Adventures with Kake

紅 (hóng) is the Chinese character for the colour red. Red is a significant colour in Chinese culture, symbolising happiness and good luck.

It turns up on menus in a number of contexts. One that I've already discussed is red-cooking (紅燒/hóng shāo), which is a style of braising in an aromatic soy-sauce-based liquid, sweetened with caramelised sugar and scented with wine, star anise, and other spices. The braise leaves the ingredients with a rich reddish-brown colour, hence the name.

紅 also appears in one of the Chinese names for tomato: 西紅柿 (xī hóng shì), literally "western red persimmon". According to sung's comment on my post on 茄/qié/aubergine, in the north of China this is more common than the other names I've seen for tomatoes on menus: 番茄 and 蕃茄 (both of which are fān qié in pinyin).

Coagulated pig's blood is often referred to on menus as 豬紅 (zhū hóng), literally "pig's red". This is actually a surprisingly mild-tasting ingredient, with a consistency similar to soft tofu; in fact I've had it paired with tofu a few times, generally in soup. (Another, more literal, term for pig's blood is 豬血/zhū xuè.)

Another frequent occurrence of 紅 on menus is in the Chinese term for chilli oil, which is literally "red oil": 紅油 (hóng yóu). Chilli oil is commonly used in various cold dishes, as well as other applications.

Finally, for those who like to drink tea, it may be worth knowing that while in English we generally divide Chinese teas into green and black, the corresponding Chinese terms are literally green (綠/lǜ) and red. There's an interesting discussion of "red tea" vs. "black tea" on the Not Learning Cantonese In Hong Kong blog, including some speculation as to why the difference occurs, and some examples of languages which come down on each side.

Here are some dishes with 紅 in the name:

漢字	pinyin	English
紅燒肉	hóng shāo ròu	red-cooked pork
	Other ingredients that can be cooked in 紅燒 style include aubergine (茄子/qié zi), beef (牛肉/niú ròu), fish (魚/yú), pig trotters (豬手/zhū shǒu or 豬蹄/zhū tí), spare ribs (排骨/pái gǔ), and winter melon (冬瓜/dōng guā).
紅油抄手	hóng yóu chāo shǒu	wontons in chilli oil
	As sung pointed out in a comment on my post on 手/shǒu/hand, 抄手 (chāo shǒu), literally "crossed hands", is the Sichuan term for wontons — the Cantonese word is 雲吞 (yún tūn in Mandarin pinyin), literally "swallowing clouds".
紅油豬耳	hóng yóu zhū ěr	pig's ear in chilli oil
	This is a cold dish. As with 紅油抄手, the 紅油 here is chilli oil, literally "red oil". You may also see this dish as 紅油耳片 (hóng yóu ěr piàn) or 紅油耳絲 (hóng yóu ěr sī), both of which make it explicit that the ear is sliced (片) or shredded (絲); in this context, these two characters mean essentially the same thing.
韭菜炒豬紅	jiǔ cài chǎo zhū hóng	stir-fried pig's blood with Chinese chives
	As mentioned above, 豬紅 (zhū hóng) is literally "pig's red". 韭菜 (jiǔ cài) are Chinese chives, also known in English as garlic chives.
女兒紅鳳爪	nǚ ér hóng fèng zhǎo	chicken feet in wine sauce
	Literally "daughter's red phoenix claws", this is a dim sum dish. 鳳爪 (fèng zhǎo/phoenix claws) is a common name for chicken feet.
酥炸紅糟海鰻魚	sū zhà hóng zāo hǎi mán yú	crispy deep-fried eel with red wine lees
	This is a Fujian dish; red wine lees is a by-product of making red rice wine, and is a common ingredient in Fujian cooking.

I've mentioned 蝦 (xiā) in several posts already, so I thought it was time I gave it a character post of its own. 蝦 on its own means "prawn" or "shrimp" — though don't ask me what the difference between a prawn and a shrimp is, since it seems to vary by country.

You may also see 大蝦 (dà xiā), or "big prawns", i.e. king prawns. However, a lack of 大 in the name of a dish doesn't necessarily mean that the prawns are small ones. In addition, 球 (qiú), which means "ball", is sometimes used as a reference to the way prawns tend to curl up into balls: 蝦球 (xiā qiú). 蝦仁 (xiā rén) are peeled prawns; 仁 means "kernel" or "core".

Other prawn-related words include 蝦醬 (xiā jiàng), which is shrimp paste (belachan), and 蝦米 (xiā mǐ), literally "prawn grains", which are dried prawns. Note that another name for dried prawns is 海米/hǎi mǐ, literally "ocean grains".

Finally, although it's not a prawn, the word for lobster also includes 蝦; it's 龍蝦 (lóng xiā), literally "dragon prawn".

Below are some dishes with 蝦 in the name. (I decided to try out a new style for this "table of dishes" — what do you think? See last week's character post for a comparison.)

漢字	pinyin	English
蝦餃	xiā jiǎo	har gao
	As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, "har gao" is simply the Cantonese pronunciation of 蝦餃, adopted into English as the name for these translucent-skinned prawn dumplings.
紙包蝦	zhǐ bāo xiā	paper-wrapped prawns
	紙 (zhǐ) is paper, and 包 (bāo) means "package" or "to wrap". These are deep-fried prawns wrapped in rice paper skins.
鮮蝦腸粉	xiān xiā cháng fěn	prawn cheung fun
	I discussed cheung fun during last year's dim sum month. 鮮 (xiān) means "fresh", and is used here to make the dish sound more appealing.
芝麻蝦多士	zhī má xiā duō shì	sesame prawn toast
	芝麻 (zhī má) is sesame and 多士 (duō shì) is toast; the latter of these is another of those words which originated as a Cantonese transliteration ("do si") of the English word ("toast"). Note that despite its reputation as an Anglicised Chinese dish, sung assures me that 芝麻蝦多士 is a bona fide Cantonese dish, usually served as a starter or snack.
宮保蝦球	gōng bǎo xiā qiú	kung po prawns
	Note the use of 球 (qiú) as described above.
姜蔥龍蝦	jiāng cōng lóng xiā	lobster with ginger and spring onion
	You might also see this with the alternative word for ginger, 薑 (also pinyinised as jiāng).

酸 (suān) is the Chinese character for "sour". On menus, this often appears in combination with 辣 (là/spicy), for example as 酸辣湯 (suān là tāng), or hot and sour soup. Note that the Chinese is the other way around from the English, as the literal translation is "sour and spicy soup" — this also applies to other hot and sour items, such as 酸辣土豆絲 (suān là tǔ dòu sī), which is hot and sour shredded potato.

Another frequent partner to 酸 is 菜 (cài). In this context, 菜 means "vegetable", though 酸菜 is often translated as "pickled greens"; it's a tasty, sour, crunchy pickle made from 芥菜 (jiè cài), or mustard greens. Food Mayhem has a recipe for making your own, but you can buy it in jars too, either chopped or whole. I've discussed 酸菜 before, in my post on 酸菜魚/suān cài yú (fish soup with pickled greens).

酸梅湯 (suān méi tāng), despite using the character for "soup" (湯/tāng), is more of a drink. Eileen Eats has a recipe and some additional comments on the ingredients.

Here are some more dishes with 酸 in the name:

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:

腰 (yāo) is the Chinese character for "kidney" (though snowynight notes in comments that it may only be used to mean this in a food context, not in general). It can also mean "waist" or "middle part". It appears on menus both to indicate actual kidneys and as part of the word 腰果 (yāo guǒ/cashew nut).

When used to mean kidneys, you may see it as 豬腰 (zhū yāo), which is explicitly a pig's kidney, or perhaps as 腰花 (yāo huā), literally "kidney flowers". In the latter case, it means that the kidneys have been cross-hatched before cooking so they open up like flowers when cooked, a similar treatment to that often given to squid.

Note that the radical of 腰 is 肉 (in its ⺼ form in this case). This is pretty common for offal; 肝 (gān/liver), 腸 (cháng/intestine), 肚 (dǔ/tripe), and 肺 (fèi/lung) all share the same radical.

Here are some dishes with 腰 in the name:

蠔 (háo) is the Chinese character for "oyster", though I should perhaps say that it's a Chinese character for "oyster". There are quite a few Chinese words for this bivalve, including 海蠣 (hǎi lì), 牡蠣 (mǔ lì), and 蚵 (hé). However, 蠔 is by far the most common term I've seen on Chinese menus in London; I've only seen 海蠣 on two menus, both of them from Fujian restaurants, and I've never seen either 牡蠣 or 蚵.

I am a great fan of oysters. bob often brings half a dozen back for me when he goes to our local farmers' market on the weekend, and I usually just shuck them and eat them raw. I did cook some last week, though, and I'll be posting about that on Friday!

Another common menu word with 蠔 in the name is 蠔油 (háo yóu), or oyster sauce. You may also sometimes see 蠔皇 (háo huáng), which is often translated into English as "superior oyster sauce".

Here are some dishes with 蠔 in the name:

米 (mǐ) is the Chinese character for uncooked rice and other grain-like things.

Note that the character for cooked rice is 飯 (fàn), though this is often used on menus in combination with 米 as 米飯 (mǐ fàn). I've seen 米飯 used to denote plain steamed rice, though in comments below sunflower points out that really this is just another term for cooked rice, and sung reminds me that 白飯 (bái fàn) is the more commonly-used term for plain cooked rice in Cantonese (白 means white/pure/plain).

Other words that include 米 are:

小米	xiǎo mǐ	millet (literally "small grain")
米粉	mǐ fěn	rice vermicelli
玉米	yù mǐ	sweetcorn
粟米	sù mǐ	another word for sweetcorn
蝦米	xiā mǐ	dried prawns
海米	hǎi mǐ	another word for dried prawns
花生米	huā shēng mǐ	peanuts — also simply 花生; note that pulchritude mentions in comments that 花生米 is specifically the kernels rather than the whole nut, and also that 花生米 also refers to "an appetizer-ish dish containing salted peanut kernels (with the red skin left on)"

And here are some dishes with 米 in the name:

Note in the last of these that the 米 is attached to the preceding 蝦 to make 蝦米 (dried prawns) rather than to the following 粉 to make 米粉 (rice vermicelli). The 粉 in turn is attached to the following 絲 to make 粉絲 (bean thread noodles). I discussed the issue of working out which word a character belongs to in my post on 鹹蛋黄玉米粒 (xián dàn huáng yù mǐ fěn (sweetcorn with salted egg yolk) — essentially, there's no substitute for experience.

As you'll know by now if you followed my link to Red Cook's stirfrying series in Monday's linkspam, the Chinese character for "stirfry" is 炒 (chǎo). Kian, the author of the Red Cook blog, divides stirfrying techniques into three main types: plain stirfry (清炒/qīng chǎo), moist stirfry (滑炒/huá chǎo), and dry wok stirfry (煸炒/biān chǎo).

清炒 generally incorporates just one vegetable per dish, often a leafy green or a gourd-style vegetable. A vegetable dish described as 清炒 alone is likely to be very plain, seasoned only with salt. Other flavourings may also be used, and different characters/words are used to denote this; for an overview, see my post on mix-and-match green vegetable dishes.

滑炒 involves several different ingredients, and results in a dish with a sauce; the fourth post in Kian's series has more on this. As he points out, this is the technique used to create dishes such as fish-fragrant aubergine (魚香茄子/yú xiāng qié zi).

煸炒 uses more seasonings and more ingredients than 清炒, but ends up less saucy than 滑炒. One subtype of 煸炒 is 乾煸 (gān biān), or extreme-heat stirfry, used in dishes such as dry-fried green beans (乾煸四季豆/gān biān sì jì dòu).

Here are some dishes with 炒 in the name:

Finally, don't confuse 炒 (chǎo) with 抄 (chāo), which as mentioned in my post on 手 (shǒu/hand) is used in the Sichuan name for wontons: 抄手, literally "crossed hands", referring to the way they're folded. Another similar character is 沙 (shā), which is used in combination with 金 (jīn/gold) to denote the use of a salted egg yolk coating ("golden sands"); see my post on sweetcorn with salted egg yolk for more. You can tell them apart by remembering that 炒 has the fire radical, 抄 has the hand radical, and 沙 has the water radical.

心 (xīn) is the Chinese character for heart/mind/centre. In the context of the Chinese menu, it is perhaps most prominent as part of the term "dim sum": 點心. As I've mentioned before, "dim sum" is the Cantonese pronunciation; it would be diǎn xīn in Mandarin pinyin.

心 also appears in the names of various Chinese vegetables, such as 蒜心 (suàn xīn/garlic shoots). Another is 空心菜 (kōng xīn cài), literally "hollow-hearted vegetable", also known as 通菜 (tōng cài), ong choy, water spinach, morning glory, and so on.

Perhaps the most confusing is 菜心 (cài xīn), which I've seen translated not only as "choy sum" and "Chinese flower cabbage", but also as "pak choi" (example). However, "pak choi" is normally used to refer to a different vegetable; it's a Romanisation of the Cantonese pronunciation of 白菜 (bái cài). Wikipedia suggests that the reason for this apparent conflation might be that when 菜心 is used for pak choi, it's the literal meaning, "cabbage heart", that's intended — it signifies that only the tender centre of the vegetable is used in the dish.

心 can also mean a literal heart, as in 豬心 (zhū xīn/pig heart) or 鴨心 (yā xīn/duck heart). I've not seen either of these in the name of a dish, but I have seen them used on menus which give further explication of the ingredients in a dish; for example, Fuzhou restaurant in London Chinatown has a dish called 炒三味 (chǎo sān wèi), literally "stirfried three tastes", and the menu notes in brackets that these three tastes are 肚片 (dǔ piàn/sliced tripe), 豬心 (zhū xīn/pig heart), and 豬舌 (zhū shé/pig tongue).

Here are some dishes with 心 in the name:

As I mentioned on Monday, 心 in some form also turns up as a radical and a non-radical component in a number of menu-related characters and words. One where 心 is actually the radical is 怪 (guài/strange), which is used in the name of the dish 怪味兔 (guài wèi tù), or "strange-flavour rabbit". (Don't confuse the 忄 form of 心 with the "squashed" radical form of 木, which appears in e.g. 梅/méi/plum/prune.) Some examples using 心 as a non-radical component are 筷子 (kuài zi/chopsticks), 燜 (mèn/stewed), and 蔥 (cōng/spring onion).

Today's post is sort of a combined concept/character one — I'm going to talk about chopsticks, and the Mandarin Chinese word for them: 筷子 (kuài zi).

According to China Radio International, chopsticks probably evolved from the use of twigs to pick up hot food. Relatedly, Fuchsia Dunlop's blog post on chopsticks recounts a memory of a camping trip in Sichuan where her guide cut and peeled some twigs from the trees to make chopsticks for their dinner.

Gong Dan's Food & Drink in China describes how in the Zhou dynasty (11th-3rd century BC) chopsticks were used for eating meat and vegetables, while rice was still picked up with the hands. (Note, however, that pulchritude points out in comments that this may not be quite accurate.) These days, of course, rice is also eaten with chopsticks (assuming you're eating from a bowl — if you're given rice on a plate, often the most sensible way to eat it is with a fork and spoon).

Gong Dan also describes the etymology of the word. During the Zhou dynasty, chopsticks were known as 箸 (zhù). However, this is precisely homonymous with 住 (zhù), which means "to stop, to cease", and 住 was a taboo word aboard ships, since stopping a ship en route was considered bad luck. This problem was solved by referring to chopsticks as 快子 (kuài zi), a combination of 快 (kuài), meaning "quick", with the particle 子 (zi) as a suffix to make it into a "proper" word. Later, the bamboo radical (⺮) was placed above 快 to make 筷, since chopsticks are commonly made from bamboo, giving the modern word 筷子.

As someone who (a) didn't grow up using chopsticks and (b) was mildly teased at school for holding my knife and fork the "wrong" way, I'm reluctant to lay down any pronouncements about the right way to use chopsticks, but my preferred way of holding them is to lodge the bottom one firmly in the web between my thumb and index finger, resting it on my curled-in ring finger, and then to pivot the top one independently, pushing up with my third finger and down with my second finger as required, steadying it with my thumb the whole time.

I did find a pretty good YouTube video demonstrating this, but I've unfortunately managed to lose the link. There are lots of "how to use chopsticks" videos on YouTube, but be warned that some of them show rather suboptimal methods. Once you're holding your chopsticks in a way that you find comfortable, check out thorfinn's Chinese chopstick tips for what to do next.

Note also that chopsticks differ between cultures. Japanese chopsticks have pointed ends, while Korean chopsticks are made of metal and are flat rather than rounded in cross-section. Chinese chopsticks have blunt tips, and may be made from bamboo, wood, plastic, or less-common materials such as porcelain. I personally like the bamboo/wood ones because I find them more "grippy" than plastic ones.

The use of chopsticks to eat with is intimately connected with the way food is cut prior to cooking. Since there are generally no knives on the dining table, the cook must be careful to cut pieces of food in such a way that they can be picked up with chopsticks. This doesn't necessarily mean that everything must be bitesize — see for example this eGullet thread on ingredient sizing in Chinese cooking – but it's certainly something that must be borne in mind.