Are there any skills and methods to translate Chinese food into English?

(a) local dishes can be directly used in Chinese Pinyin:

In Chinese restaurants in America and Europe, transliteration is the most direct way to translate Chinese menus into English. Transliteration is to write the Chinese names of dishes in pinyin, which is simple, direct and distinctive. For example, tofu can be translated as "soybean cheese", but the word "tofu" can be used more. Americans can correctly say "tofu" when ordering food. They know that tofu is good for health. There are also meals such as "Dandan Noodles" and "Wonton", which are directly named in Pinyin and contain a sense of pride that "I have someone". Anyway, there is no corresponding food abroad, so let's use our name.

This method is also common in restaurants in other countries: Japanese sushi, sake and kimchi are all transliterated directly and have been widely used in the west. Nowadays, French champagne and Italian pizza are transliterated from the original flavor. Who doesn't know what those things are now?

(2) Free translation has three stresses:

Needless to say, this is the most laborious translation. There are three free translation methods:

Material-based translation-mainly introduces the main ingredients and ingredients of dishes. First, write down the name of chicken, beef or seafood, and then add the names of ingredients such as vegetables and nuts, such as black sesame and bamboo shoots commonly used in Chinese food. Most foreigners won't make a fuss, and they will eat what they can't make a mistake.

Taste-oriented translation-apart from the ingredients, it is very helpful for foreigners to order food by emphasizing the ingredients of spices and indicating the tastes of pepper, salt, spicy, sweet and sour on the menu. You know, foreigners give Chinese food the reputation of "food eaten with the tongue", and many times they come to eat the taste. Add shallots, sesame seeds and so on. , are characteristic flavor. You might as well write one by one. However, there is a very popular dish "Sweet and Sour Fillet (Chicken)" in North America, which is not exactly the same as China's "Sweet and Sour Fillet". It is golden in color, sweet in taste and smells like juice. Foreigners who are used to this dish may be at a loss when they arrive in China.

Cooking-oriented translation-translating common frying and frying methods into dish names, not only conforms to the tradition of Chinese food, but also shows the art of making Chinese food. The aroma of cooking, the crispness of frying and the lightness of steaming can all be fully displayed in the text.

Overseas, braise in soy sauce is generally made, not ordinary braise in soy sauce, so that foreigners who don't like soy sauce can't order this dish.

(3) Clever use of names and place names:

This kind of translation seems to return to transliteration, but in fact it adds more cultural details. Looking closely at foreign recipes, we will find that many French cheeses and German sausages are marked with the origin and flavor, and even if they appear on English menus, they are spelled in the original text. Therefore, our "West Lake Beef Soup", "Mongolian Barbecue" and "Shanghai Sauced Duck" can also be written in the Chinese phonetic alphabet of these characteristic place names, or "Shanghai style" (Shanghai flavor) can be added to give foreign friends some geographical knowledge by the way.

Similarly, by borrowing the names of Dongpo Meat, Left Rooster, Mapo Tofu and other dishes, we can introduce to foreigners the favorite foods of China poet Su Dongpo, famous general Zuo and other people, as well as the specialties of Sichuan expert grandma, so as to increase interesting topics and communication during dining.

Two points:

1. Using local common names and cooking methods can get twice the result with half the effort. For example, if "barbecued pork" is written as "BBQ barbecue" (barbecue with thick sauce), North Americans will get the message. The "Dutch bean" we often say is called "snow bean" in the United States and Canada, so we should pay attention to it when translating.

2. Our Chinese nation has always been a country of etiquette, so we should try our best to avoid words such as violence and sex. For example, "broiler chicken" can be written as "very tender chicken", and some restaurants will be laughed at if they translate it into "chicken that has never had sex". I think our ancestors invented this dish only to flaunt the freshness and smoothness of the materials. No one wants to inquire about the private life of the baby chick.

For example:

Choose one of the three translations of kung pao chicken. China food names can be translated into English in many different ways. For example, there are three translations of the dish "kung pao chicken":

■ transliteration: Bao Gong Ji (kung pao chicken)

■ Peanut fried Chen Chi cube (peanut fried chicken)

■ Taste-oriented translation: Chicken with Chili sauce.