While in a cooking class in Mexico, Travis from Orlando, Florida, was told by the instructor that the word quesadilla comes a supposed Nahuatl word, quesaditzen. That’s not the case, although many other food words derive from that indigenous language of Mexico, including chili, chipotle, avocado, chocolate, cocoa, tomato, tamales, and mole. For one thing, there’s no D used in Nahuatl, and although there is an old word in Nahuatl that means “folded tortilla,” it sounds nothing like quesadilla. In 15th century Spain, quesadas were “sweet cheese cakes,” deriving from queso, or “cheese,” and quesadilla came to denote a kind of cheese empanada — literally “a little thing made with cheese.” But if you want to order one with cheese in Mexico City, be sure you specify your wishes, because a quesadilla there doesn’t necessarily contain any cheese. This is part of a complete episode.
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
Grant recommends the children’s book Dreams of Green: A Three Kings’ Day Story written by Mariel Jungkunz and illustrated by Mónica Paola Rodriguez (Bookshop|Amazon), about a girl and her family who move from Puerto Rico to Ohio and find ways...
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