Friday, May 9, 2008

Deciphering a chinese menu Part 1 - Meats

In this lesson, I thought I'd at least learn how to understand what sort of dishes are on a menu. So today I'm going to memorise the type of common meats:

Chicken鸡(jī)鸟(niăo) gives the meaning hint. At least with this character (鸟) you can guess that it is some sort of bird depending on the context it is used.
Duck鸭 (yā)Sound-Meaning character 甲(jiā) gives the sound and 鸟(niăo) gives the meaning hint
Cow or ox/Beef牛(níu)/
牛肉(níu ròu)
This character is just a picture of a cow, I imagine this as a cow with only one horn on the left.
By adding the 肉character we get beef. This can be imagined as meat hanging on a rack or as zhongwen.com definition, an open carcass.
Pig/Pork猪(zhū)/
猪肉(zhū ròu)
Meaning-sound character 豕(shĭ) actually means pig, but isn't used alone anymore while 者(zhĕ) gives the sound
Lamb/Mutton羊(yáng)/羊肉(yáng ròu)This character is just a picture of a lamb, notice the two horns on top?

So if you memorise this your should be able to know at least what meats are on the menu. Better than nothing :) Tomorrow let's try to go through some seafood words. Yum ;)

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