Can anyone recall any "interesting" restaurant menu translations?!
There was also a restaurant in Copenhagen, next to a brothel, where they erected a sign ambiguously midway between the two establishments, which said "36 different ways with herring".
Answers: I've been offered "Tart of the Day" [tarte du jour] in Paris, and "Irish bomb" [bomba irlandesa] in Lisbon, for dessert.
There was also a restaurant in Copenhagen, next to a brothel, where they erected a sign ambiguously midway between the two establishments, which said "36 different ways with herring".
Oh yes! In Switzerland, a German translation of ravioli: Teigtasche mit gefühle (Pastry pockets with 'feeling' instead of 'filling')
I once had problems with a translation for Brussels. The aim was to have translations for dishes in all languages of the EU. I really didn't think you could write ' Duck in a blood sauce' and hope the English would order the dish. Then I came across 'Pignon de pigeon' Pigeon wasn't a problem, but the only French dictionary I had available told me that 'pignon' was a 'wooden leg'.
And of course, famously: 'Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.'
In Newark, NJ there is a Chinese restaurant that offers Huevo Foo Joven (egg foo young).
In Riga there is a Chinese Restaurant translating "Sweat and sour sauce!" passers by thought I needed locking up when I burst out laughing about this.
Also in Riga there was one dish named "Mama Raud, Meita Raud" and presumably the bull did too because it was a dish of bulls testicles! (Raud means to cry, in Latvian!)
Another read as bulls eyes on toast - actually toast with a ring cut out of it and an egg fried in the centre! I love reading menus and wish I could remember more!
I cannot recall any strange restaurant translations off the top of my head, but one food related one that I run into fairly often is a strange translation done by Google translate. I've been working on the family genealogy for a while and many of our roots are in French Canada and France. It is fairly common to run into some ancestor who became a nun and so is called by her religious name and title, which Google invariably translates as "chocolate eclair!"
a taverna in Athens, Greece offered "goldfish" on their menu.
try engrish.com they always have funny things like that
actually i just went there and there's a menu with "french fly" as one of their side dishes
An Irish Bombe is a dessert.
A bombe is a cake.
Duh.
Whatever it takes you get your attention, that's all they want.