As we travel, interact with people of different states, translate and re-translate colloquial names of vegetables and food ingredients, it has turned into a proper mashup. It might also be as some of us have lost the link between growing and consuming. It might come across as nit-picky when I correct word usage but in less than 10-15 years wrong usage of some of the words has become more and more embedded, especially as Google keeps compounding the initial error. Here are some examples.
Lentils: Masoor. For some reason this word is used to mean Daal or the split version of any legume. For example ‘lentil fritters’ is used for bhaji, it may or may not be masoor flour. In most cases it is chickpea flour. I thought it was a problem in the USA, but I see that now in Delhi as well. It is problematic in practice as all Daals are not made equal in terms of taste as well as digestibility.
Laal Math: A type of Amaranth. I have seen it translated as ‘red spinach’. It is nowhere close to spinach. Spinach is Spinacia oleracea and red amaranth or लाल माठ is from the genus Amaranthus. The usage probably started because of colloquial usage of the generic word Keerai in Tamil that is translated as spinach instead of ‘green leafy veggies’. That is where the word Malabar spinach (Basella alba) originates from, another vegetable that is nowhere close to spinach. I realized this goof up when I ordered spinach seeds from a south Indian grower and ended up with Amaranth seeds. Unfortunately now if you google laal bhaji or red spinach you will get boatloads of
ओव्याची पानं / Indian Borage / omavalli / Ajwain patta: The plant with leaves that smell like carom seeds. This has created so much confusion on OTG groups everywhere. People trying to grow Indian Borage (plant with leaves that smell like carom seeds) with carom seeds. Correcting the misconception is my pet peeve. The confusion started because of the name “ओव्याची पानं” literally carom leaves, instead of “ओव्याचा वास असलेल्या पानाच झाड” literally the plant with leaves that smell like carom seeds. The leaves of carom plant are
The colloquial names for plants if not matched with the colloquial knowledge of plants – the way they look, smell, their texture, the season they are available, how to grow them if not self seeded, and how to cook/use them – then a lot goes wrong in translation.
devayani tirthali 