When you don't speak the language, how do you order a dish that's not on the regular menu?
Peter Cherches, who writes the blog Word of Mouth, has had high praise for the Flushing restaurant Imperial Palace, and especially for its "exemplary" version of snow pea leaves with crab meat sauce. Recently, before a long-overdue visit to the restaurant, I looked for further recommendations on Chowhound, where I read that at least one diner had a frustrating time making his off-menu order understood. "Clueless waiter" was one diagnosis.
My remedy, inspired by an ad hoc experiment in Xiamen: Download the photo from Word of Mouth, upload it to my iPhone (above), and show it to our server. He knew what we wanted at once (see below, and look for more details in a future post).
As it happened, at our table of eleven I met a fluent Cantonese speaker, and my little menu hack may have been unnecessary, but I'll bear it in mind before future solo excursions. If you try this yourself (I have plenty of photos to work with, but for your personal use only, please), let me know how things turn out!
Great one, Dave. You could also try a photo of a photo.
Posted by: J | January 21, 2009 at 08:58 PM
True, though it's easier to search for an appropriate photo on the web, and downloading rather than re-photographing offers less opportunity for degradation of image quality.
On the other hand, I have any number of books illustrating classic dishes from all over that I wish I could find in New York. And even where language isn't a barrier, a visual aid might help.
Posted by: Dave Cook | January 21, 2009 at 09:08 PM
That is mo'fo'ing awesome. I can speak a little Cantonese but there are times when no matter how I try to explain something that I know the English name of it just doesn't translate properly (from Cantonese into English into Cantonese, because sometimes I don't know the original name). AWESOME. Thank you!!!
Posted by: Yvo | June 04, 2009 at 11:19 AM