One of the things about Greece is certainly the food, but it’s also one of the most stressful when you have a food allergy. Navigating restaurant menus and having to ask every waiter if the food contains nuts can get very redundant. A lot of the desserts in Greece, such as Baklava, contain tree nuts, and most restaurants don’t make it clear what food has nuts.
Before I left for Greece, I put a translation in my phone for the phrase, “Does this contain nuts?” This way I could simply show the waiter my phone because some don’t know the word for nuts in English.
Today a group of friends and I went to get gyros for lunch at a little cafe in Thessaloniki. When we sat down and looked at the menu I was excited to see that they sold Falafel, which I haven’t had since I came because it is typically found closer to the Middle East. Falafel is made of garbanzo beans, and usually doesn’t contain nuts but you can never be sure. The waiter went around the table asking for our lunch orders. When he came to me, I told him I wanted a falafel gyro, and asked if it had nuts in it. He appeared to not understand what I was trying to say, so I held up the translated phrase on my phone. He looked at it, and started laughing.
“That’s a different kind of nuts,” he joked.
The phrase I had written down was Έχει τα αρχίδι, which Google translates to, “Is there nuts in this?” However, when I went to look up the word αρχίδι, I found out that it actually directly translates to “testicles.”
That was pretty embarrassing, and the waiter and my friends just started laughing.
Getting lost in translation happens to many Americans traveling abroad, but now I know not to trust Google translate.
At least the falafel gyro was good, and didn’t contain nuts…
Legali Blonde 