Western food names

[xinoxanu]

Just now, Shelley said:

I don't think @Publius was in anyway trying to be condescending.

 

You see, that's the reason why one should stop using the internet after 11pm.

 

Didn't realise it may have been that... and thinking it through, you may be right, so my apologies @Publius if that's the case.

 

In any case, my apologies to all for derailing the topic, won't do it again.

[Shelley]

5 hours ago, xinoxanu said:

In any case, my apologies to all for derailing the topic, won't do it again

 

Don't stress, it all makes for lively conversation as long as we all remember our manners

[abcdefg]

On 6/6/2019 at 1:02 AM, Shelley said:

If it was me and I wanted to order a cheeseburger I would ask a friend or teacher what are cheeseburgers called round here. You just have to find out what is used where you are and go with it. You could go 10 miles down the road and find they call it something different. 

 

Well said! Agree. That's been my experience even in just the SW of China, to say nothing of how the names for dishes change if going to the east coast or up to Beijing and Harbin. 

 

And I've seen the same sort of usage variations in different parts of the US, so they aren't in the least surprising. A hotdog here is a weiner there and a coney or a frank someplace else. 

 

Christa, I've forgotten your story. Did you grow up speaking Taiwanese Mandarin in a family who moved to the west from there? Or was Malaysia in the mix somehow? Don't mean to pry, was just wondering how you wound up with such odd Chinese. 

[Jim]

To stray off topic, the other one I've found real regional variation in is the name of tools and farm/garden implements etc., seems every village has its own set of vocab.

[abcdefg]

21 minutes ago, Jim said:

To stray off topic, the other one I've found real regional variation in is the name of tools and farm/garden implements etc., seems every village has its own set of vocab.

 

Interesting. Earlier this week I tried to borrow a hammer to fix the kick stand on my bike and got blank looks when asking for a 锤子。Pantomime finally carried the day, and of course I could have been pronouncing it wrong. 

 

Last week I bought a Phillips-head screwdriver and the shopkeeper knew what I meant with 十字头螺丝刀  even though I wasn't terribly confident and had slipped a sample screw into my pocket beforehand as a "just in case" measure. 

 

 

[murrayjames]

@abcdefg

 

In Sichuan a Phillips-head screwdriver is called 十字形改刀, the missus says.

[DavyJonesLocker]

1 hour ago, abcdefg said:

 

Last week I bought a Phillips-head screwdriver and the shopkeeper knew what I meant with 十字头螺丝刀  even though I wasn't terribly confident and had slipped a sample screw into my pocket beforehand as a "just in case." 

 

What do you guys use in USA . In UK and Europe we have two types. Phillips and Pozidrive ,pozidrive being far more popular (Phillips generally for older screws and electrical equipment mainly) 

[Shelley]

In the workshop here we have Phillips, Pozidrive and crosshead  amongst a vast number of other types.

[Publius]

I don't know about Yunnan, but 锤子 is a swear word in Sichuanese (along with 毛线, 铲铲, and other innocent-looking everyday objects). As for hammer, some say 锤子 and 榔头 are different names for the same thing, others disagree.

Screwdriver is 改锥, 起子 or 螺丝刀 in Beijing/Dongbei.

An extension lead is 插座/插排/排插/插线板/接线板/拖线板/线板 depending on where you live. So a Taobao shop owner must include all of them in the product name to make sure every customer can find it.

Oh and these 接线板 manufacturers all have their own oddly shaped screw heads so that we customers don't accidentally electrocute ourselves. This is a U-shaped screwdriver for 公牛牌:

 

 

[889]

I was going to mention 飞饼 until I realised I'd be off-topic.

[abcdefg]

7 hours ago, 889 said:

I was going to mention 飞饼 until I realised I'd be off-topic.

 

The original topic, slim to start with, has been thoroughly exhausted now. Should be OK wander a bit. 

 

Not sure what you mean by 飞饼。Every now and then, I see a snacks 小吃 vendor with a large round griddle who pours a thin batter on top and tosses them in the air when they set. Next they fold in bananas or small pineapple chunks. Serve them with a sweet sauce. Sold here as 泰国飞饼。Is that what you had in mind?  

 

[889]

I usually see them at Indian restaurants, sometimes being prepared up front by an Indian chef.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zvXkU6XGbC8

[abcdefg]

Those look very similar! Always fun to watch them being made. 

 

Wouldn't be at all surprised if 印度飞饼 become 泰国飞饼 if the guys doing the tossing are from different parts of Asia. I've also seen some that were just Chinese, with no claim to being a foreign import. 

[889]

I think they fall in the same category as 加州牛肉面.

 

Or maybe Hamburgers and French fries.

[Christa]

Mmmh, I feel we may have veered somewhat off topic - not that that's a bad thing...

 

Still, I just want to check one thing before I go, just to clarify.

 

If someone were to ask me what hamburger and pizza were in Chinese and I told them 汉堡 and 披萨 would that be okay?

[Shelley]

I think you would have to add the caveat of "it depends where you are"

[Publius]

If it's plain old hamburger you order at McDonald's then you should say 汉堡包. Check this list for the naming of McDonald's products: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/麦当劳产品#汉堡（午市及晚市）

If by hamburger you mean a kind of food, then both 汉堡包 and 汉堡 are okay. Which one to use depends on the rhythm of the particular utterance.

When used as a suffix, you should drop the 包.

[murrayjames]

On 6/6/2019 at 8:33 PM, Publius said:

锤子 is a swear word in Sichuanese (along with 毛线, 铲铲, and other innocent-looking everyday objects).

 

@Publius, I showed your post to my Sichuanese wife. She laughed and said, “How does a guy from Beijing know that?!”

 

For the curious, the Sichuanese word 铲铲 sounds like cuǎncuan, not chǎnchǎn. The first syllable is long and drawn out; the “uǎ” sounds like a baby’s “wah.” Here is a fun sentence that uses the word:

 

你晓得个铲铲！

 

The sentence is the rough Sichuanese equivalent of:

 

你懂个屁！

[abcdefg]

8 hours ago, Christa said:

If someone were to ask me what hamburger and pizza were in Chinese and I told them 汉堡 and 披萨 would that be okay?

 

Yes, that would be OK. You would be understood. 

[Bibu]

On 6/5/2019 at 8:21 PM, Jim said:

Croissant also often 牛角面包

 

so called 可颂 in Shanghai , used to be.  Maybe now it is less popular name in Shanghai now, 10 years not eating around in Shanghai, LOL.

 

可颂坊,  a SH  bakery,  can be seen in many cities now, things changed and diminished quick these days ....