Funistrada

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Funistrada is a fictitious food item. The term was inserted in a U.S. Army survey of soldiers circa 1974[1] regarding their food preferences. Funistrada along with a fake vegetable dish called "buttered ermal" and a fake meat dish called "braised trake" were inserted "to provide an estimate of how much someone will respond to a word which sounds like a food name or will answer without reading."[2]

Funistrada scored higher in popularity than eggplant, lima beans, and cranberry juice.[3][4] All three items, however, had the highest percentage of "never tried" responses.[5]

Appearances

  • Bill Bryson cited the food in his 1990 book Mother Tongue[6] as an example of a word that is made up for a specific purpose.
  • The Book of Lists 2 also cited funistrada, braised trake, and buttered ermal in a list of favorite and least favorite US Army foods.
  • Braised trake appears on Conservapedia,[7] apparently cited as a real dish, and is improperly defined as "a traditional Norwegian dish, made of codfish, vegetables, and salt".
  • A restaurant in Michigan named Trattoria Funistrada used funistrada in the name for its restaurant.[8]
  • It appears in CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food by Paul Dickson[9]
  • A Breeders' Cup horse took the name in 1985.[10]

References


<templatestyles src="Asbox/styles.css"></templatestyles>