When does it become obvious that globalization went awry?
When the name of the great Mexican Revolutionary Zapata is the name of the production company that promotes a once-popular Turkish Schlager-arabesque singer.
Rucola - Rucola - Arugula - Rocket - Roka
In the days before Linnaeus things were easy for herb enthusiasts. If two herbs or spices looked and/or tasted the same, one would just add an adjective in front to make the distinction. It looks like radish, but it taste different? Call it horse radish. It tastes like Marjoram, but grows in the wild? Call it wild marjoram. This naming convention leads to many confusions to the modern food enthusiast, who suddenly, can taste items from across the globe in the convenience of their supermarket alleys. One of my biggest confusions regards the bitter leaves of what I grew to know as "Roka" in Turkey. I'll try to clean this confusion with the help of Wikipedia and the great Carl Linnaeus. This is what I know as Roka in Turkish. Its species name is Eruca Satvia, and is known as Arugula or Rocket in the English-speaking world. In Italian its called the Rucola comune, i.e. the common rucola. I guess both Germans and Turks have taken the word from Italians. This on...
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