I went to a teppanyaki restaurant where the (non-Japanese) hostesses were dressed in kimonos. Being women, they wore their kimonos in the traditional western female style of the right side over left. The problem is that in Japan everyone (men and women) wear their kimono left over right … except corpses in their coffin are dressed in kimonos with right over left. So I was served by zombies.
Any other examples of funny culture appropriation that you’ve experienced?
I’ll post one from the flip side. In Japan, there is a lot of strange usage of English and English-sounding words, I guess to try to lend some sort of international flair in the same way that American business sometimes give their products names with Japanese- or French-sounding words. So in Osaka, there’s actually an underground shopping mall called Whity Town.
Keeping with the Asian theme…
I was eating lunch at a Chinese buffet a few years ago, just stuffing my face and lazily listening to the “Asian” muzak. A certain tune sounded hauntingly familiar. Then I figured it out - it was “Reel Around the Sun” from Riverdance, arranged for and played on traditional Japanese instruments. Quite a little mind-fuck.
Knowing who your customers are in any business can be important to providing good service. A Chinese buffet restaurant I used to go to regularly had it under control. On the sneeze guard above the wasabi was the following sign:
NO ES GUACAMOLE. ES MUI CALIENTE.
Way before the 2016 election cycle, in the late 90s, there was a truck called the Isuzu Hombre, which the advertisements always pronounced “Hambre”, like the Spanish for “hunger”. It was hilarious because they said it so brashly, like a monster truck announcer, that its incorrectness could not help but stick out. “Buy the new Isuzu HUNGER!”
I’m not sure this counts as cultural appropriation or what. I was in Japan 21 years ago and I saw a van or SUV parked a half block away displaying the letters MU on the back. I got curious and walked over to see what the rest of the letters were. Well, the model name close up was “Mysterious Utility”.
I saw an “American restaurant” in Spain once. Some of the highlights of the menu, which was written in a delightfully random mixture of Spanish and English, included nachos, pasta carbonara, pasta arrabiata, quesadillas, teriyaki burgers, “daily Mediterranean salad,” crepes, and profiteroles. Sort of a Spanish-appropriation-of-American-appropriation-of-everyone-else, I guess?
Also, I went to this pancake place in Lithuania where the menu had a whole page of “American pancakes,” including things like Snickers, Mars-bar, and Oreo pancakes.
Granted, neither of these are wholly inaccurate representations of American cuisine.
I used to work within walking distance of a traditional American deli staffed by Asians; damn good BBQ sandwich there until they started cheaping out on the beef. One could also get a sandwich with “ham & Sweese cheese” or a “muffine”.
In the nineties, as a vegetarian, I visited Tuscany. It was hard 
I found my salvation in a cafe in Siena. A single slice of bread, covered in egg, tomato and lettuce. Called a Londra - Italian for London - it was clearly a take on the then popular egg salad sandwich. And they were yummy. And we don’t talk about the thin layer of gel that kept the “filling” in place. It was arrowroot, I’m sure of it
Ha! They almost got it right. Should be “picante.” In Spanish, spicy food pricks (like a mosquito bite), it isn’t hot.
I don’t get it — I must be slow. Please don’t tell me this is like There’s Something about Mary. 
I’m a white American, but my step mom is Chinese, from Hong Kong. When I was a kid, her mother once bought me shorts which had English written on them, which I so wish I still had: next to a cartoon picture of a skater, they said, “7 up, and don’t you forgot it!”
In St Martin most places offer coffee, even little beach bars, and it is usually amazingly fantastic coffee. The menus list choices; cafe, espresso, latte, etc with one option always being cafe americano. Curious, I once ordered a cafe americano, and watched the bartender make a regular coffee, then dilute it with hot water. It was horrible, but it is what many Americans order, pretty much saying, “make some of that delicious, aromatic beverage and totally fuck it up”.
My sister has a friend who was stationed at Osan Air Force Base in South Korea and saw a nicely decorated cake that said “Merry Christmas! I hope you’re happy now” .
There’s a Polish restaurant here that pipes in Polish pop music. I was more than a little startled to hear the Battle Hymn of the Republic in Polish while eating there one day.
My local, excellent coffee shop offers cafe Americano. They also offer espresso, various espresso drinks (latte, etc.), cold brew, and regular American-style drip coffee. The cafe Americano is espresso diluted with hot water to about the strength of drip coffee. It’s made to order, like every other espresso drink. They keep the drip coffee very fresh, though, and I prefer that.
I visited China for 2 weeks a few years ago, arriving at Beijing and departing from Shanghai. “Beijing” in Chinese is written with two characters, for “North Capital”, as “bei” means North. And at the airport, they sold souvenirs including ones that read, “I (heart) BJ”
My wife secretly bought one for me, too.
Are simple linguistic gaffes really “cultural appropiation gone wrong”?
I’m sure they often go hand-in-hand, but I think they’re distinct things.
I think mine counts as the makers of the Hombre were trying to cash in on the macho imagery that the word Hombre carries in English, which counts as cultural appropriation to the extent that anything does since it simply means “man” in Spanish so it sort of exploits the implied Latin exoticism and machismo. Again, to the extent that cultural appropriation is a phenomenon, which I don’t fully buy into. Most uses of “others’” culture is just use rather than appropriation.
How do you know it wasn’t a Polish rendition of “John Brown’s Body (lies a-mouldering in the grave)”?
Not appropriation, but still funny: I saw a very elderly Malian woman wearing a tee that said “Wine me, dine me, 69 me.”
There was a restaurant in Kampala called MacDonna’s, complete with golden arches.
My wife had lunch in a restaurant that purported to have French dishes, one of which was “Chicken in poulet sauce.”
