A delicacy is a food item that is considered highly desirable in certain cultures. Often this is because of unusual flavors or characteristics or because it is rare.
Delicacies are different across different countries and ages. Flamingo tongue was a highly prized dish in ancient Rome, but is not eaten at all in modern times. Lobsters were considered poverty food in North America until the mid-19th century, when they started being treated as they were in Europe, a delicacy. Some delicacies are confined to a certain culture, such as fugu in Japan, bird's nest soup (made out of swiftlet nests) in China and ant larvae (escamoles) in Mexico.
Famous quotes containing the word delicacy:
“Lady Dellwyn ... for the first time began to entertain some suspicions that she had a heart to bestow. Not that she was actuated by that romantic passion which creates indifference to every other object and makes all happiness to consist in pleasing the beloved person, [but] only overstraining delicacy so much as to feel it almost a crime to charm any other.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“If a joyous elephant should break forth into song, his lay would probably be very much like Whitman’s famous “Song of Myself.” It would have just about as much delicacy and deftness and discrimination.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“The Indian is one of Nature’s gentlemen—he never says or does a rude or vulgar thing. The vicious, uneducated barbarians, who form the surplus of overpopulous European countries, are far behind the wild man in delicacy of feeling or natural courtesy.”
—Susanna Moodie (1803–1885)