mouth” in English. It’s a pre-dinner small appetizer, typically one or two bites, that is meant to entice a diner and ready him/her for the meal. It’s provided by the chef rather than made to order from a menu choice.
B
C
crème fraîche: Another French term (so many cooking terms are, aren’t they?), this translates to “fresh cream.” The irony is that it’s actually slightly soured cream (oh those wacky French). It’s similar in many ways to what we typically identify as sour cream in that it’s cream that’s been treated with bacterial cultures to alter the cream, but it lacks all the additives that sour cream has. In the end, it becomes not nearly as sour, but thicker, and I think it’s more versatile than your run-of-the-mill Breakstone’s (or similar) sour cream.
D
demitasse: Yet more French, demitasse means “half cup,” (though it’s more like a quarter cup in volume) and is the fancy schmancy term for very tiny coffee cups. Think of the cups from which you might drink espresso (no, not the Starbucks kind), and that’s a demitasse cup. If a standard coffee cup holds 8-10 ounces of liquid, a demitasse holds generally 2-3 ounces.
E
F
The Unreal Meal is a budding food project that is dedicated to making every meal an unreal one, whether it be crafted from the most humble or the most exotic ingredients.
