John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints


Deli Terminology in the USA and Canada

Acknowledgement

The information on this page was kindly emailed to me by a correspondent using the name of "DSR". The opinions expressed are therefore entirely those of "DSR".

Breads

White Soft, air-filled, vitamin-enriched, nearly tasteless.
French Crusty exterior; often a batard or a chunk thereof.
Italian Called "scali" in some parts of New England. A cross between white and French, usually with sesame seeds on top.
Wheat Wholemeal, usually with a soft crust.
Rye Light-coloured rye and wheat bread with chewy crust, available "seeded" or "seedless" with the seeds in question being caraway.
Pumpernickel Dark rye and wheat bread, slightly sweet, never seeded.
Marble rye A swirled loaf of rye and pumpernickel, never seeded.
Kaiser roll Also called a "bulkie". Thin-crusted white roll suitable for a medium-sized sandwich; the name comes from the distinctive swirl on top, said to resemble German helmets.
Onion roll A Kaiser roll without the distinctive swirl and with caramelised onion bits on top
Sub roll A white roll in a long submarine shape

Cheese

American The worst of all possible cheese-like substances. It can be adulterated in several ways: vegetable oil can be substituted for milk, for example. Beware the packages labelled "pasteurised process cheese food product" - those are the most adulterated.
Swiss Refers to any cheese nominally from Switzerland with a smoky taste and holes in the body of the cheese. Emmenthaler, for example.

America does produce some very good cheeses, especially the cheddars from New York and Vermont. Most supermarkets will carry a large selection of domestic and imported cheeses, especially Italian, Swiss, Danish and Dutch.


Restaurants

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Most recently modified 28-Mar-02