Whilst in a café enjoying the beautiful sunshine in Amsterdam recently, I spotted this enticing menu option:
Burger with tawny owl
Ever one for a challenge, my travel buddy (and famous industrial death metal guitarist of The Violation Complex) held no qualms about ordering this rare and endangered lunch.
We really didn't know what to expect when the burger arrived. Would it be a simple mis-translation or could it be something more sinister? We were, after all, in a café opposite Amsterdam's Artis Zoo so the kitchen could potentially have a ready supply of tawny owls...
The dish arrived and after close inspection and dissection we both agreed that it was unlikely to contain any tawny owl.
Disappointed but never beaten, we asked the polite waiter what could be the source of the strange menu listing. Using his immaculate English (which puts us Brits to shame) he explained that it was just a bad translation of spring onions (or scallions for you Yanks). In a quirky twist of hilarity, it turns out that if you add (or remove?) an 'L' from the Dutch word for 'spring onions' the Dutch to English dictionary will give you 'tawny owl'. Oh how we laughed together; the waiter and we - his two pedantic English customers.
As we paid the bill and ambled down the laid-back avenue, I wondered whether we shouldn't have asked for a discount of some kind. Do they have trade description legislation in Holland?
Sunday, June 01, 2008
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1 comments:
Dear Rebecca and pedantic travel buddy:
The Dutch word for spring onion is "bosuitje" and the Dutch word for tawny owl is "bosuiltje". Indeed only an "l" of a difference. Just goes to show that the menu must have been translated by a non-native speaker plus the fact that they probably used a translation programme.
I usually offer my services as a translator through TransL Vertaalbureau - this time FREE.
Liz van Gerrevink
The Netherlands
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