I’m sure we’ve all seen busted English now and then, but it’s pretty hard to beat this one with such classics as “Penetrate the roasting chicken,” “Penetrate whole porker heck,” and “Penetrate pig gunwales.” Wow. I still say you should learn to read Thai, but you can enjoy this menu even without it.
The word
ตำ, which you probably know from
ส้มตำ (the “tam” in som tam for you non-readers) in the case of papaya salad is more like “to pound.” But it can also mean something sharp stabbing, poking or piercing.
Thai Definition:
อาการที่มีสิ่งลักษณะแหลมๆ
เช่น
หนาม
ทิ่มเข้าไป
Terrible Thai Translations
- Penetration
The “mix” here is coming from ยำ which is the word used for those spicy salad-y Thai dishes and I’ve always assumed (but don’t actually know for sure) that it came from ขยำ and likely has roots in Khmer. I’ve encountered the word ขยำ a handful of time, but in 10 years I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard anyone using ยำ as a verb meaning to mix despite what a dictionary may tell you. ขยำ has a feeling that is very similar to the way we say “toss” as in “a tossed salad.” That action of mixing up stuff in a grabby kind of way. An entry-level mnemonic for ยำ is that they are the yummy Thai salads. I wouldn’t waste time or energy trying to learn the ขยำ word unless you encounter it again elsewhere and as far as I’m concerned, ยำ does not mean “to mix” in any useful sense.
Terrible Thai Translations
- Mix
