3 ms·

About 300 million McDonald's Fillet-O-Fish sandwiches, "topped with melty American cheese," are sold each year. I offer this as proof that cheese-on-fish does n

About 300 million McDonald's Fillet-O-Fish sandwiches, "topped with melty American cheese," are sold each year. I offer this as proof that cheese-on-fish does not violate the American food grammar, just the {haute cuisine,foodie} American food grammar, a very different thing. Just because they say "ain't" ain't right don't mean ain't ain't right.

Spivak 6y ago
I think you're thinking about rules too much like a programmer in that they are something absolute rather than the rules of thumb that they actually are. Fillet-o-fish (and fish-sticks in general) are an exceptional dish in American cuisine that is akin to an irregular verb. It doesn't matter if the individual dish itself is popular but that the paring it rare among the different types of dishes in American cuisine. Just because an irregular verb is commonly used doesn't mean it's not still irregular.
- hirundo 6y ago
  An irregular verb is not ungrammatical. It just follows an exceptional rule of conjugation. Same with a fish sandwich with cheese.
  - Spivak 6y ago
    Fair enough. I consider these to be spiritually equivalent since any ungrammatical form can be made grammatical with the addition of a new rule.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  > Fillet-o-fish (and fish-sticks in general) are an exceptional dish in American cuisine that is akin to an irregular verb. Ironically, irregular verbs get regularized over time as the language evolves (hell, I saw some paper the other day that attempted to compute half-life of irregular verbs in English; can't find it now) - but in case of food, I fully expect the opposite to happen; that is, cheese-on-fish will become normalized. McDonald's is the vanguard of the universal culture - whatever stuff it sells everywhere is here to stay.
  - jcranmer 6y ago
    Regular forms can also become irregularized; it's not a one-way street. Speakers of American English will be familiar with the past tense of 'dive' as 'dove' instead of 'dived'. Similarly, the plural of 'octopus' has tended towards the irregular 'octopi' instead of the regular 'octopuses' (yay hypercorrection).
    - leipert 6y ago
      Did you mean „octopodes“? Well anyhow, I really like coming up with irregular forms where there aren’t just for the comedic effect. And in the end language is a tool and as long as I can convey a message to another human being: mission accomplished. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
throw0101a 6y ago
Salmon Wellington, which includes cream cheese and parmesan: * https://tasty.co/recipe/puff-pastry-salmon-salmon-wellington https://tasty.co/recipe/puff-pastry-salmon-salmon-wellington
lhorie 6y ago
> cheese-on-fish does not violate the American food grammar, just the {haute cuisine,foodie} American food grammar Smoked salmon and cream cheese pair quite well, even per haute cuisine grammar.
- OJFord 6y ago
  Oh, I thought the point was that American cheese oughtn't to be had with anything... (Snigger)

Spivak 6y ago

I think you're thinking about rules too much like a programmer in that they are something absolute rather than the rules of thumb that they actually are. Fillet-o-fish (and fish-sticks in general) are an exceptional dish in American cuisine that is akin to an irregular verb. It doesn't matter if the individual dish itself is popular but that the paring it rare among the different types of dishes in American cuisine. Just because an irregular verb is commonly used doesn't mean it's not still irregular.

hirundo 6y ago
An irregular verb is not ungrammatical. It just follows an exceptional rule of conjugation. Same with a fish sandwich with cheese.
- Spivak 6y ago
  Fair enough. I consider these to be spiritually equivalent since any ungrammatical form can be made grammatical with the addition of a new rule.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
> Fillet-o-fish (and fish-sticks in general) are an exceptional dish in American cuisine that is akin to an irregular verb. Ironically, irregular verbs get regularized over time as the language evolves (hell, I saw some paper the other day that attempted to compute half-life of irregular verbs in English; can't find it now) - but in case of food, I fully expect the opposite to happen; that is, cheese-on-fish will become normalized. McDonald's is the vanguard of the universal culture - whatever stuff it sells everywhere is here to stay.
- jcranmer 6y ago
  Regular forms can also become irregularized; it's not a one-way street. Speakers of American English will be familiar with the past tense of 'dive' as 'dove' instead of 'dived'. Similarly, the plural of 'octopus' has tended towards the irregular 'octopi' instead of the regular 'octopuses' (yay hypercorrection).
  - leipert 6y ago
    Did you mean „octopodes“? Well anyhow, I really like coming up with irregular forms where there aren’t just for the comedic effect. And in the end language is a tool and as long as I can convey a message to another human being: mission accomplished. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

throw0101a 6y ago

Salmon Wellington, which includes cream cheese and parmesan: * https://tasty.co/recipe/puff-pastry-salmon-salmon-wellington https://tasty.co/recipe/puff-pastry-salmon-salmon-wellington

lhorie 6y ago

> cheese-on-fish does not violate the American food grammar, just the {haute cuisine,foodie} American food grammar Smoked salmon and cream cheese pair quite well, even per haute cuisine grammar.

OJFord 6y ago
Oh, I thought the point was that American cheese oughtn't to be had with anything... (Snigger)