Fact Check

Badly Translated Menu

A badly-garbled English menu.

Published June 20, 2000

Claim:

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 Sources:

    Dalrymple, William.   In Xanadu.

    New York: McKay, David; 1990.   ISBN 0-679-72853-8.




; Sources Also told in:

    Train, John.   Crazy Quilt.

    New York: HarperCollins, 1996.   ISBN 0-06-095503-1   (pp. 13-14).


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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