Remember the days of school lunch menus? My favorite was always the rubbery steak and cheese sandwich. My daughter lives for pizza or chicken nuggets.
When reading her menu this weekend, I saw a phrase that has been around since my school days and long before... "relish tray."
Why, I wondered aloud to my family, do they call it a relish tray? It's raw veggie slices, occasionally with ranch dip! No relish there.
Found out, eventually, through some Internet research that a "relish" is another word for canapes, hors d'ouerves, appetizers, etc. So it's really an "appetizer tray," and in the south, where it's even more prominent, it can also include things like black olives, hard-cooked or pickled eggs, pepperoncini and other antipasto-type items.
So that brings me to my next question... why is the stuff you put on hot dogs called "relish," then? It's not an appetizer!
Ah, the deep things I ponder....
The stuff in a jar we put on hot dogs used to be called "pickle relish" or "hot dog relish." I suppose some financial genius way back when figured out that Heinz & others could save half a cent by dropping the definitive words and just print "relish" on the labels! Who knows.