Just seen this on a sample menu for a hotel we are visiting soon

I would imagine that most of us think of 'fried' as in a frying pan so why not use 'fried' rather than 'pan-fried', which irritates me too. Anything else, not so often offered, could be presented as 'deep-fried'. I love brown/black butter though. In a series of books written in the 1930s the main character often ate 'shirred eggs in black butter'.
As for food in France forget it. It's deteriorated radically over the years. There are still some good little home cooked cafés if you know where to look but much of the food is now bought in. My jaw dropped one time when I saw a Brake Brothers van delivering pallets of ready meals to a horrendously expensive swanky restaurant.
The French have recently brought in a rule that a menu has to state if the food is not cooked from scratch on the premises. It's like the bread. Unless you find an 'artisan bakery' the dough is brought in frozen and the croissants and baguettes are nowhere as delicious as freshly prepared. A bit like bread in the UK really - not what it used to be but the speciality breads there are better than in France.
Also in France if you live in an area with fiercly regional food there's an overdose of it in the restaurants. Much as I love magret, duck breast, it gets a little wearisome if it is on every restaurant menu. They aren't nearly as adventurous in their tastes as the Brits.
Even wine, my French friend who is a wine collector buff says that wine from Chile is much better than French.
There's a lot of snobbery involved around food and drink.

I went out for lunch in a gastro pub on Monday, I chose beer battered cod and chips served with crushed minted peas. Why crushed I wondered, bit silly and pretentious, but when they came I realised what a good idea, they didn't roll off my fork and were exceptionally easy to eat, think I might do this at home in future!!

Bloody hell, listen to yourselves!

Do you know that your children and grandchildren inwardly groan when you start whinging on about this, don't you?

"Ponce" is a deliberate term of abuse for either a gay man or a pimp. Like you would call an African a "nigger".

I agree, I don't mind proper culinary terms, but there are some real examples of 'artistic licence' on so many menus. My teeth are set on edge by the description of 'farm-fresh egg' when you know darn well that the egg in question is from the local Tesco. Naturally it should be fresh! Agree about the 'pan-fried' thing, too. Has someone invented another way to fry food?
Oh dear - I'm having a touch of the 'Meldrews'.

I agree wih bluebelle - its not the food but the pretentious descriptions that put me off (or make me laugh!) why do they have to call it chocolate soil? Ive come across this with friends and it put some of them off.

Recently I went out with friends to a restaurant where 'Dark chocolate & pink peppercorn crémeux' featured on the menu. I steered clear but two ladies chose it.

Unsurprisingly, the chocolate was completely ruined by having peppercorns added. The ladies were very disappointed and no one finished it and I sincerely doubt if anyone ever does.

Why do people persist with this pretentious nonsense?

As for Heston's petrol sorbet!

Usually if you ask the waitstaff, they will gladly explain the item in layman's terms. In fact, I think they love it, knowing that it's something you haven't seen in another establishment... it makes their menu unique. Whenever I dine with my foodie brother he explains terms to me, and if he runs into one he's never heard of before, he'll ask. He sees it as a learning process, as a part of his love of good food. As someone else said, if it's ordinary fayre, I may as well eat at home. I do sympathise with you, though! Most of us need a guide to navigate the unfamiliar terms.

Why on Earth this outrage over " brown or black butter"?? No it is not poncy, nor is it "new" but a French classic. The "hazelnut" reference is to the colour and slightly nutty flavour.
What is the objection to the word "burnt"(shudder of horror)?
Do you feel the same about "crème brûlée"? Or as it was traditionally known in England "burnt cream"?
Did you know that one theory is that " burnt cream" originated in Cambridge's Trinity College in the mid-1600's.
Maybe better stick to bangers and mash

The point is, the sauce made with browned butter is called black butter, that is its name - I doubt whether it is used under any other name. If it is I've never heard it, in fact I don't think I've ever had it but it sounds delicious. If we had eaten it in our childhood, we would have called it that without any thought of pretentiousness - unlike puree de pommes, which we already know as mashed potatoes.

Pan-fried is to distinguish it from deep-fried, which is not the same. If a menu said sauteed instead, perhaps there wouldn't be the "pretentious" reaction to it. However, sauteed is French, pan-fried is English. Which is more "gourmet" (or "fine dining" if you prefer)?

When I said "Pass the gravy" to my amateur chef son-in-law (the one with a smoker thing the size of the boiler on the Queen Mary in his back garden) he assured me that a jus is NOT gravy, that gravy is made with thickening and extra water, but a jus is just meat juice. Right enough, it is usually thinner and you don't get as much of it. Tastes good though.

aitch Presumably as opposed to deep fried.

I had a Marguerite Patten cookbook with recipes from the 1940/50s and it had something with black butter so it isn't something new and poncy.

I love the Lake District and would love to know which hotel this is? It sounds lovely!

I don't like "pan fried" because I can't imagine any other way to fry food.
Why does food have to be "on a bed of" wouldn't layer be a simple explanation?
Why do we now have "jus" instead of sauce or gravy?
Elegran, I would also venture the opinion that if black isn't burnt black wouldn't lightly scorched or simply scorched be more clearly explanatory.

I love the fact that when eating in country restaurants in France at lunchtime, men wearing blue overalls and wellies will come in, drink a glass of white wine with their starter, a glass of red with their main, have cheese
, then pud and finish with a coffee. Then having said goodbye to the whole restaurant, out they go to their lorry or tractor and drive off. A million miles from the "greasy spoon" style of the lunching Brit.

It's nothing at all with being adventurous I ve eaten off wayside stalls in Malaysia off barrow men in Hong Kong I love spices and new tastes new exciting dishes never turn my nose up at trying something new BUT prentenious names of ordinary food annoys me why does gravy have to be jus or mashed spuds pomme purée they don't taste any different It's these silly Tv chefs and programmes pulling us all along in trying to show our superior knowledge ALL A LOAD OF TOSH

I love food, cooking, & trying new flavours. To the extent my sister & her partner will no longer visit us for a meal. Apparently it's weird enough that I don't eat meat, let alone everything I cook is "foreign muck".

We went to an overpriced Gastropub. I chose curry and rice and two tiny bowls were presented on a wooden platter. It was a difficult angle trying to get the fork into the two bowls and it was impossible to tip them out. The curry was poor.
My husband was sniffing the smell as we passed the fish and chip shop on the way home! He had had a tiny meal and had waited for a while before starting thinking there was more to come.
We won't go back.

The mention of chocolate soil made me think of this.

Our geology groups talk tomorrow night.
.
Soil is the main sink for pollutants over long periods of time especially in urban environments. It is estimated that humans consume approximately 100mg of soil per day and that within society children are the most vulnerable.

This presentation will take a Medical Geology perspective on the relationship between soil and human health."

I thought it was just chocolate chopped up fine in the food processor mumofmadboys, until I saw that recipe.

I was served it with a chocolatey pudding a few weeks ago

So which one is it?

hildajenniJ the hotel is in the Lake District .
It reminded me of a wine waiter who served us in a hotel once telling us about this lovely wine they had just discovered in Italy. We discovered it in Tesco the next day .

I thought chocolate soil was biscuit crumbs mixed with chocolate. Perhaps it is sometimes a bit posher!!

Sounds yummy, the butter will just have a slightly nutty taste. I think there's no point eating out and not trying something you wouldn't cook, if you get the chance.

It sounds delicious to me!