Unfortunate foreign food names or brands

[grocerytrekker]

I remember trying Calpis drink from a Japanese vending machine, and saying to myself, "this will never translate well in America". You can also get "Hot Calpis".

Do you know any non-English food names that sound awful in English, or vice versa?

I was a linguist once. Very interested in this subject in this global age.

[spades]

In Poland, for a brief time they sold a drink called Fart.

Roughly translated to English, it means "luck".

When I was back there this summer I looked for it, but no such fart.

[grocerytrekker]

still laughing

[BuggySer]

hilarious...can't stop giggling.

[marmite]

I have some Polish Fart! It's awesome. :p

[I_Heart_Penguins]

Aberdeen Nips
Beef Cecils
Black Pudding
Bubble and Squeak
Clapshot
Cullen Skink
Dean's Cream
Fitless Cock
Flummery
Girdle Sponges
Hob Nobs
Huffkins
Hunter's Buns
Love in Disguise
Inky Pinky
Knickerbocker Glory
Marmite
Priddy Oggies
Scouse
Singing Hinnies
Slot
Spotted Dick
Toad-in-the-hole
Wet Nelly

[doogette]

I used to work on a support team that always tried to cajole the UK consultants to bring us Hob-Nobs when they came through the main office. The name may be un fortunate but, heavens they're tastey.

[cookiemonster81]

When I was a 16 year old going to Hungary as an exchange student, I remember trying to explain the concept of Oreo cookies to my 12-year-old host sister, who had only a rudimentary command of spoken English. I must have used the word "cookie" about a dozen times, and she kept giggling. I though she was just nervous.

It turns out that "kuki" in Hungarian - pronounced the same as "cookie" - is slang for penis.

[spades]

...thus making your CH nickname quite intimidating.

[prunefeet]

LMAO

[mojoman]

Now that's funny.

[grocerytrekker]

I've heard a similar story involving a Korean exchange student in Poland at a house with a kindly grandfather. It has nothing to do with food, so I won't mention the word. Well, let's just say he could never address him.

[jennywinker]

When I taught English in Japan, the topic of peanut butter would always eventually come up. To start, it's an odd food concept for Japanese (actually, most of the world, I guess), but it's also a tough lesson in pronunciation, as my students usually came out with "penis butter."

[RicRios]

Quite a few in the link below:

http://www.funnydaze.co.uk/funnies/fu...

[spades]

They have Fart on there! Good stuff.

[grocerytrekker]

Most of these seem intentional. I think the best ones have to be unintentional, and those are what I look for.

[Woodside Al]

I think these are quite real, and the English is wholly unintentional.

[nrxchef]

Jussipussi!!!! Oh My God!!!!

[podz]

There have been some controversial candy names and packages in Finland. The names have been recently changed, but they were in existence for tens of years.

http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=8191

Of course, they were sold in the K supermarket chain:

http://www.saunalahti.fi/seituomi/book388.html

The number of K's in the store's designation indicates it's size, with 1 K being a convenience store and 4 K being a large supermarket. There are a fair number of KKK stores in existence.

Also, in Finland "pussi" means "bag", so it's common to see big bags of chips for sale with the designation of "megapussi" - huge bag.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/kunglee/DSCF1112.jpg

Finally, some funny food name pics (fart drink is even included):

http://tawcan.blogspot.com/2005/06/ti...

[Lobstah]

I am so glad that someone else saw the humor in the Finnish grocery stores, I was there for business a few years ago and sniggered my way through the store, I was sure they had me on camera and were going to get the butterfly net!

[RicRios]

But hey!, let's face it, food manufacturers are a lot more cultured types, linguistically speaking, than car manufacturers. I'm still laughing about the Mitsubishi PAJERO...

"Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors has a sport utility named Mitsubishi Pajero. The original intention was to call the car after a South American wildcat, but the company's failure to check other uses of the word caused many chuckles. In the Americas and in Spain, the vehicle was rebadged as the Montero. (It has since been replaced in North America by the Mitsubishi Endeavor.)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_...

[sundevilpeg]

Can't find "pajero" on the wikipedia entry. A clue, perhaps?

[grocerytrekker]

Apparently, "hacerse una paja" is "to do oneself a straw/pipe"
Hence, "wanker"

[RicRios]

In the wikipedia link above:

Paja directly translates to English as "straw", used in farms for cattle and other animals to lie on. In South America and Panama hacerse la paja (correrse la paja, in Chile and Peru) means to masturbate. In most parts of Central America to masturbate is to pajearse. In South America and Spain is more often used as hacerse una paja. Pajero, or Pajillero in Spain, is a masturbator (wanker) and also can imply a weakling or a fool, due to cultural beliefs that masturbation created mental weakness. In certain countries, such as Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, Pajero (fem. Pajera) can also mean lazy person, and in Guatemala it means liar, "Vos sos bien pajero = you're such a liar". In Venezuela and El Salvador, hablar paja can mean either to talk nonsense "tú solo hablas paja = you're just talking nonsense" or small talk "estuve hablando paja con un amigo = I was talking small talk with a friend".

[sundevilpeg]

Heh heh heh. Thanks, fellas! That is indeed world-class dumb! :o)

[grocerytrekker]

Mango can sound funny in Japanese.

from jardMail I found
Cheap Creamy Powder - Japanese coffee creamer
Libido - Chinese soda
Cat Wetty - Japanese moistened hand towels
I'm Dripper - Japanese instant coffee
Swine - Chinese chocolates
Shocking - Japanese chewing gum

(Let's hope to find more non-English word examples!)

[operagirl]

I was in Brazil last winter, and I had the pleasure of drinking Flesh soda from one of the minibars. I think they were referring to orange pulp, as it was citrus-flavored . . .

[grocerytrekker]

Have you noticed Hunan restaurants like misspelling Hunan?

[prunefeet]

I've seen it spelled "human" several times.

[Pei]

I think a lot of that kind of thing can be blamed on automatic spellcheck. You're typing a menu, and it automatically changes it to human.

[prunefeet]

You could be right! I hate automatic spellcheck for that reason.

[rockycat]

Last week I left a recipe for "Hunan Lamb Chops" laying on my kitchen counter. My neighbor swears she saw it as "Human" lamb chops. Darn! Now my secret's out!

[piccola]

i always wondered how the japanese came up with "pocari sweat"

[grocerytrekker]

From Life's Bloopers site, I found

Homo Sausage beef jerky (Japan)
Fockink liqueur (Netherlands)
Mucos soft drink (Japan)
Pipi orangeade (Yugoslovia)
Pshitt soft drink (France)
Shitto hot spiced pepper sauce (Ghana)
Zit lemon-lime soft drink (Greece)

[fara]

not food, but food related - we started hanging out w/ a Japanese guy and I continually said "chin chin" which is cheers in Italian. come to find out on CH that it refers to genitalia in japanese. he never said a word.

[grocerytrekker]

Chinpoko means the same thing - and a friend whose Italian name is very similar to it had a real hard time in Japan because no one believed it was his name. I wish I could name him, but it wouldn't be funny - to him.

[wyf4lyf]

Let's not forget the British faggot...which is a meatball.

[JMF]

I never heard of faggot meaning a meatball. Just a cigarette or fire tinder.

[wyf4lyf]

I believe that "fag" is the term for cigarette. "Faggot" is the meatball. :) Here's a link that will tell you m ore than you want to know, I'm sure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(...

[AmandaEd]

Not to leave out the British dessert: the spotted dick.

[tachis]

Years ago, our office had a group of South African educators visiting for a week of meetings. Whenever refreshments were brought in, they'd snicker quietly amongst themselves pointing to the bottled water. Eventually, they explained to us that "Naya" (pronounced "nigh-ya")--the brand of water the caterers brought us--sounded a lot like "F*** her" in Afrikaans. A few actually took bottles back home to show friends.

[jlawrence01]

How about the Mexican bread/pastry producer - BIMBO Bread?

[Anne H]

Their trucks deliver all over Chicago, and I laugh every time I see one.

[meatpieking]

Saw a beverage caled SARS. THis was right in the middle of the Sars problem a few years back

[SauceSupreme]

After filling myself on a bowl of ramen at Santouka, I like to peruse the adjoining Japanese supermarket for examples of Engrish.

Pocari sweat is actually kind of good. Kind of like Fresca without the carbonation.

[nrxchef]

I've often noticed that Gatorade tastes like sweat. Maybe pocari is a persons who prodces the drink?

[calla0413]

You are much more adventurous than I am. I would never drink sweat! I do draw the line at some things. LMAO

[blue room]

A brand I've noticed just recently, an orange juice drink called
"EmergenC". Just doesn't seem appropriate for food!

[MaspethMaven]

EmergenC isn't really a food. It's a vitamin C supplement meant to be taken at the onset of illness, i.e. as soon as you feel the sniffles coming on, crack a pack of EmergenC.

[purplescout]

I know this is somewhat tangential, but as a linguist you will probably appreciate it. I once heard a horror story about translations gone bad (as an object lesson in my business about the need to translate and then "back translate").

The original text was the aphorism "The spirit is strong but the flesh is weak."

Translated into Russian, the meaning became "The vodka is strong but the meat is spoiled."

[NovoCuisine]

Cock fish sauce.

[oldhound]

There's a Canadian cereal I've seen here at Stop and Shop called Otio-s. Huh? I'm lazy enough already.

[Leonardo]

Coca Cola has a drink in Japan called Salad Water.

[bijoux16]

there's a Korean cookie called "Couque D'Asse." it's actually a pretty elegant looking cookie, and tasty too... :) and I always feel sort of weird when I see "Krusteaz Baking Mix" at grocery stores. I like crusts, but cake mix... crusty... Krusteaz...

[Das Ubergeek]

Haha! I bought a friend a bag of Couque D'Asses (cooked asses) once.

[Vexorg]

I can understand that. It's the same thing as seeing Hotpoint refrigerators and Frigidaire ovens. It just doesn't sound right for some reason.

There's also Pocky, a Japanese candy that sounds like the result of a disfiguring skin disease, but the stuff seems to be quite popular around here these days.

[nrxchef]

Heinz makes Spotted Dick in a can. Yum.

[doogette]

I always forget the 's on Man's Pocky...without the 's it sounds bad.

[Fleur]

The all time winner,(or loser) has to be PSCHITT, the French soda in a bottle.

Even though the French pronounce the "P" at the beginning of the word, it has made me laugh out loud since I was a little girl.

[Glencora]

I guess it supposed to be the sound of opening the bottle.

[copacetic]

In asia...there's a drink mix much like Ovaltine called Horlick.

[jillp]

Isn't Horlick's available in the US these days? I can remember some twerpy adolescent male companions nearly exploding from laughter when they saw it in a store once.

[Blueicus]

I believe Horlick was the name of the man who invented the malted drink (a caucasian, no less).

[Gary Soup]

Don't forget Horehound candies. I believe that's a flavor, not a brand.

With another thread in mind, I'm surprised no one has taken "Horehound" as a Chowhound screen name.

[prunefeet]

Horehound is an herb that the candies are made out of. Traditional cough remedy I believe. But I think it's Horeshound actually.

[copacetic]

Oh yeah..it's available here. Just go to any of the Monterey Park/SGV cafes...they'll have it.

[MikeLM]

Horlick's has made malt powder for generations and, as far as I know, still do.

Mike

[Woodside Al]

It originated in Britain and is available in most of the English speaking world outside of the U.S. Quite popular in Hong Kong, Singapore, and China itself.

[Pei]

There's a Lebanese bean dish called foul. It's actally pronounced fool, thankfully.

Actually, it's not foul at all. Garlicky, full of spices, warm, and delicious.

[prunefeet]

Favas, yum. Foul Modomes or something like, it always makes me think "foul madames"

[StPauliGirl]

The Asian supermarket sells a brand of iced coffee called God. It's in the same cooler next to Mr. Brown and Pocari Sweat.

[Leonardo]

My Japanese GF loves Pocari Sweat. She has it if ever sick.

This site has some great items:
http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=uncared-ham.jpg&category=Menus&date=2006-11-23
http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=dumping.jpg&category=Menus&date=2006-05-25
http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=soup-full-of-a-ingredient.jpg&category=Menus&date=2006-01-06
http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=lice-omlet.jpg&category=Menus&date=2005-12-29
http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=fried-crap.jpg&category=Menus&date=2005-03-21
http://engrish.com/detail.php?imagena...
(That last one sounds pretty good...mmmm, chocolate beer!

[prunefeet]

The last one is adorable. I love engrish.com, but am concerned that maybe it's offensive. I hope not, cause to me it's charming.

[sailormouth]

In Utah there is a candy, similar to Ricola's only a little sweeter/syrupyer, called "horehound."

[theSauce]

In the early 80's there was a diet pill call AYDS. I just saw it on VH1 Web Junky or Junk over the weekend.

[hercules q. einstein]

I remember a candy called AIDS that they stopped producing in the 80s for obvious reasons.

Not food, but when I lived in Taiwan they sold "Darkie" brand toothpaste with a horrible caricature in blackface on the tube. I never got used to seeing it in the drugstore.

[IndyGirl]

oh, that's bad.

[Woodside Al]

Later on, after many complaints from Americans -- but apparently still a little unclear on the concept -- the name was changed to "Darlie" but the caricature remained on the package.

In recent years the company that owns the brand (Colgate-Palmolive Hong Kong) has lightnend the skin tone of the caricature and now puts only the Chinese name, which has never changed, on the packaging: black person toothpaste.

[theSauce]

I remember using the yellow boxed tooth paste. Along with the yellow boxed cigs call Long Life.

[MaspethMaven]

Here's a link to an ad for the toothpaste

http://static.flickr.com/44/182511259...

[sivyaleah]

They weren't pills, they were chocolate. I remember them.

[sandrina]

As a kid, I'd get a kick out of the Pu Pu Platter at our local Chinese restaurant.

[IndyGirl]

Hah, so did my brother and me! It is rather funny. LOL

[ricepad]

It seems to me that Calpis was renamed "Calpico" because of the marketing problems. I remember the first time my family went to Japan to visit relatives...my brother and I were young, and didn't speak much Japanese, so when an uncle asked (in heavily accented English), "You want ca-ru pee-su?" we looked at each other with worried expressions and replied simultaneously, "Uh...no thanks!"

[rumgum]

I remember when it used to be Calpis. As annoying kids we used to yell around the grocery store, "You want Cow-Piss?".

[thegolferbitch]

Titlis, an Indonesian candy (refreshing and sugar free)...
and Coolpis, a Japanese peach beverage.

[zin1953]

My favorite of all-time was a sparkling Hungarian wine someone once tried to sell me: Budafok. To which I replied, "Budafok cares?"

[MeffaBabe]

Saw a chinese food restaurant one time named "Pho King Restaurant" doesn't translate very well into English... say it out loud a few times and you will see what I mean.

[rumgum]

I think there might be a chain of Pho restaurants with the name, "What The Pho".

[MobyRichard]

There's a British steamed pudding called Spotted Dick. One on-line recipe site includes, in addition to the recipe for the pudding, the following recommendation:

"As you can see, Fanny recommends a nice hot custard to go on your Spotted Dick. I am sure Fanny would never have a Spotted Dick unless it had a nice big blob of nice hot custard on it:"

[rockycat]

Given that "fanny" is a British-ism for the female genitalia, that paragraph has got more of the "nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more" going for it than most of us suspect.

[Das Ubergeek]

Well, if we're going for restaurant names, the worst-named Vietnamese Restaurant in the world is on Garvey Avenue in Rosemead, California: http://www.geekvalley.org/gallery/d/2...

[rumgum]

you win!

[IndyGirl]

that's horrible! LOL

[augustiner]

this bar in korea had "FLESH FLUIT" listed on their menu.

[E Eto]

I always wondered why no one informed the people at Glico that calling a candy product Collon was a bad idea. Not only that, but acutally making their products in tubular shapes as well. Still, it seems like a popular product especially in Japan and Thailand.

http://www.glico.co.jp/collon/index.htm

[SauceSupreme]

It's a shame, because Collon is so tasty. I especially like their green tea variant.

[meamhungry]

And then there's the bakery I used to drive by when I lived in Japan, the "Flesh Bakery". They obviously intended Fresh, but ahhh those wacky Japanese.

[ns538bmk]

Cock Flavoured soup. I guess now it's real, not just flavoured:

http://www.gracefoods.com/site/produc...

And yes, I did try it.

[michael23]

In many restaurants in Japan, an English version of the menu is offered (for those in need).

Though the waiter's descritpion made it sound delicious, I just couldn't bring myslef to order the Crap Soup!

This obviously was a misspelling of Crab, but served for much laughter at our table.

[ali patts]

Amazing how your mind goes blank at just the wrong moment - what are nun's farts really called? (In French)

[Das Ubergeek]

Pets de sœur or pets de nonne. "Pets" is pronounced approximately "pay".

[RicRios]

This reminds me of "Suspiros de Monja" ("Nun's Sighs"), a longuish, cucumber-shaped sweet pastry common in Argentina; and it's obvious counterpart, "Bolas de Fraile" ("Monk's balls"), a rather large-sized beignet.

[Ketchup]

The other way round:
The English word 'bite', means penis in French (pronounced 'bit'). I remember being sent a picture of a sausage shaped pack of dogfood from US or canada, branded "Mega-bite". It indeed looked like one.

[Das Ubergeek]

It's actually spelled "bitte" and pronounced like the red root vegetable. You can imagine the fun we had in German class in French-speaking Switzerland learning the word for "please".

[sivyaleah]

Does this count?

While traveling in Spain, my husband and I came across candy packaged in a small plastic, naked african-american tribal child carrying a spear, called Congoitos.

We couldn't believe it, here in the US it would be considered completely racist and would never see market.

[michael23]

I'm just curious - if you were in Spain, how do you know the child was African-American (as opposed to African-Spanish, or other)?

Sorry, couldn't resist...

[sivyaleah]

Well, it was obvious from the look of the character and the way it was packaged - a spear-holding, large-lipped, very dark skinned, and now that I think of it, it may not be a child, it may actually be more of a pygmy character and it had a picture of an African landscape on the label.

It's really quite something. If I remember, I think it had some kind of chiclet candy in it - but I might be mistaken. We bought it about 5 years back. I really doubt it was African-Spanish but I won't say for sure it wasn't. Whatever the case it was certainly bordering on offensive by US standards.

[Ted in Central NJ]

Michael

I appreciate your humor, even if not everyone gets it!

Ted

[sivyaleah]

Duh, I just got it. I was trying too hard to be sensitive :-)
Guess I should have just said "African" and left it at that LOL

[michael23]

This one is kind of a reverse situation involving food names.

We had some business associates from South Korea visit us - it was the first time in the states. We entertained them most every night, but one night they went out to dinner without us.

While dog is not uncommon in Korea, they knew that Americans don't go for that - so they were very pleasantly surprised to see "hot dog" on the menu.

The one who could speak some english ordered one hot dog for all six of them to share, despite the waiter's attempt to talk them into ordering more.

You can imagine their response when the order came!

[Das Ubergeek]

"Beet" is pronounced the same as the French word for "schlong"... so you can imagine what a Frenchman would think of beet-and-chevre salad.

[funkymonkey]

A good friend went to Sweden a few years ago and brought me back some candy called Plopp. They're chocolate covered caramels, almost like Rolos, but the name had us in stiches for ages. We'd always say, "boy, i need a good plopp."