Alternative names for 'appetisers'

SandwichShortOfAPicnic

SandwichShortOfAPicnic

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karadekoolaid said:
Nope. Definitely nope.
We often invite 8-10 people for lunch/dinner and there are always pasapalos ( that more or less translates into hors d'oeuvres, or amuse bouche. I refuse to use the word "nibbles"because it reminds me of rabbits :eek: ).
No way could I tolerate all the clutter around me. I like a nice, clean, tidy kitchen, and that one looks like a bric-a-brac shop.
The fridge would only be good enough to keep my cold beer in.:laugh::laugh::laugh:
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So you're undecided? 😆

I too dislike the word nibbles (don't know why) but I also dislike all the other words that signal the little dots of food before a meal. Canapés, hors d'oeuvres, appetisers, amuse bouche and my least favourite picky bits.

I see the supermarkets struggle with it too and some have settled on packaging it 'party bites' 🙄
M&S and Waitrose get round it by not naming them anything, they come under the heading 'Party food' and the packaging just says "12 blah blah" or "mini spring rolls" etc.
Anyway to stay on topic making mini food in a mini kitchen seems just right.
 
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SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I too dislike the word nibbles (don't know why) but I also dislike all the other words that signal the little dots of food before a meal. Canapés, hors d'oeuvres, appetisers, amuse bouche and my least favourite picky bits.
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I think “appetizers” would be the default here - and I hate how some places shorten that to “appys.” Makes me think of nappies.

I’m fine with hors d’oeuvres, though annoyed with all the intentional mispronunciations one person in the group will make, over and over (there’s always one in a group) - “So, we’re having horse devours! Great! I love horse devors! Did you hear what I said?! Horse!” 😒

I definitely don’t like amuse bouche, as that was something that wasn’t ever heard of around here until about 10 years ago, and there’s been an overall trend here lately to call anything and everything by its French name, so it smacks of “getting above your raising,” as we say around here…putting on airs.

Nibbles doesn’t bother me too much, it’s sort of twee…maybe we should call them gobbles. :laugh:
 
TastyReuben said:
I think “appetizers” would be the default here - and I hate how some places shorten that to “appys.” Makes me think of nappies.

I’m fine with hors d’oeuvres, though annoyed with all the intentional mispronunciations one person in the group will make, over and over (there’s always one in a group) - “So, we’re having horse devours! Great! I love horse devors! Did you hear what I said?! Horse!” 😒

I definitely don’t like amuse bouche, as that was something that wasn’t ever heard of around here until about 10 years ago, and there’s been an overall trend here lately to call anything and everything by its French name, so it smacks of “getting above your raising,” as we say around here…putting on airs.

Nibbles doesn’t bother me too much, it’s sort of twee…maybe we should call them gobbles. :laugh:
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Canapé is probably the most likely here but Gobbles is definitely a winner.
Although that is the name of the Turkey farm down the road where I often get my turkey 😂
 
TastyReuben said:
maybe we should call them gobbles.
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While "nibbles"reminds me of rabbits, "gobbles" reminds me of goblins.
Appetizers, I like. That just about covers everything, because it could be a shot of soup, a delicate slice of bread with something yummy on it, a small piece of meat, pork, chicken or seafood with a sauce, a yummy pastry, yes, anything.
Appy would definitely get confused with something you'd download on you mobile/cellphone.
 
I've noticed there seems to be some confusion between 'appetisers' and 'starters', particularly in the USA. I've a few times asked about starters (first course before main corse) and folk have listed appetisers, nibbles, etc. I call 'appetisers', hors d'oevres which is obviously from the French and means literally 'outside the work' meaning the outside the courses of the meal.

To further confuse things, 'entrees' in the USA are the main course whereas the correct meaning in France, still used today is a starter course , literally 'the entrance' which is how it sounds. This confused me for a while here. Why would something which means 'entranc'e be served in the middle?!

In practice, of course, there are hor's d'oevres which can be served as 'starters'.
 
Morning Glory said:
I've noticed there seems to be some confusion between 'appetisers' and 'starters'
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…and amuse bouche, which I think means they’re little bites provided “on the house,” just something the restaurant gives you to take the edge off, where an appetizer is ordered off a menu and isn’t free, but more and more restaurants here are using the name “amuse bouche” as the heading for a list of appetizers to choose from (and pay for).
 
Yes, amuse bouche are supposed to be one bite, free, 1 or 2 per person pieces of food provided by the restaurant. They are not in any way, shape or form to be confused with what Americans are used to as appetizers.
 
"Amuse bouche" is actually a lovely name. In French it means something to "amuse the mouth". The name conjours up tiny morsels of something delicate and exploding with flavour; a tiny piece of puff pastry with paté de fois and a single berry; a square of pumpernickel with smoked salmon and curry mayonnaise; a wonton filled with minced pork, lemongrass and ginger; that kind of thing. Not some clunky lump of fried bread with beans and sausage on it. :hyper: :laugh:
 
TastyReuben said:
…and amuse bouche, which I think means they’re little bites provided “on the house,” just something the restaurant gives you to take the edge off, where an appetizer is ordered off a menu and isn’t free, but more and more restaurants here are using the name “amuse bouche” as the heading for a list of appetizers to choose from (and pay for).
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medtran49 said:
Yes, amuse bouche are supposed to be one bite, free, 1 or 2 per person pieces of food provided by the restaurant. They are not in any way, shape or form to be confused with what Americans are used to as appetizers.
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Yes, same in the UK. Sometimes served between the courses of a meal as well as before. But always something very small and only one item per person.
 
In US restaurants, there is a trend toward making 'starters' or 'appetizers' larger. Many of the dishes listed as such, can actually provide a whole meal. There is a trend toward classifying them as 'small plates', which, if you add a salad or a veg, often suits me just fine for dinner.
 
For me, it's PUPUS
and I can make a meal out of them!
IMG_1189.JPG


This is our version of the American-Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes.
All of the above dishes are small bites of some kind of seafood.
 
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