Attached for affection North American varieties of English

Fred and I were out at a soba place last week. Soba is the Japanese for buckwheat, but soba also means buckwheat noodles. When you hear most people talking about soba, they are probably referring to the noodles. Our waiter asked us what the English was for soba and I didn't even try to answer. Fred replied immediately that soba was fine. He continued by saying that some people would not understand and that you would need to explain. Then you could simply say that soba is buckwheat noodles. Fred concluded by comparing soba to sushi, saying that in 25 years everybody in the United States would probably understand the word soba, just as everybody now understands the words sushi and kimono.