Tuesday 9 May 2017

Quotes 2017 #130

"By 1200 noodles had branched north from Sicily, carried by both Jews and Christians, and in fact our first evidence for the word VERMICELLI is from France, where the eleventh-century French scholar Rashi (or possibly a commentary from one of the medieval Tosafist rabbis that followed him) uses the Yiddish word VERMISELES, derived via old French VERMESEIL from Italian VERMICELLI, to describe dough that was either boiled or fried. VERMISELES soon evolved to VREMZEL and to the modern Yiddish word CHREMSEL, the name of a sweet doughy pancake now most commonly made of matzo-meal and eaten at Passover."

Dan Jurafsky, The Language of Food.