Today’s food observation will make locals giggle.
It still baffles me that even the Food Network’s Iron Chefs continue to mispronounce the favored Japanese bread crumbs.
It’s Panko, pronounced “pahn-ko,” not “PAN-koe,” as many cooks still are not onto it.
With Japanese cuisine no longer a regional thing, it’s surprising that many who use Panko still mispronounce it.
Panko is part of the universal dialogue these days, alongside bento, dashi, musubi, uni and furikake. Sushi became part of the vocab years ago, like its favored hot sister, wasabi.
So why is Panko still not rightfully recognized?
Two other maligned non-food Japanese terms will not likely gain proper respect anytime soon: karaoke and hara-kiri.
For the record, it’s ka-ra-o-ke and ha-ra-ki-ri, not karryokey and harrykerry.
Got that, for those still not in the know?
Love when you inform us 🙂 After living here nearly all of my adult life I still am guilty sometimes. Plus, my first few years here I was living in Papakolea — sometimes that local lingo just jumps out – too bad when talking to a Mainlander.
There are many miscues, but my point is, chefs should know better.
Add “karate” as one word and “Kobe” as a name most widely mispronounced to the list!
Karaoke is the one that drives me most crazy.😄
The list goes on and on ….