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