Made to look like muffins…

Made to look like muffins…

posted on 11 Feb 2020 in Chinglish, Menus

Photo courtesy of Joshua Geyer.
Tray of muffins found in China hotel buffet. 

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Droll not Troll
Droll not Troll
4 years ago

Oat muffins, made with “used” oats.

Running Comment
Running Comment
4 years ago

– Waiter, my horse manure has got muffins in it !
– Well Sir, you should see what we feed the horses.

Marum
Marum
4 years ago

Paddock Cakes.

Droll not Troll
Droll not Troll
4 years ago

Who called the baker a sack of shiat?

Droll not Troll
Droll not Troll
4 years ago

2 mares, 1 cupcake.

Droll not Troll
Droll not Troll
4 years ago

Nevermind the muffins; I want a better look at that fenced cake in the background!

Droll not Troll
Droll not Troll
4 years ago

No, you idiot! I wanted hors d’oeuvres, not horse doo doo!

alexmagnus
alexmagnus
4 years ago

Ah, again Chinese and their “transliteration” of loanwords. Wirdly, there is no established way to write “muffin” in Chinese – both 玛芬 and 马芬 are acceptable. OK, 马 is indeed a horse. 包 is indeed a bag. But how did they come up with manure? 芬 means perfume, sweet smeell or fragrance – pretty much the opposite of the smell of manure :D. Now, there is a word pronounced “fen” and meaning manure (粪), but it’s not only a different character, but also in the wrong tone! Which makes me thinnk: 1) the translator was clearly a human, 2) the… Read more »

DrLex
DrLex
4 years ago

@alexmagnus: Maybve someone knew someone who knows English, and the latter was verbally asked to give the translation for “mafen” without any context and with poor pronunciation of the tones…

Running Comment
Running Comment
4 years ago

@DrLex, 6.29am:
– That’s a bag of horse sh!t !
– No, it’s a muffin.
– That’s what I said, innit ?

PeeBee
PeeBee
4 years ago

Maybe they accidentally translated “Meadow Muffin.”

Algernon
Algernon
4 years ago

When only the best deficant will do.

Algernon
Algernon
4 years ago

Well if you must know, they taste like sh!t

Marum
Marum
4 years ago

@algernon. I’ll defer to your greater experience.

I have no idea what $h1t tastes like.

Peter Chan
Peter Chan
4 years ago

@alexmagnus | 5:31 am | Yes, you’re right on the first part. ‘马芬’ was written in simplified Chinese. The proper, traditional version is ‘馬芬’ and pronounced as ‘ma fun’. It is indeed the phonetic translation of ‘muffin’. there is no proper term for the English word ‘muffin’ because muffins are not part of Chinese culture. ‘馬’ (pronounced as ma) is a horse. ‘芬’ (pronounced as fun) means pleasant smell. However, another very similar sounding word ‘糞’ (pronounced also as fun but with a slightly different tone) means ‘poop/manure’. ‘包’ (pronounced as ‘bao’) has several meanings . . . (a) as… Read more »

Peter Chan
Peter Chan
4 years ago

By the way those things look much more like cup-cakes than muffins.

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