I always said the Catalans had a way with vegetables

Posted on February 19th, 2010 by Valerie

Browsing Catalan idioms the other day in search of the quirky, the bizarre, the downright weird – well, the bloggable -  I came upon a list of food-related ones and – oh, how could I have forgotten:  s’ha abroquilcabat el bròquil. The broccoli has finished.    Which means – said  in a voice that brooks no contradiction:  That’s it. Finished.  Terminado.  End of conversation.

Actually, I burst into song:

The bròquil’s over
It’s time to call it a day
They’ve burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away

What broccoli has to do with it is anyone’s guess.  Why not another vegetable? Does broccoli have some arcane, primitive significance which is beyond me?  Whatever: you can buy the T-shirt here.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 9:18 am and is filed under Catalan, Catalunya, Humour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “I always said the Catalans had a way with vegetables”

  1. Theresa Says:
    February 19th, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    It’s like why is the monte not always oregano? I mean a bowl of cherries, ok, but oregano?
    No todo el monte es oregano: Life isn’t always a bowl of cherries.
    Love the bròquil T-shirt.

  2. javi Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    Another curious expression “Ya está todo el pescado vendido”…or, more usual down the south “Yastá to er pescao vendío”…it kinda means the same that the broccoli expression: “finished, it´s over”.

    It probably was invented by a rude fisherman before shopping some broccoli and oregano.

  3. Kiryna Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 10:23 am

    “Ya está todo el pescado vendido” seems more like “Lets call it a day” to me.

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