One thing that resulted from our discussion of the quintessential Baltimore restaurant is that some of us now actually know what quintessential means, or think we do, which is practically the same thing.
That got a group of friends talking about "quintessential" recently, which led to a naming of quintessential foods. This can't simply be the foods you like best in some category. There has to be general agreement (shall we say 75 percent of the people polled? I think you see where I'm going with this) that it's a quintessential example of that food.
For instance: ...
The quintessential cookie: Toll House chocolate chip.
Could there be any argument here? You may prefer Oreos, O foolish one, but Toll House chocolate chips are the big It.
The conversation then devolved into some really shaky examples, which I'll quote here:
Quintessential sandwich: peanut butter and jelly (then somebody said, "in the summer…but grilled cheese in the winter")
Quintessential Sunday dinner: fried chicken and mashed potatoes
Quintessential candy bar: Snickers
This last bugs me. It's like saying the quintessential ice cream flavor is Pralines 'n' Cream, even though Pralines 'n' Cream, clearly the best ice cream flavor, isn't typical.
Snickers is an OK candy bar, but Hershey's milk chocolate is the quintessential candy bar, just as green beans are the quintessential vegetable, and steak is the quintessential meat, and a baked potato is the quintessential starch.
Adj. 1. quintessential - representing the perfect example of a class or quality.
(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)
