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A restaurant in Beijing has apparently tried to bring a bit of the Lion City to the home of the Forbidden City.
Unfortunately, there are major hiccups in everything from the knock-off Singapore Airlines kebaya uniforms to the puzzling names of "Singaporean" dishes.
Dishes with unintelligible names
Arthur Pang, a Malaysian living in Beijing, shared photos of the menu of the restaurant — named "Borderless" — on Facebook on Monday (Apr. 18).
Spelling mistakes
There were issues with the spelling of some of the names, but at least the food looked not too off:
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
Strange translations
A few of the dishes were translated very oddly and too literally.
For example, this rib dish turned into "grasp the sand bone":
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
And this dish that appears to be prata was simply named "Lion city throw bread".
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
Inaccurate names
However, that was not all. Some of the food items listed on the menu were simply, well, wrong.
Somehow, fried rice became "Singapore Fried bee hoon".
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
And the vegetable sambal kangkong was called tauhu goreng, which is fried tofu.
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
The real tauhu goreng was also available on the menu, but to order that, you would have to ask for "Fried Tofu W ith Minced Malay Meat".
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
And of course, there's the classic Singaporean dish that we all know and love: Scalded Romaine Lettuce, which looks like raw (?) broccoli in a bowl and garnished with an ice cube.
The menu indicates that this "Scalded Romain Lettuce" is in fact offered blanched, fried with garlic, or with sambal.
Yum. Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
SIA-esque uniforms
Pang also captured several photos of what appears to be another element of the restaurant's attempts to create a Singapore-like ambiance — the restaurant's staff dressed in the sarong kebaya, reminiscent of Singapore Airlines' stewardesses.
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
Photo via Facebook/Arthur Pang.
Shared more than 4,000 times
Within 10 hours of Pang publishing the photos, the post has been shared more than 4,300 times.
The comments and shares were full of Singaporeans lamenting the mistranslations and poking fun at the inaccuracies in the dishes.
Many also criticised the wait staff's uniforms, with some commenters saying that it damages Singapore Airlines' reputation.
The original post can be viewed here:
Top photos via Facebook/Arthur Pang.