Naughty Ladies Fingers and Farmers Fried Up

One of the joys of travel is the unintentional mirth created by translations into English of menus etc.


My all time favourite (seen in a Belgrade restaurant) was "naughty ladies fingers" which I just had to order. It turned out to be spiced okra.


In Greece I enjoyed "curded cow" and "curded sheep" (yoghurt from cows' and sheep' milk). In Slovenia the family enjoyed "roast lion" (lamb's loin) and "Serbian Ditch"  (Serbian stew).


My husband and I couldn't bring ourselves to order "Farmers Fried Up" which was offered for dinner at the hotel where we are currently staying in Austria, even though it was clear from the German that it would be a mixed grill.


As usual we're enjoying the hotel's daily newsletter for guests, helpfully provided in appropriate languages. Notice of the village's regular "GUEST SHOOTING COMPETITION" produces varying degrees of alarm or hilarity in English-speaking guests. Thankfully we not yet been shot.


Image of spiced okra by mcotner

Comments

  1. Jodie15 July 2011 at 15:30

    "Notice of the village's regular "GUEST SHOOTING COMPETITION" produces varying degrees of alarm or hilarity in English-speaking guests. Thankfully we not yet been shot."

    Absolutely priceless! It reminds me of that law that we supposedly still had here until recently, where it's legal to kill a Scotsman in York, providing that he's wearing a kilt and wandering around inside the city walls after dark. And you have to do it with a bow and arrow. Presumably, that law's been overturned now. :P

    To be fair to whoever wrote the shooting sign, they probably had a pretty good grasp of English. Just not of the subtleties. :P

    Personally, I love signs like that. Perhaps they're not as a professional translation agency would have phrased them but they wouldn't raise a smile either.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nancy Wallace15 July 2011 at 15:42

    Thanks for commenting Jodie. 'Guest Shooting Competition' is of course correct English - I just chuckle at the ambiguity. Are you a professional translator? As for killing (with bow and arrow) Scotsmen in kilts within York city walls I believe that law is still extant - but it's illegal on a Sunday! I wrote a post about 'Strange English Laws' here http://nancysblog-seeker.blogspot.com/2010/08/early-this-morning-i-enjoyed-reading.html

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment