Norris Family News

Lost in Translation...

Apparently it is traditional to eat tamales and pozole at Christmas time in Hispanic communities. We took many dozen tamales to Agua Viva men’s rehab to eat with them at their Christmas party on Christmas eve eve (that’s the evening before Christmas eve), so for our own Christmas at home we made pozole. I had this simple stew at my work Christmas party, and was eager to try my hand at it. It has meat and hominy in a nice broth, and you can eat it with shredded cabbage, radishes, onions, cilantro etc. rolled in a tortilla or out of a bowl. I found a recipe on the internet which looked authentic due to the picture of a little abuelita (grandma).

I thought I could understand the Spanish recipe fine, but to make sure I accepted the service of an automatic translator. The results were rather breathtaking. The top of the page reassured me in my native language “You Prescribe Pozole.” (The word for prescription and recipe are the same in Spanish.) The first ingredient was described as chicken “itched in pieces,” and the broth was mostly “cold water rooms in barracks.” At one point, I was instructed to “tape partially” the cooking ingredients. The crowning blow was the last set of instructions, and I quote, ”Carefully it removes to the chicken and the pig and lets cool. When they are the sufficiently cold thing, it clears pellejo, it bones the chicken and later in crumbles the chicken and the pig using two possesors.” I don’t think this automatic translator can be recommended as very  sensitive to Spanish grammar or phraseology. It is interesting that it translates “tenedor” as “possessor”…”tener” is the verb for “to have,” and I’m sure that’s the source of this poetic term for the common fork. Anyway, the pozole turned out fine in spite of the language barrier.

--Erika