Thursday, September 20, 2007

Anyone for a Banana Spirit?


We were invited one evening to a yummy Indian hawker, which has become our Sunday after-church-meal-spot. On the dessert menu, you have your typical Milo variations and of course your banana spirit...wait a second, does that say Banana SPIRIT?


If anyone has watched "A Christmas Story", you'll remember the family eating a Christmas meal at a Chinese restaurant, and the waiters singing, "Deck the hars with boughs of hawry, fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra". So apparently there is some difficulty in Asia pronouncing the "L" sound, resulting in the "R" sound.

Back to what we know as the "Banana Split" ... if you replace the "L" in Split with an "R", you get "Banana Sprit". Now, throw in a little accent and the result is "Banana Spirit".
Makes perfect sense. Quite humorous nonetheless.

p.s. No offense to any Asians reading this blog. I love Asians...I am Asian (half Asian anyway)

5 comments:

not2brightGRAM said...

This was an ap-peel-ing post! I love the way you find humor in everyday situations. Keep snapping pixs of those Singaporean signs.

BTW, do you still have a digital pix of the one Josh took in China a couple of years ago? That one is hilarious! If you don't have it, I think I might, and I can send it to you to post...

christianne said...

Oh my gosh, this post was SO FUNNY. I'm sitting in class on a break right now and started laughing out loud and had to turn to my two classmates sitting next to me to share the funny story. They got a kick out of it, too. Me and the other girl couldn't help going, "Awww, that is so cute!"

Kendra Fletcher said...

When we were first married, Andy worked at a wine and cheese shop owned by Pete Johansen's son and his lovely Japanese wife. She told Andy to go get the "sarad" out of the fridge- sure enough, the container was labeled "Sarad". She also told Andy he wasn't fat, he was "prump".

He will love reading this post!

Anonymous said...

by the way...i'm still "prump" and i can never order a green salad without saying "sarad"...
fletch

Anonymous said...

Most of the local adults aged 40 and above in Singapore are not very literate when it comes to speaking or writing English. That explains why you get silly spelling mistakes like this. It also gives rise to the problem with Singlish in Singapore!