Touring Chinatown, From Hooters to Dunkin' Donuts

Grid View

Oh, Chinatown. Chinese Food Week would hardly be complete without a look at the hard reality that Toki Underground's Erik Bruner-Yang brought up in his Wok Stars interview — which is that DC's Chinatown is now mainly "American restaurants with Chinese signs." Of course, there are hidden gems in the neighborhood and we'll dig into those later this week. (Any recommendations? Send this way, please.) But first, take a little tour of Chinatown's super-authentic signage in the photo gallery above. As a bonus, Eater procured the help of a novice translator for a few of these to see how accurate they really are. Some are on track — after all, Graffiato really is delicious Italian cuisine. But then there's Hooters — or, shall we say, the Owl Canteen.

Translations:

Vapiano: Mian-shi (pasta) +Pi-za (pizza) + Jiu-ba (Bar)
Corner Bakery: Jiuluo (Corner) + Mianbao (Bread) + Kafei (Coffee) + Dian (Shop)
Graffiato: Meiwei (Delicious) + Yidali (Italian) + liaoli (Cuisine)
Hooters: Maotouying (Owl) + Canting (Canteen, Dining Hall, Cafeteria)
Nando's: Ji (chicken) + Canguan (Restaurant) — the funny thing about this is the Chinese character is misspelled (there is a part of the character missing).

Any readers out there with translating skills of your own? Leave 'em in the comments.

· All Previous Chinese Food Week Coverage [-EDC-]