Matt wrote:
> Julia Altshuler wrote:
> > salgud wrote:
> > If it were, then sauteing
> >> veggies in a tablespoon of oil would be frying veggies. I've never
> >> heard of sauteed veggies being called "fried" veggies.
> >
> >
> > But surely you've heard of "stir-fried" vegetables. I think this is one
> > of those things where different words are used in different cooking
> > traditions. One isn't necessarily wrong and the other right.
>
> Also: fried eggs, home fries, french fries, frying pan, fried fish. At
> home, those terms don't imply deep frying.

I think we can all agree that there is "frying" and "deep frying", and
that sometimes, "deep frying" is referred to as "frying". These kinds
of terms are nebulous at best. OTOH, cooking something in a bit of oil
or grease to keep it from sticking, is not referred to as frying in any
part of the country I've lived in or visited, which is most of the US.
Maybe in some small town in Arkansas...

As far as I can tell, "fried eggs" are a sort of anomaly. "Home Fries"
and "French Fries" are deep fried, and therefore definitely would be
called "fried". Technically, they probably should be called "French
Deep Fries".

Fried is like a lot of common use words - very hard to define. But if
you've lived here all your life, and paid some attention, you know
where it applies and where it doesn't. That's the part that's not in
the dictionary. From the little Spanish I know, it's the same in that
language. That's just a part of using the language correctly. Some of
us care about that kind of thing, called "semantic precision", and
others don't. But us semantically precise types are going to remind
them from time to time!