![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ristra (REE-stra) - n., a string on which chilies, garlics, or onions have been threaded or tied for storage.
Dried chili peppers, that is -- foodstuffs that do not take well to storage in enclosed places, but you need to get out of the way by hanging up. We have functional one in the kitchen, plus a decorative one in the living room. I think of it as a Mexican thing, but it's a Mediterranean thing that goes back to Roman times: adopted from Spanish, from Old Spanish riestra, variant of riesta/rieste, from Latin restis, meaning both rope/cord in general and what's now called a ristra.
And that's the smallest of the R words on the list. Back with a regular mix next week.
---L.
Dried chili peppers, that is -- foodstuffs that do not take well to storage in enclosed places, but you need to get out of the way by hanging up. We have functional one in the kitchen, plus a decorative one in the living room. I think of it as a Mexican thing, but it's a Mediterranean thing that goes back to Roman times: adopted from Spanish, from Old Spanish riestra, variant of riesta/rieste, from Latin restis, meaning both rope/cord in general and what's now called a ristra.
And that's the smallest of the R words on the list. Back with a regular mix next week.
---L.
