There are many popular expressions or sayings that we use daily in our language , but perhaps one of the most used and the best known is that of “go fry asparagus ” of which we know what it means or what we use it for but from the that few know what its origin is or why it began to use it.
Where does the expression go fry asparagus come from?
“Go fry asparagus” , all of us have used this expression of ours on occasion. A phrase that we usually pronounce when someone does not stop bothering us or perhaps is saying things that we do not consider appropriate or even impertinent . A phrase that as we say is one of the most used by everyone but few know who invented it or how it originated.
What do asparagus have to do with someone bothering us? Like many other popular expressions, the culinary factor is related to or used as a metaphor for behavior or action. In this case, the expression was born (or at least appears documented) in the 19th century, and already at that time it was said as the same intention with which we use it today.
Apparently it is a phrase that arose as a counterpoint to the Latin expression Citius quam asparagi coquantur ( In what it takes for asparagus to cook) to keep someone busy for a long time.
Thus, the expression “Go fry asparagus” arose because this food takes very little time to cook. In fact with a single boil, the asparagus is already cooked so that when you wanted someone annoying to leave you would be told to go “fry” and not “boil” asparagus since it would take much longer to make them.
On the other hand, at that time “go fry asparagus” was not the only expression used in the sense that we have explained. In fact , “anda a esparragar” was also used a lot, which today is used less but from time to time it is heard.
Finally, it is also said that the expression has to do with the fact that at that time fried asparagus was hardly valued in the kitchen, so that telling someone to go fry asparagus implied that we wanted the person to leave to do something to waste his time and stop bothering us.
