中文挑战

I know the names for some of the items but I don't necessarily know what cities they're associated with. For other items, I know what cities they're associated with but I don't know their names.

But I've never tried the jars of mud(?) or the oyster(?) pancake, so I have no idea about those. I'm guessing I'll have to use the hints, or else it will take forever.

My answers:

北京:

A (5) 老北京酸奶

B (4) 冰糖葫芦

上海:

C (3) 小笼包

D (3) 大闸蟹

香港:

E (2) 凤爪

F (2) 烧卖

G (2) 虾饺

台北:

H (3) 蚵仔煎

I (2) 剉冰

澳门:

J (4) 葡式蛋挞

K (3) 杏仁饼

Of the things on this list that I've tried, I only like 小笼包, 烧卖, and 剉冰. If I remember correctly, 冰糖葫芦 is totally gross.

I had to look at the hints. It was just way too hard otherwise. Some of these I only solved through process of elimination.

Answers to bonus questions:

1. 豉汁蒸凤爪

2. 阳澄湖

3. 山楂

Cool. When I just looked at this, I got that kind of that little panic I get at Chinese restaurants. Chinese menus are like some form of classical Chinese of which I have little comprehension. I'll have a look at the character bank and have a go.

@feihong - Your answers are spot on. Great work!

@Gleaves - Give it a shot and let me know what you think. I agree, that the characters used in Chinese menus are pretty advanced. When I started learning Chinese, the first thing I wanted to do was to be able to read menus and to this day, I am still confused by them.

My thoughts on this puzzle:

It took me several days (maybe many days) to think of this puzzle. The only item I haven't tried on the list is the 冰糖葫芦 (I was asked to try it when I was in Beijing but was afraid the street food wasn't clean) and the only place on the list that I haven't been to is 台北 (however, I spent a good amount of time in Los Angeles and 蚵仔煎 and 剉冰 were pretty common in LA Taiwanese 小吃 places).

This puzzle is actually deceptively difficult if you haven't been to those places (even for some Chinese natives I suspect if they don't look at the characters in the spoiler tag). For those of us in the USA, Hong Kong or Cantonese Dim Sum restaurants are pretty common and just about every Cantonese Dim Sum restaurant will have 凤爪, 烧卖, and 虾饺. I actually call these by their Cantonese pronunciation when I order and never by their Mandarin pronunciation. But most people from the USA, even if they have been to many Chinese restaurants, probably haven't seen those "jars of mud" unless they've been to Beijing and someone points them out. Also people from northern China might call the shaved ice 刨冰 instead of 剉冰 where they call it in Taiwan (and LA). Also if you search google images for 上海烧卖, you'll see a totally different 烧卖 that's filled with rice instead of pork. I had a friend, who was from Shanghai visiting the USA, order 烧卖 at a Cantonese restaurant only to find out it was totally different from what she expected.

The 豉汁蒸凤爪 picture was taken last weekend when I went to a Dim Sum restaurant. This one is a bit tricky also because sometimes, they might also have 鼓汁蒸凤爪 which looks similar but without the black beans (which you can barely see).

An interesting bit of trivia about 阳澄湖大闸蟹 that I've heard: Because the price of 大闸蟹 increases by several folds if the crab is from 阳澄湖, many of the crab fisheries will take 大闸蟹 that's not from 阳澄湖 and dip it in 阳澄湖 to claim that it's from there. These days, it's hard to be sure it's from 阳澄湖 until you actually go there and get it directly from the lake (although who knows if they were just dipped in there). Another thing is, I don't know of a single person from Shanghai who doesn't like 大闸蟹. I still don't get it though because I think King Crab, Snow Crab and Dungeness Crab are better. I think it's the 大闸蟹 roe that they like.

@feihong - I actually like 虾饺 better than 烧卖 these days, probably because I think the pork is too fatty. I guess I made the right choice not to try 冰糖葫芦!

Pretty fun. Using the word bank and pics to come up with names, I ended up with exactly zero correct. On more than a couple I was on the right track, though. Nonethless, it was a fun process. I guess I should really stop using the English side of the menu at dimsum, or go to China more often. Good challenge.

@Gleaves, thanks for trying it out. Although I've tried these foods, I still had to use Google to figure out their correct names to make up this challenge.

Nice puzzle. I got most of them, but not all, even with the use of google. In the following, the ones in black are my answers without any help (except a couple for which I knew the Cantonese name, but not the Mandarin name), in blue are ones I got with help of the hint and using google, and red are ones I couldn't get even after about 20 minutes.

北京:

A (5) 老北京酸奶

B (4) 冰糖葫蘆

上海:

C (3) 小籠包

D (3) 大闸蟹

香港:

E (2) 蝦餃

F (2) 雞足 凤爪

G (2) 燒賣

台北:

H (3) 蚵仔煎

I (2) 豆腐花 剉冰

澳门:

J (4) 葡式蛋挞

K (3) 杏仁餅

@jbradfor, you did great for not looking at the hints. I took a look at your colors and have some comments. Hope you don't mind my critique:

Like you, for the dim sum dishes, I knew the Cantonese names (Ha Gaau, Siu Maai and Fung Zao) and had to look at Wikipedia to find the correct words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum

For "鸡足", did you know it was called Fung Zao but just put "鸡足" or did you call it "鸡足" in Cantonese when you ordered it? I've always known it as Fung Zao but never knew how to write it though.

Also have you ordered 豆腐花 during dim sum? It's like a bowl of tofu with some syrup. Just wondering how you thought the shaved ice was that (or were you looking at the shaved ice picture)?

For the ones in red, I think if you spent an Autumn in Shanghai hanging out with locals and going to dinner at their homes, you will definitely know what 大闸蟹 is. However, this stuff is banned in the USA and other parts outside of China so most people wouldn't know. They are pretty popular in Hong Kong though but it's seasonal (Autumn and Winter).

Still, great job for not looking at the list.

For "鸡足", did you know it was called Fung Zao but just put "鸡足" or did you call it "鸡足" in Cantonese when you ordered it?

Typically when we go to dimsum, my wife orders, and if there are things I want, I usually tell her in my (horrible) Cantonese, and she tells the dimsum-girl in (proper) Cantonese. As for chicken feet, I never order it [it's one of the few food items I won't eat. That, and internal organs. And I'm not a big fan of that dried sour plum things.] So I just guessed, in retrospect it was stupid to assume. Now I know!

Also have you ordered 豆腐花 during dim sum? It's like a bowl of tofu with some syrup. Just wondering how you thought the shaved ice was that (or were you looking at the shaved ice picture)?

You'll note I put that in the 台北 section. When I was in 台中, I ate 豆腐花 all the time, and it was quite different than the 豆腐花 served in (American) dimsum places, in that typically you could have your choice of toppings -- and often a lot of them. After I saw the answer I realized what it was, but dreams of 台式豆腐花 live with me still

As for chicken feet, I never order it [it's one of the few food items I won't eat.

For the record, I don't like chicken feet either but when the cart gets pushed my way, I'll help ask for it for the other people at the table. I don't eat internal organs (mostly steamed beef tripe) and I don't know what they're called.

When I was in 台中, I ate 豆腐花 all the time, and it was quite different than the 豆腐花 served in (American) dimsum places

I knew I'd learn something new. Just did an image search and realized they put a lot of the same toppings for shaved ice on the tofu. Very tasty looking. Just goes to prove the importance of actually going to a place and trying the food there.

I mistook the 剉冰 for 冰粥 at first. I think the toppings are pretty similar so it was an easy mistake to make.

My friend who was watching a Korean drama called 新妓生传 said she saw them eat 冰粥. I guess they have them in Korea too. 冰粥 is a new word for me. Did a search and read that it's more of a mixed version of 剉冰, while the addition of congee is optional?

I'm in 澳门 now and two of those are a lead pipe cinch. Good quiz. Makes me hungry.

@abcdefg: Thanks. Were you able to get the rest of the dishes? I made this quiz so that if you've actually spent some time at each of these places and tried their local foods, you'd know (of) these dishes for sure. The harder part is knowing the exact names in Chinese without the hints.