A while ago, in my local grocery, I saw what can only be described as a small plastic drum of plantain chips. Since it was an unfamiliar brand/company name, and the plantains were grown in Ecuador, I quickly decided to buy one. For the record, this was a container of the garlic flavored plantain chips from the El Sol company, out of Florida.
I've complained umpteen times about companies that provide little to no information about their history, founders, and such. And I'm going to do it again today. Apparently, the owner of El Sol is either hiding from the Mob, or is a bigger Luddite than even myself. The official company website just basically had product lists, recipes, and the like. El Sol. which means "the sun" in English, sells Latin American and Caribbean fruits, vegetables, and a few prepared/processed fruit and vegetable items. Some of these include tamarind, tomatillos, sugar cane, long beans (I didn't know exactly what these were--after some checking they're a relative of the cowpea, originally grown in parts of China and Southeast Asia. These beans are also known as asparagus beans, Chinese long beans, snake beans, bodi, borboti, bora, long-podded cowpeas, and yardlong beans), chili peppers, yuca, breadfruit, bananas, avocados, coconut milk, and squash. Some of the countries that grow their wares are the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Honduras. And that's about all I could get. Business-related websites did indicate that the owner and current CEO of El Sol is Carl (aka Chris) DelPrete, and that the company started over 20 years ago. Alas, Googling that name mainly showcases another man named Carl DelPrete, who co-founded and runs the Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace, a New York-based Italian supermarket. And, in previous posts I've already reported on fun facts about Ecuador, and some famous people with Ecuadorian heritage. Furthermore, I've previously gone into some detail about plantains in posts about plantain and banana products. So I'm kind of stuck--sorry. Therefore, the final paragraph will be some unrelated information about an obscure bit of slang that I used in the first sentence of this paragraph.
El Sol Brands, Inc., plantain chips, garlic (or in Spanish ajo) flavor: These chips were yellow circular discs, about 1.5 inches (about 3.5 cm.) in diameter. The texture was dry and crunchy. The flavor was kind of bland. The garlic flavoring wasn't that strong. They grew on me a little as I ate them, but they were still not one of the better plantain chips I've sampled. I also tried some with ranch dressing on them, and this improved things. Therefore, in conclusion, I would recommend these only slightly--if you're looking for an alternative to regular potato chips, these are okay, especially if you dip them in something. But there are definitely better plantain chips out there.
On to the expression. For starters, "umpteen," or "umpteenth," refers to large but unspecified position in a sequence. So in my sentence earlier, I'm using it as an exaggeration, to indicate that I've discussed companies that provide little to no information about their founders, and company history, many, many times. I've been using this expression for years, but I didn't know the origins. Which, as I discovered, are not conclusive. The term "umpty" seems to date back to around the year 1905, as a slang term for the dash in Morse Code. Telegraph operators would sometimes start a long story with a string of dashes as placeholders, so this became synonymous for an indefinite number. Then, in the era of World War I (1914-18), soldiers took the "umpty" and substituted a "teen" for the ending "ty" of umpty, or "umpteen." This was used to indicate an unspecified amount of something. The Oxford English Dictionary notes a 1918 writing by pilot J.T.B. McCudden as the first appearance in a published work. However, this is disputed. The Canadians were allegedly earlier, as there are supposedly published account using the word from 1908 or even 1902, although the word was used in a different way. Moving on, folks in the opposite side of the globe may have used the term even earlier than this. A New Zealand article reportedly used the expression, in the modern definition, back in 1878. And the Australians were supposedly using it throughout the late 1800's as well. So, it would appear that I've been using a late 19th century New Zealand/Australian slang term, which was also popularized in North America during World War I. Maybe independently, or perhaps borrowed from our friends Down Under. Ultimately the most important thing is that I use a slang word that is probably only understood by folks over the age of 60 or more.
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