DJ's Toad-in-a-Hole: Dishes with funny names can be seriously delicious

While doing research - i.e., eating out a lot - for this week's review of DJ's 9th Avenue Café, I encountered Toad-in-a-Hole pancakes. And ever since, I've had fun thinking of other foods with humorous names. See also: - Photos: DJ's 9th Avenue Cafe opens in the Golden Triangle -...

By Gretchen Kurtz

April 16, 2013

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While doing research - i.e., eating out a lot - for this week's review of DJ's 9th Avenue Café, I encountered Toad-in-a-Hole pancakes. And ever since, I've had fun thinking of other foods with humorous names.

My favorites? Bubble and squeak, the British dish of cabbage and potatoes, and ants on a log, with raisins tramping along peanut butter-filled celery sticks.

Some names are more misleading than funny, such as Rocky Mountain oysters and head cheese -- these dishes are only funny if you count the looks on people's faces when servers explain what's really in them.

While those oysters and cheese might take some getting used to, DJ's Toad-in-a-Hole pancakes -- made not with amphibians but crispy bacon and an egg in the center - do not. They're delicious. To find out how the rest of the fare at DJ's 9th Avenue stacks up -- and how this second location compares to the original DJ's Berkeley Cafe -- come back tomorrow for the full review.

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Gretchen Kurtz has worked as a writer for 25 years; during that time she's stomped grapes in Napa, eaten b'stilla in Fez, and baked with Buddy Valastro, aka the Cake Boss. Her work has appeared in publications including Boulevard (Paris), Diversion, the New York Times and Westword. Our restaurant critic since 2012, she loves helping you decide where to eat and drink tonight.

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