Dim sum =? savory snack

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Aug 17, 2011, at 5:21 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> On Aug 17, 2011, at 7:56 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
>>
>> How about "in Cantonese cooking, small dishes of food often served from carts in a restaurant."
>>
>> Dim sum is served outside strictly Cantonese restaurants now,
>
> I've had good dim sum in a Hunanese restaurant.  Maybe "Chinese" would be safer.

I suppose it comes down to how people perceive it, though ultimately I think you're right.

>
>> I think, so perhaps that is too restrictive. Also, maybe "often served" should be "traditionally served" or "typically served."
> Sounds good to me.  (On various levels.)
>>
>> I've eaten tapas and pintxos only in three or four places. In my experience, tapas are not necessarily snacks, though pintxos are. (I've eaten a whole meal on pintxos, but it took quite a few dishes∑) The non-savory dishes I definitely recall are dates and chocolate. I think the dates had cheese inside, but the chocolate simply was not savory by any means.
>>
> Well, presumably it would be in the broader sense (= 'tasty, appetizing'), in which case it's not opposed to "sweet".
>

That's another reason to dislike the word "savory": It's confusing! Is this meaning of "savory" basically applied when you eat something and say, "That was scrumptious"?

I can't imagine anyone wanting to point at cuisine 1 and call it savory (tasty, appetizing) and cuisine 2 and call it not savory, so I have trouble figuring out how using this word would make a useful contrast.

BB

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