I remember the first time I encountered a culinary "did I order that?" moment while travelling. It was Tokyo, 1985 and the menu said "ham and cheese sandwich". Let's not even go down the path of why my (at that point in time) uneducated palate was ordering a ham and cheese sandwich in Tokyo. Suffice it to say that I was young and from a small town. Foreign food experiences were limited to Boston Pizza and sweet and sour pork at the local chinese all you can eat buffet.
What arrived on my plate that day in Tokyo when my order was fulfilled was a ham sandwich and a cheese sandwich. Hmmm...not quite what I was expecting...
My latest lost in translation happened just the other week at the W Sentosa Cove in Singapore- a lovely hotel on Sentosa Island. My room service breakfast offered "almond butter" to go with my toast. Fabulous, I thought. A healthier choicethan peanut butter - sign me up. What arrived, however, was regular butter topped with slivered almonds. Hmmm....
