Δεν νομίζω πως υπάρχει πρόβλημα με την μπομπότα. Όπως εδώ είναι χαρακτηριστική τροφή σε αγροτικές περιοχές (ιδίως εδώ στη Θεσσαλία, τα διάφορα παρασκευάσματα με καλαμποκάλευρο ή χοντροκομμένο καλαμπόκι αποτελούν ακόμα βασική τροφή), έτσι ήταν - και είναι - και στις αμερικανικές αγροτικές περιοχές, ιδίως στο Νότο. Και δεν νομίζω πως η λέξη μπομπότα για το καλαμποκόψωμο είναι και τόσο γνωστή στους πρωτευουσιάνους στην Ελλάδα, εκτός αν έχουν κάποια σχέση με αγροτικές περιοχές ή σχετικά παιδικά βιώματα.
Η Wikipedia γράφει για johnnycake (also jonnycake, johnny cake, journey cake, shawnee cake and johnny bread) is a cornmeal flatbread that was an early American staple food and is prepared on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Jamaica. The food probably originates from the native inhabitants of North America. It is still eaten in the West Indies, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Colombia, and Bermuda as well as in the United States.
In the Southern United States, the word used is hoecake.
...
The difference between johnnycake and hoecake originally lay in the method of preparation, though today both are often cooked on a griddle or in a skillet. Some recipes call for baking johnnycakes in an oven, similar to corn pones which are still baked in the oven like they were traditionally. [22]
και κάτω-κάτω στις βιβλιογραφικές παραπομπές αναφέρει:
22. Hundley, Social Relations in Our Southern States, p. 87-88: "Corn-dodger, corn-pone, and hoe-cake are different only in the baking. The meal is prepared for each precisely in the same way. Take as much meal as you want, some salt, and enough pure water to knead the mass. Mix it well, let it stand for fifteen or twenty minutes, not longer, as this will be long enough to saturate perfectly every particle of meal; bake on the griddle for hoe-cake, and in the skillet or oven for dodger or pone. The griddle or oven must be made hot enough to bake, but not to burn, but with a quick heat. The lid must be heated also before putting it on the skillet or oven, and that heat must be kept up with coals of fire placed on it, as there must be around and under the oven. The griddle must be well supplied with live coals under it. The hoe-cake must be put on thin, not more than or quite as thick as your forefinger; when brown, it must be turned and both sides baked to a rich brown color. There must be no burning—baking is the idea. Yet the baking must be done with a quick lively heat, the quicker the better."
Για τη συγκεκριμένη ταινία, το Rooster Cogburn (originally promoted as Rooster Cogburn (... and the Lady), is a 1975 film sequel to the 1969 Western film True Grit. The film stars John Wayne, in his penultimate film, who reprises his role as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Katharine Hepburn co-stars as spinster Eula Goodnight, who teams up with Rooster to recover a stolen shipment of nitroglycerin and find her father's killer.), πιστεύω ότι ταιριάζει μια χαρά.
Η Βοστονέζα δασκάλα μπορεί να ξέρει το εν λόγω έδεσμα αφού ήταν διαδεδομένο και στο Βορρά, πιθανόν όμως να το ξέρει με κάποιο άλλο όνομα από τα παραπάνω. Και αντιστρέφοντας τους όρους, ο αμόρφωτος Ρούμπεν «ο Κόκορας» Κόγκμπερν παίρνει την εκδίκησή του για τις άγνωστες λέξεις που του πετά στην κεφαλή η δασκάλα, αμολώντας της κι αυτός μια λαϊκή, νότια ονομασία του εδέσματος (ή της τοπικής παραλλαγής που διαφέρει μόνο στο σχήμα και τον τρόπο ψησίματος): «Μπομπότα το λέμε εμείς αυτό, κυρά μου, στο χωριό μου (where I come from, in my country, down my way, in Texas), γι' αυτό το λόγο (που με βολεύει τώρα να το αιτιολογήσω έτσι, ώστε να πιω ένα ποτήρι παραπάνω) κι άμα σ' αρέσει. Πες το εσύ καλαμποκόψωμο, καλαμποκοκεφτέ, καλαμπουλέτα, όπως θες, κυρά πρωτευουσιάνα. Δεν είμαστε στη Βοστόνη πια (and we may be in Indian Territory, but you're not in your kind of Kansas anymore, and when not in Rome, you gotta go with what the plebeians say, Patricia)».
Did you ever watch True Grit* and wonder what a Corn Dodger was? Here is a bit of research, excerpted from America's Best Lost Recipes: 121 Kitchen-Tested Heirloom Recipes Too Good to Forget from the Editors of Cook's Country magazine (America's Test Kitchen, 2007). Copyright 2007 by the Editors of Cook's Country:
Abraham Lincoln was raised on these little oval cornmeal cakes, George Washington Carver took them to school, and John Wayne (playing Rooster Cogburn) used them for target practice in the movie True Grit.
Dating back to the 1800s, the first corn dodgers were made from "hot water corn bread," a mixture of cornmeal, pork fat, salt, and boiling water that was formed into small oblong loaves and baked. Similar recipes were given different names depending on how the dough was shaped and cooked. Corn pone have the same oblong shape as dodgers, but are pan-fried in lots of oil. Johnnycakes are flattened into small pancakes, then griddle-fried. Ashcakes are rounds of dough wrapped in cabbage leaves, then placed in the ashes of the campfire to cook. Hoecakes are formed into small pancakes, then placed on the flat side of a garden hoe (really!) and cooked over the campfire.
http://honeyfromrock.blogspot.gr/2009/12/christmas-corn-dodgers.html Παρεμπιπτόντως: hominy grits.