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A menu, lost in transcription


Alex

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I almost put this in Food Funnies, but decided it deserved its own topic. There's a French restaurant in New York City, The Simone, that uses an elegantly scripted handwritten menu (see below). Menupages, by necessity, uses a standard typeface (also see below). Of course, this means that someone had to read the handwriting -- which, granted in this case, does not always lend itself to quick comprehension -- and convert it to text via the keyboard. This particular someone apparently was in a hurry or didn't know a whole lot about food, or both. Their (possible) embarrassment is our gain:

 

The restaurant's handwritten "Terrine de Maison" became "Terrine de Macaron" (hmm, there's a dessert idea)

Goat Cheese Soufflé became Meat Cheese Souffle

caramelized onions --> caesar onions

Sweetbreads --> Sweet Breads

coarse grain mustard --> cheese grain mustard

parmagiano-reggiano [sic] --> parmagiana, nuggets

Greens --> Stew

preserved lemon --> pressed beds

Scallops seared --> Scallops eared

a sauce of romaine lettuce --> a saute of romaine lettuce

sugarsnaps --> sugargrapes

bread crumbs --> bread crushed

prune --> puree

Chicken (Label Rouge Heritage Breed) --> Chicken (label royal heritage bread)

croquettes of thigh, ham, foie gras, mushroom --> croquettes of high, ham, foiegrass, mushrooms

thigh slow roasted --> high slow roasted

skilled seared --> skillet peared

Lamb, oven roasted domestic rack, a sauté of spring peas, ramps, polpettes --> oven roasted domestic pear, a saute of sprig peas, ramen, solpettes

 

5a5ad66477ee5_TheSimonehandwrittenmenu.thumb.jpg.4b11bc6243bccfe229ba81f18d1cdc3f.jpg

 

 

5a5ad66c683db_TheSimoneMenupages.thumb.jpg.86199b65e4bfeb07b8e3dfeb704b6a8f.jpg

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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It looks to me like someone used the dictation feature on an iPhone or the like.

Edited by Anna N
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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

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1 hour ago, Anna N said:

It looks to me like someone used the dictation feature on an iPhone or the like.

 

 

That was my guess, too. Still, the person apparently didn't bother proofreading -- just like a dismaying number of my former students, some of whom ate "crap cakes" or "porn & beans" for dinner; conducted "taste testes"; asked their "pears" for emotional support; or took up "dog breading" as a hobby. And those are just the food-related ones.

 

In a related vein, a recent email from a local purveyor included this gem: "Under pressure from the popular, large volume producers of Champagne, the French government made the boarders of Champagne larger." Hmm. Were they force-fed foie gras?

Edited by Alex
to add content (log)

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Way back when my DW was a typesetter for a menu printing company. Menu printing companies also print wine lists. They used to get rush jobs for new wine lists and ended up making a parody wine list, The Super Rush Wine List, based on how easy it is to mess things up if you are rushed. We no longer have a copy but I remember one. Wish I could remember more.

 

Graves - served at tomb temperature.

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Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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  • 3 weeks later...

Even the amount of typos and grammatical errors on "reliable" news sites is a disgrace nowadays.

for pity's sake - hire a proof-reader!

(the fact that this site doesn't auto capital when you return a new line annoys me!)

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