Sweat and Sour

Many Hong Kong menus with English often have typos, most of which are simple spelling mistakes or omissions, and which don't raise eyebrows.

Such mistakes are to be expected; it's a result of poor translation from the outset, or not using printers with proof-readers fluent in English.

You can be certain if North American restaurants tried to translate their menus into Chinese without help, the results wouldn't just be worse, they'd be disastrous.

Still, while perusing the lunch selections at a Yunnanese restaurant, one item caught my eye: Sweat and sour chicken.

The mental image of a sweaty chef adding his own special "sauce" to the dish grossed me out for a moment, but after so many years here, I just laughed it off. Even mainland Chinese restaurant menus don't bother us anymore, though many include dog dishes.

So should you find yourself visiting Hong Kong and spy something nasty-sounding on a menu, you can rest assured no one's out to make you ill.

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