Norway’s Olympic Team Bought 15,000 Eggs due to a Google Translate Mistake

Olympic athletes are known for big appetites. It takes a lot of fuel to perform superhuman feats, after all. But last weekend, chefs for Norway’s Olympic team in Pyeongchang, South Korea, ordered a little too much food. After using Google Translate to put in an order at a local grocery store, the chefs were stunned when a truck arrived with 15,000 eggs. They had meant to order 1,500.

OL-leiren bestilte 1500 egg gjennom å oversette via Google Translate. Men det slo feil. 15.000 ble levert på døra. Vi ønsker lykke til og håper at de norske gullhåpene er glade – veldig glade – i egg: 😁 pic.twitter.com/qaWVpq1Xgy

— Trønder-Avisa (@tronderavisa) February 3, 2018

According to the head of the Norwegian team, the translation had added an extra zero. As a BBC report pointed out, the issue might have something to do with the Korean counting system, in which large numbers are based on units of 10,000 instead of thousands.

Luckily, the chefs were able to return the extra 13,500 eggs, so the 109 Norwegian athletes didn’t have to eat more than 100 eggs each. As for the remaining eggs, chef Ståle Johansen told the major Norwegian newspaper Afterposten that Norway’s Olympians will enjoy them scrambled with salmon, fried in omelets, and even as egg-rich sugar bread, “for medal winners.”

Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink.
Sign up for our regular newsletter.