Crap and Garbage

This has to go down as one of the all time greatest mix-ups in Romanian-English. While we were on our retreat, the owner of the B&B would check with us each day about what time we wanted dinner. One day he came in to ask if we would be ok to have fish for dinner. I remembered this from the last time we were there and I wholeheartedly nodded affirmation. And he said, "And would you like the sauce of garbage with it?"

Great. Big. Pause.

We were all racking our brains to figure out what he could possible mean. And trying our hardest not to laugh. Sauce of GARBAGE? Oh wait, now we're laughing hysterically. Bless his sweet heart for having a good spirit. I finally said, "Do you mean sauce of GARLIC?" Ahh ahh Yes. We all had a good chuckle at that one. And immediately after he left I said, maybe that means we'll be having crap with garbage. More laughter.

Let me explain. Not only are garbage and garlic somewhat similar in English, they are in Romanian as well. Garbage is Gunoi and Garlic is Usturoi (they rhyme). Furthermore, the word for Carp (very commonly eaten here) is Crap. I still giggle and point like a small child when I go to a restaurant and see Crap on the menu. So it was entirely possible that he could have asked if we wanted Crap with Garbage... errr Usturoi.

But it was in fact far from crap or garbage. A very tasty trout and glorious garlic (with mamaliga on the side!). You can see the remains below. Yum yum yum.