Perils of literal translation 

I can speak and read a little French, enough to get by in most situations. I still rely, though, on my iPhone Google translate app from time to time, especially for quick vocabulary help. From time to time, though, I’m reminded of the dangers of straightforward translation. “English” menus are a particularly good source of amusement. This one is my all time favorite. I’m pretty sure they meant avocados with shrimp, but maybe not.

The next one has a couple of howlers. Let’s start with the Petit sales aux lentilles. The menu offers “little salted with lenses.”  By the way, google translates this dish (salt pork and lentils) as dirty little lentils. From there we move on to “mitre with shallots,” navarin, and breaded “escalope” (is that a relative to the antelope?).

Onglet a l’Echalote is hanger steak with shallots and Navarin is a traditional lamb stew. Escalope panel is admittedly a tough one because the French title doesn’t say what meat is involved. It means a pan fried breaded piece of thin meat, usually chicken, veal, turkey, or pork. You would usually see it as, for example, escalope au veau aux champignons, which would be veal pounded thin, breaded, fried, and served with mushroom sauce. One can only guess at this preparation. 

Finally we have this that conflates a couple of phrases.

Traditionelle Harira is one of a couple of ways of describing a traditional Moroccan yellow pea soup. It is often served with dates and often served at Ramadan.  This translation, though, makes it seem as if Ramadan is one of the ingredients.

If you have a bad food translation, send it to me. I’d like to start a collection.