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醬 (jiàng) isn't a character that generally appears standalone — on a Chinese menu, it's almost always part of a word. It essentially denotes some kind of jam-like or paste-like food, and is often translated as "sauce" or "paste".
The radical of 醬 is 酉 (yǒu/wine); note that it appears on the bottom of the character, rather than on the left as in most other characters with this radical. Characters with the 酉 radical are usually associated with alcohol or fermentation in some way, which certainly fits with 醬, as many Chinese pastes/sauces involve fermentation.
Here are some types of 醬 you might see mentioned on a menu, or used in a recipe:
豆瓣醬 | dòu bàn jiàng | chilli bean paste |
海鮮醬 | hǎi xiān jiàng | hoisin sauce (literally "seafood sauce") |
沙爹醬/沙嗲醬 | shā diē jiàng | satay sauce (transliteration) |
沙茶醬 | shā chá jiàng | shacha sauce |
醬油 | jiàng yóu | soy sauce [see footnote] |
XO醬 | XO jiàng | XO sauce |
黃醬 or 黄豆酱 or 磨豉醬 | huáng jiàng or huáng dòu jiàng or mó chǐ jiàng | yellow bean sauce |
And here are some specific dishes that use the character 醬:
醬牛肉 | jiàng niú ròu | beef braised in soy sauce then sliced and served cold (see Su-Lin's post on 醬牛肉) |
炸醬麵 | zhà jiàng miàn | noodles with pork and fermented bean sauce, literally "fried sauce noodles" (see my post on 炸醬麵) |
XO醬煎腸粉 | XO jiàng jiān cháng fěn | grilled cheung fun with XO sauce |
京醬肉絲 | jīng jiàng ròu sī | shredded pork in Peking sauce (a sort of sweet bean-based sauce) |
醬 is also used in the Chinese names of various Western sauces/condiments such as peanut butter, mayonnaise, etc — see the CantoDict entry for 醬 for a list.
Footnote: [0] sung points out in comments that the Cantonese term for soy sauce is different:
豉油 (si-yau) is the term used for soy in general and 生抽 (san-cao) for light soy and 老抽 (lao-cao) for dark soy
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醬: | jiàng | radical 164 (酉) | Cantodict | MandarinTools | YellowBridge | Zhongwen |
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Date: 2010-11-10 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-10 11:19 pm (UTC)[0] I only know this because I obsessively transcribe every Chinese menu I can get my hands on.
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Date: 2010-11-11 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 12:07 pm (UTC)