As if airlines weren’t seemingly tightening budgets enough: Passengers were shocked and revulsed after their in-flight menu appeared to offer “dog food” as one of the dinner options, per a Facebook post currently blowing up online, NY Post reports.
“What is it?” inquired the poster, named Conrad Wu, of the apparent stomach-churning offering.
According to the post, which was also shared to X and Reddit, the passenger was reportedly seated in business class aboard the carrier to an undisclosed destination.
Their flight — and likely stomach — took a turn for the worse after they spotted the unorthodox item on their menu.
An accompanying photo shows the menu, which lists “imported dog food” as one of the appetiser options alongside “vanilla shrimp” and “smoke pepper beef.”
Also attached is allegedly a photo of said dish, which appeared to entail slices of cured meat over vegetables.
Fortunately, the Reddit commentariat doubted that Kibbles & Bits were actually on the menu, instead chalking it up to a literally gross misunderstanding.
“Most likely the translation has gone wrong,” theorised one Redditor. “Besides, how bad could dog food be?”
“Apparently, economy class passengers only get domestic dog food,” quipped another.
One commenter flew in to defend China Eastern’s reputation.
“I love this airline. I only flew it once but it was a long flight and I changed planes twice (same airline) and the flight crew were so awesome!!,” they claimed, adding that the “food was really yummy too.”
This error is one of a library’s worth of English translation gaffes — dubbed “Chinglish” — to grace Chinese menus over the years.
Other iconic language bloopers include a dish of “roasted husband,” the “wang had to burn” hotpot and the infamous “f — k the duck until exploded.”
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Unfortunately, such flubs weren’t limited to Chinese menus.
Facebook was forced to apologise in 2020 after a “technical issue” caused Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name to appear as “Mr. S – thole” when translated from Burmese to English on the platform.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
