



“Noticing long lines in front of two hawker stalls, I approached the vendors to see what they were preparing. I decided to ask some people in the line what, exactly, they were ordering. I tried six different times. None of them spoke any English.” Adam Gollner of Vice magazine wrote from Nanjing.

Eventually he found a local who spoke some English, and asked what he was in line for.

“It’s fetal pig," she responded, bouncily.

Fetal pig? Adam contemplated it. Do they open up pregnant sows and pluck little unborn piglets from the womb? Yikes. When she came bounding back, she brought little brown baggies of fetal pig for us.

Nervously opening my bag, I was relieved to realize they contained pig’s feet—not pig’s fetus. She had been pronouncing the plural form of the word “feet” as “fetus,” and the word “feet of” as “fetal,” hence the confusion.





Inspired by Adam’s article, we decided to ask other China expats and travelers on Reddit to tell us their funny or horrible experiences dealing with ordering at Chinese restaurants：

/u/mister_klik: In my first month, I attempted to order vegetable soup and got a bowl of entrails instead. Yuck.

/u/caucasianchinastrug (with the most appropriate username):I’m from Guangdong and ordered what I thought was tofu but was actually pig brains. While pig brains isn’t nearly as an unusual dish in China, it’s a long ways from tofu.





/u/mrtendollarman: I just wanted to get my 锅贴(fried dumplings), but the vendor kept taking other people’s orders first. Luckily a Chinese man behind me in line yelled at the vendor on my behalf until the vendor gave me my order.

/u/irresistiblebadidea： I mistakenly ordered and ATE donkey penis because I pointed to some random item on the menu, which had no reference photos. Initially I just thought it was just horrible beef, but much to my embarrassment, my Chinese friend later informed me what it actually was.





It wasn’t all bad though. One user managed to succeed through pretty creative measures:

/u/centerspace: My friends and I once ordered food successfully at a restaurant with one a Chinese menu by drawing pictures of what we wanted. The older lady who was running the place was very amused

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you avoid these scenarios! Spoonhunt helps users find restaurants, view translated English menus and order with special instructions to prevent language barriers from ruining your dining experience in China. Get started on your next food adventure with the steps below.

Step1: Add Spoonhunt WeChat Account (WeChatID: Spoonhunt). When it asks to share your location, click Yes (it may ask multiple times until it receives your location info from WeChat), then click "Near Me" button on the bottom left.





Step2: In the search bar, type in whatever you are in the mood for, a type of restaurant or a name of a restaurant you’ve heard of. You can filter results based on your location, cuisine, and districts.





Step3: Select a restaurant of your choice, then click "Menu" at the bottom of the page.





Step4. Select what you wish to order by clicking the + signs next to the menu items, then click "Order" on the bottom right corner of the page





Step 5. Show the bilingual order list to your waiter.

If you have any special requests, you can enter it at the bottom then click "Translate".







