Recipes for Disaster?

Regular visitors to this cozy little niche of the Internerd will know I find amusement in spelling gaffes on signs, advertisements and product labels, particularly if they lead to double entendres. Sure, it's just a giant eggo (sic) stroke for a syrupy writer. What, can't anyone afford a decent copywriter editor anymore? Or at least an editor name Deloris?

It turns out that English/French expressions are particularly à propos for this post as I was rummaging through my cupboard for something other than cracker crumbs to eat and and read the instructions on the side of this box of Thai Chili Chicken. The first direction in French is to "Sauter poulet". "Jump chicken"? I hope the box at least contains a reliable set of booster cables. Or at least Van Halen, House of Pain or Kris Kross CDs. Naturally, it should have read, "sautée", which, funny enough, is how it's spelled in both languages. I guess they could have saved themselves the translation cost for one word and actually got it right. Then again, this is the same box that lists "Stir fry chicken & vegetable" in English. You know, as though we're back to wartime rations and you can only put one veg into the dish. "Hmm, a lonely carrot this evening?" "No dear, let's try the rutabaga."


There's nothing wrong with this one - I just thought the company's description of its Spicy Thai - compared to its Regular Thai - was pretty witty and to the point.

Who's the winner? Well, let's just call it a Thai.