Wu Ting
How would you interpret this phrase? Artie proposed breakfast at the Swiss Kitchen, one of his haunts. It seemed to be a tourist place, they had a giant sign out front with a boy in lederhosen (Food Worth Yodeling About!) and waitresses dressed as milkmaids. Artie, in his ancient cuffed trousers and faint old-man smell, was unembarrassed by any of it. “What makes it Swiss food?” I asked, studying the menu. “A lot of grease. Bratwurst, only here they are going to call it sausage. German food with a strict doctrine of neutrality.” How would you interpret this phrase: only here they are going to call it sausage? Why did the speaker use ‘going to’? I think his meaning was that the waitress would call Bratwurst sausage when he began to order himself a sausage, right? Thanks! And this excerpt is taken from The Lacuna by Kingsolver.
Apr 28, 2015 1:59 AM
Answers · 1
Gordon, It is a bit of a joke. That type of sausage is called Bratwurst in most places. The implication is that the Swiss, being neutral in all international disputes, would simply refer to out as ' sausage' so as not to offend anyone.
April 28, 2015
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