Yeah. They could have used a translator with better multi-cultural comprehension.
That reminds me of the “fish stomach soup” that got served one night at one of our Chinese Business Association functions.
what in the world does “acid food” mean??? 
Noah says it’s written in Kangi, and he only reads hiragana and katagana, but he will take the picture in for his teacher to translate.
Missy
Acid food, yummy!!!
First, the signs are in Chinese, not Japanese. Other than the fact that they were apparently shown on Engrish.com, is there any other reason for thinking that they are Japanese? Amar, do you have the link?
It’s literally “sour vegetable dumplings”. I assume the best translation would be “pickled vegetable dumplings”. If you’ve had sushi, you’ve surely had several kinds of pickled vegetables.
The other dish is literally "crab yellow soup dumplings. I think that “crab yellow” is something like “crab roe”.
Somebody needs a new dictionary. (And I don’t have access to mine, yet.)
Thank you Darwin…now it makes more sense to me. And yes, based on your description, I have had “acid food” before
Mmmm…acid food, still yummy. 
OK… here’s my take on the item on the right as translated by my girlfriend.
- it’s Chinese
- It says: pickled (sour) vegetable roll.
The recipe for that dish often has vinegar in it, hence ‘acid food’
On various business trips to Japan, I’ve sometimes ended up having dinner with people who wanted to show off local delicacies (or test the gaijin). I’ve learned that sometimes the best thing to do is try everything, and don’t ask what it is until after you know what it tastes like. 
There have been a few things I’d be just as happy if I never sample again, but I’ve enjoyed quite a few things I’d have probably never ordered on my own.
Crab guts … mmmmmmm!
I grew up in south-east Asia. We ate lots of interesting things. 
Onoe of my favorite down-home Japanese dishes when I was in Akita Prefecture was a spicy stew called motsunikomi. The meat part, I found out, was chicken guts. Didn’t stop me from ordering it afterward! Yum.
Yep its Chinese. This type of steamed dumplings are a speciality in the north (of China), though usually containing less luxurious ingredients than crab roe, like minced pork, chives, chopped bok choi etc. Literally it means “crab roe soup dumpling”. “Soup dumplings” or tang bao, are so-named because apart from containing the meat fillings, the thin dough-skin pouch also contain savoury meat stock within - about a tablespoon of it. When you bite into one of these, the stock juices flow out adding to the texture and the flavour of the dumpling.
“Acid food” or more correctly preserved vegetable rolls are also a northern speciality. Due to the cold weather up north, you get a lot of preserved meats (usually seasoned, dried, and coated with wax) and vegetables (in salt and vinegar). I believe the confusion occurs because the Chinese word for “sour” is also the same as that for “acid”.
I wonder if whole thing was done as a practical joke because there was no way one would confuse roe with “ovary and digestive glands of a crab” even with a Chinese-English dictionary…
I doubt if it’s a joke: I teach Chinese-English translation ot Chinese speakers, and even with relatively sophisticated undergraduates, I see this kind of thing all the time. My guess is that it’s naive usage: someone who thinks that dictionary definitions are the same thing as translations.
And I’m afraid our Chinese-English dictionaries are mostly of quite poor quality. The biggest one was compiled without the assistance of a single native English speaker, and it’s riddled with errors, typos and blatant nonsense.
Mind you, once China gets the English right, it’ll be a lot less fun to visit. The coffee shop of the old Universal Hotel in Guilin used to offer a “Triple Pecker Sandwich” (and I could never quite bring myself to tell them about this…).
www.Engrish.com is a wonderful storehouse of this kind of stuff.
brian
Yes, translations can take you quite far afield. Here are a couple of signs that I saw while living in Thailand:
At a small storefront that did clothing alterations:
“Please drop your pants here for great service”.
Another store:
“Due to the busy nature of our establishment, customers will be executed in strict rotation”.
whoa…
by the away amar, if you’re really after serious Japanese food you gotta go for sushi 
or you could try some Japanese takeouts; “Beef Bowl”, or “Teriyaki Bowl”, is recommended. Uh…do you like rice? 
We have Onigiri (rice ball) sold almost everywhere. Cost $1 each, they come in different fillings – tuna with mayonnaise, yakiniku (grilled beef), ume (Japanese sour plum), salmon and many, many more.
Edited to add;
Ready to cook?
are you kidding? i love japanese food, sushi, i love it, ahhhh.
how about wasabi peas? they are addictive…