An amusing bit of trilingual word play.

[randomness]

There's a Mexican fast food chain in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico which my friends refer to as "Octopus Bag Shop". Why such an outlandish nickname?

They tell me that "Tako Kabanya" (蛸鞄屋) means "Octopus Bag Shop" in Japanese. That's relevant because "Tako Kabanya" sounds very much like "Taco Cabaña". The fast food chain has Anglicized the spelling and pronounciation to Taco Cabana.

It's still funny when they ask if you want to go in on a dinner order from Octopus Bag Shop.

Edit: ndrtoon posts that the phrase he and his brother came up with was actually "Octopus Bag Store". I'm glad to have a correction from one of the originators.

Comments

[alexinbeijing.livejournal.com]

Muahaha, that's great! Hey, is there any chance you might want to come to Beijing for a bit? I have great food places of many stripes to show you, and you always have a place to stay...

[amelia-g.livejournal.com]

Best factoid of the day!

[twilight-tea.livejournal.com]

Having finally been to Austin, and speaking Japanese, I find that especially funny :)

[babasyzygy.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose you happen to still be in Austin?

[a-dodecahedron.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha! I'm definitely going to start calling it Octopus Bag Shop from now on.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Want to, absolutely. Can, probably not until the spring at the earliest. :(

Thanks for the offer of a place to stay! And mmmm, food. :)

You just came up in conversation last night, in fact. I have a friend who's looking for a translation and I figured you'd have some ideas.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Sorry, bedfull_o_books had to be back on Wednesday. :(

[nezumiko.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious. I must tell my Japanese sensei this story on Monday at class!

[jasper-monster.livejournal.com]

I would like to eat an octopus in a bag.

[babasyzygy.livejournal.com]

Bummer.

We ( lil_joasia and I ) have been here for the last week, long enough for one house to be dickered over, finally falling through.

But never one to underdo anything, it's looking like I might end up (in concert with either J or my mother, or the family corporation) buying two houses, one across the street from the other. My mom's made noises about moving to Austin too, and these two houses are so perfect in different ways that it'd break my heart to let either one go. One's big and brand new, and the other has just about the awesomest view you can get for $180k, with a pretty decent layout.