Unsure about some "food and drink" words...

@kimiik, Yes! that is my beloved guyanese pumpkin!  (I should probably start calling it by its real name)

For pumpkin I found 南瓜 nan2gua1 and 倭瓜 wo1gua1. Does anyone know the difference, or is it just two names for the same thing?

@ Orangina

From now, I will know that a Guyanese pumpkin is a Calabaza (calabase).

@kimiik

Guyanese pumpkin definitely isn't a melon (I hate cantalope...) It is a winter squash.  I found an image of it online but wasn't able to link to it for some reason. Perhaps because I haven't had coffee yet. But I did find out that it's proper name is calabaza or west indian pumpkin. If you google it you come up with a lot of caribbean recipes.

When people sprinkle Champagne on them or on their head, we also use the english pronunciation but we write "champeigne".  ;o)

A "peigne" is a comb (梳子) ... for the hair.

hey kimik

'no worries. yeah it's the tannins found in the skin of red grape varieties that makes the colour'

yeah we say champaigne in australia, so does the rest of the english speaking world

ps don't ask me how to spell it, it's an imported word which i rarely use.

@ Bababardwan

I didn't know about this small village called Chardonnay. The net is an useful ressource for this kind of information.

@ miantiao

Do you really write "Champaigne" in Australia ?

Wine color in Wikipedia

"The color of the wine mainly depends on the color of the grape varietal drupe. Since pigments are localized in the exocarp (skin) of the grape drupe, not in the juice, the color of the wine depends on the method of vinification and the time the must is in contact with those skins, process called maceration. The blending of two or more varieties of grapes can explain for the color of certain wines, like the use of Australian Rubired.

Red drupe grapes can produce white wine if they are quickly pressed and the juice not allowed to be in contact with the skins.

The color is mainly due to plant pigments notably phenolic compounds (anthocyanidins, tannins ...). The color depends on the presence of acids in the wine. It is altered with the wine aging by reaction between the different active molecules present in the wine. The use of a wooden barrel (generally oak barrels) in aging also affects the color of the wine."

hey bruce

cheers ;-)

kimiik,

Yeah,no region called chardonnay,but there is a village called Chardonnay [as shown in this map] in the Mâconnais region which is in southern Burgundy which according to this wiktionary article,this wikipedia article,and this article [probably the most interesting] on the history of the village, is the etymology of the chardonnay grape.

@kimik

cheers, i was led to believe it was a place in france.

pink champaigne maybe? like the colour of rose.

there was a lot of fuss between the australian and french wine industries going back 10years or so concerning the naming of australian wines. the french demanded australian wine makers stop using the names of grapes(areas in france). but once you develop and name a grape, regardless of place representation, that name becomes universal.

champaigne i recall was one of the more pricklier areas concerning naming rights raised during the discussons

oh! lovely wine...

plzholdtheline2, thanks for your post! These are great words to know, very helpful to me.

@miantiao

"chardonnay is the name of a green variety of grape grown in that region of france, hence the name."

Sorry, there's no region called "Chardonnay". Do you mix-up chardonnay and Epernay ?

"green grapes make white wine, red grapes make red wine"

Some varieties of red grapes can also make white wine as in the "blanc de noirs" produced in champagne.

@ orangina

I think that what you call "Guyanese pumpkins" is generally called "melon" (or cantaloup) -> 蜜瓜 (sweet melon)

@orangina

no worries. yeah it's the tannins found in the skin of red grape varieties that makes the colour.yes skins and seeds all go in the mix, and perhaps the odd leaf. but in the end the straining process eliminates any unwanted solid bits.

@miantiao

I decided to check my facts! sorry you saw my post before I got it down... I did find some websites that said red wine is made with the seeds and skins and a bit of stem... not the vine, of course. And while white wine is usually made from green grapes it can also be made from skinless black grapes because the juice is clear. Your experience certainly trumps mine, so I take you word!

Thanks so much for the help guys ^.^ Don't know what I'd do without you! ^.^ 谢谢!

@ orangina

deleting your comment makes mine look rather innocuous don't you think?

orangina

green grapes make white wine, red grapes make red wine. i used to work in a vineyaerd as a kid for a short time during harvesting. nobody makes wine with stems and leaves and seeds.

chardonnay is the name of a green variety of grape grown in that region of france, hence the name.

you'll find that most wine varieties such as merlot, champaigne etc are place names as well as grape names.

@shenyajin

I am not sure how American pumpkins taste by themselves because they are usually served spiced and sweetened as a desert... yummm... pumpkin pie... They are orange on inside and outside.  Guyanese pumpkins are orange on the inside, but green on the outside and are a little sweet, but more of a savory food, like other squash. I don't think I would say either is sweet like honey! A friend once told me that what most (Americans）think of as pumpkins are actually a hybrid with another kind of squash, so that may explain the difference.

I hope to go to China soon, and am pleased to hear there are so many beans!

no problem, and thanks to you too because i never knew how to say white wine.

@miantiao, thanks! It's a typo. Correction: it should be 白葡萄酒 bái pútao jiǔ, sorry everybody! :)

hi shenyajin

white wine i don't think you can translate as 白酒. rather it is simply 葡萄酒. i understand that chinese 葡萄酒 is in fact 红酒, reason being of course that the chinese, according to my knowledge, never much used green grapes to make 葡萄酒。

if i ask for baijiu in china i will be served of course with baijiu, chinese spirits(中国产的烈酒)。

酒 in english is alcohol, not wine. wine is a sub-category of alcoholic beverages, which includes beer wine spirits and liquers.

one other point, western wine has no added sugar, unlike 中国传统的红酒. as such an more accurate translation for red wine in chinese is 干红酒。

@plzholdtheline2, hey, here fyi:

Red wine - 红酒 hóng jiǔ
White wine - 白酒(thanks to miantiao, it's 白葡萄酒，báipútaojiǔ) báijiǔ
Beer - 啤酒 píjiǔ
Hot Chocolate - 热巧克力 rè qiǎokèlì
Water- 水 shuǐ，mineral water- 矿泉水 kuàngquán shuǐ
Milkshake - 奶昔 nǎi xī
Orange Juice - 橙汁 chéng zhī 

Fanta - 芬达 fēndá
Sprite - 雪碧 xuě bì
Coca-cola/Coke - 可口可乐，kěkǒu kělè

7 Up -七喜，qīxǐ

Could someone help me pretty please? :) I've looked in my dictionary but it seems to give different words to some of the websites I've looked them up on.

I've got some more words I'm unsure about if that's ok with you guys :)

• Red wine - would it just be "hóng" and then "jiǔ" or is that just a bad transliteration? haha
• White wine - ? does it follow the same pattern as red wine?
• Beer - I thought that was "pí jiǔ"? 
• Hot Chocolate - ?
• Water (as in drinking water not river because I think there's lots of different ones...?- ?
• Milkshake - nǎixí?
• Orange Juice - would that just be like "orange" and then "juice" or is that too much of a transliteration again?  

Hey, exactly. It's 李子，lǐzi.

And could someone please tell me what plum would be? Is it 李子 lǐ zǐ?

Thanks guys for your help ^.^ Yeah, I mean the beans like in the picture kimiik posted.

Green beans : 四季豆、 玉豆、带荚豌豆、菜豆、刀豆、豆角、敏豆仔

@orangina, sorry! I'm not sure what this green bean is. I thought it's 青豆！Anyway，I'm a little bit confused. And, are the pumpkins sweet like honey?

@plzholdtheline2, there are too many kinds of beans in Chinese, could you pls put up a picture? Oh, 豆角，青豆，毛豆.....:(

My dictionary has 青豆 as lima bean, which is much bigger than a green bean and eaten differently... green beans you eat with the pod, limas you don't. Do they have the same name in Chinese? Some varieties of green beans are also called string beans or snap beans to add to the confusion. When I was in Guyana I was surprised that pumpkins were not what I call a pumpkin, so I think names of things can be quite inconsistant... By the way, I like Guyanese pumkins better! There is an East Indian flare to the cooking there, so I had it in curry! Very good!

Hey, lovelygreentea, nice try! Here is the list: ah, nai3 niu2 is not milk, but cow!:)

• Ice Cream- 冰淇淋，bīngqílín
  
• Honey- 蜂蜜，fēngmì
  
• Potato- 土豆，tǔdòu
  
• Raspberr- 山莓，shān méi
• Cake- 蛋糕，dàngāo, birthday cake, 生日蛋糕shēngri dàngāo
• Green beans- 青豆，qīngdòu
  
• Milk- 牛奶，niúnǎi
  
• Lemonade-柠檬汽水，níngméng qìshuǐ

if these are wrong, someone will correct my mistakes

this is what I found in my dictionary.

Potato - tou3 dou4

Raspberry- shan1 mei2

Birthday cake- sheng1 ri4 dan4 gao1

Milk- (cow's milk)  nai3 niu2

sorry not sure about green beans