Good morning! Yesterday the South Bay edition of the Union-Tribune had an article about a new Mexican supermarket that's opening up on Euclid Avenue in National City. Says the article:
"Positions available include meat cutters, bakers, cashiers, produce clerks, salesclerks, food preparers, chicharoneros (sic), drivers with grocery experience, as well as management."
I love it when certain words are too mystifying to translate. They misspelled "chicharroneros," which has the rolled RRRR sound rather than the flip of the tongue that is the R. But as to translation? Got me to thinking. How would I best translate "chicharroneros"?
Chicharrones are those Dr. Atkins-beloved items made of fried pork skin. They come in bags like Fritos, but they are very fragile as to preservation. In fact, I do not like them because they must taste fresh and crisp or they are intolerable. "Chitlin's" (or chitterlings) is their name in English, but "chitlin' fryers" wouldn't have been a suitable translation because the word itself in English is obscure except to Southerners, I think.
So, as in all cases of doubt, I went to Google for a tip. That led me down a merry chase on Youtube.com, where "chicharroneros" are very popular. Fun. I went to sleep last night thinking that I 'd thought of the perfect translation--"fry-cooks."
Now in the harsh light of a new morning, fry-cooks doesn't sound as good. I see a fry-cook as a kind of hashhouse man-of-all-tasks before the griddle. (You can see that I am a devotee of the hyphenated word. More on that in the future.)
Perhaps it were best to leave the U-T article just as it was printed, and let language-lovers pursue meaning on their own time, as dedicated language-lovers will always do, now and forever. YAZZYBEL
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