Sinh to

[tatamagouche]

I know "sinh to" means fruit shake: does that mean "to" is the Vietnamese word for fruit and "sinh" for shake?

And: what's your favorite flavor? I'm crazy about jackfruit myself.

[huaqiao]

I'm a big fan of soursop(guanabana) fruit shakes.

[grayelf]

Oh, I didn't realized soursop was guanabana! Floods of memories from childhood trips in Mexico. Thanks, huaqiao. I wonder if you could get one here in Vancouver, maybe at a Viet place....and called by yet another name of course :-).

[tatamagouche]

In the Viet restos here, it's called soursop...

But per Wikipedia, so take it FWIW, soursop aka "guanábana (Spanish), graviola (Portuguese), Brazilian pawpaw, corossolier, guanavana, toge-banreisi, durian benggala, nangka blanda, and nangka londa." What those other languages are, it doesn't say.

[Ali]

Well, none of those are Vietnamese, at least. If you're looking for it in a Vietnamese restaurant, look for "mãng cầu xiêm" or just "mãng cầu." You're more likely get the variety with the bumpy skin instead of the prickly but smoother skinned kind.

[Ali]

Think of "sinh to" more like you think of the word smoothie. The word itself doesn't imply fruit at all ("trai cay" is fruit) and the drink could be made from fruit or pretty much anything you can blend together, though fruit is clearly the running favourite.

I'm extraordinarily fond of durian, personally.

[grayelf]

Avocado for me, please! Followed by pandan.

[tatamagouche]

The leaf? Or does the plant bear fruit?

[grayelf]

The leaf...

[tatamagouche]

Interesting...but not savory a la spinach, right?

[grayelf]

I've only had sweet ones with pandan leaf...