Defining the dishes at last night's Scripp's National Spelling Bee.

Don't read on until you've taken the quiz!

Blancmange: a usually sweetened and flavored dessert made from gelatinous or starchy ingredients and milk. Neufchatel: is a soft, slightly crumbly, mould-ripened cheese made in the region of Normandy. Simnel: A crisp bread of fine white flour. (Here pictured atop a Simnel Cake.)
Tagliatelle: meaning "to cut," it's the classic pasta of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Caerphilly: a hard, white cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales. Palatschinken: the Austrian and Bavarian German name of the Central European pancake.

The only dish to take down a contestant was Palatschinken, defeating Kennyi Aouad, a 13 year old 8th grader from Indiana who's clearly never been to a Kurt Guttenbrunner restaurant. (The dish has been on the menus of both Wallse and Blaue Gans.) As for the rest of the obscurities, Caerphilly is at Artisanal (but not Murray's or Saxelby Cheesemongers) and Simnel Cake appears to be available from outerborough bakeries around Easter the best we can tell. Here's the eGullet forum if you'd like to try to make it yourself. As for Blancmange, Neufchatel and Tagliatelle, come on, they're easier to find in NYC than they are to spell.

Comments

[Michael Mahle]

Thank you for posting this information. As a fan of food and the spelling bee, this is a homerun for me.

[Michael]

Thanks to Wallse I'm a devoted fan of palatschinken, and Kurt.