# pica-pica



## catatonia.today

I was looking for a good way to say this in English in a literary context, this one: 

*Té una sorpresa molt grata, tot el personal del bufet l’espera amb un pica-pica per celebrar el seu aniversari. *

And then I saw this on termcat:
*
ca  Pica-pica
es  Pica-pica (surtido de pequeñas raciones de entrantes)
fr  Pica-pica (assortiment d'amuse-gueules)
it  Pica-pica (assortimento di piccole vivande)
en  Pica-pica (variety of small portions of food)
de Pica-pica (Auswahl an kleinen Häppchen)* 

But seriously, do we say that in English for this? I have to say that I'm honestly not sure. And I like termcat, but I find it hard to trust them after seeing some of the things they have drastically wrong for gastronomical terms and their direct translation of responsable as responsible.


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## Orreaga

an array/spread/assortment of tapas/snacks...something along these lines?


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## Titchus

I'd say appetizers, or snacks. 

Edited to add: Finger foods.      A buffet of finger foods...


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## catatonia.today

Ah, finger foods is nice. That didn't even come to mind. I'm strongly considering keeping pica-pica in the English now, though. I did some google searches and asked around...it seems we do use this in English.


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## cylentj

It seems that now that the Spanish cuisine is spreading, _Tapas_ could also be an option.


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## jj3118

Catatonia.today- I have never heard this term in english and maybe some people do use it but I think the "en" referred to the definition being in english, not that it is an english term.


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## avellanainphilly

jj3118 said:


> Catatonia.today- I have never heard this term in english and maybe some people do use it but I think the "en" referred to the definition being in english, not that it is an english term.



Well, no, it was meant to be a translation (that's how this termcat dictionary works), but admitedly it's really not a good one. Who uses this in English, Catatonia? In which country/region, I mean?


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## Azzurra

Hola 
Mi inglés es espantoso... pero si te puede servir de algo, tampoco en italiano se diría _pica-pica_, creo que casi nadie lo entendería... Aquí se diría algo como "buffet in piedi" o sea "stand-up buffet" o algo por el estilo... También decimos "buffet all'americana" pero a veces se confunde con los buffet donde luego te sientas...


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