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Menu Shenanigans

The Mild Wife and I are both fairly adventurous eaters. We both like trying new foods, and we're perfectly happy to eat something that we've never eaten before. Hell, we have a favorite squab place. Now, there are some foods that one or two of us doesn't like (in my case, bitter melon immediately comes to mind), but that list isn't particularly long. I'm also not sure that there are many foods that end up on both of our "don't like" lists, either.

The point is, it's usually not a big deal for us to go to a restaurant and see something on the menu that surprises us. Usually, we're willing to give it a shot. In my case, it's often a matter of, "well, when else am I ever going to get to try this?" Maybe I like it, maybe I hate it. However, I'll ultimately know from experience what to think. None of this trying to be a fortune teller with my taste buds, especially if I'm trying to judge combinations of foods and spices that I've never had before. That's sort of the point: it's new to me, so I have very little relevant experience from which to draw.

One of the interesting side effects of this is that the Mild Wife and I are usually intrigued by those takeout menus that show up in the mail or people leave on your door. We don't eat out all that much, but we do like checking out what the options are. You might as well have some interesting options when you do go out, y'know?

The latest one we received, however, had one very interesting section:
I've chopped off prices to protect the guilty
I, uh ... just ... what? I sent a picture of this to my siblings, too, and my favorite reaction was basically, "what the?" Yeah, I don't get it, either. I'm pretty sure you can't just grow a chicken on a vine.

As I was typing this up, it occurred to me that this was a case of a bad translation. I'm going to check with someone who reads Chinese (better than I can, at least) to see if there's actually some sense to this. Otherwise, I'm going to avoid that entire section altogether if I ever happen to step foot in that restaurant. I'm not sure I want to risk an aneurysm by thinking about it too much.

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