Hope it's OK to chime in here, but doesn't the "siu" (燒) in "cha siu baau" actually mean "cooked" or "roasted"? "cha" (叉) means "prong" or "to pierce/stab", so I think the literal translation of "cha siu" would be something like "spit-roasted". The fact that the thing being roasted is pork is left implicit — this kind of makes sense, since pork is the default meat in most Chinese cuisines, and if you're spit-roasting something then it's probably a big chunk of meat rather than, I dunno, mushrooms or something.
And I agree with your other comment above — I really wish that restaurants would translate their Chinese menus into English. It would make it a lot easier for people to become familiar with the good stuff. (Though I wouldn't want to see them only in English, since translations vary so much, and you can get information from the Chinese name that isn't always there in the translation.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-10-11 12:13 pm (UTC)And I agree with your other comment above — I really wish that restaurants would translate their Chinese menus into English. It would make it a lot easier for people to become familiar with the good stuff. (Though I wouldn't want to see them only in English, since translations vary so much, and you can get information from the Chinese name that isn't always there in the translation.)