Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Noodle Lessons

The other day I had a craving for ‘pan-meen’ and a kind friend directed me to this little shop carrying some unmemorable name which reputedly serves some mean bowls. After going round and round the blocks of Kota Damansara shophouses, I finally found it nestled among a newer row of shops a couple of roads further up.

Already famished by then, we walked in and were happy to find an empty table. A smiling waitress plonked the menu down, mumbled something and then bolted off to help clear the other tables. An ‘Excuse Me’ with a wave of the hand brought Ms Waitress running back to take our orders and she rattled off in rapid-fire Mandarin. Aisehman….”Sorry, I cannot understand Mandarin.”, I said in Cantonese. Ms Waitress gave a toothy grin and signed to me to wait while she go get someone else.


Another lady came by but before I could even say 'Hi', she mumbled something and just as quickly, she walked away to attend to another table....wrong order or something like that. I needed help with the menu as I can’t read Chinese and the English translation, well….left me scratching my head. How do you read this word on the menu….’Teared'’?


And what in heaven’s name is item no. 204....‘LOR TEARED NOODLES’?


Addendum 1:

Farang Teared Noodle.....errrr....."HAIMEHLEIKAR?" hahahahaha......

Angeles is right...'Farang' in Thai, refers to orang putih/angmoh. And according to Chev, the Chinese words read 'Kuei Lou Pan-Meen'....so, I think it is pasta or something similar.

Addendum 2:

Pan-Meen shops are sprouting like mushrooms after the rain around the Damansara area and last weekend, I saw one shop appropriately named 'MEE PAPAN'. I should have taken a picture of it.

Addendum 3:

I went to the famous Kin Kin Restaurant in KL for chilli pan-meen today....and endured a 'hot' tummy for the whole afternoon resulting from an overdose of chillies. :P






 
posted by nyonyapenang at 12:13 AM, |

38 Comments:

« back home | Post a Comment
  At 2:12 AM Blogger Little Prince said:
haih~ya, itu england bukan-nya sangat the bagus. teared means... koyak pan mee lo.
koyak koyak the flour and boil boil lo. me thinks.

but what the hell is farang teared noodles???
  At 2:17 AM Blogger rainbow angeles said:
kakaka... gua pun rasa itu is koyak mia pan meen... but farang?? the only 'farang' i know is... mat salleh kaka... itu bahasa thai mia...

so, nice ka the pan meen? u had the 'teared' one? i dun like the 'teared' one...
  At 3:29 AM Blogger pearly said:
hi dear :
Teared .... I guess mean use real hand make pan mee
204 lor teared noddle ???? I guess is MIX then hand make pan mee ka hahahhaah.
I like the ang moo noddle kekekekek must ask my hubby to try it the next time we come back . I think is man make by ANG MOO kkeekkek.
  At 4:31 AM Blogger day-dreamer said:
LOL!!! *unavailable for words*
  At 5:24 AM Anonymous Anonymous said:
Tear means you ban ban the noodle then throw in boiling water cook, i tink so becoz my marder oso make "teared" noodle :P
  At 1:29 PM Anonymous Anonymous said:
Talk about the dropping standard of English! Maybe the noodle-maker is crying when making the noodles...and the tears drop into it, hence - teared noodles??? Farang??? Maybe it's "parang" so they use big knives to cut the noodles!!! Gosh!
  At 2:31 PM Blogger Nightwing said:
It will be interesting to know what is going to happen to China during this year's Olimpics...:)

Their menus....:)
  At 4:42 PM Anonymous Anonymous said:
I think hor...since you are eating pan-meen..."teared" means if the mee dough is teared up into pieces instead of running it through a machine. Correct boh?
  At 7:02 PM Blogger Chen said:
faint at the translation
teared noodle = pan noodle
so keng

i lol at the item no 203
farang teared noodle
the chinese name is kuei lou pan mee
kuei lou = ang moh
hahahhaha
  At 7:41 PM Blogger William said:
Laugh until practically "tearing" at the eyes.
  At 9:29 PM Blogger Will said:
hahaha... teared pulak... o_0"
  At 9:39 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Daniel Henry,

ooohhh....koyak pan-meen - then translated to English will be 'torn -plank-noodle' ar?

hahahahaa.....
  At 10:46 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Angeles,

Pan-meen is pan-meen lar...why lar must they go and give funny translations?

That shop mia pan-meen, boleh tahan nia lar but price-wise, it is mahal sikit lor.
  At 10:50 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Pearly,

If they just put 'pan-meen' without those extra poorly-translated words, I think it would be much better.

Angmoh Noodles made BY angmoh FOR angmoh. Ah...must get Derek to try it. hahahahah...
  At 10:51 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Day-Dreamer,

I wonder if the shopowner realise they need a little bit more work on the menu? :D
  At 10:54 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Kopisoh,

'Barn..barn' the noodle...then it should be pull-pull noodle liao. hahhhaa....

Your momma makes yummy mee-hoon-kueh ar. Keep a bowl for me, ok? hahahah
  At 10:56 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Suituapui,

Now you make me wanna cry too....booooohooooo.....
They need English lessons from Cikgu Suituapui.
  At 11:00 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Nightwing,

Get ready for some fun....:D
  At 11:03 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Giddy Tiger,

I think so too...but I think there should not be any problem if they just leave the name as pan-meen...no need for any translation.

BTW, what would the translation for 'hamcheempeng' be?
  At 11:07 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Chev,

Actually there is no need to translate a name, whether it is food name or a person's name.

See, those Italians also never translate their 'linguini/fettucine' or whatever. We just learn to call it by it's name.
  At 11:08 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi William,

Take this paper tissues, please. hahahah
  At 11:09 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Will,

Simply hentam one lar... hahhaha...
  At 1:54 AM Blogger rainbow angeles said:
ahahahaha! kenot be spaghetti la... spaghetti got "teared" wan meh? kakakka... really is "America" kakaka..
  At 9:45 AM Anonymous Anonymous said:
yes yes the "teared" doesn't mean tears dropped but means koyak la...it's traditional pan meen la..that one nice leh...but one of the better ones is from Klang la...
  At 4:53 PM Anonymous Anonymous said:
ooo... if i open a kopi shop.. i'll sell Spank Mee XD
  At 6:44 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Angeles,

Betul jugak cakap you. So kenot be teared spaghetti. Then maybe it is teared noodles cooked angmoh-style... in cheese and milk or tomato or olio.

You think 'pan' or not, to name a dish until the customer also scratching head?
**pan-la-la....pan-la-la...**

hahahahha....
  At 6:47 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Laundryamah,

Why lar they have to go and pandai-pandai do translation. Names..whether human or non-human also no need translate one mar.

Amah...you are a real foodie lar....you are a very reliable good-food directory. hahahahah....
  At 6:51 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi JL,

^O^...spank noodles..hahhaha....
You make it by using the dough to spank someone notti fellas izzit. kakkakaa..

Tell me when your shop is opened...I go and cheer loud-loud.."Spank summore...harder...harder...summore"
  At 10:21 PM Blogger mistipurple said:
past tense of tear lor. haha
  At 11:29 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Mistipurple,

Past tense of tear = torn, no?
hahahahaa.....
  At 1:21 AM Blogger savante said:
You sound like my mom with her desperate search for lam mee.
  At 1:33 AM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Savante,

I gave up on the lam-mee trail....so far no good ones found. :)
  At 2:45 PM Blogger eastcoastlife said:
The dishes on the menu are directly translated from Mandarin.

Teared Noodle (手撕面)here means mee dough that wasn't cut going through a machine, but was made by tearing it into small pieces using hands.

I have such problems when I visit China restaurants. Many angmohs get so confused and frightened by the dishes offered in the menus there. lol
  At 7:00 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi eastcoastlife,

I finally figured it out like what you explained. hahhaha....If the translation is not helping the customers, the towkay should have just stick to pan-meen....no point giving fanciful names that may frightened the customers.
  At 11:17 PM Blogger narrowband said:
I can become siao kia ini trying to figure out what on Earth those mean.

LOL "mee papan" takes the cake :p
  At 12:08 AM Blogger pisang goreng 115,NF said:
at 1st i dun understand at all

but after read the comment
then baru knew that 'teared'

i think is something like

'mee hun kuih' lor.......
  At 4:07 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Narrowband,

Dunno who did the translation for them. It's atrocious.

And that MEE PAPAN shop...sighsss...I have seen quite a few shops with queer names too.
  At 4:08 PM Blogger nyonyapenang said:
Hi Pisanggoreng,

Your right...in Penang, we call it mee-hoon kueh...in KL, it's pan-meen.


« back home | Post a Comment