The term was inserted in a U.S. Army survey of soldiers circa 1974[1] regarding their food preferences.
Funistrada, along with a fake vegetable dish called "buttered ermal" and a fake meat dish called "braised trake", was inserted "to provide an estimate of how much someone will respond to a word which sounds like a food name or will answer without reading.
"[2] Funistrada scored higher in popularity than eggplant, lima beans, and cranberry juice.
[3][4] All three fake items, however, had the highest percentage of "never tried" responses.
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