food vocabulary

[randall_flagg]

I have a few food questions:

How would you say “tomato” in Chinese? Would you say: 西红柿 or would you say 番茄? Since 番茄酱 means ketchup, I’d think that’s more common? Or perhaps there is a difference in how you say it depending on whether the tomato is raw or cooked or whatever.

Is 巨无霸 really just hamburger? It sounds a lot like „Whopper“ to me. But then, I’ve never seen a Burger King in China.

What’s the difference between 鲑鱼 and 三文鱼?

Then: is 生菜 really just lettuce? I though it was any uncooked 菜.

Thanks for all the help!

Randall

[randall_flagg]

Also, I think it is odd that pineapples and spinach should have to share a character: 菠菜 菠萝。 　Ｔｈｅｙ　ａｒｅ　ｓｏ　ｎｏｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｓａｍｅ，　I just don't see how this could happen. They aren't even close to bein the same. I mean, they don't taste the same, smell the same, are shaped the same. Nothing! Is any of these two perhaps not indigenous to China? I know, I know, I'm probably getting worked up about nothing here and this is one of the things that you just have to accept. Still thought it was weird.

BTW, can you tell I am tackling a food-lesson right now?

[nicolebay]

How would you say “tomato” in Chinese? Would you say: 西红柿 or would you say 番茄? Since 番茄酱 means ketchup, I’d think that’s more common? Or perhaps there is a difference in how you say it depending on whether the tomato is raw or cooked or whatever.

西红柿 is used in northern China, you can use them both.

Is 巨无霸 really just hamburger? It sounds a lot like „Whopper“ to me. But then, I’ve never seen a Burger King in China.

巨无霸 is Big Mac, 汉堡（包）is burger, with or without the 包 in the branket.

What’s the difference between 鲑鱼 and 三文鱼?

they are same thing, 三文鱼 is more widely used.

Then: is 生菜 really just lettuce? I though it was any uncooked 菜.

生菜 is lettuce, but in some super market there's be a counter called"生菜", then it means uncooked 菜

by the way the 菠菜，菠萝question, it's just like "fly" and "butterfly"......

language is invented for communicating, in my opinion, Chinese is highly summarized in term of how easy it is for people to understand a whole new concept using some existed easy characters. so, keep on trying:mrgreen:

[Lugubert]

At www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk, you'll among other things find words including 醬.

What might be a surprise is, that there's ketchup as well as soy sauce. But from an extinct post somewhere,

Ketchup is actually of Chinese origin. From my understanding it was more of a chutney or salsa and was originally made with fish. The tomatoe ketchup we see today was adjusted over time to American taste.

Also, Indonesian ketjap is soy sauce.

[skylee]

If 菠菜 and 菠蘿 bother you, you can use 鳳梨 for pineapple (which, btw, has nothing to do with pine or apple, I believe). But then 鳳梨 is quite irrelevant to phoenix or chicken or pear ...

[PeterMUC]

Not directly related to the questions but a good ressource for food terms in general. All kinds of food and drinks with pinyin and an english translation can be found here:

http://www2.gtz.de/china/download/menu.pdf

[randall_flagg]

Thanks everybody!

Skylee, thanks for the pineapple hint. It probably really doesn't have anything to do with pines or apples. Well, perhaps if you use "apple" as a more generic term for fruit, like 桃 in Chinese? "pomme de terre", for example.

I was taught that "butterfly" is a Spoonerism, and that is used to be "flutterby" before this guy Spoon got his hands, no, his tongue!, onto it. But who knows? No, honestly: Who knows?

[WilsonFong]

from wikipedia

The word "ketchup" may have come from the Malay kēchap, a fish sauce that does not contain tomatoes. The Malay word means taste. A more direct origin for the word may be the Cantonese dialect (Chinese) phrase ke-tsiap ( 茄汁 ) which literally means eggplant sauce. The Cantonese phrase for tomato is fan-ke, which means "foreign eggplant".

[ddjiii]

Getting a bit far afield, but food words provide many fascinating (to me, anyway) hints to history and culture. You know a 胡萝卜is not native to China because it means "foreign radish." And you can tell that to westerners an onion is more common or basic than a spring onion or green onion, because it doesn't need an adjective, but Chinese is just the opposite: 葱and 洋葱.

Can you imagine 川菜　without chile peppers? They are native to the Americas, not to China.

And so on...

[randall_flagg]

I guess it's pretty obvioius that 朝鲜蓟 is not from China either, right? I'm having a great time learning these. Or how about

[randall_flagg]

(Oops, kind of hit the wrong button there)

Or how about 胡椒粉？

[bible2006]

It' s two different names people in different areas call tomato .For instance,people here call tomato 番茄，people there call it 西红柿.But it is difficultt to find the exact areas.Moreover,in my opinion,番茄 is usually used in formal occasion : in a book which teach you how to cook;in a geograph or a biology book which has some contens attach to tomato ,etc.西红柿 is usually used in oral Chinese.

[ddjiii]

OK, what is 胡鲜蓟? I have never heard it, and after 15 minutes with three dictionaries, including a Chinese/Chinese, I have determined that 蓟　is a kind of grass which could be used in medicine, but none of them have 胡鲜蓟. Oh, this language.

[skylee]

what is 胡鲜蓟?

Read again. randall_flagg wrote 朝鲜蓟 -> artichoke.

[bible2006]

I am a Chinese college students ,but before you asked the question ,I have never heard of 胡鲜蓟.Then I search it in www.baidu.com ,which is the largest search web for Chinese ,I found may be its fomal name should be朝鲜蓟. Why people call it 胡鲜蓟?In ancient times ,We Chinese called foreigners, minorities in the north and in the west of China 胡.What is 朝鲜蓟?I have found .Its another name is French lily,It is originally cultivated in the countries next to Mediterranean.It is developed from a plant called 菜蓟.2000 years ago ,the Romans had begun to eat it .It is widely cultivated in Europe and America.In the nineteen century ,French people brought it to China.Nowerdays ,it is planted in Shanghai ,Zhejiang ,Yunnan,but not widely.朝鲜蓟's leaves and flowers can be eaten.It contains vitamin,iron and many compound which is benifit for health.It can be cooked in many ways.It can be fried ,be made into sauce ,soup and cans.Its leaves can be used to cure hepatitis and helps to reduce cholesterol.