Le Cafe Bizzare

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I just found a loaf of "Le Cake Anglais" on my host's counter, a cake I never saw while living in England. And that reminded me of something I did see there: Le Cafe Anglais. Now I can see the point of naming your London cafe, if it is French-style, "Le Cafe Francais," to add an extra dash of "authenticity." But what in the world is the point of naming your English cafe, sitting in the heart of England, in French? However, that naming absurdity was topped by the "New Jersey Fried Chicken" just up the street.

UPDATE: A photo, and a whole thread on weird chicken-shack names.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:13 AM

    Think of it in terms of a blog site going after LRC and at the same time callng itself, "Crash Landing".

    ReplyDelete
  2. gcallah1:39 PM

    Sidney, usually I get a good chuckle out of your bon mots, but this one has only left me puzzled.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:17 PM

    Perhaps the choice of the cafe's name was an oblique nod to the longstanding and widespread use of Norman French by the ruling/upper classes in England?

    Araglin

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:39 PM

    Sidney, usually I get a good chuckle out of your bon mots, but this one has only left me puzzled.

    Why, of course it would. You are reading off the screen of a French laptop. Notice you are now even commenting to me in French, "bon mots".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bob Murphy10:15 AM

    What's your problem with the New Jersey chicken place? Are you just saying there's no such thing?

    I.e. I get your complaint about saying the English cafe in French (in England), but I don't get why it's dumb to say it's NJ food outside of NJ.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bob Murphy10:15 AM

    Why isn't it L'Anglais?

    ReplyDelete
  7. gcallah9:06 PM

    I don't think there is any such cuisine as "New Jersey Fried Chicken." Southern fried chicken, fine, but New Jersey?!

    ReplyDelete
  8. gcallah8:34 AM

    Yes, Bob, thanks and corrected -- the 'le' was kind of floating on the package near the other words, and I placed it wrongly in quoting it. And to clarify the other matter -- I grew up in Connecticut, and I guarantee there's no such thing as "Connecticut Fried Chicken." Growing up near NJ, I'm pretty sure that "NJ Fried Chicken" is an imaginary dish as well.

    Here's a whole thread discussing this. Other commentators found "NJ Chicken" funny as well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wabulon1:23 PM

    Gene, there is so Connecticut fried chicken: Vincent's in Branford doesn't call it that, but that's what it is, I claim.

    ReplyDelete
  10. gcallah11:36 AM

    Dear Wabulon,

    I just made a dish of black-eyed peas and tomatoes using a mix of Indian and African spices -- sui generis, as far as I know. But it wouldn't be correct to call it "Pennsylvania peas and tomatoes" -- that would imply a regional style, and there is no such regional style.

    Similarly, one place in Branford does not a regional style make!

    ReplyDelete

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