Stir-fried whole-wheat noodles with vegetables (from M&S)

[skylee]

I sent the following to my friends -

 

準備煮呢個，共46文。但只得一個煮即食麵嘅煲，唔知煮唔煮到。原來2包食物係2人份量。好煩。

 

半包菜+半盒麵。無鑊，用煲。無鑊鏟，用筷子撩。無油，用水。無醬油，用鹽同好多好多即磨黑胡椒。老實講我覺得OK，素菜炒全麥麵，黑椒味同黑椒汁一樣味但係無汁。如果有油可能個麵質會好食啲，但無油又好清爽喎。我覺得唔錯。因為無油，我覺得可以食多個。算係成功。

[889]

M&S closed their Mainland operations this Spring, though they still have about two dozen stores in Hong Kong.

 

[abcdefg]

Is M&S short for Marks and Spencer, the famous British store chain?

[skylee]

Yes, it is Marks & Spencer.

 

I like buying food at M&S (although it is not cheap) here in Hong Kong and also in Europe. I know what I can find there and the quality is OK.

[Alex_Hart]

Have not seen this sort of ready-to-cook stuff in Hangzhou, but did see a huge market in Nanjing (rivaled the fancy American markets) with tons of stuff like this, plus prepared foods. Think it was called GW or something along those lines. 

[Flickserve]

On 22 June 2017 at 9:04 PM, skylee said:

共46文

 

Is that the price?

[skylee]

Yes. HKD46.

[abcdefg]

Quote

共46文 = HKD46

 

Is that a common way to express cost or price? Is it strictly Hong Kong slang/vernacular, or is it used elsewhere as well? Not sure I have seen it before.

[Flickserve]

21 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

Is that a common way to express cost or price? Is it strictly Hong Kong slang/vernacular, or is it used elsewhere as well? Not sure I have seen it before.

 

Verbally in cantonese, yes.

 

But the character 文 displayed in shops for prices is very uncommon in HK. I can't recall off hand having ever seen it. It is usually the dollar sign or 元. That's why I sought for the clarification.

[lips]

文 has been used as a monetary unit in China for thousands of years, meaning one coin.  It's about 1000th of one 两 of silver.  It's the origin of the idiom 一文不值。Nowadays in Cantonese it's pronounced in the 1st tone to mean "dollar".  If the meaning is one old Chinese coin, then it's in the 4th tone.

 

You can also write the price of the M&S noodle above as

〤〦

元

 

 

 

[abcdefg]

Interesting discussion! I learn new things here all the time.