Diosuan Bhunghuê

Cooking Terms for Chaoshan People

2006-11-16T17:52:00.000Z

I like to talk about the various cooking methods of Diosunang. Please notice that we use different characters to the Cantonese or to Standard Chinese [Putong Hua]. This is because we have our own tradition in cooking. We also borrow some ideas from PTH and make them our own.

Cooking terms:

ze2 煮 A generic term for cooking; to cook.
cuê1 炊 to steam, the term which is normally used.
zêng1 蒸 to steam. The preferred term nowadays especially for people with hard of hearing. In PTH, 蒸 means to braise. However, cuê1 is our own Diosuanuê.
bho5 gah4 zui2 dung6 無佮水炖 = ngao5 熬 = similar to stewing and braising.
ngao5 熬 to boil slowly until tender and flavour is enhanced , with lid on, like stewing and braising. Could be dond in a dung6uê1 炖鍋.
gah4 zui2 dung6 SLOWLY 佮水炖 is just dung6 炖 could be done in bain marie
bu5 烳 to boil like bu5 bung7 烳飯 or bu5 teng1 烳湯.
sah8 煠 – to boil in water and requires to be strained – like boiling potatoes or pasta
cog4 焯 – boil in water for a short time as to scald to get rid of smell
luah4 烙 shallow fry with oil. For example: o5 luah4 – similar to ziang1
ziang1 煎 to fry in oil: to sauté.
ca2 炒 fry as in fry noodles ca2 guê3 diao5 炒餜條 ca2 mi7 炒麫.
Hib4 熻 to poach without water
pu5 浮to deep fry : pu5 浮 also means to float.
Sio1 燒烧 grill or roast
Kao2 烤 to grill or roast kao2 and sio1 can be used interchangeably
buê7 焙 – to roast in open fire as in a barbecue; dry over slow fire; to bake.
sêg8 熟 means cooked
cên1生 raw
bhuê7 sêg8 未熟 not yet cooked
cong1 衝茶 cong1dê7 cf with pao3dê5 泡茶 : pao3 is to brew, pour hot boiling water and wait for at least five minutes. Cong1 is very quick, less than a minute of brewing.
lou6 滷 [卤] cook with dao7zion3 荳醬 and ngoh5hiang1 五香; to marinate. Examples lou(7) ah4 滷鴨 and lou(7) gho 滷鵝

Making a cup of tea!

2006-11-04T23:28:00.000Z

In standard Chinese we say pao4 cha2 泡茶. Pao cha means to steep or soak tea leaves – obviously in hot water. However, in Chaoshan hua we say cong1 dê5 衝茶 the cong which means within a dash. In gongfu cha, that is actually what we do – the boiling water is poured unto the tea leaves and the tea is decanted within a ‘dash’! In English slang, a dash is a very short while. Another meaning of cong dê [a Chaoshan hua word] is to pour boiling water over the tea leaves. Cong dê in standard Chinese is zhong1 cha2.

In Chaoshan tradition, we pour hot water over the tea leaves and within a minute we decant the tea completely and not allow the tea leaves to be soaking in the hot water and be over brewed.

For other Chinese, they brew tea or pao cha and allow the tea leaves to sit in hot water for sometime before decanting the tea.

Tea Items

2006-11-04T03:16:00.000Z

Just looking back at the previous three postings, I noticed that I have used or shown you pictures of the following terms. We will go through these one by one in this posting; first giving you the standard Chinese names, the Chaoshan hua names and then the English names. One must remember that this is Southern Chinese culture, and previously Northern Chinese people do not know of these items and therefore you might see several Standard Chinese [Putonghua] names for certain items like the tea bowl, which tea is made. [Notice that I did not use the word ‘brew’!] Therefore, in Putonghua, these names might not be settled yet! Of course, as this is our Chaoshan culture [Diosuan bhunghuê], our names for these items are fixed.

Standard Chinese / Chanshan Hua / English
cha2 茶 / dê5茶/ tea
cha2ye4茶葉 / dê(7)bhi2茶米 / tea leaves
Gong1fu1 cha2工夫茶 / Gang1hu1 dê5工夫茶 / Kungfu tea
Tie3guan1yin1鐵觀音 / Tih(8) guang1im1鐵觀音 / Powerful Goddess of Mercy [tea]
Gang1yin1 wang2觀音王/ Guang1im1 uang5觀音王/ Supreme Goddess of Mercy [tea]
bei1zi杯子 / buê1杯 / cups
shiu3水/ zui2水/ water
cha2hai3茶海 / Dê(7)buan5茶盤 / tray
gai4 wan3 蓋碗/ Dê(7) ao1茶甌 / brewing cup
gong1dao4 bei1公道杯 / dê(7)hu5 茶壺 / jug

鐵 – has always been given the definition of iron – iron goddess of mercy. However, this character also mean strong and powerful. I have therefore chosen powerful goddess of mercy for I think it is much more informative and relevant to the goddess of mercy and to the tea.

Ganghudê at home

2006-11-03T16:48:00.000Z

Ganghudê at home. The tea service is a present from Dio CheeHong. I love the tea service because it looks so good and it comes from the my father's city - Suantao. I also like the tea cups because they are so thin. My father told me that the thinner the better. I will tell you about the various pieces in my next posting. At the end of the next posting, you will know the Diosuan and Standard chinese names for the items you are viewing.

Places’ Names and Others

2006-11-01T19:07:00.000Z

I have now used many words in Chinese and it is time for me to tell you how we say these in Chaoshan Hua.

I have already mentioned Chaoshan. The chao comes from Chaozhou and shan comes from Shantou. In Chaoshan Hua, we call this Diosuan. The ‘n’ at the end of sua indicates that you say 'sua' through your nose. However, to add to the confusion, in the official Chinese language, we do not have nasal tones and therefore the ‘n’ at the end of shan as in Chaoshan does NOT mean you say sha though your nose. ^_~

The other is 'hua' which means language. We say uê’ in Diosuan’uê.

I have already mentioned Chaozhou. Please use Google to look for Chaozhou if you do not know where this is. Chaozhou is called Dioziu. However, the people in Chaozhou call it Dieziu. Shantou is called Suantao.

Of course, Chaoshan is in Guangdong and we say Gêngdang – but the ‘g’ has a hard ‘k’ sound. Do not ask me why they just did not write it as Kêngdang, which would reflect the actual pronunciation. Maybe is to catch those people who pretend to be Chaoshan ren out, when they speak Chaoshan hua! ^_~

We also call ren as people as nang.

Summary: Chaoshan Hua English
Chao2shan4 潮汕 Dio(7)suan1 Chaoshan [A new word and therefore standard Chinese is used]
Chao2zhou1 潮州 Dio(7)ziu1 Teochew or Teochiu
Shan4tou2 汕頭 Suan1tao5 Swatow
Guang3dong1 廣東 Gêng(3)dang1 Canton or Kwangtung
Guang3dong1 Sheng3 廣東省 Gêng(3)ziu1 廣州 Guangdong province
Hua 話 Uê7 Language
Ren 人 Nang5 People

So where is Chaoshan?

2006-11-01T05:10:00.000Z

Have a look at the right hand side of the map of Guangdong province and you will see Shantou. Chaoshan is there!

Kungfu Cha

2006-11-01T04:22:00.000Z

Having Kungfu tea is such a corner stone of our Choashan culture and when you visit a Chaoshan person’s home, they will serve you this Kungfu tea. The maximum cups we would make at any one time are THREE. Yes, just 3! This means that the host has to decide who is the most important guests and serve them first. The rest have to wait for their turns.

It is really worth experiencing drinking good tea. The best tea for making Kungfu tea, which we call ganghu dê, is Tie Guan Yin 鐵觀音. The best Tie Guan Yin is called Guan Yin Wang 觀音王.

You might then ask why call it kungfu just like kungfu martial arts. Kungfu means a skill. The person making the tea will have lots of experience, especially handling such expensive tea, which can cost up to £1000 UKpounds for a kilogram. This person will have to practise over a period of time to make a perfect cup of tea or rather three cups. One does not want to serve guests ‘drain water’. We have an expression for this. We call this ‘zuigaozui’ in our own Chaoshan language. Zuigaozui means drain water.