Posted on 01/12/2005 1:25:31 PM PST by nickcarraway
South African restaurant customers are complaining that the use of the word tsunami by local eateries leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
The Mugg and Bean chain has been selling its spicy tsunami chicken burger for over a year but will rename it in April, its managers say.
Johannesburg's Tsunami Seafood Emporium opened just three weeks before the giant waves devastated parts of Asia.
The Japanese sushi bar manager said he could not have predicted the disaster.
"A lot of research went into the name," said Claudio Goncalves.
'Traumatised'
He said that some people thought the restaurant was trying to cash in on the disaster.
One woman has asked what he would think if someone had opened a 9/11 grill house, he said.
Mr Goncalves, and his counterparts at Mugg and Bean, said they would donate some of the profits to victims of the tsunami.
Mugg and Bean's marketing manager Mike Said explained the choice of the name for the chicken burger, topped with bacon, cucumber pineapples and Thai sauce served in a bagel:
"We named it 'tsunami' because the burger is big and powerful."
Ten South Africans have been confirmed dead in the disaster and another 184 are officially missing.
On Monday, South African police warned that conmen were circulating letters and e-mails falsely claiming to be collecting contributions for victims of the disaster.
Meanwhile, a Cape Town family who survived the tsunami while on holiday in Thailand were car-jacked at gunpoint on their return to South Africa.
"I am absolutely traumatised," said Nicky Miller, 31.
So much for the notion that with the new year one can expect better luck...
So how many instant collectors' cars did they manage to sell before the change?
Not good, I bet they wish the feds had used the original name for the disease, GRID??? or something?
Whatever happened to them, did they go out of business?
I have just started work in a building whose occupants, for some totally unfathomable reason, named every single conference room on my floor after a natural disaster. So there's the Earthquake room, the Volcano room, the Thunderstorm room, and so on.
And yes, there are rooms labeled "Tsunami" and "Tidal Wave". I guess nobody bothered to tell them that they're the same thing. I've been hanging out in the Hurricane room for the past three days reading documentation. Fun.
}:-)4
Died of AYDS.
Does that mean that you play Twister whilst telling jokes ?
Well, if SA is like here there is about 14 reams of paperwork to be filed before he can make the name change.
Something like that. :)
Probably named such because every conference I've ever heard of has been a time-wasting disaster.
Thank God for email.
I also remember they would say "lose weight the AYDS way"......
Hooters is a distateful restaurant name, for cancer survivors who undergo masectomies.
They shouldn't even offer chicken breast on the menu. < /sarcasm >
Not a bad idea at all....here's a proposed logo.
Courtesy of
The article says this was named BEORE the last tsunami.
Yes, I know. It's still a stupid choice; like a "Honda Mudslide", for instance.
Tsunamis happen; one could have anticipated the marque eventually getting a black eye via events.
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