Fridge / freezer

[count_zero]

Just saw this on Weibo.

【15种不宜放进冰箱食物】1.香蕉；2.鲜荔枝；3.黄瓜；4.西红柿；5.面包；6.青椒；7.火腿；8.巧克力；9.叶子菜；10.中药；11.吃剩的月饼；12.鱼不宜久存；14.解冻后的冷冻食品；14.茄子；15.南瓜。

So how do you know if 冰箱 means "fridge" or "freezer"?

If it's "freezer" why can't I put bread in there??

[mikevwilliams]

I think it means freezer in this case as I think it's perfectly fine to put most of those things in the fridge, I know I do. My bread tends to go moldy in 2 days here if I don't put it in the fridge. As for why you can't put bread in the freezer, I don't have an answer for that. As far as I know bread is fine in the freezer.

[skylee]

I think it means the refrigerator / fridge. 不宜 means not suitable, it does not mean you can't put them in the fridge, but AFAIK some (bananas, chocolates) will turn bad pretty quickly if you take them out from the fridge. My family never put bananas in the fridge for this reason.

PS - if you search the title of that weibo text you can find some explanations on the web.

[liuzhou]

I always have bread in the freezer. No problem.

But, there is evidence that bread becomes stale more quickly in the fridge. See here, for example.

[count_zero]

Yeah, I read a 'kitchen myths' article that said bread goes stale more quickly in the fridge.

And, apparently, putting oil in the pan when you cook spaghetti does absolutely nothing.

[xiaocai]

I don't know about other places but here we call a fridge 冰箱 and a freezer 冻室. I think 冰箱 means fridge in #1.

[Ludens]

I don't know about other places but here we call a fridge 冰箱 and a freezer 冻室.

Might be useful to know where is ´here´.

[xiaocai]

中国四川省宜宾市翠屏区

Checked with a few people from various places in China, and we came to the conclusion that, generally, the machine is called 冰箱 as a whole. If you want to specify which compartment it is, then the refrigerator is 冷藏室 and the freezer is 冷冻室.

[bubokribuck]

In Hong Kong, a fridge is called 雪櫃, while a freezer is called 冰箱/冰格, and the two are clearly differentiated. Note that no one will call a fridge 冰箱 in Hong Kong.

Whereas in Mainland China, a fridge is called 冰箱, while a freezer is called 冰櫃.

However, according to the context in that article, I'm pretty sure the author meant "freezer". Why didn't they make it more clear? Just because a freezer is often built into a fridge, it doesn't automatically make them the same thing.