The photo above is the picture of the homemade jam cake my generous sister-in-law Pam gave me this past Saturday night, that beautiful Lady. I had joined my four brothers and their wives, along with four cousins and two of their husbands, at a local restaurant for dinner. What a great time we had, telling each other old stories of growing up together. Some stories were so funny at times I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. What a lucky girl I am! Then to top it off I took this yummy jam cake home. The caramel frosting smells like sweet maple syrup. I know! Close your eyes and I am sure you can taste it.

So I got to thinking about food and how we celebrate so much of our lives with food up front and center stage. Certain foods become a tradition, and favorite restaurants we visit become the highlight of our day. Then I began to think about words, and food, and how we put them together to describe something. Obviously food is on our minds much of the time, even everyday conversation.

Think of the phrase, “It’s a piece of cake”, when someone is reporting how easy it is to perform a task. I googled this phrase, trying to become informed on how it even came about, but it seems there are several theories but no real agreement on its origin. Then I got to wondering about similes we have created revolving around foods. A simile is a phrase that compares one thing to another, such as “easy as pie”. So why pie? Is it because pie is easy to swallow down that long tube in our throat, the esophagus? Why not jello or applesauce? Doesn’t sound quite right does it? Or nutty as a fruitcake? Why not nutty as walnut cake or pecan pie? So then I think maybe it’s the geographics. What type of nuts were found in the area or maybe fruitcake was a very popular dessert in a certain part of town… I’m going down the rabbit hole aren’t I?

There are other similes: cool as a cucumber, red as a beet, sticky as molasses. The list goes on. I am fairly certain these phrases became popular simply by word of mouth. Phrases we liked, decided to remember and passed them on to other people in our own conversations. One phrase I don’t like is “chewing the fat’. It means to talk on and on about something. The image in my mind of chewing on a glob of animal fat is beyond yuck to me. The cardiac nurse in me is immediately visualising clogged arteries in the heart. No, definitely not an attractive set of words.

I invite you to think of other phrases related to foods that come to your mind. If you like please post them in the comment section. Then I could read them and learn more. That would be sweet… sweet as a sugar plum!

c   Love, Joan

word of mouth

word of mouth