Category Archives: food & drink

there and back again

09 Tuesday Oct 2007

Posted by in food & drink, humour, language, tapas

≈ 8 Comments

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Genesis 11:7 from The Brick Testament.

Come, let us go down there and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand each other’s speech.

A couple of days ago I saw this wonderful video over at Ration Reality, showing a film that had been translated from English into French, then into German, then back into French, then back into English using a popular translation website. And I commented there that I thought a similar technique was used for translating restaurant menus in Sevilla. I thought I was joking.

Then today I was having a look at the referrers on my Sevilla Tapas blog, as I am always curious to see how people are finding the place. And I saw something odd.

Someone had used a translator on the Food Translations page (which is a list of Spanish food names translated and described in English) to translate it all into Spanish. And the curious thing was that the words that were originally in Spanish started going a bit wonky when they were ‘re-translated’.

So of course the next step had to be translating the whole thing back into English just to see if this is really how they translate menus here. And you know what? Well, just check it out and decide for yourself. Some of it is almost normal, other bits are totally bizarre.

When things stop making any sense at all just refer back to the Food Translations page. 🙂

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black bastard?

06 Saturday Oct 2007

Posted by in culture, food & drink, language, rants, wtf?

≈ 11 Comments

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Had to start a new category for this – guess which one.

Why on Earth would anyone use this name for anything at all, let alone an energy drink? Any bets on how long they stay in business without a name change?

Over at the Black Bastard Website you can contact them by email and complain, since this choice of brand name seems to be intentionally racist and not simply an example of a cross cultural marketing blunder.

Wandering further around the blogosphere today I also came across this BBC article about an unfortunate name choice for a restaurant in Mumbai.

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~ found on Letters Home To You ~

sara & steve

05 Friday Oct 2007

Posted by in food & drink, friends, fun stuff, life stuff, sevilla, tapas

≈ 21 Comments

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Two very dear friends are coming to visit!

They’re coming tonight and will be in Sevilla for about 10 days. They were last here about three years ago, just before Nog came for his ‘holiday’, so he’s never met them in person. Though we all know each other from h2g2.

So I’m quite excited about seeing them after I finish my classes. No doubt there’ll be quite a few new tapa blog photos to show you before they head back to London. 🙂

~ pic is Best Buddies by Keith Haring ~

the morning after

04 Thursday Oct 2007

Posted by in food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas

≈ 3 Comments

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Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time … 😉

And actually it was well worth it, even though this morning my eyeballs looked like the proverbial two pee-holes in the snow.

What happened was this. Nog and I went out for our usual tapas after finishing our Wednesday evening classes, which is one of our little weekly routines. And we decided to go back to one of our favourite places called Enrique Becerra because I wanted to give the waiters the URL for my Sevilla Tapas blog so they could see the latest photos that I’d taken there. And also to get some more food shots to add to the page.

And while we were eating we heard a couple speaking in English, wondering if they should stay there or go elsewhere. And so I turned around and told them they should definitely stay because the food was excellent. And so we got to talking and I explained about my tapa blog and they totally got into it – offering me to take photos of their food too before they tucked in. Well, one thing led to another (mostly to do with more wine being ordered) and we all ended up spending a lovely and more than somewhat drunken evening together. 🙂

Finally lurched home some time after midnight and so during my first class this morning I was in serious ‘zombie teacher’ mode. But my student thought that my explanation was quite funny and forgave me for being less ‘with it’ than usual.

Anyhow, you can see the photos I took last night (5-11) on the Enrique Becerra page .

poison popcorn!

07 Friday Sep 2007

Posted by in food & drink, health & happiness, life stuff, weird

≈ 13 Comments

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Doctor reports 1st consumer case of microwave popcorn lung

Microwave popcorn lung??? Good heavens. I wondered if I should cancel my standing request for Orville’s , but in fact I prefer the plain flavour (as opposed to ‘butter’ flavoured) and although I’m quite hooked on popcorn I certainly don’t eat two bags a day, nor do I sniff in the fumes like the guy in the article.

I imagine that eating anything to that excess would cause health problems, but apparently factory workers have been suffering from ‘popcorn lung’ – a potentially fatal disease – for years due to constant contact with diacetyl. Yet it took this one consumer to be diagnosed before Big Food did anything about it. Hmmm… perhaps I should consider boycotting ConAgra products altogether.

~ first seen at Wandering Coyote’s ~

~ fab pic from Sid in the City ~

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