Arnold Zwicky's Blog

From Chris Ambidge, this image of a road sign (from, we think, Australia):

  (#1)

(For a livestock auction, I assume.) Fat sheep to the left!

Searching on “fat sheep” suggests that the phrase has become something of a meme in certain contexts, though frankly I don’t understand its uses. But there certainly are a lot of fat sheep around.

Some of them are fat just because they are very very woolly, from not having been sheared:

  (#2)

Some are corpulent:

  (#3)

But any lamb can lend its goodness to a Mongolian hot pot:

Hot pot …, less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. Vegetables, fish and meat should be fresh. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. In many areas, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter. (Wikipedia link)

A display of the stock pot surrounded by a collection of things to dip into it:

  (#4)

Lamb or mutton is just one of the possible meats for hot pot, but it’s lent its name to a restaurant chain:

Little Sheep in U.S. Only Simmers but is Ready to Boil

Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Corporation (Little Sheep) is a huge hot pot chain in China, placing in the Top 500 enterprises of China and ranking number-one in China’s Top 100 fastest growing enterprises. It has established itself as a reputable brand. Like such American chains as McDonald’s and KFC, Little Sheep is moving to globalize itself.

… As of now, Little Sheep has not used the American mainstream media much and solely depends on word-of-mouth. A few technical problems, however, could be disastrous to its business. For example, they have not firmly decided how to translate its official name. The direct translation from its Chinese title [小肥羊 ] is “Little Fat Sheep.” The Union City restaurant is called Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. On the business cards of the management team, the parent company is called Inner Mongolian Little Lamb USA Corp. On the place set description of the restaurant, the company is called Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co. There are even some other restaurants in California that are using Little Sheep’s logo for their own businesses. The multiple aliases for the company has the potential to thoroughly confuse its patrons. (link)

This entry was posted on July 30, 2013 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Language and animals, Language and food, Names. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.