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“Excuse me…The lady that made this dish…what did she look like?”
Written By: Due-East on January 10, 2007
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| If you’ve ever studied Chinese, you’ve probably heard of some of the weird and sometimes poetic names the Chinese give their culinary creations. They have good reasons for these names, as it has a lot to do with their cultural identity. But here in America, that cultural identity is lost on most of their customers. So most Chinese restaurants in America dumb-down the names of their dishes so as not to totally freak out their customers. In China, though, where most of their customers actually understand the cultural reasons and subtleties behind the names of the dishes, the names often stay the same. They often directly (word-for-word) translate the Chinese names of their dishes into English, with some pretty funny results. Below are a couple of pictures with their English names directly translated from Chinese without regard for cultural differences. |
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This little dish’s name comes out as “Rolling Donkey” when directly translated into English. “Mmmm, I could seriously go for some rolling donkey right now!” In fact, it’s a bean cake served for dessert. |
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| And this picture is of a famous Sichuan dish that is translated “beancurd made by a pockmarked woman” on some menus. “Excuse me. I’d like a dish made by a hot chick, please. Do you have any of those?” |
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