User Comments - SF_Rachel
SF_Rachel
Posted on: Preparing for Pain
December 14, 2011 at 6:21 PM谢谢！我对乳胶一点过敏，要小心
Posted on: How to Eat a Hairy Crab
November 21, 2011 at 10:57 PM螃蟹盖，但是虾壳？区别是什么？
One not-terribly-thorough internet search later, and I'm wondering if 壳 can actually be used to refer to any creature's shell (虾 prawn, 螃蟹 crab, 蚝 oyster, 蚌 clam, 龙虾 lobster, 蝲蛄 crayfish, plus of course 贝壳 seashells generally, and not to mention eggshells 蛋壳) but 盖 seems to imply a temporary cover or cap. I have 镜头盖 "lens cap" in my flashcard deck, and now the name of the dish 盖浇饭 seems more evocative to me: it's a "cap" poured over the rice! Also 膝盖 seems to suggest the kneecap and not just the knee.
In the case of hairy crabs, is the shell actually broken as opposed to pried off? cinnamonfern mentioned that without tools she was left with no recourse but to bite into the shell. (All the Blue crabs I've ever eaten yielded to strategic prying: no need to break the shell to get into the delicious main body; mallets are only necessary for the shell of claws). Or is it that crab shells must be 掰下来 because you're "breaking" the hard top shell segment -- which actually is kind of a cover -- from the softer body shell, while soft-all-over shrimp shells are 剥掉?
怎么说 "soft-shelled crab" -- especially as a prepared dish? 炒的时候，太好吃！
Posted on: How to Eat a Hairy Crab
November 21, 2011 at 7:35 PMFor what it's worth, not all 外国人 are automatically opposed to eating yummy crab guts (or working hard to extract the deliciousness from the spiny package). I come from Maryland where the we also make the local Blue crabs a point of pride. We also generally focus on the meat in the body, and locals tend to feel that the claws are best saved just for soup and visitors from out of town. (Now I live in San Francisco where people claim to adore the local Dungeness crabs, but they seem to mostly focus on the claw like John said).
True, there are a even few Marylanders who won't eat the yellow (which in my experience was generally called "the mustard"), but many others of us agree it's the best part, and use it to flavor the backfin meat.
The yellow part of crab guts in Maryland though isn't likely to be roe, since it's illegal to harvest female crabs from the Bay. The first time I was served females at a crab shack out of state I was shocked (how provincial of me!). The yellow guts are mostly digestive organs and related substances best not thought about too much.
When I visited Japan several years ago I ate at a sushi restaurant that offered a "crab guts" roll. So of course I had to have it. Certainly not the most alien thing I ate in Japan.
Was Dilu's comment about eating the lungs giving you 拉肚子 specifically about 肺 or more generally about 吃寒的结果？In my experience we discarded the lungs because they had a nasty, rough and rubbery texture, not because we thought they were bad for us.
Posted on: A Business Lunch Invitation
October 26, 2011 at 12:49 AMIn the expansion, I notice the phrase 我周末不一定有时间 uses 不 not 没. Is 不 modifying the 一定, and not 有?
The translation seems to suggest this too: "This weekend I don't necessarily have time" as opposed to "This weekend I certainly don't have time." If it were the latter, would 我周末一定没有时间 be the appropriate alternative?
Posted on: Perfume Shopping
October 14, 2011 at 6:57 PMFWIW, just asked a Taiwanese-American friend of mine who says she uses 葡萄柚 and has never heard 西柚.
Posted on: Perfume Shopping
October 14, 2011 at 6:47 PMI just had the impression 葡萄柚 might be more common based solely an unscientifically on the fact that the two online dictionaries I referenced (nciku, mbdg) both included it, and the one dictionary that also listed 西柚 (nciku) had it lower in the list of possibilities.
mbdg had a several fruits that were clearly *not* grapefruit (various citron things) listed as possible definitions, so I discount them.
Posted on: Perfume Shopping
October 12, 2011 at 4:10 AM谢谢, lujiaojie! A little validation and a useful correction from you are a bright spot in my day.
That being said, I'm not sure what it says about my "maturity" that I like to wear a fragrance that smells distinctly of ginger.
Posted on: Perfume Shopping
October 12, 2011 at 4:01 AMWell then GOTCHA, I guess. :-) NCIKU has grapefruit as either 葡萄柚 which looks like a very literal translation of "grape"-fruit (a curiously illogical name in English, so why extend it to Chinese?) as well as 西柚 which I guess is more like "Western Pomelo," and like lishuai1981 I personally like that better. But if I suppose if 葡萄柚 is the commonly-used term, then I've no business asking Chinese to be more logical than English.
Are real grapefruit a little exotic in China and hard to come by?
Posted on: Preparing for Pain
December 18, 2011 at 10:37 PMI have a question about the translation. The sentence 我看你买了那么多纱布，胶布要不要？is translated as though the pharmacist is questioning whether the young man really needs medical tape -- but he hasn't actually asked for medical tape yet. Is it possible that maybe the pharmacist is suggesting that the young man get some medical tape to go with his gauze? This actually makes sense: get gauze and also get tape to hold it on the wound. If I'm hearing Dulu correctly, she seems to be corroborating this: "因为" the young man has bought a lot of gauze and bandages, "所以" the pharmacist asks him if he wants medical tape.
Then the 也 in the young man's answer would mean "also" and not "still."