French Menu Translations
 

I have a copy in French of the menu at La Fermette Marbeuf Restaurant in Paris. The copy in English that is available is nothing like the offerings on the French copy.<BR>Can someone recommend a book that offers direct translations, or almost direct, of the terms on French menus? I would like to order only from the french menu, in French.

Here's a great book:<BR><BR>&quot;Eating and Drinking in Paris,&quot; by Andy Herbach and Michael Dillon. It's wonderful! It gives all the words not only for food, but terms such as what are used for baking, broiling, smoked, etc. I highly recommend it.

I forgot to add that the back of the book says, &quot;The most comprehensive French menu reader available.&quot; I don't know if that's true or not, but it does make reading a menu a lot easier.

To Paris Lover: Merci beaucoup. Je le chercherai demain. Tom

you can download a very comprehensive food and wine guide ..actually the best I've seen.. at www.intimatefrance.com

Hi Tom,<BR><BR> Thanks for the post. I have put the Fermette Marbeuf on my favorites list.<BR><BR> I looked at the menu in the French and English versions. The French menu is far superior. Most of the items are not on the English version at all.

I agree with the Herbach and Dillon book, I looked at the website someone here mentioned, but it's a commercial site. the list is good but not that complete.

The food glossary in Patricia Wells book A Food Lover's Guide to Paris is excellent. The Marling Menu Master is worthless, in my opinion.

French menu translations can be seen, of all places, in the book BISTROS OF PARIS, by Robt/Barbara Hamburger. Each arrondisments offers suggested bistros which in turn list their&quot;menus&quot; and direct translations. It takes a bit of hunting and pecking thru the arr.to find a specific item.<BR>The Eating and Drinking in Paris book is more like a dictionary wherein you can &quot;paste&quot; together a menu selection. <BR>You can then write out the selection you want in both french and english. Bon chance.

Used the Marling Menu master for the past 2 years, while some things are not in there, I was able to find most. You have to realize that their menu (especially at a fancy restraunt) is not going to come right out and just say Guinea Fowl; it is going to be a long description like: Provance Farm Raised Guinea Fowl prepared in the style of my grandmother. They use lots of words to describe their menu options and the key is figuring out what word is really the food.<BR><BR>The menu master is easy to carry and even if you have trouble finding everything in it, you will find most. <BR><BR>When we made reservations (in person) at a very nice restraunt ($268 for 2) we were given a take-along menu which was great as I lied on the beach that afternoon I deciphered it to see what we would be eating that evening. It was difficult because of the long descriptions they use for each item, and I had all but one figured out. I decided that it must be a fish dish because all the other majors were covered and since I like fish I would just get that. Well a little later I went through the Menu master again trying to really know what it was, boy was I glad took the time; it was OCTOPUS, and I decided not to order it.

I'll put in another pitch for the Marling Menu Master; I've found it very helpful. It's so complete that sometimes it takes a while to find what you're looking for, but it's the most comprehensive food listing I've found.<BR><BR>Keep in mind, however (as previously noted), the more high-end restaurant menus won't have direct translations for the entire description of the food. Like in nicer American restaurants, your menu won't just say &quot;fish,&quot; it'll say &quot;filet of Royal Dorade with vegetables in pastry.&quot;<BR><BR>Translations into English aren't always so helpful because some words (like &quot;croquant,&quot; which I know what it means, but I don't know that there's an English word for it - if I was making them at home, I'd call them croquants), I think, the person translating the menu doesn't realize that we English-speakers just use the French word for it. I find it much easier, even with my limited French, to use the French menus.<BR><BR>When reviewing a menu in French, pick out the words you know (salmon, potatoes, pears), memorize some preparation words (grille, poelee, etc.), and you'll know pretty close enough what you're getting.

I see that www.intimate.france has availed itself without any attribution whatsoever of the French Menu translator that two old AOL contributors put together. Interesting.....

I have only used the Maerling Menu book for Paris so I cannot compare but it has been so useful I never felt that I needed something else.<BR>It is small and easy to carry. It saved my husband from getting a salad with Beef tongue on it when he thought that the menu had salad with mussels!

There is also the &quot;cultural&quot; problem. There are things we take for granted. For example, in N. America we have something called a &quot;Denver&quot; (or in the East, a &quot;Western&quot;. It's an Omlette sandwich; but if you were translating this for a foreigner, would you call it &quot;le Sandwich Western&quot; or &quot;Le Sandwich d'Omlette avec Porc et Ognion&quot;?<BR><BR>I think I saw a post earlier this year about the &quot;Croque Monsieur&quot; which was some sort of pastry. But what was a Croque Madame? It's only because of familiarity that we instantly know what &quot;Thai chicken&quot; or &quot;Sezchuan beef&quot; might taste like...<BR><BR>Good luck, and remember - it can't be that bad, no matter what it is...

Since I brought up the Marling I will say that the reason I didn't like it is because of the way it is broken up into entree, plat, etc. With Patricia Wells, for example, everything is alphabetical so you just look it up. There was a LOT that was not in Marling or impossible to find.

Since a lot of dishes have fancy names, how can you possibly translate them? A 'Crepe Suzette' is a 'Crepe Suzette'. To know what it is, you must have tasted it.<BR><BR>Being European, I didn't know what a 'Baked Alaska' was, until I've had it.<BR>Here, something similar would be called 'Omelette Norvegienne'.

To Maurice (and foodie): It's true that finding equivalent terms is not easy. I've had to translate restaurant menus from French to English before.<BR><BR>For some dishes that are generally recognized as classic French (Cr&ecirc;pes suzette, Croque Monsieur, Vacherin...), I would leave the name as is but would also provide a short description (Croque Monsieur being a grilled ham+cheese sandwich, Croque Madame = the same with an egg...). <BR><BR>Of course, some dishes have standard names in English - we say &quot;beef bourgignon&quot;, not &quot;burgundy-style beef&quot;, and &quot;hollandaise sauce&quot; not &quot;Dutch sauce&quot;, for example. <BR><BR>In the end, it's a fine line, deciding when a term should be replaced with a cultural equivalent, when to translate literally, when to leave in the original language. Such is the nature of translation... !