Posting to post

I just received an email from Despina (from whom I have heard nothing since I reacted cooly to her announcement that she was returning to Chicago with her beau and could she use my address as a forwarding address?) consisting entirely of an attachment reproducing the full-text of the article at this link. What am I to make of that?

I'm in a pissy mood this morning and I'm contemplating the best way to overcome it. I shall endeavour to plow it into work in the hopes that the resulting glowing cloud of satisfaction will overwhelm and dispel the dark cloud of discontent.

Blast from the past!

( The year is 1992 )

But my Chinese name means "chunk-style"

tyrannio has drawn my attention to a Yunnanese-style restaurant in Chinatown. Anyone else interested in a visit? After all, I don't want to be the only one eating the pig's ear.

It reminded me of my ongoing desire to do a post on the gulf between the English and Chinese names of Chinese restaurants. The place calls itself 红塔山食莊 or "Red Pagoda Mountain Eating Villa" in Chinese, but Spring World in English. Perhaps there's a connexion in the minds of the owners, but it escapes me. (I assume there's a Red Pagoda Mountain in Yunnan, but all Google brings up is pages for cigarettes. It's apparently China's leading brand--and made at a government-owened factory in Yunnan, so perhaps there is an ultimate connexion.)

Similarly, Moon Palace carries the baffling name of 四五六 or "456". I finally got an explanation for this last night from my Mandarin teacher: In one of the Chinese dice games, 4-5-6 is a jackpot roll. Apparently, there are many restaurants out there with such an auspicious name (though a quick Googling fails to bring up any). Very understandable, after a fashion, but why pick the entirely unrelated "Moon Palace" as the English name?

Last week, monshu and I passed by 渝園, a.k.a. Szechwan. Here, the relationship is clear: 渝 is the ancient name of the Jialing River in Sichuan, which empties into the Yangtze at the site of Chongqing. Thus, it's a nickname for that city--something like using "Complutum" for Madrid or "Lutèce" for Paris. A rather literal translation would be "Chungking Garden", but that's not going to say "Szechwan food" to the average joe, thus the alteration.

Addendum: Oh, and as long as tyrannio has gone through the trouble of posting the extensive menu for Spring World, I might as well link to it. Some highlights:

106. "Hong Tashsan" Rabber
111. Unusual Seasonings Chicken
112. Chef's Special Shredded Triple
S14. Preserved Pork w/Leak
S16. Chairman Mao's Pork
301. Braided Whole Fish w/Szechwan Chili Miso Sauce
315. Concubine Prawns
705. Vegetarian Bird Nest
1305. Stir-Fried Beef Tripos
1505. Nine-Story Pagoda Slice
1704. Chengdu Glutinous in Wine Sauce