Guardian Genius 47

[ulysses100]

The last one and I cannot solve it . Will I kick myself ?

10ac Food mostly made with egg ? _ A _ O

I have mayo, sago, taco and taro. Is it one of these, and why ? Or is it something else completely ?

[Meadow Lane]

Just a thought - mayonnaise is made from egg yolks etc and mayo could be the abbreviation for mayonnaise?

[ulysses100]

Thank you Meadow Lane ; I did have the same thought, but it didn't seem right for a cryptic clue.

[Quizmonster]

There's a type of fish called a 'mado' and 'mad' is mostly 'mad(e)' with the 'o' for 'egg'. That's what I settled for in the end, anyway, but I wasn't totally happy with it.

[ulysses100]

Thank you QM.
The same word came to me but it's not to be found in Chambers or Collins, but I have just found it in the OED -- an Australian percoid fish

[gabrielc]

maybe you're both right and it's MA(de) + YO(lk)?

[bitoclass]

I'm also torn between Mayo and Mado for the reasons outlined here, which is why I've searched Google for the clue and ended up at this page!

I'd be more inclined towards Mado, except that according to this site - http://www.seafriends.org.nz/enviro/fish/kypho /kyphosid.htm#mado - "Mado is not normally fished. It does not occur in sufficient numbers and won't take bait easily", which doesn't suggest that it is actually eaten. I have found no evidence that it is ever eaten anywhere. So it therefore surely doesn't qualify as 'food', does it?

But I'm equally sceptical about Mayo, because (a) there is no word for 'made' that is mostly 'may', and (b) I don't think it's true that 'MAde' with 'YOlk' is *mostly* 'MAYO' - it's only half of it. And that's without getting into whether 'egg' really suffices to indicate 'yolk', which is surely only a part of an egg.

So while I want the answer to be mayo because then it would mean the whole clue was a great definition, I really can't get the cryptic bit to work for this; and I'm just not convinced about mado either.

The full list of food items I have found that fit this space is:
Mayo
Sago
Lalo (another word for couscous, apparently)
Taco
Taro (an edible tuber, apparently)
and of course the not-actually-food Mado.

Can anyone see how it could be any of the others, or am I going to have to take a stab in the dark and go with Mayo (or Mado, or one of the others, at random)?

It's so frustrating, after I was so delighted to have at last fought my way through the rest of this complicated crossword!

[gabrielc]

well, it's TACO it turns out (the solution's just been published). must be: TAC(k) + O (for egg).

[bitoclass]

But how on earth is 'tack' the same as 'made'? I'm not convinced 'tack' even means 'make', but it's certainly not a past participle, surely? Can anyone explain? (Needless to say, I didn't enter TACO!) :(

[bitoclass]

The FifteenSquared blog has just posted about this puzzle now:

http://fifteensquared.wordpress.com/2007/06/03 /guardian-genius-47-by-pasquale-grauniad/

In summary, TACO = 'tack' (which can mean 'food') mostly, plus (which I definitely do not think can be indicated by 'made with') O representing an egg.

But this means nothing is left to be the definition, so it must be an &lit. Yet I have never seen a recipe for taco which suggests that its main ingredient is egg, so the definition seems flawed to me.

Wonder how many correct entries there'll be? I predict a new low for sure!