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Thursday September 18, 2008
Rutabaga
In France, they don't seem very big on the range of root vegetables we seem to thrive on in England. O - except turnips - every where you look - turnips - for any foreigners (and by that I refer to the Scots - see below*) I mean those round white-with-a-hint-of-mauve unappealing tasteless vegetables. When compared with delicious swedes and parsnips (again - see below*) ... what can I say?
Turnips (the round white etc..) are navets in French and on one occasion only George did see parsnips at our favourite veg stall in Brécey market. He pounced, and Mme Batard told him they were called "navets" - he pointed out the "other" navets and she simply shrugged**.
On one other single occasion, we found swedes in a supermarket. However, we were unable to find any name for them - and none of the staff knew what they were called - so we all stood around the scales shaking our heads and shrugging in a true Gallic manner. In the end, we decided - by a process of elimination of 92 other vegetables - that they were rutabaga***.
All these linguistic mysteries were brought to mind by the Rutabaga shopping bag knitting pattern. I may have to make it just for nostalgia. Or in preparation for future nostalgia.
* In Scotland, they do not use the word swede, but seem to call everything root-vegetable-wise, turnips - except the tatties of course... So we have the traditional Haggis, tatties, and neeps which are actually pudding, spuds and mashed swede. [I mention this to goad my Scottish friends - so I probably don't have any now.]
** Using the power of the interweb I find that parsnips are "panais" - but French wikipedia does say they are a vegetable "a little neglected these days - except in Great Britain and the Nordics".
*** In fact these Normans were probably confused by the vast choice of names for a vegetable you never normally see there: "chou-navet", "chou de Siam", "choux suédois" - and all variations on cabbage.
Posted by Christina at 11:04 PM. Category: Knitting and Crochet
Comments
Swedes are Rutabagas here in the USA. Easier to find this out in Safeway where they are labelled.
Also - since getting our veg box I am a new convert to turnips - we get tiny, sweet, white ones, and they are delicious. The main difference between these and turnips at home is that they have a more starchy texture - delicious in soups.
Posted by: Alison on September 21, 2008 3:21 AM
....just to say it’s not just Scotland that calls “swedes” turnips, it’s the same story in the north-east too. I can’t be buying a swede, they are forever turnips to me :o)
Posted by: Sheelagh on September 22, 2008 8:36 AM
