Que Dice?
Lunch today was at Baja Fresh in Bend. We like trying out places we haven't been before. On the way in, I saw an ad for their new churros.
You may have noticed that I like to put foreign words and phrases in italics, as I did above. I guess it's the journalist in me. Likewise, when I went to order some churros after lunch, I gave it the Spanish pronunciation. I rolled the R's and ended it with an S sound, not a Z.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"I'd like some churros," I replied.
What's that, you say? Okay, you're right. Maybe I was showing off a little. But mostly I just like saying things the right way. It can be irritating to others sometimes, like when I pronounce crepes as "krepps" instead of the Amurrican way, "crapes". Yes, I'm a dork.
So when I ordered the churros, what happened next?
"¿Cuantos quiere?" he asked.
"One."
"¿Su nombre?"
"Dave."
So, to recap, I asked for some churros, I asked in English, and he switched to Spanish. I answered his questions in English, but his questions were all in Spanish. Is there any significance to this? Was he getting back at me, or teasing me, or was it completely innocent? Did he think I was a jerk for giving churros a Spanish pronunciation? Is that even a Spanish word? Maybe it was made up by Taco Bell or someone.
The embarrassing thing is, each time he asked me a question there was a split second delay as I waited for my brain to translate for me. I'm such a dork.
Oh, yeah. The churros were good. 
Posted by Dave Blog Tag: Chatter
Posted 6/03/2007 07:48:00 PM
L
On 6/03/2007 10:09 PM, 
Melissa said...
On 6/03/2007 10:19 PM, dkgoodman said...
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9 Comments:
Sometimes when a patient understands some English, but doesn't speak it, we will communicate the same way. I understand some Spanish, but don't speak it, so I talk in English and the patient talks in Spanish. It's the only way to communicate.
I used to be a waitress in a restaurant that served turkey crepes. Every once in a while a customer would ask for turkey craps. I'm not sure if that was a joke or if they really thought crepes were pronounced as craps.
Was it the Magic Pan in the Promenade? I used to love their turkey divan.
And if you are going to emphasize the churros with the roll of your tongue, you could always fake another answer with "Charo : coochie, coochie".
It's always better than a blank expression.
No photo? Isn't a Churros the cinnamon and sugar, deep fried pastry thingy that you get at Disneyland?
I am not a fan of people attempting to speak in another language when talking to their waitstaff IF they can't speak anything other than saying thank you and please. I find it annoying.
But I do laugh when someone says something trying to sound cool and then the waiter just goes off in spanish or italian and the customer is just sitting there not knowing what to do...ahhh good times.
-BOR
That's a good description of a churro. I'd have taken a photo, but I was too busy eating it. :) We buy frozen churros at the market sometimes. They're not as good as fresh, of course, but they're still so good it's evil.
I guess they originated in Spain (following the link above).
"Is there any significance to this? Was he getting back at me, or teasing me, or was it completely innocent? Did he think I was a jerk for giving churros a Spanish pronunciation? Is that even a Spanish word?"
As Rusty is fond of saying to me, "Don't you think that you're overanalyzing this a bit?"
;)
And just what do you mean by that? ;)
Cute.
::chuckle::
No, it wasn't The Magic Pan, it was IHOP.
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