User Comments - tiaopidepi

Posted on: Hate is a Very Strong Word

@go_manly,

Extending rjberki's response, cilantro is used in many Asian dishes as well. Thai green curry uses the roots, stems and leaves. Indian chaat often uses coriander (seed) for flavoring and cilantro (leaf) for garnish. And while salsa often has cilantro, it's ceviche (the fish "cooked" in acid such as lime juice) or reciato that really brings cilantro to mind. If you can find a Mexican grocery, pick up a bottle of Goya brand Reciato and experiment.

BTW: Nice PDF! 

Posted on: Podcast Language 2

@zaphekiah, bodawei, rjberki: This is fixed in Windows 7 :) You get 略 through both lve and lue.

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 7: Choosing a Name for the Baby

A coworker recently explained why a friend of hers is named "叫弟" (jiào dì). Literally, it means "call for a younger brother". Her parents were expressing their desire to have a son through the daughter's name.

A couple of days later, I read a news story about a cocktail waitress who had stabbed a party official. Her name is "Deng Yujiao". I had to search for the story in a Chinese newspaper to see the characters of her name: 鄧玉嬌. I'm very, very glad that see that her parents didn't want a fish.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei

@matt_c: You don't sound arrogant at all, no worries. To be honest, the whole meal/restaurant was a bit overblown: they claimed to have the best duck in Shanghai but it was laughable compared to what I'd had in Beijing a few weeks earlier...so I believe that the baijiu might not have been the best. Often the highly-marketed brands aren't as good as the "real stuff". (Example for Americans: Tito's vodka.) But two of the four baijiu were incredibly difficult to choke down...

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei

Matt, I have to respectfully disagree. I've been drinking all sorts of alcohol for all kinds of years, but I found top-quality baijiu extremely unpalatable. It tasted to me like a blend of cheap grappa and grain alcohol. I was drinking top quality stuff--I had a pricey baijiu sampler at a fancy Shanghai hotel. I could only stomach two out of the four. But I drank the other two anyway because I don't believe in wasting booze, good or otherwise :)

Posted on: Delegating Tasks

jjfoerch/changye, Wubi looks really cool. I find pinyin IMEs hard to use because it takes me forever to pick the right character from the popups. I wish they had a bigger (or resizeable) display for my ageing eyes.

I use my tablet PC for most Chinese input. I have a pen that lets me write on the screen, and Windows recognizes the character for me. I know tablets never really caught on--when Microsoft has good ideas, people ignore them--but hopefully multitouch PCs will become more popular next year when Windows 7 releases. You can write Hanzi on a multitouch PC screen as well.

Posted on: Delegating Tasks

Pete, the PDF is still incorrect: lists 小张 at the beginning and 小郑 at the end.

>> [The google IME] automatically updates itself using all the familiar power of the Google search engine

Now I know why the Google IME installs a network service on my machine! Thanks, everyone. I always wondered why Big Brother needed to connect a text utility to the network. They phone home for everything, don't they? Kinda scary : )

Posted on: Why are You Studying Chinese?

I'm studying Chinese because of a visit to Paris. I used to study French, and I wasn't bad, but I found that people in Paris are rather intolerant of less-than-perfect speakers. On the plane ride back from that trip I decided to learn a different language. A trip to Shanghai convinced me that Chinese are much more accepting of people who butcher their language.

Posted on: Tea Tasting

Having bugs in your tea (or your food) is a good thing. It means that your food is edible, and not filled with chemicals and pesticides. If the bugs are enjoying your tea, so should you. (Note: I'm not including maggots or such things that eat mostly rotten food in the "bugs" category.)

Having bugs in your computer software is also good. It means that the software has a bunch of cool, new features that are programmed almost--but not quite--right. The only bug-free program in the world (TeX) is kind of boring. It's a very useful and wonderful program but it really is slightly boring. I prefer eating software that is still tasty and alive.

Posted on: Funny Rice

One of my favorite old jokes could easily be relocated to China: a monk walks into a pizza parlor (or up to a hotdog vendor or into a hot pot restaurant) and says, "Make me one with everything!"

When I was in Shanghai I occasionally busted out an old Monty Python tune, "I Like Traffic Lights" from their "Contractual Obligation" album. Suffice to say it's as ridiculous in Chinese as it is in English.

喜欢红绿灯, 喜欢红绿灯
喜欢红绿灯, 如果他们绿