à La Carte
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à La Carte
In restaurants, ''à la carte'' (; ; ) is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to ''table d'hôte'', where a set menu is offered. It is an early 19th century loan from French meaning "according to the menu".''Oxford English Dictionary'' The individual dishes to be ordered may include side dishes, or the side dishes may be offered separately, in which case, they are also considered ''à la carte''. History The earliest examples of ''à la carte'' are from 1816 for the adjectival use ("à la carte meal", for example) and from 1821 for the adverbial use ("meals were served à la carte"). These pre-date the use of the word menu, which came into English in the 1830s. See also * Omakase, Japanese expression for letting the chef decide * ''Table d'hôte'', the opposite of ''à la carte'' * Buffet * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * Pro rata ''Pro rata'' is an adverb or adjective meaning in equal portions o ...
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Steak à La Carte
A steak is a cut of meat sliced across muscle fibers, sometimes including a bone. It is normally grilled or fried, and can be diced or cooked in sauce. Steaks are most commonly cut from cattle (beefsteak), but can also be cut from bison, buffalo, camel, goat, horse, kangaroo, sheep, ostrich, pigs, turkey, and deer, as well as various types of fish, especially salmon and large fish such as swordfish, shark, and marlin. Some cured meat, such as gammon, is commonly served as steak. Some cuts are categorized as steaks not because they are cut across the muscle fibers, but because they are relatively thin and cooked over a grill, such as skirt steak and flank steak. Grilled portobello mushroom may be called mushroom steak, and similarly for other vegetarian dishes. Imitation steak is a food product that is formed into a steak shape from various pieces of meat. Grilled fruits such as watermelon have been used as vegetarian steak alternatives. Etymology The word steak was writt ...
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Restaurants
A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models ranging from inexpensive fast-food restaurants and cafeterias to mid-priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments. Etymology The word derives from the early 19th century, taken from the French word 'provide meat for', literally 'restore to a former state' and, being the present participle of the verb, the term ''restaurant'' may have been used in 1507 as a "restorative beverage", and in correspondence in 1521 to mean 'that which restores the strength, a fortifying food or remedy'. History A public eating establishment similar to a restaurant is mentioned in a 512 BC record from Ancient Egypt. It served only one dish, a plate of cereal, ...
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Menu
In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to the customer. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose, often with prices shown – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is offered. Menus may be printed on paper sheets provided to the diners, put on a large poster or display board inside the establishment, displayed outside the restaurant, or put on a digital screen. Since the late 1990s, some restaurants have put their menus online. Menus are also often a feature of very formal meals other than in restaurants, for example at weddings. In the 19th and 20th centuries printed menus were often used for society dinner-parties in homes; indeed this was their original use in Europe. History Menus, as lists of prepared foods, have been discovered dating back to the Song dynasty in China. In the larger cities of the time, merchants found a way to cater to busy customers who had litt ...
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Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and Customer service, service models ranging from inexpensive fast-food restaurants and cafeterias to mid-priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments. Etymology The word derives from the early 19th century, taken from the French language, French word 'provide meat for', Literal translation, literally 'restore to a former state' and, being the present participle of the verb, the term ''restaurant'' may have been used in 1507 as a "restorative beverage", and in correspondence in 1521 to mean 'that which restores the strength, a fortifying food or remedy'. History A public eating establishment similar to a restaurant is mentioned in a 512 B ...
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Table D'hôte
In restaurant terminology, a ''table d'hôte'' (; ) menu is a menu where multi-Course (meal), course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed total price. Such a menu may be called ''prix fixe'' ( ; "fixed price"). The terms set meal and set menu are also used. ''Table d'hôte'' contrasts with ''à la carte'', where customers may order any of the separately priced menu items available. Etymology ''Table d'hôte'' is a French language, French loanword, loan phrase that literally means "the host's table". The term is used to denote a table set aside for residents of a , who presumably sit at the same table as their host. The meaning shifted to include any meal featuring a set menu at a fixed price. The use in English is documented as early as 1617, while the later extended use, now more common, dates from the early nineteenth century. In France, the term began in inns where guests ate at a common table, called the "host's table" (though the host typically did not si ...
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Loanword
A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term that is well established in the linguistic field despite its acknowledged descriptive flaws: nothing is taken away from the donor language and there is no expectation of returning anything (i.e., the loanword). Loanwords may be contrasted with calques, in which a word is borrowed into the recipient language by being directly translated from the donor language rather than being adopted in (an approximation of) its original form. They must also be distinguished from cognates, which are words in two or more related languages that are similar because they share an etymological origin in the ancestral language, rather than because one borrowed the word from the other. Examples and related terms A loanword is distinguished from a calque (or ...
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French Language
French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien language, Francien) largely supplanted. It was also substratum (linguistics), influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic languages, Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Franks, Frankish invaders. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, it was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole, were established. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Fra ...
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Omakase
is a Japanese language, Japanese phrase, used when ordering food in restaurants, that means 'I'll leave it up to you' (from Japanese ). Usage The phrase ''omakase'', literally 'I leave it up to you', is most commonly used when dining at Japanese restaurants where the customer leaves it up to the chef to select and serve Seasonal food, seasonal specialties. The Japanese antonym for ''omakase'' is ''okonomi'' (from ''konomi'', "preference, what one likes"), which means choosing what to order. In American English, the expression is used by patrons at sushi restaurants to leave the selection to Itamae, the chef, as opposed to ordering ''à la carte''. The chef will present a series of plates, beginning with the lightest fare and proceeding to the heaviest dishes. The phrase is not exclusive to raw fish with rice and can incorporate grilling, simmering and other cooking techniques. Characteristics The ''Michelin Guide'' said "few formal dining experiences are as revered or as ...
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Table D'hôte
In restaurant terminology, a ''table d'hôte'' (; ) menu is a menu where multi-Course (meal), course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed total price. Such a menu may be called ''prix fixe'' ( ; "fixed price"). The terms set meal and set menu are also used. ''Table d'hôte'' contrasts with ''à la carte'', where customers may order any of the separately priced menu items available. Etymology ''Table d'hôte'' is a French language, French loanword, loan phrase that literally means "the host's table". The term is used to denote a table set aside for residents of a , who presumably sit at the same table as their host. The meaning shifted to include any meal featuring a set menu at a fixed price. The use in English is documented as early as 1617, while the later extended use, now more common, dates from the early nineteenth century. In France, the term began in inns where guests ate at a common table, called the "host's table" (though the host typically did not si ...
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Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. A form of '' service à la française'', buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social events. Buffet restaurants normally offer all-you-can-eat food for a set price, but some measure prices by weight or by number of dishes. Buffets usually have some or mostly hot dishes, so the term cold buffet (see Smörgåsbord) has been developed to describe formats lacking hot food. Hot or cold buffets usually involve dishware and utensils, but a finger buffet is an array of foods that are designed to be small and easily consumed only by hand, such as cupcakes, slices of pizza, and foods on cocktail sticks. The essential feature of the various buffet formats is that the diners can directly view the food and immediately select which dishes they wish to consume, and usually also can decide how much food they take. Buffets are effective for ...
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List Of French Words And Phrases Used By English Speakers
Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern English. English words of French origin, such as ''art'', ''competition'', ''force'', ''money'', and ''table'' are pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French, and English speakers commonly use them without any awareness of their French origin. This article covers French words and phrases that have entered the English lexicon without ever losing their character as Gallicisms: they remain unmistakably "French" to an English speaker. They are most common in written English, where they retain French diacritics and are usually printed in italics. In spoken English, at least some attempt is generally made to pronounce them as they would sound in French. An entirely English pronunciation is regarded as a solecism. So ...
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Pro Rata
''Pro rata'' is an adverb or adjective meaning in equal portions or in proportion. The term is used in many legal and economic contexts. The hyphenated spelling ''pro-rata'' for the adjective form is common, as recommended for adjectives by some English-language style guides. In American English, this term has been vernacularized as ''prorated'' or ''pro-rated''. Meanings More specifically, ''pro rata'' means: * In proportionality to some factor that can be exactly calculated * To count based on an amount of time that has passed out of the total time * Proportional ratioInvestigator web site
Accessed May 29, 2008.
Pro rata has a