What's in a Name?

Are you tired of getting home from work, all excited to be with anyone but those annoying co-workers, ready to sit down to a nice home cooked meal only to find out dinner is the same old meat and potatoes? Well I have a solution for you. Give your food a name. Now I bet you’re saying to yourself, what? Name your food? This guy has finally lost it! But alas, it really helps make boring food more exciting.

For instance, one day last winter I was working on making dinner for my wife and me. We usually just have meat and potatoes but for some reason, maybe the wind was blowing just right, maybe there was a full moon, I don’t know, I wanted a salad. Being creative as I am sometimes with food, I decided to cut the lettuce into wedges and top it with the vegetables I had. Even with the salad dinner was still looking pretty sad. But wait, the salad looks like the peak of a mountain and once the white potatoes are spotted with some caramelized onions, they will look like dirty snow. That night we had a “Mountain Peak” salad followed by tender pork chops with “Dirty Snow” potatoes.

That meal was a lot more exciting than it would have been without the name. To this day I am still being asked about my dirty snow potatoes. Not only does naming food make dinner interesting but it makes people remember the food, even those people who don’t eat it. If you can’t be creative with your cooking then at least be creative with the name of your food and see what kind of reaction you’ll get. I’m willing to bet you will add some excitement to your food and people will actually want to eat it.