I don't talk about food too often on this site...well, except for chocolate...but I ran across this restaurant menu item from The Drunken Monkey in Fort Collins, Colorado and couldn't resist continuing the name theme started by Alan Orloff at A Million Blogging Monkeys: Ptomaine's House of Beef.
Monkey Balls
(this restaurant version, anyway) are made from cheesecake, deep fried,
then drowned in ice cream, whipped cream, and hot fudge. Sounds
decadent, and I wouldn't try it at home. But if you're ever in Northern
Colorado, you might want to check it out.
Death by Chocolate
comes in many forms, but I tried one in a restaurant in Florida many
years ago and it nearly finished me. I thought I really was going to
die. Eventually my taste for chocolate returned, thank goodness.
Snickerdoodles
are my favorite cookies of all time. I've been making them since I was a
kid, and that was a really, really long time ago. When my own kids were
little, I let them roll the dough and dip it into the cinnamon, sugar
mixture for me. They saved me a lot of work, and they were having fun
with no thoughts of actually being helpful.
Blueberry Grunt (also known as blueberry slump) is made with blueberries and a sweet dumpling dough.
My paternal grandmother used to make her In a Bowl Put cake for dessert. As far as we knew, it had no other name and there was no written recipe. It was always good, though.
What's in a name? Well, I was interested enough in a dessert called Monkey Balls to read on and see what it was, more so than if the restaurant had called it Cheesecake Bites.
I'm
just as likely to look more closely at a book in a book review or in
the bookstore if it has an intriguing title, especially if it also has a
great cover. Names and titles, just like presentation, are effective
tools for attracting attention and making a sale.
This post was first published here on August 3, 2010
7 comments:
Pat - Oh, yes! I remember those offerings from that restaurant! Right you are too - names really do matter. I think there are many people who decide to try or not try a book (or at least get their interest piqued) by a title.
I would have never considered something named Monkey Balls to actually be tasty cheesecake bites. But I agree, it certainly causes one to look into it more, just as we writers want our titles to cause a reader to stop and check out more about our book.
If I saw Monkey Balls on the dessert menu, I would pass. I just couldn't eat them, even if they weren't real. In my mind they would be.
Pat, I'm trying to picture you at the Drunken Monkey! I'm not brave enough to go in there, let alone order monkey balls :-)
Just never eat those snickerdoodles outside! I gave my kids and their friends a plate of them to munch on outside. Sadly, the bees loved them too. The kids all got stung! We only eat them inside now :)
Book titles fascinate me, too. And the Monkey Balls sound great.
I've always been a snickerdoodles fan, but those Monkey Balls sound dangerously good!
And yes, it is "all in the name".
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