Grilled Rat and Fried Bowels
 

In another thread ("Best Time to go to Vietnam") my compatriot Pat Woolford recalled being offered a delicious "Grilled Rat with Soya Cheese Dressing" in Can Tho, Vietnam. This brought to mind a couple of other menu classics found in Hanoi - "Fried Bowels with Grease", and the mysterious "Net Small Appetite (150 gm)". I found "Frops Jumped to the Ginger" a bit disorienting too, until finally figuring out that it must have been the result of an overly-literal French-English translation combined with someone's poor handwriting (or eyesight).

Does anyone else have a favourite bizarre (or just bizarrely-translated) menu item? I'd love to hear 'em.

darn I cant remember any funny menue items but I do remember a sign (menu) at a cafe in yangsu, china which reads. "we have no opium...heroin...we have freshly made coffee, hot chocholet..etc....

maybe I dont rember the menuse cuz I tend too eat whats odd on the menues.
for instance i've eaten...

deep fried bamboo rat, China

fried scorpion, crickets, beatle. or was it a giant roach. and a bunch of insects in bangkok. which are somewhat common

Ormigas cullonas " big assed ants, pig brain with egg. USA/Colombia.

MMmmmm fried crickets...

When I first went to Burma in 1996, many of the restaurants in Bagan had an item on their menus, 'Billy Goat's Family Jewels'. I assumed that an English speaker had given this description to a restaurant owner as a joke and it had caught on. When I returned on later trips the item had disappeared (possibly because of lack of demand for it from tourists).

I remember seeing the following sign outside a butcher shop in Delhi: "Pig meet"

You don't have to travel to Asia to see interesting menu items.

I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Some years ago I went to a Northern Chinese restaurant and saw the following items on the menu: Sweat & Sour Pork, and Human Hot Pot (instead of Hunan Hot Pot).

I don't have a favorite menu "flub" but at the Hard Rock Cafe in Beijing the front sign reads "No Drugs or Nuclear Weapons Allowed" and that just cracks me up.

Neil, I never did find out what "fumigated pig" is - advertised on footpath eatery in Hanoi. Nothing to do with menus but what really cracked me up was sign outside the infamous Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi "no frolicking or moving of toilets". Just the spot for a merry frolic!

That is funny that in Hanoi they serve grease with their fried chitlins. That Hard Rock slogan is used at their other locations.

This thread is on the general theme of Engrish to which there is a website devoted. The site does have, as requested by the OP, menu items listed.
See: http://www.engrish.com/category_inde...category=Menus

Thanks for that website, frmwlnu - I'm off to check it out. I guess Engrish is closely related to Chinglish and Japlish? And yes, I suspected that it was chitlins, but "fried bowels" is more graphic, isn't it?

Yes it is more graphic, Nell. Have fun at the site.

mrwunrfl, the site's great - thanks. And sorry I screwed up your username last time - I must be coming down with dyslexia. My daughters are currently teaching English in China and feel that there should be a few openings for English-speaking editors, but the locals don't see the problem. Well, I guess if they did there wouldn't be a problem.

Back to menus, a "Sydney Morning Herald" reader recently reported finding "vegetable and crap soup" in Lao Cai. Hopefully not associated with the fried bowels with grease....

I remember eating once in the Seychelles "bat stew"... Rather good, the poor thing tasted in fact like chicken...

Wonder if they meant "cat" LOL!

yesterday I want too a neighberhood resteraunt I often go too in bkk and I noticed they had ROASTED TIT.. yummy. i prefer mine fresh.

they also had "cock"... I don't want too know what that is... but I think they ment cook

I think the menue is new since I don't remember ever seeing these crazy miss spelling. you'd think they hired me too write the "ENGLISH" meunue...

orgy7, you have a BIG future in China. Seize the opportunity while you're still young, mate!

You don't have to look too far to find strangeness on the menu. In the US, tripe, sweetbreads, and Rocky Mountain oysters come to mind.

There used to be a chinese cafe on Sentosa Island, Singapore called "Golden Showers". I won't go any further!

"Lard" on the list of appetizers in a restaurant in Arona,Italy. Did not have the courage to order it.

OK, does someone want to explain what a Rocky Mountain oyster is? Or am I better off not knowing?

for sure not the kind you slurp raw from a shell :)

In a Taipei restaurant I was served a dish comprised of stir fried pig intestines with chilies and vegetables. It was the only dish of the meal one could label unusual. But along with a tofu soup, braised prawns and crispy roast chicken, all in all it was quite tasty over some hot steamed rice.

Neil, first it is a bull with his parts, then he is neutered and you have Rocky Mt Oysters :)

My husband told me a story about eating with some people in India, in the mountains , and they offered him things that looked like large spiders. Since no one could get a translation, he just said that he was full..I picture the Indiana Jones movie with the monkey head, ick ick.

Not a menu item, but several years ago when looking through a China Focus brochure, I noticed that they had direct frights from the US daily.

Topping

Orgy7
You should try out for "Fear Factor".
Do they have that on television where you live?

Neil_Oz
Rocky Mountain oysters are bull (but ask your butcher for calf, they're more tender - so they tell me) testicles. They're usually battered and deep fried.
I've seen them many times, but I have a bad case of plate fright.

Which brings me to a quesion I've been meaning to post:
In other trips I've taken, I could fall back on my high school languege classes and figure out menues, like French, Spanish, Italian etc. But this whole Asian thing is new to me. Is there a Thai menu translator out there like the 16 country Berlitz European Menu reader I have?

The closest to a menu translator I have found for Thailand is Lonely Planets "World Food Thailand". It's a great little book that explains food and drink and their traditions and preparations in the country and includes an extensive English Thai translation section. It's part of a series of different countries. There is also Turkey, Vietnam and others.

I created a post card of a few of the funny signs that I had taken pictures of in China last year. For those of you who have not focused on signs--sometimes taking pictures of odd and fun signs make the best memories when you get home and friends just crack up. One sign I regret not taking a picture of was on the famous shopping street in Shanghai, Nanjing Xilu Road. It was a *very* sexy lingerie shop with essentially only thongs, whose English translation was "Senior Ladies Lingerie." ;-)

China Signs:
http://www.ceoexpress.com/asp/signs.asp

I'm not sure thay offer this at the Lord jims in Bangkok, But 2 weeks ago my GF broght me some finely chooped up, deep fried squirl with pepper and basil.. it was OK..

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No fear factor food for me. they usually eat super slimy long things.. I can handle crunchy rather then slimmy and gooy.. I dig oyester though.

IGNORE ANY OLD POST BROUGHT BACK BY "zipthewhatsit" THEY ARE DOING THIS ON ALL OF THE FORUMS TRYING TO CAUSE ARGUMENTS.

I know, christiegr. But unlike the other contentious threads resurrected by the troll, this one was good-humoured and entertaining, so where's the harm?

BTW, no need for the caps - that's the email equivalent of shouting.

laurie_ann
I never saw that book, thanks for the heads up, I'll look for it.

BostonHarbor, one amusing sign that I saw in China said, "No smoking allowed--Tourists should be observed."

China is a wonderland of interesting signs. One of my favourites was seen on the side of a building in the Forbidden City: "This ancient building is renovating. Excuse me for bringing trouble to you."

A cryptic sign at Bingyu Valley, north of Dalian, warned the unwary visitor: "Pay attation to one's safeness,Prevent oneself from" We never found out what the threat was.

Two favorites in Chiang Mai Thailand at our favorite sea food restaurant: in front of the live fish tanks it says "It is swimming for cooking"

The other one is over the entry door. "Refund for complain food." This one has been "fixed" from its old wording of "Refund for food complain."

I had a great time photographing signs on a recent trip to China. My favorites:
1. On a brass plaque above an elevator in Shanghai international airport: "This lift don't to the toilets lead."
2. On the side of a milk carton: "Tasted like the early first love."
3. On a sign at the Summer Palance in Beijing: Busy period: March - November, Slack period: November - March.
Wished I'd taken more photos - some signs were absolutely classic.....but then who am I to speak - cannot read or write Mandarin!

I just saw a sign for "Night Crawlers and Chili Dogs". None for me thanks, I'm trying to quit.

Wish I had had my camera with me when I saw this sign in Prague, "Pizza Go Home".

In Tokyo I saw a banner for a bridal fair with the words "trembling with you". One of my other favorites there was painted on a white vehicle with dark tinted windows, "Brain Location Services". Still trying to figure that one out...a headhunter service perhaps?