- The Croatian border guard whose manner changed drastically when I pretended not to understand the language he was insulting me in (NB: I think that this a characteristic of bucolic constables, not of Croatians)
- Hum (pop. 19), the "smallest city in the world," with abundant tartufi and wild asparagus
- Explaining to my daughter that when I tell her to use her head, I do not have Mr Zidane in mind
- Cheese with truffles, pasta with truffles, oil with truffles, the wonders achievable by well trained pigs (see #1)
- Arugula grows by the roadside, as a common weed
- The most unfortunately named restaurant in the world, the Fakin Buffet in Motovun (supply your own joke)
2006-07-13
High points of our vacation
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
border guards in the Balkans insult the locals too! Arugula?!?!
I know, amazing. But wild arugula, up there with wild oregano and wild capers.
This foody aspect sounds so great. And pedagogical, too.
No doubt, but it is hard to get the picture out of my mind of the poor owner standing outside of his restaurant and wondering, "why doesn't anybody want to come to my Fakin Buffet?"
Eric,
I'm understanding the "Fakin Buffet" joke form an English-speaking person's point of view.
But, from a Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian POV, the name is great, I think.
"Fakin" is a guy (always a guy) who's in the "rascal-scoundrel-lazy layabout" range of behaviour. Not a criminal, just a notch below. The "Fakin Buffet" would have a certain appeal, I believe, somewhat akin to a "Sports Bar" back in the States. The two places would draw mainly men except that the food would be better, the beer warmer, and the characters in the buffet more, well, "character"-like.
You're right, of course ... the intralinguistic translation (now I will really get into trouble) I got for "fakin" was "mangup." The worst pronunciation/meaning conflict I ever got into was at a time when I was really craving donuts, and thought I would find them at a place called "Donat" (as in Danube). And I'm not touching the question of what motivates us to offer our visitors a bottle of the very fine Japanese "Yebisu" beer.
Post a Comment