Menu of La Florida, Havana, in the late 1970s

Colin has contributed two classics of Galician cuisine, “Mussels to the seaman’s blouse” and “Fondle of tit cheese”, and another kind person has read the great industrial designer Raymond Loewy’s thoroughly entertaining memoir, Never leave well enough alone, and sent in the lunch menu of the Havana café bartended by Constantí Ribalaigua, the Catalan who didn’t invent the daiquiri, but who Loewy nevertheless tried to tempt stateside:

LA FLORIDA


LANCH MENNU


SCAMBBLED EGGES

AMBURGŪESE WITH ONNION

PORKSOP WITH BADKED APLE

COLIFLOWER

ERTITSHOK

WATER SCREWS SALADE [watercress salad]


DIPLOMATIC PUDIN


DRIKS


CUBAN COFE AMERICAN COFE

JIBOL [highball]

Loewy’s marvellous description of pre-revolutionary bar-life leads one to commiserate with the translator, but not excessively.

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Published
Last updated 03/05/2018

This post pre-dates my organ-grinding days, and may be imported from elsewhere.

Barcelona (1399):

English language (462):

Föcked Translation (414): I posted to a light-hearted blog called Fucked Translation over on Blogger from 2007 to 2016, when I was often in Barcelona. Its original subtitle was "What happens when Spanish institutions and businesses give translation contracts to relatives or to some guy in a bar who once went to London and only charges 0.05€/word." I never actually did much Spanish-English translation (most of my work is from Dutch, French and German) but I was intrigued and amused by the hubristic Spanish belief, then common, that nepotism and quality went hand in hand, and by the nemeses that inevitably followed.

La Florida (1): La Florida may refer to:

Spain (1881):

Spanish language (504):

Translation (788):


Comments

  1. They used to do a mean 'Diplomatic Pudin' at the Mojácar Parador in the sixties. I haven't seen one since.

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