Reading Chinese Menus: Characters: 牛 — niú — beef

[kake]

牛

To follow up on Monday's post, which was aimed at encouraging other non-Chinese-speakers to learn to read Chinese menus^[1], I thought today I'd go back to basics and cover one of the more fundamental menu characters that I haven't yet discussed: 牛 (niú).

In a general context, and on its own, 牛 means "ox" or "cow", but when paired with the character 肉 (ròu/meat), it means beef: 牛肉. On menus, the 肉 is often omitted, or another character is used to make the specific cut more explicit, as in 牛腩 (niú nǎn/beef brisket), 牛健 (niú jiàn/beef shank), or 牛柳 (niú liǔ/beef fillet)^[2].

However, the presence of 牛 in the name of a dish doesn't always mean that it includes beef per se, as in the muscle tissue of cows; this character is also found in the names of various types of beef offal and other parts. I've collected some in the table below:

牛筋	niú jīn	beef tendon
牛舌	niú shé	beef tongue
牛尾	niú wěi	oxtail
牛肚	niú dǔ	beef tripe
牛柏葉 or 牛百葉	niú bǎi yè	beef tripe from the omasum, i.e. the third chamber of the stomach (leaf/book/bible tripe); the names literally mean "cow's cypress leaves" and "cow's hundred leaves" respectively
牛雜	niú zá	literally "beef miscellaneous"; I think this means assorted beef offal (and eatlovenoodles confirms this in comments); according to this blog post by buddyscottiecadet, it refers to all the offal from inside the abdomen

Note also that 牛油 (niú yóu) is neither meat nor offal, but butter (literally "cow grease")^[3]. You might see this used in the name of a common dim sum item, 牛油馬拉糕/niú yóu mǎ lái gāo (steamed sponge cake).

Here are some dishes with 牛 in the name:

五香牛肉	wǔ xiāng níu ròu	five-spice beef
水煮牛肉	shuǐ zhǔ niú ròu	water-cooked beef
紅燒牛肉	hóng shāo niú ròu	red-cooked beef
孜然牛肉	zī rán niú ròu	cumin beef
麻辣牛肚	má là níu dǔ	numbing-spicy beef tripe
姜蔥牛柏葉	jiāng cōng niú bǎi yè	beef tripe with ginger and spring onions
粉蒸牛肉	fěn zhēng niú ròu	steamed beef with roasted rice powder
乾炒牛河	gān chǎo niú hé	dry-fried beef ho fun

¹ Although thanks to the lovely comments, it also ended up being quite encouraging to me as well!

² See buddyscottiecadet's post on deciphering meat cuts for more cow-parts vocabulary.

³ While butter is 牛油 in Cantonese, pulchritude notes in comments that 黃油 (huáng yóu) is a more common word for butter in Mandarin, and buddyscottiecadet points out, also in comments, that in Taiwan butter is 奶油 (nǎi yóu/"milk oil").

牛:	niú	radical 93 (牛/牜)	Cantodict	MandarinTools	YellowBridge	Zhongwen

Characters mentioned in this post:

• 炒/chǎo (stirfry),
• 粉/fěn (rice noodles/starch/powder),
• 紅/hóng (red),
• 肉/ròu (meat),
• 水/shuǐ (water),
• 五/wǔ (five),
• 香/xiāng (fragrance),
• 蒸/zhēng (steamed)

Other related posts:

• 姜蔥牛柏葉/jiāng cōng niú bǎi yè (beef tripe with ginger and spring onions),
• 水煮牛肉/shuǐ zhǔ niú ròu (water-cooked beef)

If you have any questions or corrections, please leave a comment (here's how) and let me know (or email me at kake@earth.li). See my introductory post to the Chinese menu project for what these posts are all about.

Comments

[eatlovenoodles.blogspot.com]

牛雜 niú zá is mixed beef offal. The southern Chinese style sees it cooked and served with master stock (滷水).

[kake]

Thank you! I've edited the post to add your confirmation.

Thank you for using my blog post as ref

[buddyscottiecadet.blogspot.com]

Hi Kake - I came across your journal entry on beef 牛 by chance and realized that you refer to my blog post on beef offal. Appreciate the reference. I recently wrote another post on beef and would love to hear your thoughts.

http://buddyscottiecadet.blogspot.com/2012/03/beef-deciphering-hanger-steak.html

Also on the subject of 牛油. Butter is called different thing depending on where you are even if you speak Chinese. As you correctly pointed out, it's 牛油 in Cantonese, but 黃油 in Mandarin. However, in Taiwan's Mandarin, butter is known as 奶油 (as oil / fat derived from milk). And to make it even more confusing 鮮奶油 is fresh cream.

Cheers

Re: Thank you for using my blog post as ref

[kake]

Thanks for the comment! I've added a link to your new post, and also added the info about the Taiwanese Mandarin word for butter. I'm afraid I don't have much to add to what you've said, though; beef is not one of my favourite meats and so I haven't studied it particularly thoroughly.

[pulchritude]

I suspect 牛油 is region and/or dish-specific, as everyone I know from mainland China calls butter 黃油. I would use 牛油, however, to refer to actual cow oil.

[eatlovenoodles.blogspot.com]

I think you're right as butter is 牛油 in Cantonese yet the Mandarin-English dictionary that I own translates butter as 黃油.

[kake]

Thank you! I've added this to the post.

What do you mean by "cow oil"? It's not a phrase I've come across before (at least not used in a serious sense).

[pulchritude]

Oil derived from frying cow fat....Or is there another term for it in English?

[kake]

Liquid oil? Or solid fat? If the former, then I don't know the name for it in English as I'm pretty sure I've never seen it. If the latter, then maybe tallow or dripping? (Bread and dripping is delicious.)

[pulchritude]

Both (given that animal oils are solid at room temperature and become liquid once used).

Neither of those terms imo seem to describe what I would understand as 牛油, as they both require what appears to be more processing. I've actually never had 牛油 actually and I doubt it's very common...but we do fry pig fat for 豬油, so 牛油 for me would absolutely be an analogous product.

[kake]

Ah-ha, I see! (I would never use the word "oil" for something that's solid at room temperature.) I guess maybe "beef fat" might work as an English term? Though that's more generic than either "tallow" or "dripping" (I would say it covers both).

[pulchritude]

Fat, to me, is 肥肉, which is absolutely not the same as the 油 derived from frying 肥肉 (the 肥肉 becomes 油渣 afterward). Unless there's an English term for 肥肉? Fatty meat?

[kake]

I don't think I would call 肥肉 "fat", at least not in isolation. "Fatty meat" is probably the best translation, though it still feels imperfect.

The only circumstance I can think of where 肥肉 might be called just "fat" would be in direct contrast to "lean", and even then the context would have to be quite clear. One example is in the nursery rhyme Jack Sprat ("Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean. And so between the two of them, they licked the platter clean.") but I think that usage is a bit old-fashioned now — I'd be surprised to see it in anything modern. (I wouldn't say just "lean", either, I'd always say "lean meat".)

How about "rendered beef fat" for 牛油?

[pulchritude]

Yeah, I suppose my understanding of 肥肉 as 'fat' derives from the fat/lean opposition you describe.

I suppose tallow works well enough, though (if I want to use a word that would be understood by everyone easily), but 'rendered beef fat' is possibly the best description, yeah.