Page from a Persian fish cook book.
Where do we get all of the words for International Food Dictionary?
They come from many sources but the real work is trying to check and verify. I’m currently adding words for the fish of Iran. I first try to translate common fish names names using internet resources such as Google translate. Or find the fish in Wikipedia and see if there is a Farsi version of the same page. Once I think I have a valid translation it is cross checked against other translation sites and any other site. Sometimes we get lucky and find a site dedicated to a particular subject. In this case I found a Persian sport fishing site that provided pictures and scientific names.
I’ve also used Persian fish cook books. I found one with four pages of fish pictures and names. The names are written in Farsi and then transliterated into English characters and words when possible. Some translate easily such as “makaral asbi” which means horse makerel. Another fish when entered into Google translate gives “Snout fish carry a brand name”. It is translations such as this that make International Food Dictionary useful.
Once the name for the fish is found I then try to find its genus species and also cross this with the translation. Even with all these checks there are regional variations and incorrect data. For this reason we are constantly updating and welcome other’s inputs.