Thursday, September 25, 2008

Chinese Translations and Menu Offerings

Cyr is in China this week and sent me a few photos of the signs he has in his hotel room. One of my favorites is this sign by the bathtub:

In case it's hard to read...it says;
Our honorific guests:
For your safey and preventy the wed and slippery floor. Please put the bath curtain into the bathrub when you are washing for avoiding the water spatter out of the bathrub.
At the same. We prepare the nail-clipper for you in the house-keeping.
Thanks for your cooperating.

I also like this one he took of the laundry bag.

It says;
To serve you whole heartdly makes you feel convenient and happy during travel.

Nothing like being served "heartdly". Being the agreeable eater he is he also told me he tried a dish that looked very much like snails that had forked tails. Well, turned out it was duck tongue. Seriously, how many duck tongues would it take to make one meal?! There was also donkey served I believe in the same meal. Such a lucky fella to have all these fun things thrown after him!

He sent me some pictures of menus but they are hard to read so I will just tell you what some of my favorites were;

Steamed Mouse-Shaped Fish (Maybe a children's favorite? Also known as the "Mickey Fish"?)
Crispy Freid Loach (Please don't let that be a typo with the "L")
Sauteed Chicken Feet (no thanks, I like my feet fried)
Jew's Ear with Chrysanthemum (I just can't say anything about this one...)
Flavored Crispy Elbow (after the previous entry I am not sure I want to know what kind of elbow.)
Sauteed Crispy Stomach with Pickled Peppers
(Peter Piper's favorite I'm sure, but again...the stomach of what?)
Spicy Ox Spinal Cord (Whew, I just hate the dull flavored spinal cord)
Chicken Stomach with Chili Pot (if this is like Amsterdam "Pot" I might need it to eat the "Chicken Stomach")
Sauteed Duck Lips in Maggie Sauce (So that's why I have never seen a duck's lips! They are all in China being served for dinner! With Maggie apparently...)

I don't think he actually tried any of the above. But in case you are offered, I hear the duck tongue is nothing to spit at. Ha...actually he said it was pretty chewy...

5 comments:

Kate said...

If you get a kick out of funky translations, you need to check this out:

http://www.engrish.com/

I spend WAY too much time looking at this.

Anonymous said...

Yes... I knew this website... And the best with it is the comments the webmaster put below the pictures.
Wasted way too much time on it too!!!

wcs said...

Duck lips? And no quackers?

L said...

That said, there are some weird things available in France. Have you ever seen the block of cow tongues in gelitin at the butchers? It's really freaky. I know my fil really likes cow bone marrow (maybe like the spinal cord??). My mil has prepared a big beef roast with a thick bone and the marrow inside the bone is edible. It tastes kind of like liver (yes, they had me taste it).

Susan in Lille said...

Kate - I love that site!!

Cyr - love you!

wcs - I'm a sucker for duck lips on quackers. Uh, I have been racking my brain for a witty reply but I'm all out. Darn it! "Sucker" was the closest I could get...

L - I LOVE bone marrow!! It's called "os a'moelle" The tongues in the gelatin thing completely creeps me out but I have never seen it. Now I have something to look for on my next visit!!