Thursday, December 16, 2004

Quick lesson on regional dialects and foods or "Back to the Salt Mines"

Back home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the term “bakery” has two meanings.
In its more universal usage, the word refers to a place where baked goods are made.
However, in the regional dialect, it can also be used as a general term for baked goods themselves.
As an example, it wouldn’t be uncommon to hear a Yooper (Someone from the Upper Peninsula, or “U.P.”) to say something along the lines of “I’m going to head to the bakery to pick up some bakery.”
Some people might find it confusing, I suppose, but when you’re accustomed to it, it makes perfect sense, and it’s more efficient than saying “baked goods” when you aren’t talking about any specific kinds of “baked goods” (donuts, cinnamon rolls, etc.).
Anyway, I spent much of today making some bakery. The term “bakery” seems most appropriate since the kind of baked good I made is fairly common back home.
It’s a Finnish baked good referred to as Nisu.
In overall flavor, Nisu is rather like cinnamon rolls, minus the cinnamon.
You make your dough, let it rise, divide it into three loaves, then divide those loaves into three, which are then braided together and baked (It yields three separate loaves or braids of Nisu).
After they cool, you brush them with a sugary glaze.
Et voila.
It was my first attempt at making Nisu (or anything even remotely similar, for that matter), and as such involved a lot of trial and error (mostly error). The end result, though, was three tasty pieces of baker-I mean, “baked goods.”
I realized two things while making the Nisu today.
One, I hate flour, as it gets everywhere. It's worse than sand.
Two, whenever I have to mix anything that’s even slightly liquid, no matter what it is, it will invariably perform its best impression of Peter North (If you don’t get that reference, I’m not going to explain it to you, other than to say that, as far as metaphors go, it’s pretty gross.).
Beyond the baking, I’ve been working on a picture, which I had hoped to finish in time to post, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
So my time off is now at an end, and I have to get back into the swing of things.
Including (ugh) getting up really, really damned early in order to get in a workout before I officially start my day.
In any case, I just thought I’d post a quick update. To those of you who are not working this weekend, I hate you all. Umm, I mean, have a great weekend!

No comments: