中国迎奥运，改菜谱

China renames oddly-named menu items for Olympics
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORL ... c.dishes/index.html
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- What's in a name?
Chinese food

Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked.

When it's a local dish like "Husband and wife's lung slice" or "Chicken without sexual life," lots of furrowed eyebrows on famished foreigners.

So, with the Olympics a few short weeks away, China is giving its cuisine a linguistic makeover.

It is proposing that restaurants change the names of exotic, but bizarrely named, delicacies to make them more delectable for the estimated 50,000 visitors arriving in August for the Summer Games.

The appetizer "Husband and wife's lung slice" is taking on the more appetizing "Beef and ox tripe in chili sauce."
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"Chicken without sexual life" has been transformed into "Steamed pullet."

The government has put down more than 2,000 proposed names in a 170-page book that it has offered to Beijing hotels, according to state media.

"Thanks to the pamphlet, we do not have to struggle to come up with the English translations of dishes any more, which is usually time consuming," a senior manager at the four-star Guangzhou Hotel in downtown Beijing told the Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese say the names of their dishes focus more on appearance than taste or smell. But Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked -- such as pot roast.

The government realizes local names are a matter of taste, but don't want them to get lost in translation.

Hence, the spicy Sichuanese dish "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman" has been bestowed the more palatable "Mapo tofu."

Not everyone is pleased.

"The process of standardizing a menu translation is a double-edged sword," wrote columnist Raymond Zhou in the China Daily newspaper. It "removes the ambiguity and unintended humor" and "takes away the fun and the rich connotation.

"It turns a menu into the equivalent of plain rice, which has the necessary nutrients but is devoid of flavor."

重点：
1，‘童子鸡’被改名为‘蒸汽小母鸡’
2，‘夫妻肺片’被改名为‘辣味番茄酱牛肉牛肚’
3，类似的许多中国传统名菜，因为其原有英文翻译常常让外国人莫不着头脑，而别修改名称。
4，据说，如此一来，菜名可以更好地体现人对食物的感官体验。
5，根据官方媒体，中国政府官员说，多于2000种的推荐菜名已经被提供给饭店。China renames oddly-named menu items for Olympics
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORL ... c.dishes/index.html
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- What's in a name?
Chinese food

Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked.

When it's a local dish like "Husband and wife's lung slice" or "Chicken without sexual life," lots of furrowed eyebrows on famished foreigners.

So, with the Olympics a few short weeks away, China is giving its cuisine a linguistic makeover.

It is proposing that restaurants change the names of exotic, but bizarrely named, delicacies to make them more delectable for the estimated 50,000 visitors arriving in August for the Summer Games.

The appetizer "Husband and wife's lung slice" is taking on the more appetizing "Beef and ox tripe in chili sauce."
Don't Miss

    * Torch security heavy in China's Xinjiang
    * The look of luxe in Beijing

"Chicken without sexual life" has been transformed into "Steamed pullet."

The government has put down more than 2,000 proposed names in a 170-page book that it has offered to Beijing hotels, according to state media.

"Thanks to the pamphlet, we do not have to struggle to come up with the English translations of dishes any more, which is usually time consuming," a senior manager at the four-star Guangzhou Hotel in downtown Beijing told the Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese say the names of their dishes focus more on appearance than taste or smell. But Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked -- such as pot roast.

The government realizes local names are a matter of taste, but don't want them to get lost in translation.

Hence, the spicy Sichuanese dish "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman" has been bestowed the more palatable "Mapo tofu."

Not everyone is pleased.

"The process of standardizing a menu translation is a double-edged sword," wrote columnist Raymond Zhou in the China Daily newspaper. It "removes the ambiguity and unintended humor" and "takes away the fun and the rich connotation.

"It turns a menu into the equivalent of plain rice, which has the necessary nutrients but is devoid of flavor."

重点：
1，‘童子鸡’被改名为‘蒸汽小母鸡’
2，‘夫妻肺片’被改名为‘辣味番茄酱牛肉牛肚’
3，类似的许多中国传统名菜，因为其原有英文翻译常常让外国人莫不着头脑，而别修改名称。
4，据说，如此一来，菜名可以更好地体现人对食物的感官体验。
5，根据官方媒体，中国政府官员说，多于2000种的推荐菜名已经被提供给饭店。