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3 Letters to the Editor - The New York Times, January 14, 2004
A Musical Clue to an Enigma
To the Editor:
Regarding the article "Roasting a Pig Inside an Enigma"
(Jan. 7) on the Cuban pig-roasting box called the caja
china, I have a possible explanation for the derivation of
the name. The cajita china (small Chinese box) is a
percussion instrument. First imported to Cuba by Chinese
immigrants, the cajita china is now a traditional feature
of Cuban danzon, rumba and son bands. The instrument is
shaped just like the pig cookers, rectangular with an
opening on the top (there are no handles, but the Cajita
China is played with two sticks).
HARLEY SPILLER - New York
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Untangling a Mystery
To the Editor:
I thoroughly enjoyed your article on the caja china. Just a
few linguistic observations that may or may not be relevant
to the origins of this contraption's name. A "caja china"
in everyday Spanish is a set of nested boxes: a box within
a box within a box.
An English-speaking literary critic, referring to a story
within a story within a story, might evoke the image of the
"Russian doll"; a Spanish-speaking critic would probably
talk about "cajas chinas."
I wish I had the space and, these days, the weather, to
make use of a caja china here in Manhattan.
JAMES D. FERNANDEZ
The writer is chairman of the department of Spanish and Portuguese at NY
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When Names Confuse
To the Editor:
There is a very odd trend I've noticed in the New York City
restaurant world.
A lot of new restaurants are opening, and it's becoming
increasingly mind-numbing to keep track of them all. What
is not helping the situation is that new restaurant names
are often indistinguishable two- to three-syllable
foreign-sounding words - Bivio and Pazo and Kirara, not to
mention Pylos, Suba, Sumile and Quhnia.
The restaurateurs then announce the meaning of the name,
usually a translation of something having to do with the
restaurant or not: "It means lily in the region of Italy
where the chef comes from," or "This space was owned by the
owner's grandfather, and he liked to play stickball in the
early 20th century, so it means stickball in
early-20th-century Russian Yiddish."
What's at the top of my list of new places to try in New
York? That would be Schiller's Liquor Bar, Lucy Mexican
Barbecue, Mermaid Inn, Uncle Jack's Steakhouse and yes,
even the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. They make it clear who
they are and what they do, so it's very easy to remember them.
MARLY MILLER - Brooklyn
Inspector Collector
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