User Comments - sclim

Posted on: Cold Noodles

I'm surprised they've started all over again and re-assembled "番茄酱". "Ketchup" came from Hokkien (Fujienese) or Cantonese 茄汁... oh, I see, in Mandarin 番茄汁 means tomato JUICE, so you can't use it for "ketchup."

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

I have no idea how much real durian or if artificial flavouring is used (How would you get artificial durian flavour??...don't go there), but to me, it's OK, not particularly strong or anything, but pungent enough, I suppose for the store proprietors (big noses, what can you do?) to worry for the sensibilities of their customers, and, I guess, for their spur-of-the-moment sales volumes.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

But did you like DURIAN 榴莲口味的ice cream? Haha!

Posted on: Cold Noodles

And your respect for getting "al dente" just right (putting the "text" back in "texture"?) bodes well for future translations, culinary or otherwise! Loved your Ethnic Minorities Lesson. Your Chinese speech is consistently very native-like.

Posted on: Cold Noodles

Wow, never thought of that. Hmmm, IMHO, perhaps not, why would the vast majority of Chinese cooks or menu writers care, or even think of what the English translation would be? Unless you're picking up on some thing that's going on completely over my head.

Posted on: Cold Noodles

May I ask another question:

I was familiar in Cantonese and Hokkien with 番/蕃茄 for "tomato". My Mandarin Dictionary gives this for "tomato" too. Which is the preferred word for "tomato" in Mandarin, or rather, as this was not the word used in the cold noodles lesson, how unusual is it to use番/蕃茄?

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

The alliteration is indeed amusing. But I got to like it millions of years ago, before I developed a taste for the stronger stuff. And I was amazed to find out how long ago it was first "invented". Wiki tells us:

"The Singapore Sling is a cocktail that was developed sometime before 1915[1] by Ngiam Tong Boon (嚴崇文), a bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore. The original recipe used gin, Cherry Heering, Bénédictine, and fresh pineapple juice, primarily from Sarawak pineapples which enhance the flavour and create a foamy top," but goes on to bemoan the fact that nowadays the original recipe has been bastardized to omit fresh pineapple juice and now needs soda water to make a foam...etc etc.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

Not in Canada, which mostly mirrors USA. "Lollipop" is not widely used, but when used is exclusively about solid colored sugar clumps on a stick at room temperature. Never "lolly". (Nor is "brolly" used for that matter. Come to think of it, nor "lorry" except by Brits just off the boat. Golly, lol.) For ice cream on a stick, always "popsicle" (originally a trade name, I think, now gone generic.)

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

Hey, I just did 2 posts in a row, and when I edited the 2nd post (lollipop) it not only corrected correctly, but replaced my first post!! It's disappeared. Haha, obtuse overblown drivel, anyway. But I was making the point that I agree with Shishiwen. It's the sound, not the meaning. When I was a child in Singapore there was a transliteration Cantonese term for ice cream something like "ai-see-keh-lim". But I don't think they were either of the words from Mandarin-- 激凌 jiling or 淇淋qilin -- because my dictionary also gives the Cantonese pronunciations, and although tantalizingly close, is not the sound I remember. Perhaps the Poddie studying both Cantonese and Mandarin -- I can't remember who he was, but he was taking part in the discussions somewhere recently --can help out.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

Before I left Singapore in the 60's, Durian Ice cream was already being made, and, of course it was a huge best seller locally, although the expatriates avoided it in droves. I am delighted to report that the local gourmet Ice Creme outlet in Calgary now stocks Durian Ice Cream. But you are expressly forbidden to open the package until you leave the store. (Under pain of what???... excommunication?...execution?...evisceration?)