Mescaline Salad and Texass Chili

Published on Tuesday, June 24, 2008, by Traci Vogel / Edit Post

If the menu offers “ceaser” salad and “expresso,” do you hightail it out of the restaurant? Washington Post writer Jane Black dreams about sitting down and brandishing a copyediting pen. In the first of what promises to be an “occasional series of rants about dining out,” Black takes on egregious menu typos like “shitake” mushrooms and “mescaline” salad. Such mistakes are increasingly common, the article asserts, because ingredients change more often and dish descriptions have become more complicated. Furthermore, most small restaurants print their menus themselves, instead of going through a designer who might have access to a proofreader.

Thus, we end up with such novelties as Texass chilli and creme bluree, along with the ever-popular cream of leak and potato soup. Chowhounds have found fertile ground in these menu gaffes, but one website claims that these errors really only concern white people. “The presence of an improper apostrophe on a menu can ruin an otherwise delicious meal for a white person,” intones the tongue-in-cheek Stuff White People Like. Perhaps it is a little smug to point out errors like the grocer’s apostrophe, but somebody’s got to fight the battle.

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  • Hmmm. It's troubling that some assume people “of color” don't care about English grammar and spelling, even if the comment is made in jest. I would think a person of color---especially one who is educated and articulate and proud of it---might find that especially troubling and view it as more than just a little arrogant, if not outright racist. Then again, maybe I am just one of those uptight...+READ

    Hmmm. It's troubling that some assume people “of color” don't care about English grammar and spelling, even if the comment is made in jest. I would think a person of color---especially one who is educated and articulate and proud of it---might find that especially troubling and view it as more than just a little arrogant, if not outright racist. Then again, maybe I am just one of those uptight white people who still does give a sheetakee about the language. :-)
    Any way you look at it, these typos are due to sheer ignorance or sloppiness or both. Why would anyone want to propagate that? Watch Jay Leno's "Jay walking" bits sometime. Most discouraging. . .
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onMvL6h36rw
    http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/clips/jaywalking-723/279138/
    http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/clips/jaywalking-916/664902/
    Also worth watching:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e349InBTII-COLLAPSE

  • "did read "Mescaline" for some time, but since my salads never had any psychotropic effect, I thought it prudent to have a word with the produce manager"

    talk about false advertising.

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  • i blame it on illiteracy and laziness.

  • when i first moved to manhattan many years ago, i was working as a writer & editor...so of course i found it excruciating to read any of the delivery menus that made their way to my front door. i vowed never to order from a place if i spotted more than 3 errors on the menu. as a result, i had food delivered, at most, 5 times in a span of 4 years. i'm pretty sure that must be a record for NYC :)...+READ

    when i first moved to manhattan many years ago, i was working as a writer & editor...so of course i found it excruciating to read any of the delivery menus that made their way to my front door. i vowed never to order from a place if i spotted more than 3 errors on the menu. as a result, i had food delivered, at most, 5 times in a span of 4 years. i'm pretty sure that must be a record for NYC :) that's pretty much what turned me into an avid cook - i decided i'd rather prepare my own meals than pay someone who couldn't even bother to respect the ingredients/dishes by spelling them correctly [or hiring someone who could].

    i even considered starting a menu-editing service for restaurants...probably could have made a killing!-COLLAPSE

  • That creme bluree must be one high-def dessert. Or the opposite. A decade ago, I lived around the corner from a small but well-respected upscale Manhattan grocery. The shiny laminated card above the basket of mixed lettuce did read "Mescaline" for some time, but since my salads never had any psychotropic effect, I thought it prudent to have a word with the produce manager.