What’s vanilla about the French anyway?

 

Alright, so this blog clearly needed some revamping and July 1 seems as good of a day as any. New theme, new colors, new topics. It’s still all about food, but our random ramblings and photography can really now go anywhere.

 

As I’m sipping my French vanilla coffee, I’m thinking what’s vanilla about the French anyway? So I looked it up (I do sometimes refuse to use the brand Google as a verb). The plethora of information answers not the question at hand. Some people ask what’s French about French vanilla. Nothing really it would seem. Others simply wonder about the difference between vanilla and French vanilla. Answer is still no difference.

In case you didn’t' know what vanilla looks like. I for one had never really thought about the fact that it comes from orchids…

But no one really seems to be asking the right question: is vanilla French or are the French vanilla? (I know I’m making so much sense right now, but that’s just a function of the 30C, 80% humidity weather).

 

As other people have pointed out, there really isn’t anything French about vanilla. Just a way of making ice cream, if that. And why does it always have to be vanilla ice cream? There are so many other better kinds. Anyhow, vanilla – not French. Hence, French == vanilla. Which reminds me of plain vanilla financial instruments, which I always found quite entertaining. (Plain vanilla is the opposite of exotic, great definition Investopedia, and I thought you were a real source.) Following this line of unreasonable reasoning, French vanilla just means the French are non-exotic, which is yet another word for boring.

 

Lawyered.