12 Comments

“The only way the list could be more British would be if it included ‘with the vicar.’” Heck yeah!

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It might be a regional and/or US/UK thing, but "gastro" can have positive overtones for food, as in the term "gastropub", which I believe is pretty common in the UK. And which one occasionally sees in the US for bars that wish to cloak their food offerings in higher prices, I mean, in a veil of gourmandism.

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And now I've remembered Gastropod, the podcast about food. Or is it about snails?

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Another delivery option: “At hospital”. South of Berkeley in Castro (Gastro?) Valley is a restaurant named Pho Play, which also conjures up bodily images in association with food. Never know what to make of that name.

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There are so many “Pho" puns in restaurant names. I recently spotted a Pho Sho.

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There's a use of 'ghetto' as an adjective, meaning to improvise a repair of something with materials at hand. Look up videos of "ghetto repair" (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-tWDt6Ljkw) to see what I mean: everyday objects repurposed to new ends. The reason is of course poverty but there is a undercurrent of inventiveness in figuring out a solution even if it is dangerous and/or ugly, the kind that might elicit the response, "That's so ghetto." (It's not a term I would ever use. 'Redneck' is used in the same way for a different group of poor people.)

'Gastropub' is definitely used in the US. There was a brewpub/restaurant called Gastropub in Long Beach some years ago, and the term is common on Yelp.

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If I squint, I can see this adjectival "ghetto" making sense with GHETTO GASTRO. More "inventive" than "innovative," maybe.

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I think both of them are bad, at least IMO, because I would be slow to buy processed food items from the sort of executives who think those names are funny.

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You're a tough customer.

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I keep calling the 1900s the 19th century too.

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Hah! I admit my language was confusing. The 1961 citation was meant to be an example of the trend that began a century earlier.

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I guess "Flavor Town" wasn't considered a good alternative to "Gourmet Ghetto."

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