Passing Up the One-Night Stand in Jiangmen: Creative Names and a Taste of Demolition of Cheese River Powder at Yes Cuisine

Yes Cuisine at Diwang Plaza in Jiangmen

So many questions . . .

Should I leap at the opportunity?
Would I regret doing so the next morning?

In the end, I decided to take a pass on the pan-fried one-night stand at the Hong Kong-style restaurant Yes Cuisine (YES茶餐厅), and narrowed the options to two recommended dishes.

Choosing between demolition of cheese river power and bizarre was not easy, but I finally settled on the former. So I raised my hand to get the attention of a restaurant worker. He smiled warmly at me, waved, and then went on his merry way.

Something important was missing.

After recovering from the unexpected yet entertaining response and becoming convinced nothing further was going to result from it, I tried again with another worker. She wasn't as cheerful, but she immediately recognized I was ready to order. Excellent.

Everything was efficient after that, and I soon had a hot plate of demolition of cheese river powder.

Today's noodly lunch

If by "demolition" they meant at a molecular level then they were spot on. Either there was very little cheese to begin with or most of it had decomposed into something not very cheesy. I have had similar experiences with cheese in China before. I'm not sure all of it was really cheese. In any case, if this dish had been topped with more or better quality cheese, I might be a fan.

But at least the taste was passably pleasant, and I finished most of the dish. I only left some of the noodles due to being full enough. For what it is worth, a misguided literal character by character translation of the Chinese word for a wide type of noodles — "河粉" — gives rise to "river powder".

As far as the fish dish, I'd say "pan-fried one-night stand" is actually a good translation of the Chinese — "香煎一夜情". According to recipes for similar dishes, the witty name comes from the fact that the fish is marinated for one night.

For the translation of "比翼脆雙飛" into "bizarre", I am not sure what happened there. It is worth noting that this translation is the first result provided by Google Translate. Baidu Translate's result of "flying brittle with two wings" strikes me as closer to the mark. I will leave it up to the professionals to decide what would work best here.

More than noodle dishes or cheese, I would say the thing to take away from this restaurant is that, yes, there are plenty examples of translation gone wrong on menus in China, even including fried enemas. But that perplexing or entertaining name you see might be a good translation of a name that is creative in Chinese as well.

So don't let an unusual name alone scare you away from a one-night stand, whether pan-fried or steamed.