This led to a debate about how to translate menus. I am sensitive to cultural as well as linguistic differences (I will never forget zestaw surówek translated as 'set of rawnesses' in the Orbis Hotel, Tychy, in 1989). Literal translation does not work here... Goulash of HeartTongue in SauceLungs, sour-stylePoultry StomachsLittle Liver
No. None of the above work (or do they?) Maybe we should reach for French culinary designations?
Goulache de coeurLangue de boeuf en saucePoumon en sauce aigreEstomacs de volaillePetit foie
But this would entirely deviate from the idea of suggesting hearty Polish mountain fare made from locally-obtained offal.
Anyone care to have a stab? Idea is to convey what the ingredients are, while somehow keeping it sounding appetising...
Incidentally, one of the guests staying at Dobra, Pan Andrzej, remembers Bar pod Cyckiem being called that back in the mid-1960s, when he was a student hitch-hiker travelling the DK28 route. And when Pope John Paul II visited these parts, a local priest decided that the Bar's name may well offend the Pontiff's eye, and so the 'y', 'c' and 'k' were painted over, replaced by dots which are still visible to this day,
French menu language is the stuff of nightmares. Each cut of each animal has a special name that you only ever come across in restaurants. I still have to ask for explanations every time we go out for dinner.
ReplyDeleteI think the only reason it sounds funny in your English translation is because we don't habitually eat that kind of thing - or if we do, we give it a funny euphemistic name, like sweetbreads (what are sweetbreads anyway?!). But you quite often get things like devilled kidneys, no?
Just to pick a nit, the correct spelling would be "de coeur" and "petit foie".
ReplyDeleteUsing French (or Italian, or Spanish) for the English version of this particular menu may look like a good idea from a customer's point of view, but personally I think if you're ballsy enough to sell animal innards as food, you should also have the guts to call them what they are.
This kind of offering would make me want to puke even after spending two weeks lost in the mountains, but the owner certainly deserves props for the bar's name. :-)
@ Outsider - thanks to the nit-picking - both errors duly corrected.
ReplyDelete@ Pinolona - 'lights' - another English euphemism (lungs) - an ingredient of haggis.
A slightly different perspective - making it sound interesting:
ReplyDeleteHearty hotpot
Saucy tongue
Acid taste in your lungs
Fowl stomachs
Live(r) a little
It seems to work for cocktails.
Thinking of cocktails, 'a long, sharp chew against the stomach wall' could fit in there as well.
ReplyDelete