Yesterday during lunch at Heritage India (not long ago the scene of a shooting-stabbing spree), a colleague pointed out the name of a delightful radish dish called mooli. As it turns out, mooli is just Hindi for the daikon radish. I’m sure the Indians who came up with this word did not catch Eddie Murphy’s routine from Raw.
On the other hand, a classic Austrian dessert consisting of a chocolate bundt cake, hot chocolate sauce, and whipped cream bears the name Mohr im Hemd. Literally this means “Moor in Shirt.” (It was Wolfgang Puck who a few months ago reminded me of this awkwardly named dish, which you won’t find at Spago’s.) Yes, they could change the name to something harmless, but then Austria would probably find itself in the news again, what with the Fucking incident and Dr. Karl Lueger Ring.