violist

Welsh "rarebit" is a relatively recent variant. Rabbit is the original,
and it's a sort of slur on the Welsh, implying that these people are
stupid or poverty-stricken or deceptive that they melt cheese on
toast and call it rabbit.

The Welshman's dishonest, he cheats when he can,
He's little and dark, more monkey than man!
He works underground with a lamp on his hat
And sings far too loud, far too often, and flat!
[Flanders and Swann]

Terms of this ilk include Scotch woodcock (eggs
on toast), French horn, and Chinese fire drill.

TMOliver

The origin of Rabbit/Rarebit remains as cloudy as the veil hanging over Snowdon. The "Rarebit" affectation does appear to have been sort of an "elite" adjustment to the slightly insulting original title, a meat substitute for the poor Welsh.

Patrick O'Brian's "Jack Aubrey" provides the fame for a similar dish, "Toasted Cheese", apparently Cheddar melted and browned in a cast iron dish/pan.

The greatest Welsh Rabbit in my memory was my sainted mother's, who mixed some dark beer and a dollop of Worcestershire into the melting cheese, and served it in a flameproof dish atop crisply toasted sourdough slices, the entire dish topped with sliced tomato, then browned under a boiler. Further ascendancy into the pantheon of good eats was achieved by topping the whole thing with a couple of slices of crisp bacon. Mom was a wise housewife, and never purchased "processed" cheese, until the 50s craze for the non-TexMex restaurant version of Chile con Queso, Velveeta heated with a can of Rotel Tomatoes & Green Chiles, arrived. As plebeian as the combination seems (Velveeta??), a dollop on scrambled eggs or an omelet remains hard to beat!

VivoPerLei

Deleted - my analogy makes no sense...

RadioGirl

I have that problem with Soup du Jour. It's usually good but it's always different.



Seriously, though, I once ordered a "Thai Chicken Salad" and got a tray with (1) chicken in curry sauce over rice and (2) a salad of iceberg lettuce and tomato. It was at a small, nearly deserted bistro-attached-to-pub in a NZ village in the off-season and was literally the only place in town serving food in the evening; I reckon the bartender was filling in for the cook.

MaxBuck

Deleted

exilencfc

Was the curry sauce thai curry? Maybe they were just missing some punctuation - thai chicken, salad

TMOliver

From my childhood, long ago, I still remember the occasional appearance on menus of the openly non-deceptive "Mock Turtle Soup".

Pa Kettle

No doubt made with mock turtle neck stock.

BamaVol

I'd say "Rocky Mountain Oysters" is quite deceptive. I mean, who would eat them if they were listed as "Bull Testicles"?

Pa Kettle

Along the same vein, how about "turkey fries"?

BamaVol

There were "Rooster Fries" when I spotted them in Nashville.

And "Lamb Fries" in a Chevy Chase film.

violist

Seems we're getting more towards the cutesy euphemisms than the
actually deceptive terms. Which reminds me of a dish I had last week:
hormone in miso sauce. Turns out it wasn't even sweetbreads or
anything like that: it was pig intestines. I thought they were delicious,
as do I find most offal, including lamb, turkey, or bull balls (@BamaVol,
@Pa Kettle) if fried in decent oil.

Speaking of things with a slightly racy edge, how about "soft roe"?

RadioGirl

From memory, just a generic orange-colored sauce, probably out of a jar. More Thai than, say, Indian, I guess.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the bartender (bus boy? random passerby?) who prepared the meal read it with a comma. When I ordered, I had pretty vague expectations but even so.

It was tasty enough and it was the only show in town, so no hard feelings. I still love you, NZ.