Need help. What is the Chinese word for _________?

[ipsedixit]

I need the help of 'Hounds who are much more proficient in Chinese than I am, or ever will be.

Specifically, I need to know what are (if any) the Chinese characters for the following words.

Traditional characters preferred.

- GELATO. It can't be just 意大利 冰淇凌 right?

- FROZEN YOGURT. Surely it's not as literal as 冷冻酸奶, is it? How unappetizing if correct.

- CUSTARD. Someone keeps trying to convince me that it's 布丁. If that's true then what's the word for "pudding"?

- FLAN. No clue on this one.

Thanks for any help or insight.

[PeterL]

Babelfish translates:

Custard as 乳蛋糕, and
Flan as 果馅饼

Sometimes you just have to accept there may not be any translation for some words.

[K K]

About Flan....

In Taiwan it is called 布丁 (surprise surprise) but you can also use it to mean "pudding".

But to be a little bit more exact

French Flan - 法式焦糖布丁 (but does sound like it is creme brulee)

Dhul Flan de Huevo 雞蛋布丁 (chicken egg pudding....)

In Cantonese the word 布甸 is used, for example the classical dessert, baked sago pudding.

Confused yet?

[ipsedixit]

Thanks, that's helpful

Here's another question.

What do you call the center filling in Chinese custard tarts found in often in dim sum dessert trays? They would be 蛋黃, but what do you call the center filling (the custard) inside the 蛋黃?

[K K]

You mean the egg yolk custard center filling of Cantonese style egg tarts 蛋撻?

蛋液 or 蛋漿 (egg yolk or whole eggs, sugar, evaporated milk are usually the ingredientsis the technical name for the raw ingredient mix for the center. Formal description might be 凝固蛋漿 (solidified egg mix), although I think it may be perfectly fine to refer to it (loosely) as 蛋黃.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Yes, the loose term is 蛋黃. A Chinese baker will not call it like that. It may be also be referred to just the filling (餡) or (蛋黃餡). 凝固蛋漿 would be something a baker calls it.

[ipsedixit]

I think that's right.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Gelato: 意大利雪糕

Frozen Yogurt: 霜凍優格 or 酸奶雪糕

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%E9%9C%9C%E5%87%8D%E5%84%AA%E6%A0%BC&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

http://www.google.com/images?q=%E9%85...

Custard: 奶黃 or something like 卡士達

Flan: I don't care for it.

[ipsedixit]

What, in your opinion, is the difference between 雪糕 vis-a-vis 冰淇淋. I am not convinced that 意大利雪糕 is gelato.

I think you nailed custard with 卡士達. Thanks, this is very helpful.

[K K]

雪糕 is more of a Cantonese written and colloquial usage. They pretty much don't use that word in Taiwan for some reason, and even when they teach Mandarin to little kids at school (in TW), it has always been 冰淇淋, even up until this day.

Popsicle in Taiwan is 冰棒 but in Hong Kong it's 雪條 in the spoken language.

[cecilia]

From what I understand, 雪糕 is a Cantonese word and 冰淇淋 is a Mandarin word. They refer to the same thing (ice cream). For instance, this place calls gelato 意大利雪糕
http://www.pappagallo.com.hk/

[Chemicalkinetics]

雪糕 is 冰淇淋 as you know. 意大利雪糕 or 意大利冰淇淋 or 意式冰淇淋 ... etc are acceptable terms of describing Gelato. Another way to call it is what KK said: 義大利手工冰淇淋. As you can read below. These are the terms Chinese in Asia are calling it.

http://female.jxnews.com.cn/system/2009/09/02/011195910.shtml

http://baike.baidu.com/view/401082.htm

As for Custard, 奶黃 is a more acceptable term among mainland Chinese.

[ipsedixit]

Maybe I'm misreading it, but both those link simply refer to gelato as just "gelato".

[Chemicalkinetics]

read carefully

[ipsedixit]

Yes, they use those terms, but that's like calling "Frozen Yogurt" simply 冷冻酸奶, which is accurate because it is a literal translation, not a stylized unique word.

Perhaps this just means there is no word unique word in Chinese for gelato, other than a descriptive phrase.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I can only tell you what common Chinese call it and that is how Chinese call it. Just like Chinese call celery as 西洋芹菜, pasta as 意大利麵 and 意大利粉, and US dollar as 美元 and 美金... etc. Actually, a descriptive name means alot more than a phonic name. A phonic name implies the culture in question does not have words which can describe the concept and therefore resorts to sound. For example, Islam is 伊斯蘭教 because there is no good concept of "Islam", so Chinese resorted to phonic. On the other hand, when Chinese calls pasta as 意大利麵, that proves Chinese already have a very close concept of it.

Let's think the opposite. Let look at this from Chinese to English, Mandarin orange is one example. We call these "Mandarin orange" in US because we have the concept of oranges and these thing look like and taste like oranges and they are from China, so we call it, Mandarin orange -- a descriptive name. On the opposite end, we have "Tofu" which does not resemble much of anything in the English speaking countries, so we don't have a good descriptive name, instead we went phonic. We call it "To-fu", phonically the same as 豆腐.

No it is nothing like calling Frozen Yogurt as 冷凍酸奶. First, Chinese don't call Frozen Yogurt that. Second, 冷凍酸奶 is the literal translation words for words for Frozen Yogurt, and 意大利雪糕 is not a literal translation of Gelato.

[skylineR33]

Frozen Yogurt = 冰乳酪
Gelato = 意大利雪糕

If Gelato is not 意大利雪糕, what can it be ? 自叻圖 ?! Ha.

[K K]

Hmmm I think you're right about 冰乳酪, sounds more real!

Gelato....well if it is a Canto pronounciation, probably 啫拉圖, provided that you pronounce 啫 as dzeh, rather than "jer" (as in, what little boys used to call the thing between the legs as kids).

[skylineR33]

Sounds good ! Will order a banana 啫拉圖 next time.

[ipsedixit]

By the way, that's a great car skylineR33.

Under 8 at the 'ring.

[K K]

Yeah I don't think there's a proper name for gelato in Chinese (or a phonetic pronounciation). Some Taiwanese websites call it Italian style hand crafted ice cream 義大利手工冰淇淋 to make it sound more elegant (although gelati is made with machines most of the time, although one can argue the ingredients can be "mixed by hand").

Froyo....oh gosh I don't know. 冷凍優格 or 霜凍優格? What you have is the mainland Chinese proper name of sour milk, 優格 is just the phonetic English in Chinese.

Panna Cotta in Taiwan is called 奶凍