In a foreign land...

[khiemtran]

There's something interesting about the sign on this restaurant in Bratislava...




No, not the Zlatý Bažant, that's just a Slovak beer brand (it means "Golden Pheasant", apparently).

What's interesting is the Chinese name. The characters read "Gold Mountain City" (Jin Shan Cheng).

Now, the "Gold Mountain" is a Chinese name for the west coast of North America, most commonly California and British Columbia, due to the great Chinese migration following the gold rushes there. Similarly, the gold fields of Australia became known as the "New Gold Mountain". Today, the "Old Gold Mountain" is usually a reference to the city of San Francisco.

So, that begs the question - did the owners of Jin Shan Cheng name their Bratislavan restaurant after San Francisco? Or were they hoping that this new city they had come to would turn out to be a Gold Mountain itself? Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure was to go there and ask, and I ran out of time.

While we're at it, take a good look at the third character, Cheng (you can see it both on the blue sign and in gold on the sign under the eave).

It has three elements: earth, strength and a halberd. Nowadays it means "city", but, as pointed out back in this post it can also mean "city wall". If you think of earth, strength and ancient Chinese weaponry combined, it's easy to imagine, isn't it?

The same character appears in the name of another restaurant, this time in the Old Town.



The character in front of Cheng is Chang, meaning "Long". Can you guess what the restaurant is called? It's not "Long City", but "Long Wall" (or possibly "Long Castle"), better known in English as The Great Wall. For some reason though, the Slovak name seems to be Tower Chinese Restaurant. No, I didn't get time to ask about this one either.

Meanwhile, I was more interested in trying Slovak food than Chinese. For example, roast duck with cabbage and dumplings.



Or roast pig with cabbage and dumplings.


Otherwise known as Knedlo-vepřo-zelo (KVZ) or Vepřo-knedlo-zelo (VKZ). I remembered this fondly from Prague, but it only dawned on me later that it might actually be ethnic Czech food here - since the name was spelled with an "ř".

And, for variety, wild boar, with cabbage and dumplings. They call this "Moravian Sparrow". I have no idea why.



We did have one Thai meal though, and it was definitely worth it. If you're ever in Bratislava, I can recommend trying the rooftop restaurant at Lemon Tree. The food is quite passable and there's an amazing view from the top.



A fitting place to say goodbye to Bratislava...

Comments

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

There's something interesting about the sign on this restaurant in Bratislava...
   Zlatý Bažant 金山城

Aha! I may not have been able to make head or tail of the Chinese, but for once I could at least recognise a foreign word in one of your posts: zlatý. :o)

Or roast pig with cabbage and dumplings. Otherwise known as Knedlo-vepřo-zelo (KVZ) or Vepřo-knedlo-zelo (VKZ).

Interesting: The Yiddish for matza ball is kneidl (plural kneidlach); evidently the word comes from a Slavic language (not that this ought to be particularly surprising). They're not what I'd call dumplings (the Yiddish for those is kreplach) but hey, meanings drift.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, these are not what I would have called dumplings, as they don't have fillings (the ones in the first picture did have ham pieces mixed in). But, I guess if gnocchi count as dumplings then the meaning must be wide enough to encompass these too. I've also seen them called "bread dumplings", which I think is a better description.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I actually meant kneidlach are not what I would call dumplings, but it looks like the Slavs use the term loosely in general.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

So where would you draw the line between dumplings and not-dumplings?

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I have no idea. I have only ever once eaten dumplings presented to me as dumplings (rather than kreplach), and that was twenty plus years ago.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Well, the dumplings I normally encounter all have some sort of dough wrapped around a filling, but it looks like there are more species than I thought (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpling).

I'd cast the borders of dumpling-land now as anything smaller than bread and shorter than a noodle...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of wild boar being called sparrow. Talk about understatement! How did it taste?

I find it very interesting to taste Chinese food in lots of different countries because you can tell something about local tastes by how the flavors are modified. I've had Chinese food in England, the United States, and Japan ... I liked it best in Japan. Of course, a lot depends on the restaurant! In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it would probably be really dangerous to try to make generalizations. Heh!

Actually, one dish I liked from a small-town Chinese restaurant in Dorset, England, was their lemon chicken. It was *marvelous*, very lemony, and with a delicious sauce. They kindly shared the recipe with me, and sometimes I make it at home.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's fascinating to try all the different variations! I used to get on well with a Chinese restauranteur in Wollongong who told me there were Chinese restaurant consultants who would go around teaching how to make food that Australians would like. That particular restaurant was trying to introduce Northern Chinese food to the area, but they were a bit ahead of their time, and they ended up reverting to a more typical Australian suburban Chinese menu.

Also, I can remember going out to dinner in China once with a group of American friends, all of whom had eaten "Chinese" food for most of their lives, and spending ages going through the menu without finding anything they could eat. Then one friend mentioned that all he really wanted was some "Sichuan home cooking", and I had to work out whether what that meant to him was anything like what it meant to me (and then what it would mean to a local...)

Oh, and Moravian sparrow - sort of gamey, but not too strong. It was in a very rich sauce, so it was hard to tell the flavour of the meat (I wonder if it was meant to mask the smell). But there are so many questions left to answer... Why is it called "sparrow"? And where exactly is Moravia? And why did you name the restaurant that? I've been back for two weeks, and I still want to go back to the people I met there and say "And another thing..."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Also, I didn't know at all about Gold Mountain and the west coast of North America, and specifically San Francisco. That's fascinating, and same with New Gold Mountain in Australia.