The funniest I've come across was actually funny because of a mistranslation on my part! We were on La Gomera in the Canaries for lunch in a restaurant up at the top of the barranco from where we were staying down on the coast and on the menu was something described as a metier or 1/2 metier of the local sausage. So OK, my Spanish was worse than it is now but I thought I knew enough that it if really meant you could order either 50cms or 100 cms of sausage then it would be listed as 'metro' but equally that a 'portion' on a restaurant menu in mainland Spain was usually listed as 'racion'. I knew enough to know that the locals spoke something that was closer to Latin American Spanish than pure Castillian, so came to the conclusion that it was probably a local dialect word for portion.

So the non-English speaking waiter came over to take our order and I felt very proud of myself for ordering in Spanish, including a 'metier' of sausage for my niece and and 1/2 metier for my Mum who wanted only a light meal. Now I should have twigged from the look on the face of the waiter and the fact that he repeated the entire order and asked me if it was correct that something wasn't quite right. But I just replied 'Si' and we waited sipping our drinks for the food. Well it turned out that as well as main courses for my Dad, brother and myself, I had indeed ordered 1.5 metres of a sausage very similar to Cumberland sausage which arrived stretched out on long wooden platters carried on the waiter's shoulders complete with huge quantities of fries and salad! Thankfully he too saw the funny side of it as well and packed up all the surplus sausage and salad in plastic takeaway boxes for us to take home as a doggie bag and it didn't need much supplementing for us to all have some for our tea that evening. So now I know - 'metier' on a Canarian Island menu does in fact mean 'metre' or a 100 cms and not 'portion'. :-). At least now I would know enough Spanish to ask and make sure! The sausage was delicious!

Oh how I wish I'd been there to see your, and others in the restaurants faces, when the sausage made its grand entrance 😁

It was indeed a sight to behold, Glynis, especially as the restaurant wasn't that busy of a mid-week lunchtime! There wasn't much else going on to distract the attention of other customers :-)

Funny story S. 😀

"So now I know - 'metier' on a Canarian Island menu does in fact mean 'metre' or a 100 cms and not 'portion"

Maybe it was just a mix up with pronunciation because metier or métier is a french word, I must confess that I've never seen it used and it isn't in the Spanish dictionaries that I have in my house.

The equivalent Spanish word would be especialidad (speciality) or forte...it describes someone being good at what they do...... in a restaurant setting, sausages are the chefs professional speciality or forte.

http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/metier

A metre = un metro

Sanji x

Sanji, it wasn't a case of mishearing or a mispronuciation - it was printed on the menu as 'metier' without an accent. If it wasn't for the fact that it was repeated as 'metier' and '1/2 metier' I would have assumed at the time that it was perhaps a typo and I've never found 'metier' in a Spanish to English dictionary either. There are very close connections between La Gomera and Venezuela with lots of people from there emigrating to Venezuela for work from the island and emigres returning in later life for their retirement, so that's what made me think it might be a Latin American variant word.

Just like in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America, Gomerans never lisp in words like 'gracias' and the Spanish spoken there could lead to similar misunderstandings for people used to European Spanish. For example, if you order 'ensalada' in Santiago de Cuba you're served chopped up cooked spaghetti and cubes of tinned ham mixed together with mayonnaise. If you want a side order of salad you need to ask for 'vegetales' instead. Another is that prawns are 'camarones' not 'gambas' and you never use 'caliente', especially in the context of personally feeling the heat, in polite company!

I dunno then.
It's not a Latin American variant, like I said, it's French.

Yeah, there are different words used in Latin American Spanish for the same thing used in Castilliano Spanish...... some could get you into trouble in some situations.

"and you never use 'caliente', especially in the context of personally feeling the heat, in polite company!"

You wouldn't in Spain either....if you've got any sense.😀
Tengo sofocos 😀

Sanji x

Seen fish and ships on the menu at Boulogne sur Mer in France....got a photo of it on my photobucket but photobucket isn't working.

On 3rd September 2017 at 03:11pm, Miss Pink said:
<img alt="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YRu5R9X63Ho/UeFQdiPdt-I/AAAAAAAAR0E/IB0vLbdJoCw/s1600/funny-menu-7.jpg" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YRu5R9X63Ho/UeFQdiPdt-I/AAAAAAAAR0E/IB0vLbdJoCw/s1600/funny-menu-7.jpg" />

Hahaha! This made my day.