Eat Smart Abroad App User Guide:
The EAT SMART ABROAD app is based on the two food glossaries included in each of the EAT SMART culinary travel guidebooks, a series published by Ginkgo Press in Madison, WI (click info in the menu for more details about the series).
The foods of 12 destinations included in this app are: Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Morocco, India, Peru, Sicily, France, Norway, and Germany. Each is handled in a separate section. Additional destinations will be added to the app in the future.
Once you select a destination, you will have 3 search options: the General Search Function, the Menu Guide, and the Foods & Flavors Guide.
1.) The General Search Function can be used at any time to look up either foreign or English food or food-related words. Several of the languages covered in this app have accented letters. On searches made via the general search function, you do not need extra keyboard symbols or keyboard short cuts. Just key in your search term using the equivalent “plain” letter(s) and the app will take care of it for you.
2.) The Menu Guide section is an alphabetical compilation of items on foreign menus with English translations to demystify food selection.
HOW TO USE the Menu Guide:
Menu items are categorized by meal courses plus beverages. The search choices are starter, soup, salad, side, main course, dessert, and beverages (nonalcoholic and alcoholic). Some dishes fit in more than one category. For example, depending on the meal, a dish could be a starter, a side, or a main course. Another subset of categories will let you search by basic food groups. The choices are: meat, vegetables, dairy products/eggs, poultry, fish/seafood, bread/grains, fruits, nuts, and mushrooms. There is also a vegetarian and miscellaneous category. A general search function is also included in the Menu Guide.
Notes: Some traditional dishes are so labor intensive that many restaurants don’t offer them. Meals in some countries are not served in courses; rather, many dishes are served at the same time. Meatless dishes are listed in the vegetarian category. Check with your server, however, to be sure that ingredients such as meat stock have not been included in their preparation. Because of the complexity of dietary issues and the uncertainty as to whether dishes might contain ingredient(s) to be avoided, this app does not provide a list of foods for special diets. [Search the FOODS & FLAVORS GUIDE for the names of ingredients you want to avoid so you can ask your server if they are included in a particular dish.]
3.) The Foods & Flavors Guide section is an alphabetical compilation of foods, spices, kitchen terms, and more, with English translations to assist in shopping and cooking abroad.
HOW TO USE the Foods & Flavors Guide:
To search this guide, scroll through the entries to locate the foreign name of an ingredient, spice, etc., to find its English translation. You also can use the general search function at any time to look up both foreign and English food words. This guide is also handy for looking up the meaning of individual words in the foreign name of a menu offering if the English description of the dish doesn’t help you know what the meaning of a particular word is.
COUNTRY-SPECIFIC NOTES:
Morocco: Some transliterated Moroccan Arabic words contain a consonant called cein (cain) that is not used in English. It represents a guttural sound that is made far back in the mouth, as in “baa” of a sheep. A common way to write this consonant in English is with a superscripted c (c). The superscripted c can be found anywhere within a word.
The regular apostrophe (’) is used to indicate that a vowel between consonants has been dropped. An example is b’stila versus bestila.
Menus in Morocco are in transliterated Moroccan Arabic—or more commonly French—which is still widely spoken, a legacy of the 44-year French occupancy in the first half of the 20th century. The names of some dishes in French are a mixture of French and transliterated Moroccan Arabic. Quotation marks set apart the Moroccan Arabic component. The Moroccan Menu Guide includes the names of many dishes in both languages, in alphabetical order.
Sicily (Italy): Most entries are in Italian. Those in Sicilian are indicated by (Sic). Singular and plural forms of nouns are given when both are used. In general, singular feminine nouns end in -a, their plurals in -e; singular masculine nouns end in -o, their plurals in -i. However, to confuse the issue, many Italian words, both feminine and masculine, end in -e in the singular and –i in the plural. When words are used primarily in the singular or plural sense, only the form commonly used is listed.
The foods of 12 destinations included in this app are: Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Morocco, India, Peru, Sicily, France, Norway, and Germany. Each is handled in a separate section. Additional destinations will be added to the app in the future.
Once you select a destination, you will have 3 search options: the General Search Function, the Menu Guide, and the Foods & Flavors Guide.
1.) The General Search Function can be used at any time to look up either foreign or English food or food-related words. Several of the languages covered in this app have accented letters. On searches made via the general search function, you do not need extra keyboard symbols or keyboard short cuts. Just key in your search term using the equivalent “plain” letter(s) and the app will take care of it for you.
2.) The Menu Guide section is an alphabetical compilation of items on foreign menus with English translations to demystify food selection.
HOW TO USE the Menu Guide:
Menu items are categorized by meal courses plus beverages. The search choices are starter, soup, salad, side, main course, dessert, and beverages (nonalcoholic and alcoholic). Some dishes fit in more than one category. For example, depending on the meal, a dish could be a starter, a side, or a main course. Another subset of categories will let you search by basic food groups. The choices are: meat, vegetables, dairy products/eggs, poultry, fish/seafood, bread/grains, fruits, nuts, and mushrooms. There is also a vegetarian and miscellaneous category. A general search function is also included in the Menu Guide.
Notes: Some traditional dishes are so labor intensive that many restaurants don’t offer them. Meals in some countries are not served in courses; rather, many dishes are served at the same time. Meatless dishes are listed in the vegetarian category. Check with your server, however, to be sure that ingredients such as meat stock have not been included in their preparation. Because of the complexity of dietary issues and the uncertainty as to whether dishes might contain ingredient(s) to be avoided, this app does not provide a list of foods for special diets. [Search the FOODS & FLAVORS GUIDE for the names of ingredients you want to avoid so you can ask your server if they are included in a particular dish.]
3.) The Foods & Flavors Guide section is an alphabetical compilation of foods, spices, kitchen terms, and more, with English translations to assist in shopping and cooking abroad.
HOW TO USE the Foods & Flavors Guide:
To search this guide, scroll through the entries to locate the foreign name of an ingredient, spice, etc., to find its English translation. You also can use the general search function at any time to look up both foreign and English food words. This guide is also handy for looking up the meaning of individual words in the foreign name of a menu offering if the English description of the dish doesn’t help you know what the meaning of a particular word is.
COUNTRY-SPECIFIC NOTES:
Morocco: Some transliterated Moroccan Arabic words contain a consonant called cein (cain) that is not used in English. It represents a guttural sound that is made far back in the mouth, as in “baa” of a sheep. A common way to write this consonant in English is with a superscripted c (c). The superscripted c can be found anywhere within a word.
The regular apostrophe (’) is used to indicate that a vowel between consonants has been dropped. An example is b’stila versus bestila.
Menus in Morocco are in transliterated Moroccan Arabic—or more commonly French—which is still widely spoken, a legacy of the 44-year French occupancy in the first half of the 20th century. The names of some dishes in French are a mixture of French and transliterated Moroccan Arabic. Quotation marks set apart the Moroccan Arabic component. The Moroccan Menu Guide includes the names of many dishes in both languages, in alphabetical order.
Sicily (Italy): Most entries are in Italian. Those in Sicilian are indicated by (Sic). Singular and plural forms of nouns are given when both are used. In general, singular feminine nouns end in -a, their plurals in -e; singular masculine nouns end in -o, their plurals in -i. However, to confuse the issue, many Italian words, both feminine and masculine, end in -e in the singular and –i in the plural. When words are used primarily in the singular or plural sense, only the form commonly used is listed.