Chicken Fried Steak

My favoritest blog right now is Hanzi Smatter. I have wasted a huge amount of potentially valuable time reading through the archives. The proprietor has a fabulous collection of misdrawn and mistranslated characters inked into the flesh of the unwary and the gullible.

J and I have a long running joke about people who get Hanzi or Kanji tattoos. When someone has characters tattooed on them, we refer to it as chicken fried steak. If I recall correctly, the original conversation was that the individual with the tattoo had no idea what it meant. Trusting the flash on a tattoo shop wall for an accurate translation guaranteed you were going to be walking around with a tattoo saying “Chicken Fried Steak – 3.99” for the rest of your life. As things turn out, that's not far from the truth. Judging from the archives, chicken fried steak would actually be a blessing compared to the meaning of some of the tattoos.

I’m contemplating emailing Tian and asking for a translation of chicken fried steak. The joke’s already been done, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still funny.