Welcome to MenuPedia™ -- The Menu Encyclopedia

Our Mission:
To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of Menus.

Our Goal:
To be your source for Menu related information. We will supply our visitors with up to date news, stories, and information in the Menu News Links section.

Menu News Links:
Take Endangered Marlin Off The Menu
21 Nov 2008 at 9:26am
The next time you're in a restaurant and see marlin on the menu, "just say no." That's the message of ...
More...
21 Nov 2008 at 8:59am
Pat's Place is a very reasonably priced neighborhood sports bar. The food is good, the staff is very f...
Curried flavorsNew Indian restaurant offers imaginative tastes, textures
21 Nov 2008 at 8:44am
My dining companion James is no meat-and-potatoes guy. He appreciates colors, textures and nuances in ...
Add a Little French Accent to Your Holiday Table
21 Nov 2008 at 8:33am
Posted on November 21st, 2008 9:11am by Nancy Nichols Filed under Baking , Holidays , Restaurant News ...
Banff Lake Louise ski guide: bars and restaurants
21 Nov 2008 at 7:43am
From bison burgers to beer-fuelled barn dances, Gabriella Le Breton highlights the best places to eat ...

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Menus:
In a restaurant, a menu is a printed brochure or public display that shows the list of options for a diner to select. A menu may be a la carte or table d'hôte.

"Menu" can also be used in a more general sense, as synonymous with diet, the selection of foods available generally to a particular location or culture.

History:
An 1899 menu from Delmonico's restaurant in New York City. While the elaborate descriptions of menu prose had not yet reached their contemporary range, the menu still called some of its selections entremets, and contained barely-English descriptions such as "plombière of marrons".The word menu, like much of the terminology of cuisine, is French in origin. It ultimately derives from Latin minutus, something made small; in French it came to be applied to a detailed list or résumé of any kind. The original menus that offered consumers choices were prepared on a small chalkboard, in French a carte; so foods chosen from a bill of fare are described as à la carte, "according to the board."

The original restaurants had no menus in the modern sense; these table d'hôte establishments served dishes that were chosen by the chef or the proprietors, and those who arrived ate what the house was serving that day, as in contemporary banquets. The contemporary menu first appeared in the second half of the eighteenth century. Here, instead of eating what was being served from a common table, restaurants allowed diners to choose from a list of unseen dishes, which were produced to order by the customer's selection. A table d'hôte establishment charged its customers a fixed price; the menu allowed customers to spend as much or as little money as they chose.

Menu Purpose:
As a form of advertising, the prose found on printed menus is famous for the degree of its puffery. They frequently emphasize the processes used to prepare foods, call attention to exotic ingredients, and add French or other foreign language expressions to make the dishes appear sophisticated and exotic. Part of the function of menu prose is to impress customers with the notion that the dishes served at the restaurant require such skill, equipment, and exotic ingredients that the diners could not prepare similar foods at home.

Specific Types of Menus:

Hospital Menus:
Food menus for dietary needs are set for health care patients by Nutritionists and Dieticians.

Railroad Menus:
Dining Cars are found on lon-distance trains to serve food to on-board patrons.

Fast Food Menus:
Fast-food outlets are take-away or take-out providers, often with a "drive-through" service which allows customers to order and pick up food from their cars; but most also have a seating area in which customers can eat the food on the premises.

Nearly from its inception, fast food has been designed to be eaten "on the go", often does not require traditional cutlery, and is eaten as a finger food. Common menu items at fast food outlets include fish and chips, sandwiches, pitas, hamburgers, fried chicken, french fries, chicken nuggets, tacos, pizza, and ice cream, although many fast-food restaurants offer "slower" foods like chili, mashed potatoes, and salads.

Airline Meals:
An airline meal or In-flight meal is a meal served to passengers onboard a commercial airliner. These meals are prepared specifically for this purpose by special airline catering services. The first kitchens for serving meals in flight were established by United Airlines in 1936.

With today's higher fuel costs and the importance of low-fares to keep planes as full as possible, many airlines are reducing food served on-board, or eliminationg it completely. They encourage their customers to bring meals on board from restaurants in the airports, or bring snacks from their own home by "brown bagging".

Military Rations:
A field ration, or combat ration, is a canned or pre-packaged meal, easily prepared and eaten, transported by military troops on the battlefield. They are distinguished from regular military rations by virtue of being designed for minimal preparation in the field, using canned, pre-cooked or freeze-dried foods, powdered beverage mixes and concentrated food bars, as well as for long shelf life.

Such meals also prove invaluable for disaster relief operations, where large stocks of these can be ferried and distributed easily, and provide basic nutritional support to victims before kitchens can be set up to produce fresh food.

Most armies in the world today now field some form of pre-packaged combat ration, suitably tailored to meet national or ethnic tastes.

Wine List:
Wine lists are provided to patrons in finer dining restaurants to serve along side meals. Wines are usually named either by their grape variety or by their place of production. Generally speaking, European wines are named both after the place of production (e.g. Bordeaux, Rioja, Chianti, Cotnari) and the grapes used (e.g. Pinot, Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot). Wines from everywhere except Europe are generally named for the grape variety. More and more, however, market recognition of particular regions and wineries is leading to their increased prominence on non-European wine labels. Examples of recognized locales include: Margaret River, Napa Valley, Barossa Valley, Willamette Valley, Cafayate, Marlborough, Walla Walla, Douro, Rioja etc.

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