Marks and spencer accused of cultural appropriation

I don't think they or their customers really care though.

The only people who care are like a couple of hundred nuance-free obsessives.

Sounds nice actually

If you said "chicken bolognese wrap", then what's the problem? Everyone would know it is a bolognese-inspired and tasting dish, which instead is made with chicken. You seem to have a hyper-literalist approach to language, which simply does not make sense. You're like the bloke in the pub who says "the word X in 1506 meant the opposite to its modern meaning, so we're using the word incorrectly". That does not compute linguistically and obviously engages the etymological fallacy.

Food is no different. Cuisines develop away from their host country; they are not merely static. For example, we have a very tasty British Indian cuisine, completely at odds with authentic Indian cuisine. But for some reason we celebrate this diversity and these *******ised dishes are enjoyed across the globe. There are veg versions of the biryani anyway (one called tahri, and many more listed on the Wiki) -- does it really make sense for M&S to be forced to use an obscure term, which basically has the same semantic content as "veg biryani"?

Lastly, this close-mindedness is exemplified by people mocking the spelling "biriyani". Seemingly these people do not realise that the more common spelling is a mere transliteration; an attempt to Anglicise a foreign word, no more valid than any other attempt. These people focus so closely on having specialised and pure knowledge, yet ignore basic realities and I daresay common sense. They are fighting too hard to be seen as having something to say.

this is just the "tip of the iceberg".... although that would also be infringing Inuit cultural property and traditions.

https://www.citi.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1446-01.jpg

WTF is a "full English ravioli"???

Well, surely all ravioli are full, by definition? That is the point of a raviolo - pasta with a filling.

I wouldn't be too pleased to bite into one and find egg, beans and sausage in it, though

I don't really know how to respond other than repeating what I've already said. Judging by the responses on social media and places like TSR, there seem to be two camps divided - the "that's not a biryani mate" camp, and the "it's just a name on a food label mate, chill" camp. To me, changing the fundamental ingredients of a dish means you can't name it that dish anymore when there's already a dish with those ingredients - in the other example, it's not a chicken Bolognese, it's tomato chicken and to call it a Bolognese would be nonsense. That's me, though.

Personally, I write the names of my curries only in devanagari.

The court of public opinion -v- M&S
On trial for crimes against: authentic cuisine, food fusion culture (and spelling).

I don't really know how to respond other than repeating what I've already said. Judging by the responses on social media and places like TSR, there seem to be two camps divided - the "that's not a biryani mate" camp, and the "it's just a name on a food label mate, chill" camp. To me, changing the fundamental ingredients of a dish means you can't name it that dish anymore when there's already a dish with those ingredients - in the other example, it's not a chicken Bolognese, it's tomato chicken and to call it a Bolognese would be nonsense. That's me, though.

To me, that's extreme pedantry which is not matched by the pedant's everyday life. Although it is convenient and indeed attractive to claim to be so sophisticated and astute as to reject the everyday man's simple-minded errors, and to be above such. These are the same type of people who watch QI and go round their mate's to announce how clever they are for retelling half-correct facts overlooked by the average mind. Huzzah!

But you said you would insist on all the ingredients. How can a full English raviolo be eggless?

Where's the correlation between a person calling something what it is, and a person being so desperate to prove one's own intellect to everyone? "You're so closed-minded, maaaaan" reeks of a "my way of thinking is beyond what your little limited mind can even comprehend" mentality in itself.

A highly-spiced Indian dish made of meat or vegetables cooked with rice, saffron, and usually brown lentils.

People being pedantic are trying to look clever, that's why.

Besides, OED has biryani as:



And even starker authority is my local Indian also serves vegetable biryani.

Thereforefore, you're being pedantic, asserting there is no way on earth that biryani could mean a dish served with nae meat, and actually it can (according to the highest lexicographical authority).

Not really, it's just expressing annoyance at people not saying what they mean or labelling something as something it's not.

The OED would be incorrect in this case,and referring to it as the final word in world cuisine would be rather asinine. The biryani is a meat-based dish, according to most likely any chef specialising in Indian cuisine.