Illustration of Japanese companies using vaguely European sounding words to make their product look fancier.

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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    2 days ago

    couque d’asses

    This seems to really exist as a name for a type of bisquit, although without the final ‘s’ (Asse is a place in Belgium, so like “Dijon mustard” this just means “cookies from, or rather in the style of, Asse”).

    langue de chat

    means “cat tongue” and that one definitely exists as a name for a type of bisquit.

    using vaguely European sounding words

    This product combines two cat tongue style biscuits with a filling, maybe that’s why it seems to be named after 2 separate cookie types.

    TBF to OP, yes Japan (and other countries) does often do that. I always like to hold against that the example of “Western” people getting tattoos of Chinese symbols they know nothing about.

    • oce 🐆@jlai.luOP
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      4 days ago

      In this case, langue is French for tongue, it’s a real simple French cookie name. The Japanese version is commonly cream sandwiched between two langue de chat style cookies.

      • Depress_Mode@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Langue can also be interpreted as “language” (English has the same double meaning for “tongue”), but yes, you’re right; in this case it does refer to actual cat tongues because langues de chat are usually shaped somewhat like actual cat tongues, rather than squared off like we see here. I just thought the idea of a cat language cookie would be kinda funny

  • MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Here in the UK, cock refers to a dick. Here we read this as dick of the ass.