Chinese Pizza (Chizza); Zuni Bread; In the Soup; Come and Get It!

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Oct 4 00:45:55 UTC 2002


CHINESE PIZZA (CHIZZA)

   I walked past Hunan Fifth Avenue (opposite the Empire State Building).  It proudly states that it's Jerry Seinfeld's favorite Chinese restaurant.  (Too bad the show used Tom's Restaurant for all those scenes.)
   On the menu are "scallion pancakes (Chinese pizzas)."
   A Dow Jones database check showed a large 238 hits for "Chinese pizza," but only about four hits with "scallion pancake" added.  About five articles, starting with 1-1-1989, mentioned "Chizza," but that's all for that neologism.
   There doesn't seem to be an established form to this item yet.
   The earliest I could find is the NEW YORK TIMES, 3 October 1976, pg. 17, Chinam restaurant in Southold: "We can also recommend the savory spring onion pancake, billed as 'Chinese pizza.'"

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ZUNI BREAD

   A local deli-type place around here in New York City is serving "Zuni bread."  It's not in the OED.  DARE?
   The American Memory database has a photo of this from 1926, but the notes should not necessarily mean that we had "Zuni bread" in 1926.  Someone from the Zuni tribe is shown baking bread.
   The earliest Dow Jones database hit is in the ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 19 November 1990 (Dow Jones coverage of this periodical starts just about here), pg. 1FM:  "Besides the chili peanuts other Southwestern touches could include: Zuni bread and grean bean-jicama salad."

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IN THE SOUP

   OED has April 1889 for "in the soup."

   1 September 1888, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 8:
   McLaughlin won with King Crab in the easiest possible fashion, and Speedwell finished "in the soup."

   28 October 1889, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 4:
   A Yale student returning from abroad is disgusted with the slow appreciation of the English people.  He says that on the trip home he had occasion to make use of the phrase "in the soup."  As it was new to British ears, it provoked the curiousity of one old gentleman, who begged an explanation.  The embarrassed young man began with a cheerful and homely example.  "If," said he, "I started for America, and my trunk by some inadvertence was detained in Liverpool, I should be sadly inconvenienced, would I not?  Well, then, my trunk would be in the soup, and so would I."  "But," broke out the Englishman, "I cannot see what your trunk has to do with an article of diet."--_New-Haven Palladium_.

   3 November 1889, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 4:
   Slang interprets slang.  It is easy to see the force of the remark "Don't be a clam," when you reflect how frequently the clam is in the soup.--_Toronto Globe_.

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COME AND GET IT!

   I haven't yet looked on other databases.

   26 December 1931, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 1:
   These early ones had to wait in the wind for three hours before they heard the cry of "Come and get it," and by the time serving began additional thousands were in the hungry queue.



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