a dish by any other name...

[miriam1978]

For the summer Olympics, Beijing hotels and restaurants are rewriting menus, giving dishes Western-friendly names. Personally, I think this sucks. And not just because "chicken with no sexual life" makes me very, very curious. Couldn't they just add brief descriptions below the names instead of replacing them? Leave a comment

Comments

[caelfinn]

I love some of those names! If I'm remembering correctly a pullet is a female chicken less than one year old so that's why she hasn't had "any sexual life" :).

[anonymous]

I have mixed feelings about this. The writer (and kitsch-lover) in me thinks it sucks. Appetizing or not, replacing "bean curd made by a pock-marked woman" suggests an interesting story that the better-known name, "Ma Po Tofu," just doesn't

[miriam1978]

Good points. I guess that what I found offensive about the idea of changing the names is that it caters entirely to a Western way of thinking about food and blocks any access to a more associative language or any kind of genuine experience in China. Of course you're right that most tourists (especially Americans), wherever they go, are going to misunderstand the culture around them and likely poke some fun at the differences between it and their own. But changing the entire way you name dishes in one's own country in order to prevent this misunderstanding kind of forces a specific, limited view. And I don't think it's protectiveness that inspires this; I think it's convenience for the foreign consumer and the pressure/desire to make a buck because people are going to eat where they feel comfortable and can understand the menu. Maybe I shouldn't squirm at comfort, but I feel like "travelers" who never want to leave the shadow of the Golden Arch are not really traveling at all anyway - just paying a lot of money to fly somewhere that