Fish Market Vocabulary

[Zemkopis]

Hi, I am new to the forum (and the language) and I had a question about fish market-related vocabulary.

How would you properly say (all verbs):

to fillet

to descale

to gut

E.g., Please [verb] this fish.

Also is fillet (the noun) 片 ?

No one speaks English at the fish market and hand gestures just get people shaking their heads at me

[WestTexas]

They usually don't fillet fish in China. I wouldn't be surprised if there is no Chinese word for 'to fillet', so you would have to use a literal translation of 'remove the bones in such a manner as to make two flat boneless slices of fish'. And even if you told them that they probably wouldn't do it for you, for the reason already mentioned. Personally I brought a fillet knife from the US and I do it myself in my apartment. You can get them to gut and scale the fish tho (when I buy it they just gesture and I say 'okay' so I don't know what the words are).

[skylee]

consider -

to debone - 去(掉)骨

to descale - 去(掉)鱗

to gut - 去(掉)内臟

to cut the head off - 去頭

請把魚去骨、去鱗、去内臟。

這魚，請替我去骨、去鱗、去内臟。

fillet - 魚柳

[imron]

How common is 骨 compared to 刺 when talking about fish bones?

[skylee]

the word 刺 is not in my vocab about fish ... but maybe it is common for other people.

[imron]

Ok thanks. 鱼刺 is very common at least where I used to live (Hebei and Beijing) as the word for fish bones.

[skylee]

Thanks. It is good to know it.

PS - so do you say 去刺 in Hebei and Beijing to refer to removal of fish bones?

[abcdefg]

In Kunming I say 弄干净 nòng gānjìng and they seem to know what I mean. They kill and gut the fish plus scrape off the scales. I always cook it whole, on the bone, so I don't know about getting it filleted. If they ask about cutting off the tail, I just nod. 鱼刺 yú cì is what I most often hear for fish bones here.

They usually don't fillet fish in China.

It's probably one of those 不要浪费 things.

[roddy]

去刺 was the first thing that came to my mind, but it doesn't pop up as an option on Google Pinyin, which makes me think it's not very common. However, it is used.

It's probably one of those 不要浪费 things.

Actually, I think it's cooking styles. Western cooking would involve making individual pieces of fish for everyone, so you might as well get rid of the bones in the process. China will cook the fish whole usually.

[anonymoose]

Or not even cook it. I've had a fish still gulping and flapping its fins on the plate.

[heifeng]

Check this person's blog out. The local chinese store offers a bunch of fish services..although the wording may still be the infamous LA话. Also I've never heard of asking for the fish to be actually deboned (so I can't add to that conversation since that is usually what I do when while I'm eating it 吐鱼刺/ not 去鱼刺 heheh，but here's a video on 去鱼刺 anyway http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/IEZD6NX-UKQ/) (Edit, FYI, you probably need to forward to about 3 min in to get to the actual deboning)

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_48dcdda20100an21.html

"每次去99大华主要是为了买支鱼，你能想象吗？这里的鱼鲜柜台竟然提供六个

免费服务(第2、4片)：●开膛去鱼鳞 ●去头 ●去头、尾 ●除内脏、切段

●轻炸 ●脆炸，也就是说你可以选择任何数字的免费服务，甚至可以免费清

蒸海鲜哦…… "

[xiaocai]

Some dishes such as 松鼠鱼 require the bones to be removed before cooking. But most of the time fish will be serve in whole here. I think 去刺 can get your message across but I personally think 把鱼刺去掉 will cause less ambiguity.

[skylee]

Is it right to say that 魚刺 is more common than 魚骨 on the mainland?

[xiaocai]

Seems to be so. But I think only the fine bones are call 刺, the rest such as the spine are still called 骨.

[imron]

PS - so do you say 去刺 in Hebei and Beijing to refer to removal of fish bones?

Removal of fish bones? That's crazy talk! Why would anyone do that? :o

On a more serious note, although I often heard 鱼刺, I never once heard of anyone removing fish bones (except of course while eating, never when preparing). Once I had a friend visit me in Australia and they said it was the first time they'd ever had fish without bones :blink:

[abcdefg]

But I think only the fine bones are call 刺, the rest such as the spine are still called 骨.

I think so too. 鱼刺 refers to the little ones that you have to spit out at the table.

[imron]

I would say that 鱼刺 is any fish bone that has a sharp or pointy end, not necessarily just small ones. When eating big fish, I've heard people remark words to the effect of 哇，这么大的鱼刺！

[anonymoose]

Incidentally, Chinese is not the only language that distiguishes between fish bones and other bones. 鱼刺 is arrêtes in French, whereas 骨头 generally is os.

[Landon]

I just bought a piece of mackerel and some bream fillets from a grocery store in Shanghai. The only word I knew for bone was 骨 gu (3rd tone). I asked the lady if the fish had 骨 gu inside, and she said the mackerel had 刺 ci (4th tone) inside, but not 骨 gu. She said the bream fillets had neither.

The definition of 刺 ci is: thorn, prick, stab, irritate, so I guess the small prickly bones in fish are called 刺 ci. 骨 gu could still be used, but would refer to a larger bone, like the backbone of the fish.