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Jichang Lulu reports that an eating establishment in London has chosen the name qī wèi 柒味 ("seven flavors"). This comes via Yuan Chan on Twitter:

I'm pretty sure the owners of this London restaurant aren't and don't understand #Cantonese.

Chinese name literally means smell/flavour of male genitals in Canto pic.twitter.com/dzLWJzxOWI — Yuen Chan (@xinwenxiaojie) August 15, 2018

For "qī wèi 柒味", they surely meant "seven flavors", but — as Yuan Chan points out — in Cantonese that comes across as sapor pudendi virilis. Cf. "The perils of '7' and '9' in Cantonese" (9/28/16).

She adds: "There is more than one Chinese language. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Bravo, Yuan Chan, for speaking the truth! Cantonese is not a "mere dialect of Mandarin".

Lulu comments in hastily composed Latin:

…dulcem pudendi daps saporem iamne virilis an elaborat? (Cf. Hor. C. 3.1)

"doesn't now the banquet create/provide/give the sweet smell/taste of the male pudendum?"

A play on the Damocles allusion in Horace's Ode 3.1, where “Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious relish to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword hangs” in one translation.

There is indeed a "Seveni Bar & Restaurant 柒味" in London, where they clearly were oblivious of what cat1 mei6 柒味 means in Cantonese.

Readings

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