China Food Myths

[KennethT]

9 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

A wild guess, but broccoli will probably be one of the last species on Earth to go extinct. Just my luck.

 

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 C⊘rn will last longer, I'm sure!

We can always wish for a species specific blight!

[KennethT]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

Do you remember what the written name looked like? There are two ways I see it written in Simplified Chinese as used in mainland China. 芥兰 or 芥蓝, pronounced identically. Then, just to confuse things further, in Traditional Chinese and so in Cantonese as used in Hong Kong and in much of the diaspora it can be 芥蘭 or 芥藍!

 

Don't make the mistake of only remembering the first character. Many vegetables begin with that character. You could even end up with wasabi!

 

 

Unfortunately, I don't remember and I don't know if I kept the card that he wrote for us.

[liuzhou]

For the record and clarification:

 

Gailan

 

Gailan aka Chinese Broccoli is 芥兰 or 芥蓝 (both jiè lán) on the mainland. It is 芥蘭 (gaai3 laan4*2) in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and among much of the overseas Chinese.

 

Western Broccoli

Western broccoli is 西兰花 (xī lán huā) on the mainland. It is 西蘭花 (sai1 laan4 faa1) in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and among much of the overseas Chinese.

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

@liuzhou thank you so much for this series. I am enjoying it immensely. I found it very interesting to read your opinion of Cantonese food. I was recently reading this thread. they talk about the fact that 99% of the early immigrants to the West were Cantonese or Toisanese which would explain why there are so many bad Chinese restaurants in the Americas. Cantonese I am beginning to understand but what is Toisanese?

Edited December 27, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[liuzhou]

6 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Cantonese I am beginning to understand but what is Toisanese?

 

Toisanese is a sub-dialect of Cantonese.

 

Note: The posts on the different Chinese cuisines have been moved (at my request) to this new topic