Legend: A foreign restaurant garbles a menu as only non-English speakers can.
Origins: In 1986, writer William Dalrymple finished college and spent his summer retracing the 12,000-mile route from Jerusalem to Xanadu that Marco Polo had (allegedly) traveled 700 years earlier. He published an account of his journey in his book In Xanadu, which contains this vignette about an unforgettable dinner experience he and his traveling companion Laura shared while on the road:
The waiter brought over a grubby document, creased at the corners and covered with tea stains. "Ingliz menu," he said, beaming at Laura. We opened the menu and studied it closely.
Kujuk Ayas Family Restrant INGLIZ MENUYU
SOAP
Ayas soap
Turkish tripte soap
Sheeps foot
Macaront
Water pies
EATS FROM MEAT
Deuner kepab with pi
Kebap with green pe
Kebap in paper
Meat pide
Kebap with mas patato
Samall bits of meat grilled
Almb chops
VEGETABLES
Meat in earthenware stev pot
Stfue goreen pepper
Stuffed squash
Stuffed tomatoes z
Stuffed cabbages lea
Leek with finced meat
Clery
SALAD
Brain salad
Cacik — a drink made ay ay
And cucumber
FRYING PANS
Fried aggs
Scram fried aggs
Scrum fried omlat
Omlat with brain
SWEETS AND FRUITS
Stewed atrawberry
Nightingales nests
Virgin lips
A sweet dish of thinsh of batter with butter
Banane
Meon
Leeches
Last updated: 8 July 2007
Sources:
Dalrymple, William. In Xanadu.
New York: McKay, David; 1990. ISBN 0-679-72853-8.
; Also told in:
Train, John. Crazy Quilt.
New York: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 0-06-095503-1 (pp. 13-14).