I was having breakfast with a friend yesterday. She ordered scrambled eggs, on the menu described as ‘A hot steamy serve of soft eggs cooked, and garnished with finely chopped cilantro’, which when served, I recalled the garnish as always being referred to as coriander at my house. How often do you think you must have confused cilantro with coriander? How many of you heard about the HUL vs. GCMMF case, and found yourself wondering as to why are ice creams and frozen desserts, not the same thing? With such a wide variety of cuisine in the world, more often than not we are bound to confuse some foods or food ingredients with another. However, with diminishing global boundaries now more than ever, it is impossible to keep ignoring these voices in our head, especially with so many new chefs just round the corner this quarantine.
Here’s a list of some of the food products which although sound or look similar, are not.
1. Cilantro and Coriander
Both names refer to parts of the same plant. In the UK, the leaves and stalks of the plant are referred to as coriander; the seeds are called coriander seeds. That means cilantro does NOT exist in the UK. On the other hand, in the US, the leaves and stalks of the plant are referred to as cilantro while the seeds are referred to as coriander (1). In India, it is popularly known as dhania (fresh leaves) and dhania ke beej (coriander seeds).
2. Ice cream and Frozen Dessert
These two terms created quite a controversy a few years back during the lawsuit of HUL and GCMMF. The basic difference between them is that ice cream uses milk fats whereas frozen desserts can use other vegetable oil fats. Ice creams are richer and creamier in texture whereas frozen desserts have a slightly watery texture. In many countries, ice cream is now a type of frozen dessert where the particular fat used is milk fat.
3. Pasta and Noodles.
Although differentiable mainly by shape, when pasta is shaped to form spaghetti, it may be confused with noodles. The distinction is the raw material in them. Pasta is made from durum semolina wheat flour, and noodles may be made from a wide variety of flours, prominently refined wheat flour.
4. Macaroon and Macaron
Quite different in appearance, they seem to have both originated from Macaroons, in Italy. Macaroon has a base of coconut, whereas macaron has a flavored crème sandwiched between two meringue layers.
5. Baking Powder and Baking Soda
If you are building up on your baking skills you might have come across recipes having either baking soda or baking powder as an ingredient. However, both are different in their make-up. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate which generates CO2 with an acidic ingredient, whereas baking powder already contains an acidic ingredient within it. So the next time you bake a cake see to it that you add the acidic ingredient if you are using baking soda.
6. Iced coffee and Cold brew
Apart from their chilling effect on the body, these two beverages are quite different. Cold brew contains previously steeped coffee grounds in room temperature water, almost for a day, which is later on diluted and chilled. Iced coffee is originally brewed hot with less quantity of water and then poured over ice for dilution. Cold brew is mellower due to cooler water (2).
7. Curd and Yogurt
Curd is made by adding an edible acidic substance such as lemon juice, vinegar, etc and let it sit for 6-8 hours. Yogurt is prepared by specifically fermenting the milk with a yogurt culture of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophile (3).
8. Sauce and ketchup
Yes, they are different. Ketchup can be considered as a variety of sauce as ketchup is made from tomatoes whereas sauce can be made from a variety of ingredients. The sauce can be eaten with both savory dishes and desserts. Ketchup is mainly eaten with fast food. The sauce can be liquid or may contain some solid ingredients. Ketchup is much thicker and does not contain any solid elements (4).
9. Momos and Dim Sums
Most of us have craved a plate of hot piping momos on a rainy day or as a matter of fact on any other day. On any street, you are more probable to find a dish of momos than a dish of Dim-Sums. But what is the difference? Dim Sums are quite varied in a category compared to momos. Momos are steamed dumplings made from wheat flour and stuffed with a filling (Stop drooling already!). Dim sums entered India much before than momos and can be made from a wide variety of starches such as potato starch, rice starch or wheat starch (5).
10. Cupcakes and Muffins
Are you a sweet tooth? If yes, then this last one is for you. By the look of it, you can easily differentiate them by the fact that cupcakes have a beautiful frosting on top whereas muffins have a sugared top or a thin glaze. Also, on the inside cupcakes are made from a smoother and fluffy batter, but muffins are made into a relatively denser baked good (6).
Hope, next time you go about ordering some food product, you don’t end up with the wrong one in your hands. Comment below if you can think of any other such foods.
References
6. https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/cupcake-different-from-muffin-facts
7. Foods that you have been confusing for each other, Article by MSN
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