diction

Editorial update: It's "banh mi"! Not banh minh! Thanks for the correction, folks.

The other day I got banh minh at a local Vietnamese shop, and two things happened.

One: I picked up an issue of Cosmopolitan to read while waiting for my order, and in it was a thumbnail photo of a pretty tool-ish looking man quoted as saying:

I like a chick with self-confidence.

I thought, "why didn't they edit 'chick'?" I mean, I use the word all the time, but there's so many things wrong with that sentence. "Chick" just took all the power out of his statement, making it funny at best.

Two: I told someone later that I had had banh minh for lunch. He responded, "you mean Vietnamese sandwich?" but for the Nip on my shoulder, I wanted to inculcate "banh minh," and insisted on calling it thus, reasoning:

If I'd had a burrito you wouldn't say, "you mean a Mexican wrap?" would you?

Of course one problem is that banh minh isn't nearly as ubiquitous as a burrito (case in point - burrito doesn't get the spell-check red squiggly line). But I got to thinking, we can say sushi, kim chi, and even baba ganoush. Why can't we say banh minh?

On the other hand, I don't even know what to call Korean barbeque other than "Korean barbeque" and I always order papaya salad, not som tum. What gives?

I like a chick with soi-confiance.