...choux...You have to be specific or else you will get the veggie (which is NOT a wonderfully rich, flavourful dessert

To my ear "choux pastry" always suggests something as tough as old boots.

I guess there's vast potential for humorous language-based misunderstandings. I often recall my very first evening in France some 16 years ago, when my girlfriend (now wife) and I were perusing the dessert menu. She pointed to a particular item on the list and asked the waiter "Est-ce pomme de terre?", to which he responded, chuckling and pointing skywards, "Non, c'est pomme à l'air!"

[Explanation for non-French speakers: pomme de terre - literally "apple from ground" - is French for potato.]