epidermal bread anyone??

Robina and I was on a hunt for decent bread last evening when went to a Taiwanese bakery franchise nearby. Both of us read with jaw-dropping amazement at the english names of the types of bread on offer...
It says "Almond milk of Epidermal Bread" when the chinese name refers to a conventional almond milk bread. Robina's craving for bread was instantly killed by the mental image of a baker shedding "epidermal" flakes aka dandruff on the dough.
the next perplexing bun on offer was a cryptic "coast moat of Song" when it was actually pork floss with dried seaweed (in Chinese). I don think even Google translator would churn out such a weird phrase. A point of mitigation, the other signs were OK like Ham and Cheese bun etc. but the two sure beat the "Anus Hospital" signs that I have seen around the city.

Well, we could expect more language police efforts in Beijing from now till 2008.

From a recent AFP report: "But there has also been criticism of inaccuracies in written English, and the city government recently launched a campaign to improve the quality of translations and remove embarrassing linguistic gaffes.

Teams from the city government are touring the streets correcting street signs and rewriting restaurant menus.

Classic menu offerings, including 'fried crap', 'corrugated iron beef' and 'cow bowel in sauce', are rapidly disappearing.

Also doomed are other linguistic offenders. Beijing's Park of Ethnic Minorities is signposted 'Racist Park', while emergency exits at Beijing's international airport read: 'No entry on peacetime'."

technorati tag:Beijing