Help with menus

Search Amazon.com for Marling Menu Master books for France.

It's small, fits in a side pocket, and will offer translations of all types of food. Takes out the guessing when you sit down to eat.

We have one for Italy that offers translations for eggs, poultry, beef, desserts, antipasti, veggies, etc. Pretty comprehensive for the traveler.

I bought mine used on Amazon.com.

Sue:

I avoid any European location that offers an English language menu. That is not what I am there for.

I do a couple of things to cope:

1. The Marling Menu Master - I have one for France and Italy. They work very well. But do study it BEFORE you get to Europe and it will be much easier.

2. Start searches on the internet for the cuisine of the specific areas you wil be visiting. This can take some time but it really pays off.

I've seen the cathedrals, the ruins and the museums - now I go to Europe to eat great food and drink great wine! Have fun.

I just looked up the Marling Menu Master books for France on Amazon. It was written in 1971, but I guess information like this does not get dated. I'm going to order it for my trip this fall. I already have Rick Steves phrase book that has a menus session. I used it for other countries, and was great! I also always bring a small language map. I bought one for France. This is a good basic guide but wouldn't have nearly as much as Marling since that deals with only menus. I like the Marling suggestion. I'm glad a came across this thread! Thanks!

I'm ordering Marling now. Thanks!

"I just looked up the Marling Menu Master books for France on Amazon. It was written in 1971, but I guess information like this does not get dated."

Given the price and portability of Marling, it's probably still a good buy--although I didn't know it had not been updated since 1971. Having said this, it should be added that a lot has changed in French cuisine in the last 40 years.

Just a note to Jon. Avoiding a restaurant in Europe because they happen to have a menu available in English makes little sense. Perhaps one of their employees or family members thought it would be a good idea. This does not detract from a restaurant being good, it just means they are service oriented. In todays world, English, like it or not is the language used by many people when they travel.

Another reason why they often have it in English is the World Cup or the Olympics. I watched this happen in Frankfurt. All the little neighborhood restaurants started making English menus to make sure that visitors would be comfortable ordering food at their establishment. Pensions, B&B's, and rental apts. are often located in these smaller neighborhoods and during a world class event like the World Cup which was played in so many cities, this was vitally important. So, every city where these games took place throughout Europe may have done similar things.

Sue, sometimes you might just have to ask if one is available, because they might only have one copy. Or they may not know that you do not speak the language and would consider it rude to think that you don't by automatically bringing an English menu just because they hear you speak English. As a restaurant manager in Germany, I would never do this.

Jo -

Good point. I suppose what I meant was avoiding restaurants that just cater to "Tourists". I should not generalize too broadly.

On another point - I took loads of French and some Italian in high school and college but that does not necessarily give one ease with the language of menus. With the Marling Menu Master you can get a pretty solid idea of what the dish being offered actually consists of. For instance, what the main ingredient is - the rest of the description (just like here in the U.S.) is based on the sauce or the preparation or the traditional local identifiers.

I am an adventurous diner - if I know what the main ingredient is I am willing to take my chances from there.

I am at the point where I re-read my Menu Masters before leaving and toss them in my suitcase but on our last trip (2007) I don't recall even using them.

Have fun.

Besides the menu guide (I always bring one), consider stopping by the restaurant you are thinking about before the meal and looking at the menu posted outside (and there is always a menu posted outside). Then you won't feel rushed while translating the menu with your book. Another thing you can do, if you are spending a bit of time in France, is to do flash cards to memorize common menu words. And finally, I don't worry about translating every word. Knowing a couple of the dish's main components is good enough. I actually kind of like it when I'm not entirely sure what the dish will be! Though sometimes I've been really curious, and I've never had a english speaking waiter mind translating one particular word.

I absolutely cringe when I see a waiter translating the entire menu for Americans. I just cannot believe someone could be so rude as to ask a busy waiter to take the time to do that.

I have a Marling that I bought sometime ago thru Amazon. The copyright is 1971, but mine was revised in 2003. chances are you'll receive an updated one as well. I brought it with me last time to Paris, but didn't use it. it can be a little hard to find something in it. I think it's a good tool to study ahead of time so that you only have to look up a few things & not every dish. I'm not a fussy eater, so if I know the main ingredient I'm willing to take a chance. I'm with Christy in that I've had some good dishes that way.

Although guides such as Menu Master and Rick Steves phrase books can help, there is no total solution to translating restaurant menus, because most food is local. Even at home you can have questions about a menu. Like, I'll bet some of you don't know what a "pupusa" is.

The most helpful menus are those that include a short explanation of what the dish contains and how it is prepared. Good restaurants tend to offer this -- even at home.

I do agree that "grilling" the waiter for ten minutes to translate the menu because you don't speak French is unreasonable.

Watch out for price differences between the English menu and the local language one. We saw that--twice!--in Hungary.

Even when there is an English language menu, we always ask for a local language menu as well. Sometimes the English version is hard to understand, and by comparing the English and the local one, we learn more of the local "food language," which comes in handy when dining in places without an English language menu. Oh, and if there is a price difference, you can spot it!

"Watch out for price differences between the English menu and the local language one. We saw that--twice!--in Hungary."

I would immediately walk out of any restaurant I caught doing that! That's the classic "tourist trap".

I've never seen that in France. But, I always use a French menu and eat at non-tourist trap restaurants.

I would not assume that just because an English menu is offered that the restaurant is a tourist trap. Increasingly, it seems to me that English appears to be the lingua franca, and more so perhaps in the hospitality industry. My favorite startegy in any restaurant, here or abroad, is to wander around and check out what other diners have, point to an appealing dish, and take it from there. I am not shy, and not only do I stare at their plates but often chat them up. It's fun... rewarding conversations, convivial company and enough people have offered me tastes of their dinner!!! that I might rework this entire plan to where I just wander, chat, nibble and scoot.

Denny, are you saying that no one has ever objected to you staring at their dinner plate and chatting them up as you roam about the restaurant looking for an idea for your own meal? I can tell you it would make me very unhappy to be intruded upon in such a manner. I think it is downright rude.

I'm with Norma (above post) on that.

Maybe I do tend a tad towards hyperbole. I guess I don't really hover, stare and drool but, no I don't think I've offended anyone...at least no one has objected. I have had many positive and delightful encounters with folks, and often end up sharing drinks or conversations, or walks about town after dinner with new friends. That's all.

Well, that sounds a little less weird but, tell me, is this habit of yours practiced only in the USA or have you done it in, let's say, a nice restaurant in France or Germany?

In Paris, at a bookstore, we picked up "The A-Z of French Food" Dictionnaire Gastronomique Francais-Anglais...An exhaustive compilation of terms from French gastronomy, translated into English, with explanatory texts and historical anecdotes.

Small and pocketable, this never failed us when in Paris. The first time we used it, the Restaurant proprietor borrowed it and asked us where to purchase. I think he was impressed.