Mud and Food, Week #3
Welcome to week #3 in our month-long “mud” theme here at Write Non Fiction in November. With just six short days to go before hosting my daughter’s seventh birthday party, I have food, food, food on the brain. That’s why it will be much fun talking about mud and food this week! Your job is to research and write descriptions of five food misnomers.
Creative Idea Gal’s Thoughts
The inspiration for today’s prompt is the most retro snack food in today’s society – – muddy buddies. If you look up recipes for how to make muddy buddies, you’ll see that Chex mix cereals are the heart of this snack. You’ll likely study the recipe carefully, ogle over the pictures, and wish you could rush home to make a batch. Because the snack looks and tastes so good, you may be completely oblivious to its name or why it’s a misnomer.
Let me explain. Any food that contains a variant of mud in its name is supposed to have characteristics of real mud, which is wet, sloppy, and makes a huge mess. Those characteristics are definitely true of the next two foods we’ll discuss on Wednesday and Friday, but not true of today’s food. Muddy buddies break the typical description of “mud foods” and are basically the complete opposite. Though they are coated in chocolate and peanut butter, muddy buddies are actually dry confectioner treats. That’s why it’s a misnomer, because muddy buddies are anything but muddy!
I can think of several other foods that are named inappropriately, making their names misnomers or almost complete opposites of what they actually are, such as a bloody Mary or pink slime (you’d be surprised to learn about that). Your job is to think and write about five food misnomers.
Creative Brainstorming Tips
Creative brainstorming gets a boost when old memories mix with new information.
That’s exactly what happened when I researched muddy buddies. My previous knowledge about muddy buddies led me to new research that really surprised me. It led me to a comment from someone who said the recipe for muddy buddies was known as puppy chow in the Girl Scouts. I took that one step further and learned that puppy chow is also called monkey munch! That makes three names for the same dessert!
It’s always a great idea to build upon your research by looking up related ideas.
Helpful Resources
“The names of many popular dishes and drinks often appear to indicate their origins or ingredients, but are sometimes misleading or inappropriate. This quiz serves up 10 culinary delights whose names are inaccurate in some way.” – FunTrivia
“There’s one more final myth to bust while we’re on the subject: the idea of there being such a thing as “the raw food diet” is actually a huge misnomer – that is unless you think the term “the cooked food diet” is useful or descriptive, because there really are infinite ways to eat raw just as there are infinite ways to eat cooked..” – Karen Knowler, the Raw Food Coach
Writing Prompt 055
Prompt: Write descriptions of five food misnomers.
- Step 1: This is a tough writing prompt because it really forces you to think about the names of foods and their descriptive qualities. Think carefully about the foods you eat, those you like, and those you don’t like.
- Step 2: Research foods on the Internet and see if you can learn about the origins or histories of foods. There are clues everywhere, but it is up to you to find them.
- Step 3: Write descriptions of five different foods whose names are misnomers. Hint: many, many ethnic foods are named and classified inappropriately by people outside the culture. There are interesting reasons why those misnomers exist. See if you can learn them.
Please be sure to leave comments about this writing prompt. We want to hear from you!
About the Author
Amanda M. Socci, J.D., is a freelance writer with 14 years of experience writing professionally. Socci currently cuts her blogging chops on her personal portfolio blog, the Creative Idea Gal blog, and on an online news site, Mount Vernon Patch. Inspired by Nina Amir’s Write Nonfiction in November writing challenge, she created a unique 10-month training program for Writenonfictionnow.com and Writenonfictioninnovember.com blog visitors.
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