Covering one's ass...or jumping on the bandwagon?
 

The front of a menu from a local Chinese restaurant:

http://msdelta.net/~sycamore/cellar/menu.jpg

interesting menu ... i'd say CYA with equal measure of "glad to be in america sincerity" ... immigrants sometimes display a higher level of patriotism than many native-born Americans.

Now there is one thing that maybe billy or one of our other new chinese friends can help with ... the square with the line through it symbol, if I remember what my friend's wife told me, means something about food or eating ... but what does the other one mean? Carp are an especially lucky symbol, IIRC, which is why you often see them associated with businesses.

(The only other chinese character that I recognize is the one that means happy ... and also double happy which means marriage or wedding ... )

[more politically incorrect humor]
I suspect they say, "Please eat here. We do not serve dog."
[/more politically incorrect humor]

No, no. That would be in english. The symbol,that we can't read, would mean "We do serve.....":eek:

From my Chinatown tour: fish are lucky, gold is lucky, so goldfish are extra lucky. Lots of china restaurants put a goldfish tank at the entrance of the room to break up the flow to the door - thus keeping the money in, not giving it an easy path to get out.

Also considered lucky are the cat statues with one raised paw.

Those statues are in honor of the cats who put up a noble fight.

Ya think they could take on Radar in a Constitution battle? ;)

Dunno, but I'd pay good money to see that ...

The top character is "zhong1", or "middle". "China" in Chinese is "zhong1 guo2", or "Middle Country" (often "Middle Kingdom").

The bottom character is "mei3", or "beauty". The US is "mei3 guo2", or "Beautiful Country", but it's actually mostly because "mei3" sounds like the "mer" in "America".

So the two characters are basically saying China America, suggesting a harmonious union of the two, or something like that, which makes sense given the American flag.

TK, is that manderin?

I thought the only difference between Mandarin and Cantonese was the spoken dialect. I thought Chinese characters were universal to all readers. At least, that's how my Chinese classmates taught me.

They also answered my questions about looking up words in a Chinese dictionary.

Fun in Chinese restaurants
 

I once ate Dim Sum in a Chinese restaurant downtown.

Nice place...good food (except the rice wrapped in grape leaves, BLECH!) Even had decent prices, considering the food and service.

One problem, the bill arrived in Chinese, despite the obvious fact that I cannot speak, read or write Chinese. I can use chopsticks well, but that doesn't qualify me to read and check a bill written in a foreign (to me) language. In an annoyed protest, I took a pen and made random marks on the bill, likely changing it to mean totally ludicrous things, paid the number at the bottom, left a good tip and went off.

Hopefully before they came after me with the kitchen knives.

Brian

Didn't know that! Thanks.