Least Insufferable Food Term of the Year | Eat Out Awards 2011

Least Insufferable Food Term of The Year: Chimney Cake Island

Photo: Erica Gannett

Chimney cake

Here are some hard truths about the divisiveness of food vocabulary: Nobody wants to eat with a self-identified “foodie.” Nobody could love a man who says (or types) nom nom nom. And don’t get us started on the “foodies” who make “rezzies” so they may have “foodgasms” (“nom nom nom”). But say the words chimney cake—the nom de plume for the Hungarian dessert kürtos kalács, popularized in Chicago by the three-month-old Chimney Cake Island—and it’s a different story. Like the cakes themselves (baked on a stick, giving them the cylindrical shape of, hey, a chimney!), the term evokes the happiness that can only come with a good dessert. Eating one isn’t so bad, either. 1445 W Devon Ave (773-875-8035).