Useful words for food and in the kitchen

I was reading last night and saw ka3pua3 叩破 in my dictionary by Zhang XiaoShan as da3sui4 打碎 shuai1 sui4 摔碎.  I woke up this morning and thought of ciu3 碎. I then thought how useful it would be for people to know some useful words pertaining to food.

First is ciu3 碎. It means in pieces, not necessarily the same size pieces but in small pieces. So you might say dog8 ciu3 碎碎 to chop into small pieces. 

Then a very useful word is si7 - as in goin1si7 薑絲 which means julienne of ginger.

In the dictionary, you will see liab8 粒 and this is the same as the Mandarin word ding1 丁 as in ji1ding1 雞丁 and we would say this as goi1liab8 雞粒. Here the pieces must be of the same size and shape no larger than 1 cm cube.

Then there is bhuah8 沫 like cang1bhuah8 蔥沫. Teochew people call spring onions, also know as salad onions as cang1. In the States, they would call these as green onions. The spring onion would be sliced, chopped finely to be called bhuah8.  I never heard my mum using such a word but they use in Teochew cooking shows and my mum would say dog8 gao3 mi5 斫到糜. 

As for pieces, I cannot remember what my mother would say. She has gone to see Jesus and it would be difficult for me to phone her and ask her.  However, I remember she said piang3 片 but a friend from E'Meung said it would be actually pin3 and not piang3. However, she is a HogGiang nang [Hokkien in English] and I have no idea what Teochew people would say - pin3 or piang3 and the dictionaries which I have have not said anything about this. Perhaps this is because these dictionaries are written by men and what do they know about the kitchen.

We have already covered dog8 which means to chop as to mince with a large knife or a cleaver.  

If you were to cut a chicken into half - a longitudinal section - then that would be called pua3boin5 破畔.  This is in ZXS's dictionary and I also heard a chef on Teochew TV using this word. However, my Teochew teacher said he has never heard of such word.

Then there is zam2 斬 as to chop - the same zam as in zam2tao5 斬頭.^-~

Then we also have guah4 割 and this is to take a knife and slice or cut.

Another word for to cut is zioh4 截.

Then finally, there is mince - as in minced meat - and this is co3 脞 as in nêg8co3 肉脞.

Now you can go to the kitchen and help and you should understand most of the words use in a Teochew kitchen which has reference to using a knife to do something.

Thank you for reading this post.