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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

flor de nata

English translation:

Fior di latte

Added to glossary by fionn
Nov 28, 2012 12:13
12 yrs ago
5 viewers *
Spanish term

flor de nata

Spanish to English Other Cooking / Culinary
From a menu in Mexico:
"Tarta Zaachila con Helado de Flor de Nata"
I can't find any useful references for this. Is it simply fresh cream?
TIA, Fionn
Proposed translations (English)
4 +3 Fior di latte / Milk
5 "a la mode"
4 milk's flower
References
It's the name of a flavour of ice cream
fior di latte

Discussion

Jenny Westwell Nov 28, 2012:
Lisa, I love the idea of the Chinese Whispers - that's how it struck me, too, with "latte" and "nata". I also remember the extra creamy - and more expensive - "Gold Top" milk from the Channel Islands that my mum refused to buy!
Lisa McCarthy Nov 28, 2012:
@ Charles You've brought back some funny memories! We kids (6 of us) used to argue over who got to drink the 'cream' at the top of the bottles of milk (if the crows hadn't got to them first on the doorstep!). And it only went on Kellogg's Cornflakes - we wouldn't accept cheaper imitations :))
Charles Davis Nov 28, 2012:
milk and cream It's always struck me that Spanish and English don't draw the line between milk and cream in quite the same place. I regularly hear "nata" used to mean creamy milk, like the bit that goes to the top of full-cream milk (which we called the top of the milk when I was a lad: great on cornflakes). I suppose you can call this cream, but generally even thin cream in English is thicker than the thinnest nata.
Lisa McCarthy Nov 28, 2012:
Incredible! This looks like a case of Chinese Whispers :) Somebody probably told them the name of the dessert over the phone or something and the listener reckoned that's what it sounded like :-))
Lisa McCarthy Nov 28, 2012:
Hi Fionn, Maybe it's ice cream with a dollop of cream of top in the shape of a flower?

Proposed translations

+3
1 hr
Selected

Fior di latte / Milk

It looks like it's kind of a mistranslation into Spanish, as what gives it its flavour is milk rather than cream. The name comes from the Italian "Fior di latte", which contains a lot of milk and hence has a quite intensely milky flavour. You can translate it as Milk ice cream or leave it in Italian as Fior di Latte ice cream (I would), which undoubtedly sounds better to English speakers.

'What I especially liked about this recipe is that there are no eggs but the end product is still so creamy. There is a purity to the flavour, an intense milk taste that almost seems to "out vanilla" vanilla ice cream.'

Reference:

http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2008/01/milk-ice-cream.html

Peer comment(s):
agree Charles Davis : I was about to post this (fior di latte, that is). I'll add a couple of references below.
9 mins
Thanks Charles :)
agree James A. Walsh
7 hrs
Thanks James :)
agree Lisa McCarthy
8 hrs
Thanks Lisa :)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thanks Jenny, this is what I used."
2 hrs

"a la mode"

You can see a picture of it here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pietarila/2347818519/

"Flor de nata" is basically clotted cream in the shape of a flower; in this case it is ice cream in that shape.
Reference:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pietarila/2347818519/

Peer comment(s):
neutral Charles Davis : But the ice cream in the picture isn't in the shape of a flower. And where does "a la mode" come from?
13 mins
Something went wrong...
9 hrs

milk's flower

The original is "fior de latte", but this author has chosen to call it "flor de nata" where s/he could have easily left it as "fior di latte". Thus it seems to make just as much sense to localize it into English rather than opt for the Italian version. I guess it's ultimately just a matter of preference. The Italian does sound more exotic to a native English speaker, but the English version offers a better explanation of what it actually is.
Reference:

http://www.moevenpick-icecream.com/Professional/collections/Pages/Collections.aspx?Flavour=Fior%20di%20Latte&cate=SWEET

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Reference comments

47 mins
Reference:

It's the name of a flavour of ice cream

'la flor de nata es otro sabor que tiene mucha demanda y que la gente incluso "come compulsivamente, pues la sensación al probarlo es como comer leche" '

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Note added at 1 hr (2012-11-28 13:23:50 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Fior di latte (literally milk's flower) is pure unflavored ice-cream made of high quality whole milk, lots of fresh cream and sugar. The Italians are the unchallenged masters of this kind of ice-cream.
http://gomad-ch.blogspot.com.es/2007/05/fior-di-latte.html

America’s favorite type of ice cream may be vanilla, but this summer we’ll be eating something even plainer. Fior di latte (literally “milk flower”) is a typical Italian flavor that showcases milk, cream, sugar and...that’s it.
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/bars/fior-di-latte-gelato
Reference:

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/07/03/andalucia_malaga/1278157091.html

Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree SKROCE (X)
1 hr
Thank you :)
Something went wrong...
1 hr
Reference:

fior di latte

My guess is that "flor de nata" doesn't always mean the same thing, but there are indications, apart from Jenny's, that as an ice cream flavour it comes from the Italian fior di latte.

Here's one:
"tartufo
La heladería italiana
Helado - Gelato
Flor de Nata * Fior di latte (Nata)"
http://www.gelateriatartufo.com/carta.html

There's also the fact that in Jenny's first reference source, the person selling the flor de nata ice cream that people think tastes like milk (in Málaga, as it happens) is actually an Italian from Lombardy called Daniele Montalbetti, so it seems very likely that he is marketing fior di latte ice cream in Spanish as flor de nata.

Fior de latte can mean an extremely delicious kind of Italian fresh cheese:

"El Fior di latte es un queso fresco elaborado entero con leche de vaca. Se obtiene de forma muy similar a la Mozzarella y es muy frecuente en Campania y en Apulia. [...]
Es uno de los ingredientes principales de la famosa pizza napolitana pizza margherita. También se utiliza para la realización de helados y ensaladas."
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fior_di_latte

Note the last bit. That doesn't mean that all the ice cream called fior di latte is made from this stuff, but I bet it's fabulous if it is.

Anyway, one way and another I think I'd go with fior di latte here.

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Note added at 1 hr (2012-11-28 13:38:12 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Whether flor de nata is the same as milk ice cream I'm not so sure, but it could well be.
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