I am pretty sure that caught your attention.
Nasty right? Especially given the crazy beard craze that’s been rife the last few years. Thank you Joaquin Phoenix…NOT. Truth be told, you do manage to get away with most anything, like models on a runway sporting absurd clothes, us mere mortals should not follow suite.
Hear this hipster boys? Make friends with Gillette and I promise it will pay off big time. No matter what they say, as they flutter their lashes over a can of piss –oops I mean Pabst Blue Ribbon– no woman wants to get jiggy jiggy with someone harboring small creatures and last month’s lunch in their facial hair. Scruff, yes. Castaway, no.
Wow, I am seriously digressing.
I was on the road in Bangkok today and I saw a motorbike riding along with around 60 or so multi-pastel colored cotton candy packages. In this town, I am used to seeing motorbikes and tuk-tuks carrying way more than seems scientifically possible. Usually it’s some combination of crates of chickens and giant plastic bags of various green vegetables that will remain un-named, since I am far from familiar with local produce.
This was a nice change of scenery and it got me thinking.
In English we call this melted and spun sugar: cotton candy. Sort of makes sense except few people use cotton balls since the advent of the cotton pad. In Thai, it is called silk thread. That really makes sense – it is after all threads of sugar spun around like a silk cocoon. The French call it father’s beard. Really? That’s the best we could come up with? Blech. Maybe that’s why as a kid at the summer village fair, I always opted for the gaufre creme chantilly [waffle with fresh whipped cream] and gave daddy’s beard a miss.
So tell me please: what’s cotton candy in your language?
Multilingual Mama 
In Czech it’s ‘sugar cotton’, so not too far from the American concept, but what really got us was the British term “candy floss.” Hearing it without knowing what it referred to, my husband and I were both like, “Surely you don’t mean you’re flossing your teeth with…” O_O
oh yes I forgot about that! The funny thing is there is this very popular thing in Asia called floss. They put it on a lot of stuff. I’ll admit, I am not entirely sure what it is but the thought of food as dental floss turns me off. Wondering which came first… weird stringy food or dental hygiene.
have you tried “dragon’s beard”? sounds gross, looks gross – but it’s actually quite tasty :)
Love the name dragon’s beard – at least it has a touch of magic to it. We will have to try it!
Zuckerwolle in German… “sugar wool” :).
In German, I only know “Zuckerwatte” – sugar cotton. Maybe Zuckerwolle is a regional term?
We call it candy floss; now we are in the US, they think we are asking for flavored dental floss..
In Asia there is this thing called floss. It is so odd. Sometimes you find it in crabs, other times bread. For the life of me I have no idea what it is….perhaps some sort of hybrid cotton candy-dental floss gone wrong. I have a picture somewhere for one the 2453 posts I’ve mentally written but never posted despite collecting photos! To add to my to do lost after the will and insurance perhaps…