broccoli: green cauliflower or western orchid?

[syz47]

My family-in-law (from Beijing but possibly corrupted by years of suburban life in the US) has always referred to broccoli (the western type) as 绿菜花 lǜ cài huā -- which is to say, green cauliflower.

Alas, today I find myself looking like one of those bad informants I try to avoid. My American colleague, busting her chops through lunchtime lessons to learn some Chinese, tells me it's 西兰花 xī lán huā -- western orchid -- not the 绿菜花 I told her. My Beijing coworkers agree -- never heard of green cauliflower.

Doh!

Has anyone else heard of using 绿菜花?

[imron]

I've only ever heard it called 西兰花 xī lán huā.

[skylee]

It is 西蘭花 in Hong Kong. Never heard of 綠菜花.

Hey and what do you call a pillow case? Usually people here call it 枕頭套, 枕頭袋 or 枕袋. But one of my univ classmate called it 枕頭殼. And I've never heard anyone else use this term. So such strange terms are really not that strange.

Talking about that girl (my classmate), the 量詞 she used on an orange is 粒, thus 一粒橙. I've never heard anyone else say 一粒橙 either.

[muyongshi]

Usually people here call it 枕頭套, 枕頭袋 or 枕袋

I've also heard just plain 枕套

[wai ming]

Talking about that girl (my classmate), the 量詞 she used on an orange is 粒, thus 一粒橙. I've never heard anyone else say 一粒橙 either.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6-downloading-chinese-music763&highlight=measure+word+apple

[Quest]

Talking about that girl (my classmate), the 量詞 she used on an orange is 粒, thus 一粒橙. I've never heard anyone else say 一粒橙 either.

I've heard 一粒橘子 used on Taiwan TV shows.

[naturegirl]

I also call it just 西兰花

[Lu]

I've heard 一粒橘子 used on Taiwan TV shows.

That might be because Taiyu uses 粒 liap8. I just learned that today :-)

Edit: I also only know broccoli as 西蘭花.