French Modesty

On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:08:37 +0000, d4g4h4 DeleteThis @yahoo.co.uk (David Horne,
_the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:

>Tim C. <tim.challenger DeleteThis @aon.at> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:30:08 +0000, d4g4h4 DeleteThis @yahoo.co.uk (David Horne,
>> _the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:
>>
>> >I've decided that "sehr pikante" means "salty" in German.
>>
>> It quite often means "garlicky".
>
>Ah, interesting. Not in this particular case- a goulash (called ragout
>IIRC?)...

Could be. "Ragout" is a common term where the meat is cut into
bite-size pieces. It's often turned into something like a Boef
Stroganoff, or with mushrooms and cream etc. It also might have been
that you got unlucky and that the cook was in love (as the Germans say
when food is over-salted).


>... which was tasty enough, but a little on the salty side. Certainly
>not picante!

What I've found is that- despite dictionary definitions - it normally
does not mean picante/hot/. If anything garlicky, but sometimes just
"strongly flavoured".
If you want chilli/ginger/mustard/pepper hot you'll have to look for
"pikant".