Ahuacati+molli

In tribute to Maria's time in Mexico, the cheap, giant avocados you can buy in Brasil and my love for food in general I thought I would do blog about guacamole.  Guacamole isn't popular here in Brasil. They prefer to eat their avocado with milk and sugar - like a smoothie or for a dessert. Having grown up with avocado as a savoury rather than a sweet, my preference is still for it on it's own with a bit of freshly ground pepper (another impossible thing to find here in Brasil) or as guacamole. I like my guacamole fresh, chunky and tasty and its so easy to make.

The first avocado originated in Mexico,.The word avocado is from the Aztec Nahuatl word ahuacatl, which means 'testicle' in reference to the shape of the fruit.  The name guacamole is a compound derived from two Aztec Nahuatl words - ahuacatl (avocado) and molli (soup/sauce). 

The most important ingredient for the perfect guacamole is, of course, the avocado. You have to use good, ripe avocados. You can test the ripeness of an avocado by pressing gently on the outside and it should give a little. It can't be too hard, or too soft - just right. A mix of finely chopped red onion, peppers / serranto chillis for spice, lemon juice and freshly ground pepper and salt are my essentials.

My mother-in-law introduced me to roquamole the other year... and blue cheese is now one of my other essential ingredients. A traditionalist may shake their head at me but it's so good, I could have it just as a meal on it's own. 

If you are travelling in a foreign country and desperate for some fresh avocado here's some help:

Avocado  /ævəkɑ:doʊ/ in english

Avocado /ævəkɑ:dəʊ/ in american

الأفوكادو /ʼFwkādw/ in arabic

其树 (/qíshù/ in mandarin

el aguacate in spanish

la palta in argentina, bolivia, chile, peru, uruguay (a quechua name)

o abacate in brasilian portuguese

Rock the mole!!

*Translations courtesy of Google Translate

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

!mamadisima!

On Thursday night we decided to meet Isaac, perhaps Monterrey’s best-kept secret. We were lucky to meet him on the second day we arrived in Mexico at the Monterrey Polo club, and lets just say he’s made our stay here memorable.

So there we were, Felipe, Nicola and I, meeting Isaac at The Corner pub in San Pedro. When we arrived we were introduced to Franco who took one look at me and mumbled to Isaac “Wey, esta mamadisima, me puede cargar!”.You can imagine my intrigue. Mamadisima?!!! What?!?! I asked Isaac but he just giggled and then giggled some more. Now, I was really intrigued. Finally he broke down and explained it meant you’re really fit. Hmmmm, I suspected Isaac was sugar coating the definition so I asked the table next to ours where Jonaz, Alejandro and Carlos said it meant either 'very muscular' or 'very drunk'. It was the beginning of my evening so I was definitely not drunk. That only left the incredible hulk translation (just google images: mamadisimo and see for yourself!). Wow! While the guys assured me it was not derogatory, the translation “Man, she’s very muscular she can carry me” didn’t particularly sound like a compliment either. Even though “Mamadisima” was a borderline insult it did break the ice with Jonaz, Alejandro and Carlos.

As it turned out Jonaz was the guitarist and vocalist of Plastilina Mosh, an indie pop band from Monterrey, Mexico, which has been rocking since 1998. Most notably recognised by the release of the “Pervert Song” from their “All U Need Is Mosh” album. See, there is always a silver lining J.

Mamadisimo and Mamada all come from the root word "mamar" which means "to suck". "Que mamada" means how cool, which is what the guys said when I told them my name was “Ms. Petit” The point being that not only do you get insults from the root word "mamar" but luckily also compliments since I don’t think I could handle 2 insults in one night :)

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

eXpresso vs. eSpresso

In between meetings, starving and in search of a flat screen TV to watch the Netherlands vs. Uruguay World Cup Semi-final Felipe Dell’Oro and I ended up at Chili’s Restaurant. Ironic I know since we are in Mexico and can get authentic Mexican food instead of the Americanized version by Chili’s Restaurant chain. But we were desperate. To “close the deal” I decided to go for an after meal eXpresso and I pronounced it exactly how it was written in the menu eXpresso /"" ikˈspresō /. Felipe politely pointed out “you know its pronounced and spelled eSpresso.” He lives in Milan he should know but I found it even more curious that he picked up on it, the variation after all is very subtle. Until that moment I had never picked up on the variation in spelling and/or pronunciation /eˈspresō/ vs. /"" ikˈspresō /. I have been interchanging Expresso with Espresso without even giving it a second thought, the way I often switch back in forth between Spanish and English without even realizing it.

Interestingly though while Merriam-Websters and Cambridge Dictionaries have Expresso as a variant of the word Espresso, Oxford dictionary clearly states it is incorrect!: The often-occurring variant spelling expresso — and its pronunciation (Pronunciation: /"" ikˈspresō /) — is incorrect and was probably formed by analogy with express.

So when in ROME.../eˈspresō/ J

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

2010 TEDprize Winner Jamie Oliver

Chef, TEDprize Winner and Delicious Daddy, Jamie Oliver is starting a food revolution. He has one wish:

“I wish for everyone to help create a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Jamie Oliver points out that the no.1 killer in the USA is heart disease. In fact 2/3 of America is either overweight or obese. He advocates focusing on education to catalyse change. During his TED speech he showed a video clip of children at an elementary school who struggled to identify basic food items such as tomatoes, cauliflower, beets and aubergine (UK)/eggplant (USA). Jamie’s point is that “if kids don’t know what stuff is then they will never eat it!” and “We’ve got to start teaching kids about food at school!”

JAM Fruit & Vegetable English Flashcards are a great and fun way to educate children about fruit & vegetables initiating a healthy relationship with food. We are also proud to announce that recently JAM Fruit & Vegetables English Flashcards was catalogued in the USA National Agricultural Library.

Since I’m writing from Monterrey, Mexico and in the spirit of healthy meal solutions, check out Gwyneth Paltrows’s Mexican dinner family style J Adorable Gwyneth not only dishes out her delicious “delish” recipes in this short video but also indulges in her own lingo/slang.

Guac – Short for Guacamole

Donesville – Means it’s done

Barbie – Short for barbecue but can also refer to a grill

Not down with the spicy – Does not like spicy (in this context spicy food)

Delish – Short for delicious

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Futebol? Soccer? Chuggu? Sakkā? Fußball? Voetbal? Fútbol?

Good guess - I am talking about the World Cup!

I think it was while I was watching Uruguay v South Korea I was wondering how players that don't speak English, manage to communicate with the officials. If there is a Spanish-speaking ref with a Spanish-speaking team, are they allowed to speak Spanish or does everything have to be conducted in English?  Surely the Koreans all speak to each other in Korean, and swear at the other team (and the ref and linesmen) in Korean as would the Spanish-speaking teams. The English speaking teams can't get away with it as everyone understands them swearing (even if you can't hear them it's pretty easy to lip-read certain swear words) or sometimes you want the other team to understand what you are saying; to rile them and put them off their game.

In my past life I use to help organise football tournaments for the Asian Football Confederation. I always remember one Team Manager's Meeting when I was in Binh Dinh, Vietnam for one of the legs of the AFC Champions League. The Match Commissioner was from Hong Kong and the referees from Indonesia. I had assumed that English would've been the one common language. The Japanese team had a foreign coach, I can't remember where from so let's say Russia, and a translator for him but the translator only spoke Japanese and Russian. So when the coach had something to say the translator translated it into Japanese, one of the Japanese translated into Vietnamese (neither of these Japanese spoke English) so one of the Vietnamese had to translate into English and then back again... I was beside myself, and as you can imagine, the meeting took about 5 hours!

As a native English speaker I use to have this assumed arrogance that everyone should speak English to accommodate me, or at least be trying to learn it, to accomodate me. As and when I travelled I would always make the effort to learn Hello, Goodbye and Thank You at minimum but I would not really make any further effort. Now I'm embarrassed that English is my one and only language and am desperately trying to learn Portuguese as fast as I can as we settle into Sao Paulo. I don't think it's a bad assumption to make (that English is the common language in a group of people) but I can't impose the same expectation I have of others to learn a second language when I don't force the same upon myself.

Source for different names for Association Football in each country

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

GLOBISH

It’s everywhere and it’s invading the planet! I first stumbled across the term Globish in the Jordan Times when I was in Amman, Jordan and yet again while in Monterrey Mexico, colleague and friend Felipe Dell’Oro pointed out an article in Newsweek about no other than… GLOBISH!!

According to Wikipedia as the term is neither in Cambridge nor the Oxford dictionary, Globish is a subset of the English language formalized by Jean-Paul Nerriere. It uses a subset of Standard English grammar, and a list of 1500 English words. According to Nerriere it is "not a language" in and of itself, but rather it is the common ground that non-native English speakers adopt in the context of international business.

Interestingly enough the term Globish was coined by Jean-Paul Nerriere in 1995, but why the hype all of a sudden you may ask? Its all thanks to McCrum, an editor at the London Observer who claims in his recently published book “Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language”, that English has achieved a self-sustaining "supra-national momentum" that is carrying it beyond the reach of the cultures from which it sprang. As the property of all who use it, the language will soon, he predicts, "make its own declaration of independence."

The reality is that we use it and recognize it probably without even knowing “Globish” had a name and that it has actually taken on a life of its own!

As I said to my friend Frank Salazar, Internal Relations Coordinator for the State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico during one of our many discussions “Yes We Can!” A phrase, which he instantly recognized from Obama’s presidential campaign and a stellar example of Globish.

Fun, Sweet & Sticky JAM Facts:

-In 2003 both Chile and Mongolia declared their intention to become bilingual in English

-2006 English was added to the Mexican primary-school curriculum as a compulsory second language

- By 2030 nearly 1/3 of the world’s population will be trying to learn English at the same time

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

METROsexual OR RETROsexual ?

I am the biggest advocate of a metrosexual man. There is nothing more sexy than a waxed, shaven, pedicured, moussed-up, with a skin care regimen, wearing a pair of skinny-jeans, and a smile backed by pearly whites … under 30 (that last bit is just my personal preference so it seems and a different blog altogether ☺). That was until, after a night out in Monterrey, Mexico, a metrosexual friend we will effectually call “anonymous” applied eye cream at 5AM. Yes, after an evening of extreme partying he is so pre-programmed that he felt compelled to proceed with his skin care regimen at 5AM! That left me wondering and days later while looking up a word in the dictionary I stumbled across Retrosexual. What is considered to a certain extent the opposite of Metrosexual.

Retrosexual Definition: a man who adopts a traditional masculine style in dress and manners

The definition was followed by a comment from West4th NY: "old-fashioned manners and clothes typical of the early 1960s (think Mad Men)"

So I did the natural thing and went digging some more for these MAD MEN. I stumbled across the official site for the show and you can even Mad Men Yourself! (That's me pictured above with the coffee cup).

About the show:

"Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell. The latest season of the show takes place in 1963..."

So whether your man is Metrosexual or Retrosexual… I still think eye cream at 5AM is where one should draw the line for a man who likes women. As for men who like men and us girls, different rules apply, we can apply eye cream whenever we want ☺

Metrosexual Definition: a man who is attracted to women sexually but who is also interested in fashion and his appearance

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!