Dish Name Translation Quiz
Thirty-six menu names, four English options each. Choose the one a restaurant would actually use, then read why the others mislead.
A menu translation is right when a waiter understands it and a diner is not misled. Each question gives one Chinese dish and four English names: one that works, and three that sound plausible but send the wrong idea. Thirty-six questions, no timer, explanation after every answer.
Thirty-six dishes, four options each
Answers are scored out of 36. You can restart at any time; the order of the options changes on every run.
Why
Your result
Every answer above is explained on the dish page of this site and in the printable handbook.
Three rules that fix most mistakes
Translate the food, not the image. "Lion head" and "ants climbing a tree" describe a shape; the English should name the meatball and the noodles.
Keep the phonetic name when it is already an English word: kung pao, mapo, char siu, har gow. Replacing them with a literal translation makes the dish harder to recognise.
Never leave fish, meat or offal out of a name that does not contain it. Fish-fragrant has no fish; husband-and-wife lung slices have no lung.