Thursday, May 30, 2013

Menu translation du jour

Lunch today at l'Entracte de l'Opera, a pleasant and bustling café and brasserie. As I was finishing my delicious poulet fermier, a kindly older British couple was seated near me at a corner table.

Getting straight away to business, they ordered, in high-school French, a bouteille de rosé.  The waiter departed to fetch their wine, and they began to scan the food part of the menu.  They looked quizzically at the specialty of the day:  Souris d'agneau.

"Un souris? What's a souris? Isn't that a smile? A smile of lamb? Whatever could that be?"

"Just ask the waiter, dear."

The waiter returned with their rosé, ceremoniously had monsieur taste the wine.  Then retrieving his pad, "Vous avez décidé?"

The gent looked up through his glasses and asked, "C'est quoi un souris, s'il vous plait?"

"Euuhh, une souris, c'est un petit animal," replied the waited, scrambling his fingers across the tabletop to illustrate a little mouse running.  He searched for a translation.  "Euuh, a moose?"

"A mouse???"  They looked at each other with the-French-are-serving-WHAT? startled expressions.

Never able to mind my  own business, I intervened.

Une souris is indeed a mouse,  une souris d'agneau is a lamb shank.

3 comments:

Margaret said...

Ha ha! Great story, and thank you for the new word!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely divine!
You tell your stories so well...in such a cute...funny way!!
I'm sure your Paris is happy to have you...
Maria

Le Mec hispanique said...

that is funny. In many central american countries, beef shank for osso bucco is called a raton.
Spanish for mouse, and not a rat as in french!. Ironically in other hispanic countries shank is called gato! you cant help but sourire with all this souris stiff!

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