The San Diego culinary scene is bubbling with more dining-out choices than ever before. From upscale restaurants to obscure ethnic eateries, their menus present exciting challenges that could leave you feeling as though you’ve arrived here in a covered wagon if you don’t know the difference between iceberg lettuce and hydroponic bibb lettuce (baby greens grown in water).

Even going out for Italian has gotten tricky. In many contemporary kitchens, spaghetti is out, and trendy ear-shaped orecchiette pasta is in. To the chagrin of some, table bread has been replaced with twiglets – stick-shaped crackers containing cheese (you’ll be dating yourself to call them breadsticks). And of those dazzling sauces that typically anoint meat and fish in continental eateries, you can bid farewell to wine reductions and say hello to truffle oil “drizzles” and citrus-ginger “emulsions.”

Menus don’t always spell out exactly what you’re about to eat. Below is a list of terms that will give you a heads-up on some of the ingredients and cooking methods used in a growing number of trendy restaurants throughout San Diego.

Achar – A very spicy fruit relish common throughout parts of India and the Caribbean.

Al Forno – The Italian term used for dishes cooked in the oven.

Carpaccio – An appetizer of paper-thin raw beef, often drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice and topped with capers.

Confit – To slowly cook pieces of meat in their own rendered fat.

Galanga – An earthy-flavored root spice related to ginger.

Haricorts Verts – Very small green string beans.

Langostino – Spanish term for giant prawns or shrimp.

Mesclun – Describes a mix of very young lettuces often stretched with herbs and bitter greens.

Miso – A paste made from fermented soybeans and used mostly in Japanese soups and sauces.

Mornay Sauce – Cream sauce thickened with eggs and grated cheese.

Noisette - Very small medallions of meat

Nopalitas - Fleshy leaves of the prickly pear, or nopal cactus, that are used in fancy egg dishes and salads. Opakapaka – Pink snapper that is popular in Hawaii and becoming trendy in mainland restaurants.

Persimmon – A round fruit with a glossy skin that can range in color from yellow to deep orange with sweet, creamy orange flesh. The fruit is used in gourmet sauces and gravies. Quenelle – A dumpling or pastry made from fish or meat.

Skate – Kite-shaped fish with edible wing-like fins that are sweet in flavor and gelatinous in texture.

Sweetbread – The culinary term for the thymus of an animal, particularly that of veal and lamb.

Tagliatelle – Flat, ribbon-shaped pasta that is narrower than fettuccine.

Vol-au-Vent – A large round pastry case filled with meat, seafood or vegetables and topped with a pastry lid.