Funistrada

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.
  • A restaurant in Michigan named Trattoria Funistrada used funistrada in the name for its restaurant.[7]
  • It appears in CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food by Paul Dickson[8]
  • A Breeders' Cup horse took the name in 1985.[9]

References
  1. Armed Forces Food Preferences
  2. Armed Forces Food Preferences p. 4
  3. "» Funistrada, the Army's 'Ghost Food' - Entropic Memes". www.slugsite.com.
  4. Davidson, Alan. "Funistrada." The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  5. Armed Forces Food Preferences p. 54
  6. Bryson, Bill (1990), The Mother Tongue, London, UK: Hamish Hamilton, p. 77, ISBN 0-380-71543-0
  7. "Karl Mamer". www.facebook.com.
  8. "CHOW: A Cook's Tour of Military Food by Paul Dickson - Kirkus Reviews". kirkusreviews.com.
  9. Equibase.com. "Equibase - Profiles". equibase.com.


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