Menus, Recipes and Food

13 Março 2017, 14:00 • David Alan Prescott

Analysis of only some of the difficulties involved in translating text involving food. Showing of a menu from an exclusive restaurant in Selfridges of London, in which the difficulty would be that of knowing what the food involved actually was (buckwheat grouts, chia jam, cultured ketchup and mung beans, for example) and from a fast food chain in the USA, involving a typical "Haddock" dinner.
Explanation that, in a translation of a novel, when a character eats haddock and french fries we may happily translate this as "peixe frito", "filetes e batatas", "peixe e batatas" as long as this information is not important or vital to the plot or storyline, or to the description of the nature of the character.
But in a menu it is important for the reader to know what is on the menu exactly -- other wise they wouldn't exist in any language -- and menus have become elements of stylistic writing recently in order to accompany the increasingly stylish preparation of food in many meal-providing retail outlets.
Demonstration that knowledge of what food is changes over time. While today's 20-year-old university student  knows what goji berries are this was not the case twenty years ago and is not the case for many people over 50 in Portugal today. The same goes for hamburger, pizza and even such everyday items (now) as kiwi fruits. When, therefore, should we use italics to indicate that we think the reader might not know what the product is?
Brief exercise in class.