WAIE (whatamieating.com)


This is the searchable online international food dictionary with – so far – 61,500 terms in 302 languages (I have just added some Isan) plus 12,690 plurals.

Just type in the word that you're looking for and press enter or click on search. There are other types of search; see search help for more information.

Most Recent Upload: 6th December 2009

The amazing Mariana Kavroulaki has done an amazing job on proof-reading the Greek list, and it is now up to more than 1,500, plus plurals, with 1,470 showing the Greek alphabet rendition as well as the English transliteration.

A few weeks ago I spent an extraordinary couple of days in a food market in Laos, where I photographed huge numbers of foods I had never even glimpsed before. Jungle fruits and insects, furry leaves and vines, roots and tubers, fish artistically arranged alongside chickens (one of the few foodstuffs I recognised!) and the occasional rat. A young woman called Noy, whose other names I do not know, has been working through the images and e-mailing me to identify them for me, giving me the Lao name, and the transliterated name, and a description in English. From these and my other sources, not least the wonderful, but late, Alan Davidson, I have managed to give a formal identification to them. These I am slowly adding. I am having trouble transferring the Lao alphabet terms, but it will happen in due course. Jane is finding a way round this problem for me. As ever!

Please do let us know if you see any errors, broken links or pictures. Some of the changes I am making may lead to this happening and it would help if you could let us know.

Welcome to the new people who have joined the Facebook group. (Facebook group) If you would like to join, you will get occasional updates about what has been added to to the site.

I am mainly working on improvements to the site at the moment. This is a long job and entry of new food terms will happen much more quickly once this structural work is done.

Description: The anglicised name for Cataluña (Spanish) or Catalunya (Catalan), a region in the north-east of Spain the capital of which is Barcelona. Catalonia is a prosperous region which is seeking more autonomy. Its people are hard-working and scornful of all things not Catalonian. Catalonia borders the Mediterranean and backs up to the French border in the north. Its cuisine bears some resemblance to that of Provence with seafood dominating. Fish stews called zarzuelas, similar to bouillabaise, are produced and allioli, the Catalan version of aïoli accompanies it. Sauces are often thickened with ground nuts. Away from the sea, hearty soups of beans and sausage are served. A lot of fruit grows there with peaches and apricots in abundance.