does it taste like chicken?

Well, okay, as long as it's deep fried...

Wow, blogging frenzy! My third post in a week! However, I just couldn't resist sharing one of my favourite websites with you all. I figured if I gave you a little taste of what is there you might feel compelled to check it out for yourself, http://www.engrish.com/index.php .

In my travels, I have encountered stuff like this everywhere and have often been in great need of deciphering a menu or a package of some kind, and the English is of absolutely no help at all. It's all still complete roulette.

My favourite food moment in Mongolia was when our team ate at a Chinese hot pot and was completely stumped by the menu, which was kindly translated for us into English from Chinese. It was a free for all, we just started pointing and ordering, having no idea what would arrive at our table. It was a small, family restaurant so everyone got in on the confused Westerners making their peculiar menu selections. When the food came out in courses, we were a little hard pressed about what order the meat and vegetables were supposed to go in the hot pot (and we discovered, we had order way too many items!), but after a little experimenting, we figured it out and ate, hands down, the best meal I had there. Tons of garlic and very spicy. Yum!

When it came to some sort of dessert item, out came the menu again, and we started scratching our heads again. There were some interesting selections none of which made sense in English to have for dessert, so we started the pointing routine again trying to gauge by the waiter's reaction how we were doing...good, yes? We narrowed it down to a couple options and then "ordered", which of course amounted only to gesturing, smiling, and tapping our finger against the greasy, laminated menu card. The waiter stood stock still and gave us a grave look...like Are you the stupidest people on the planet? He wasn't budging and seemed to be telling us that this item was not for sale. What, you don't have this?( I think the item listed as something like 'pancakes'.) We were really keen on 'pancakes' by the time we got round to getting something ordered, so this was a disappointment. We pressed him again. No, pancakes? After a few back and forths, he wavered and finally did the Chinese equivalent of throwing up his hands and giving in. He smiled and went back to the kitchen. A very few minutes later, he emerged from the kitchen with what ended up being the most delicious plum sauce dumplings. Right on! Westerners succeed in decoding menu. We congratulated ourselves on how cross-culturally adept we were. But the waiter, he disappeared again and this time returned with our several orders of 'pancakes'. Down onto the table were placed, a number of small, white bowls filled with little mounds of....dried, fiery red chiles. I am sure, the perfect compliment to our plum dumplings. The whole team sat there, stunned, gaping at the bowls of chiles. And then, gales of discrete laughter at ourselves (re: the whole evening and then the chiles!) and how frustatingly funny the whole business of living in another country can be. You're seriously out of the loop, most of the time.

Anyway, that's my rabbit trail for the day. Enjoy some good Engrish today!