Chinglish Menus Items in Shanghai, China

categories: asia travel

On my recent trip to Shanghai, we found in many restaurants we had to order from a picture menu because the menu was in Chinese. Some restaurants though had restaurants in English as well. And some restaurants had menus in what appeared to be English but sometimes just raised more questions than they answered. These menu items came from a great restaurant whose name I did not get but it is in Shanghai just off of Nanjing Road across the street from the Nanjing Hotel. I would recommend the restaurant but order with care when you see these dishes.

Millet pepper fell in love with small cock

OK, let’s not be childish here. You know they meant chicken and I know they meant chicken. But even so, there seems to be some love story here of unrequited love. The poor pepper. There was something fowl with this relationship from the beginning.

Nanxiang is enveloped for a short time

This sounds like a teaser for the remake of the blog. First Nanxiang, tomorrow the world!

The palace quick-fries dices chickenPowered

Never underestimate the power of this chicken powered dish. Did they make this with Super Chicken? Poor Fred.

The peasant family stir-fries flesh for a short time

Just what did happen to Tiny Tim? How about a like Chianti?

Decayed think gravy fillet

Is it just me or is “decayed” just one of those words that should never appear on the menu?



Booking.com

Do the boiler bullfrog

Many people remember the dance the time warp, but who can forget the call “Let’s do the boiler bullfrog again!”

Fry a fermented bean curd with no result

 

OK, I had no problem with the frying of fermented bean curd, but if it had no result are we just buying the chef’s failure?

Sauteed Sweet Cord with Salted Egg Yolk is ironed

I used to make this at home but it really screwed up my iron.

Shop sign crab

I am guessing maybe “stop sign” sized crab?

Overlord pig knuckles

I for one welcome our knuckle bearing pig overlords.

Spiced salt blows up pig hand

But I do advise them not to touch the spiced salt.

The incense burns screw

I honestly have no idea what this means. Anyone?

Vine hot spice plant chicken

The vegetarian chicken option.

Open space pfiddlehead stewed meat

Apparently made only from free-range pfiddleheads.

This was part of a trip with Amateur Traveler listeners to China, read more at Intrepid Travel China – Review of China Highlights Tour (Beijing, Xian, Suzhou, Shanghai)

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Chris Christensen

by Chris Christensen

Chris Christensen is the creator of the Amateur Traveler blog and podcast. He has been a travel creator since 2005 and has won awards including being named the "Best Independent Travel Journalist" by Travel+Leisure Magazine.

4 Responses to “Chinglish Menus Items in Shanghai, China”

Azeem Ahmed @ Travel Tamed

Says:

lol very funny menu there. I guess you had fun just looking and going through it. Some restaurants drive you crazy sometimes. Also, what you mentioned regarding the language. Yes, some countries are so obsessed with the local language, you just have such a hard time trying to communicate with English!

Ladee

Says:

This is very funny. And, you are so right, I don’t get where some were going. I’ll have to watch for these types of things when I travel.

Randy

Says:

I’ve traveled a lot in Tibet, Nepal, and China and have seen a lot of funny crazy “english”. The main reason is that they have used really cheap bad translation software. A lot of merchants have cheap handheld English translator devices. With the more recent widespread availability of better free software(e.g. Google Translate) things should be better. But it is amusing.

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