I have only the vaguest idea what most of my food actually is. If it's meat it's probably pork. Corn is always recognizable. As are eggs. But most of the vegetables? I don't know. My local teachers often delight in asking me if I know what something is and if we eat it in the US. I don't always know how to answer given that knowing the Chinese name doesn't always help me actually know what it is. I also don't know if they're asking do we grow it? Do we eat it commonly? Can it be bought at all?
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I went through this whole routine regarding what is known here as what translates to "sour papaya" (酸木瓜 suānmùguā). I have no idea what it is called in English or what the plant is that bears this fruit. It looks and tastes nothing like a papaya, but sort of like an extremely sour pear. Not sour like a lemon--which also has some balancing sweetness--just pure sour.
At dinner last night I asked about a common green that is served a lot in many different dishes: by itself, in eggs, in meat dishes, and in soups. I was told it is called 茴香 huíxiāng, which according to both my dictionaries is fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). This seems likely based on the the leaf-shape and the strong flavor.
One of the greens that I like a lot but had never encountered before is called 蒜薹 suàntái, or garlic shoots. They are eaten just as the shoots are budding and they're quite tender and yummy.
Last week, I was asked if I knew what the vegetable I had just pulled out of the soup (that's how they eat soup here, there's a big bowl in the middle, you pull chunks out of it, and dunk them in lajiao--a pepper soy sauce). Nope. I was told it's called 儿菜 ércài, meaning child vegetable, because it looks like children around the mother.
Frequently I'm told what something is called and then promptly forget it. But I'm slowly picking up a few things.
Fennel is big here, too, so it doesn't surprise me. In Tajik they call it "shibit" and I taught it in my basic and elementary classes, seeing as it is very common.
ReplyDeleteI may sound like an unbeliever but I would love to have some pork XD
The sour mango was identified as the fruit of the genus Chaenomeles (is it just me or does that mean China apple?) on some Chinese websites I looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles
ReplyDeleteApparently known as the Chinese Flowering Quince (with Flowering Quinces being apparently a different getnus from Quinces). My favorite part was how all quinces have flowers but these are called Flowering because their fruit is not considered worth eating in the west and they are only grown for their flowers
I'm actually not sure now whether it is fennel or dill. I haven't tried either before and they look so similar....
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