Beijing restaurant serves "Wikipedia"

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, December 3, 2007 4:52 PM | permalink

Jim Benson enjoyed his "stir-fried wikipedia," served at a restaurant in Beijing. Link (Via Japundit) (Thanks, Len!)

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#1 posted by Tedly Teddington

, December 3, 2007 5:20 PM

I've had their wikipedia. It's almost as good as Lunchballz!

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#2 posted by Sudasana , December 3, 2007 5:32 PM

The work they're translating as "wikipedia" is 雞樅 jicong, apparently a type of fungus native to Yunnan province. Google translate gives "Zongyang", and there's no English Wikipedia page on it, so it's a mystery where that word was pulled from. Picture here.

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#3 posted by Registrado , December 3, 2007 5:59 PM

Does it come with Jimmy Wales' Own Special Sauce?

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#4 posted by JoshuaZ , December 3, 2007 6:23 PM

Wow, and only a few days about a recent Questionable Content that advertised a similar food:

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1023

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#5 posted by JY Yang

, December 3, 2007 6:39 PM

@＃2 posted by Sudasana:

After linking seemed to imply that the scientific name of the fungus in question is either Collybia albuminosa or Termitomyces albuminosus, or... "chicken flavored mushroom". No, not very scientific. In any case it's some kind of rare fungus that only grows in the mountains of the Yunnan province. Nothing to shed light on how they came up with 'wikipedia'. 鸡枞 looks just like 'chicken fungus' to me.

Apparently one of the other names for it is "chicken foot mushroom" so maybe that's where the 'pedia' part came from?

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#6 posted by JKG

, December 3, 2007 7:08 PM

I bet its del.icio.us

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#7 posted by Nora

, December 3, 2007 7:23 PM

The steamed egg dish that anyone can edit!

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#8 posted by Tian

, December 3, 2007 7:24 PM

That is nothing. I dare you to try this "fuck the frog rice" dish from a cafe in Shanghai, China:

http://www.tian.cc/2007/11/fuckthefrogrice.html

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#9 posted by W. James Au

, December 3, 2007 7:26 PM

If you don't agree with the vegetables in the stir fry Wikipedia, you can remove them and add your own, and your changes will be tracked with a grease pencil on the tablecloth. Careful, because the kitchen staff will vote on your additions, and if you can't provide a source for your veggies, they'll quickly restore your plate to its original form.

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#10 posted by Halloween Jack , December 3, 2007 7:49 PM

I'd like mine with troll eyes, vowels on the side.

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#11 posted by Dan

, December 3, 2007 8:13 PM

That's an especially baffling case of Engrish run amok.

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#12 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

, December 3, 2007 8:13 PM

Jy Yang (5):

鸡枞 looks just like 'chicken fungus' to me.
Apparently one of the other names for it is "chicken foot mushroom" so maybe that's where the 'pedia' part came from?

Right! It's Chikipedia!

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#13 posted by doktor tchock

, December 3, 2007 9:35 PM

to #12 - congrats, you got an audible laugh out of me. good show, good show.

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#14 posted by tp1024 , December 3, 2007 10:37 PM

Now that's an easy one. "Per pedes" means to walk by foot. Pedes obviously means something like foot. And getting from pedia to pedes to foot to a chinese "chicken foot mushroom" should be obvious ... ;)

Since both "pedia" and "pedes" are of latin origin it could have been mixed up somehow. Try translating something to chinese and have it read back to you in english - you'll probably do worse. ;) If you really don't want to be understood: instead of writing, try reading it out aloud.

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#15 posted by Patapete , December 3, 2007 11:06 PM

Now you can have your wiki and eat it too!

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#16 posted by semiotix , December 3, 2007 11:37 PM

The fine print is troubling:

"The tastiness of this item is disputed. Please see the waiter for a discussion. It has been suggested that this item be merged with 'an order of spring rolls.'"

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#17 posted by js7a , December 3, 2007 11:53 PM

[tasting needed]

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#18 posted by xiaosquared , December 4, 2007 12:45 AM

I saw BBW Wikipedia at a restaurant in Dalian this summer.

http://web.mit.edu/x_x/www/uploaded_images/CIMG0912-781329.JPG

It turned out that it was squid. Here's me with a plate of it: http://web.mit.edu/x_x/www/uploaded_images/CIMG0844-750896.JPG

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#19 posted by Paul D , December 4, 2007 4:12 AM

And here I thought Wikipedia was banned in China. It turns out you can get it fresh in Beijing restaurants!

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#20 posted by Hjalprek , December 4, 2007 4:26 AM

I find those mushrooms far too radical for my liking. Can I have stir-fried 'conservapedia' please?

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#21 posted by Sudasana , December 4, 2007 4:49 AM

Maybe this is just the English translation company stumped for a word and putting in something that's obscure enough (among Chinese restaurant managers anyway) to pass for the correct English translation? It would be familiar to anyone using the internet to look up translations, and if it's being used to translate squid of all things then the feet->pedia connection seems less likely.

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#22 posted by mano negra , December 4, 2007 6:52 AM

Here are two more: http://sexybeijing.tv/new/eblog/default.asp?view=plink&id=127
http://flickr.com/photos/goodape/460763315/

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#23 posted by Robert , December 4, 2007 7:43 AM

Wasn't there a move by China to stamp out bad English translations ahead of the Olympics?

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#24 posted by acb

, December 4, 2007 7:58 AM

This is not the first time this has happened; two years ago, a French restaurant in Taiwan listed cheesecake as "wikipedia".

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#25 posted by Doomstalk , December 4, 2007 8:04 AM

Wikipedia is a dish best served cold... or is that revenge? I always get those two mixed up.

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#26 posted by Adam Rakunas

, December 4, 2007 8:25 AM

Better that than the Farked Noodles.

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#27 posted by woolie , December 4, 2007 12:55 PM

What machine translation program is causing these strange errors I wonder? I asked a chinese friend -- one instance was "chicken", another instance was "squid" (the one linked in the comments.)

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#28 posted by spt3125 , December 4, 2007 4:46 PM

I think i may have found a plausible explanation:

Google "雞樅". Scroll down a bit, and what word jumps out at you?

The first search result* to have any English words in its title is "雞樅- Wikipedia".

It's easy to imagine a non-English speaker seeing this and mistaking it for a translation!

This also works for #24's cheesecake (起士蛋糕). Probably explains the other cases as well, since Wikipedia often comes up near the top in a Google search for a single word or common phrase.

*(Interestingly, the Wikipedia link is in the top 10 search results when you use Google in English or Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), but with Google in Simplified Chinese (as used in mainland China) it's on like the 5th page of search results.)

#22's Wekipidia bread has me truly baffled, though...

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#29 posted by codeman38

, December 4, 2007 9:06 PM

SPT3125: Y'know, I think you're on to something here. The first result for "鱿鱼" (squid), as seen in #18, is also from Wikipedia.

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#30 posted by jahknow , December 6, 2007 8:18 AM

http://www.rahoi.com/2006/03/may-i-take-your-order/

You haven't lived until you've had #1313, the "Benumbed hot vegetables fries fuck silk."