Reading Chinese Menus: Characters: 瓜 — guā — gourd

[kake]

瓜

瓜 (guā) is the character for "gourd", and is generally used for things in the somewhat hard-to-pronounce Cucurbitaceae family. Like the characters I mentioned on Monday, 瓜 varies in different fonts in a way that really confused me to start with (screenshot). It's worth getting to recognise, though, since not only is it used in its own right in several food-related words, it's also the radical for a few characters including the 瓣 (bàn) of 豆瓣醬 (dòu bàn jiàng) (screenshot).

Here are some ingredients that use 瓜 in the name:

青瓜	qīng guā	cucumber
黃瓜	huáng guā	another word for cucumber
矮瓜	ǎi guā	aubergine (though this term is only used in Cantonese, not in Mandarin — the Mandarin term is 茄子/qié zi — and the menus I've seen are more likely to use 茄子 than 矮瓜)
木瓜	mù guā	papaya
南瓜	nán guā	pumpkin
金瓜	jīn guā	another word for pumpkin
苦瓜	kǔ guā	bitter gourd/bitter melon
涼瓜	liáng guā	another word for bitter gourd/bitter melon
冬瓜	dōng guā	winter melon

As well as the above, superpitching recently discovered another 瓜 vegetable — 勝瓜 (shèng guā), which apparently translates as "sponge gourd", "angled luffa", or "Chinese okra" (pulchritude notes in comments that this is also known as 絲瓜/sī guā). I have never noticed this on a menu, but will be keeping my eyes open from now on, because in my brain a loofah is something you use in the bath, and so I would dearly like to eat one.

瓜:	guā	radical 97 (瓜)	Cantodict	MandarinTools	YellowBridge	Zhongwen

Related posts:

• 海米冬瓜 (hǎi mǐ dōng guā/winter melon with dried prawns),
• 涼拌黃瓜 (liáng bàn huáng guā/cucumber salad)

If you have any questions or corrections, please leave a comment and let me know (or email me at kake@earth.li). See here for what these posts are all about.

Comments

[pulchritude]

Loofahs are delish. :D

Though er, 絲瓜 is the term I use to describe the two different varieties of loofah that are eaten. They are both delish btw and taste pretty much similar.

Also, I think it's interesting that you consider the radical of 瓣 to be 瓜, as my first thought would be 辛. Then I checked the dictionary and found 瓣 under both radicals. :D

[kake]

絲瓜 is the term I use to describe the two different varieties of loofah that are eaten.

I've edited this into the post — thank you!

Also, I think it's interesting that you consider the radical of 瓣 to be 瓜, as my first thought would be 辛. Then I checked the dictionary and found 瓣 under both radicals. :D

I was blindly trusting CantoDict :) I checked my dictionary, and it has 瓣 under both, too!