Wednesday, December 31, 2008

65 - Poor translations for Chinese food

Beef pie.

Sugary biscuit.

Doughnut.

Fried noodles.

This is actually what it sounds like exactly. Tofu with stinky additions.

It says "Ovi fermented Glutynoes Wheat". I've forgotten what it was.

I think it's red bean paste wrapped in pastry.

lol.

It's 'Heartbroken noodles', literally. '凉粉' is the 'noodles' part, and literally means 'Cold powder' as it says on the sign.

Simply, boiled noodles.

Typo.

Rice cake. Nothing else.

That is really what the Chinese says, too. It's just a fancy name for a dessert.

Very weird use of the em-dash and not a hyphen. It was fried rice.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

:O
noooo!!!
I LOVE this!
it makes traveling through China amusing! interesting! entertaining!!!
conversations during dinner pick up when a badly written menu is around!!

Michael said...

It does, it does. I have a whole batch of these, though... Too many for me to accept. I will do another one tomorrow.

J.J. in L.A. said...

Did that actually say 'the chicken of bobo'? lol! Just before we moved from my childhood home, a family (from China) moved in next door. The daughter's name was Mei Mei...the son's name was Bo Bo.

Michael said...

lol. It actually said that, J.J.!

Anonymous said...

LOVE this one! Just got up (I agree, do not touch me in the morning or speak to me, I will roar) and it made me laugh. Perfect start to the day. Three bombs? I want to try that desert hahaha

Michael said...

Check this out, Vivienne. It's a video depicting the making of the three bombs. You'll see a ball of glutinous rice bounce on to a big trap of crushed peanuts. Then those balls are placed in this sweet, hone-esque thing.

Michael.

Anonymous said...

ahhh now I get why htey call it three bombs.... :) what's the stinky stuff on the tofu then?
and isn't it 8am in HK (from your clock) why are you up so early are you excited that tonight is new years eve eve? :)

Michael said...

I'm actually just stepping out the door to go to my friend's house party. It's actually 8pm here. If it was 8am, it would be morning for me like it is for you. :)

I'll be back before your countdown, but in case I miss you, happy new year! Hope your countdown is fun!

Stinky tofu

Anonymous said...

Is it wrong to say I think it looks rather yummy. Haven't smelt it though. Ah 8PM of course, you're ahead. Enjoy your party and happy new year to you too!!

Toivoa ja Elämän said...

hahaha i find it hilarious. for the olympics, i received a chain mail about chinese signs translated into english; i'm sure some of them were photoshoped or something, but they were quite amusing anyway. i guess it could be found a little offensive but i dunno. and it would get confusing and irritating after a while also...

Michael said...

I think I've seen some of the Olympics ones. Chinglish is always funny.

zipbagofbones said...

I don't know what you're talking about - I eat cood cabe all the time. It's awesome with flabble flo.

Michael said...

Ahhhh, flabble flo. I eat that all the time here in Hong Kong.

EURA. said...

Hmm "sweet pair?"

That reminds me of something my guy friends say all the time;

"Our dad's must have been bakers because we've got good buns."

Don't ask why I associated those two things together, I just did :)

Glen said...

really funny and cool

Lynn said...

My computer is spazzing out today and it loaded this page. . . . This is very interesting (in other words, awesome)