veal cordon bleu
1
7.7
- noun
- /viːl ˈkɔːrdən bləˈɪː/
:
cordon bleu de ternera
- At the restaurant, my favorite dish is veal cordon bleu served with a side of garlic mashed potatoes.
Examples
-
I was passing through with my plate of veal cordon bleu when I saw him sitting by himself next to the window.
Fiction book (1995) -
For dinner, I ordered veal cordon bleu, which was perfectly crispy on the outside and warm and cheesy inside.
-
She impressively prepared veal cordon bleu for the guests, stuffing it with ham and melted cheese.
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a lexicalized culinary borrowing from French: 'cordon bleu' functions as the name of a specific prepared dish rather than a compositional phrase whose meaning follows from 'cordon' (cord) + 'bleu' (blue). Knowing 'veal' only identifies the meat, but a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not be able to infer the stuffing, breading and cooking method, so the overall meaning is not derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Veal cordon bleu combines veal, which is meat from young cows, with cordon bleu, a French phrase that means 'blue ribbon' for top quality. Imagine a thin slice of veal wrapped around ham and cheese like a prize ribbon, and you can see why the name now means a rich, stuffed veal dish.