Thanks for the good wishes! Are you someone I know, BTW, or did you just find me randomly on the internet?

1. Totally allegorical menu items whose literal translations tell a story. You've seen them on the Sichuan menus.

I made a post about this very thing earlier this week!

2. Things that don't translate at all. My girlfriend usually gets about 75% of a menu item but glosses over stuff she has no clue how to translate.

I think this is easier for me (in comparison to someone who wants to actually become fluent in the language) because the context of what I want to learn is so constrained. Even if I don't know how to translate the name of something I've enjoyed, I can just learn the Chinese name and look out for that. It doesn't matter if I don't have an English name for it.