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, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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 |
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