 |
Some of you may have seen in the travel section of today’s Guardian newspaper a short list of bad menu translations from around the world. Here are some of them for the delectation of those who haven’t seen them yet.
From Argentina comes: steak served with dads (mistranslation of Spanish papas meaning ‘potatoes’)
From France we have: knicker of pork (presumably knuckle)
From Vietnam there is: tripe chocolate ice-cream (what a difference a missing l makes!)
But the masterpieces of the collection come from some unspecified country and are completely beyond my fathoming. Any suggestions most gratefully received.
- restoration workshop with garlic
- tightened cabbage mushroom colander
One I came across many, many years ago in a Japanese restaurant in London is: lemon supplies.
Photo credit: Elena Chochkova. Used under this licence.
How about “Old salt cooked the natural way, a very ancient recipe”.
Any guesses?
Beats me, Graham.
An old salt is an old sea dog, or, in French, a ‘loup de mer’. “Loup de mer” is also sea bass. So this is steamed sea bass.
This one sounds disgusting, but is delicious:
“Very best meat of chest of duck, cooked for hours in its own grease”
Graham,
Aha!
>>So this is steamed sea bass.
Either that or the French are cannibals.
My friend JDL informs me that there is a cut of meat called “culotte de porc”, so that is most likely the origin of knicker of pork.
It took me years to find out why “dragon sauce” was on a French menu, since the French for dragon is … ‘dragon’, and the French for “tarragon” – which is what it was – is ‘estragon’. Then I saw a Dutch menu, and the penny dropped: the English trranslation had been done by a Dutch speaker (the Dutch for “tarragon” is ‘dragon’).
That steak with ‘dads’ sounds delicious!! It made me laugh!!