Funistrada Explained
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", was 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 fake 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.
- It appears in CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food by Paul Dickson.[7]
- A restaurant in Northern Michigan has used the name Trattoria Funistrada since 2000.[8]
- A Breeders' Cup horse took the name in 1985.[9]
Notes and References
- Web site: Armed Forces Food Preferences. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20221226153020/http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a110512.pdf. December 26, 2022.
- http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a110512.pdf Armed Forces Food Preferences
- Web site: ยป Funistrada, the Army's 'Ghost Food' - Entropic Memes. www.slugsite.com. 2009-01-13. 2020-10-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20201001065653/http://www.slugsite.com/archives/547. deviated.
- Davidson, Alan. "Funistrada." The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a110512.pdf Armed Forces Food Preferences
- Book: Bryson, Bill. 1990. 1990. The Mother Tongue. 77. London, UK. Hamish Hamilton. 0-380-71543-0.
- Web site: CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food by Paul Dickson - Kirkus Reviews. kirkusreviews.com.
- Web site: Trattoria Funistrada.
- Web site: Equibase - Profiles. Equibase.com. equibase.com.