#4.2 My shopping haul from the pasar (market)

First post Version #4.0 uploaded on 1/1/2016.

Edit: Updated to Version #4.1 on 1/8/2016 (Friday). Version updates include French names and vegetables photographed with a green flowery background.

Edit No.2: Updated to Version #4.2 on 1/13/2016 (Wednesday). Version updates include some vegetable prices and items photographed with a light blue polka dot background with creases.

★★★

I went to the pasar pagi (morning market) at Selayang Jaya this morning with my sister to buy a week’s worth of groceries for the family. The shopping was quite fun but one thing bothered me slightly. It’s embarrassing to say this but I don’t know the names of many of the fresh produce and often have problems matching the cooked version and the fresh version, like if you tell me kailan, all I can imagine would be the cooked version e.g., stir fried kailan in belacan. Another problem is when we want to refer to the vegetables in conversations. How do we explain something like kailan to a non Malaysian/Singaporean?

So, in order for me to understand better what I’m putting into my mouth and help me look less bimbotic during my pasar shopping in the future, I’ve written down the names of these food items I bought today in various languages for future reference.

I don’t know the Malay names for some things e.g., choysum, fu chuk, etc. so that makes me wonder, do they even exist? These ingredients are mostly used for Chinese cooking so I can naturally imagine they were brought over from China by our ancestors and the original names just stuck. One thing I also noticed is that foods that aren’t native to Japan have names borrowed from their English names, e.g., pineapple in Japanese = pain appuru (English pronounced like Japanese)

It’s a shame that I didn’t take down the prices of each produce, but I’ll ask the sellers next time and update this post as needed.

Note: Mandarin and Cantonese terms are local Malaysian Chinese terms, they probably differ in other Chinese speaking countries.

Level 1 Vegetables

English: Tomato! Local tomatoes are kinda orange.
Malay: Tomato
Mandarin: 番茄 (fan qie)
Cantonese: 番茄 (fan keh)
Japanese: トマト (to-ma-to in a kawaii tune)
French: Tomate (feminine)

English: Ginger. It’s a root vegetable. There’s some growing at the front of my house.
Malay: Halia
Mandarin: 姜 (jiang)
Cantonese: 姜 (geong)
Japanese: 生姜 (shouga)
French: gingembre (masculine)

 

English: Chinese cabbage
Malay: Kubis Cina
Mandarin: 白菜 (bai cai)
Cantonese: My mum calls it ‘long ah bak’
Japanese: 白菜 (hakusai)
French: Pe-tsaï / Chou chinois (masculine)

 

English: (clockwise from the potato) Potato, Garlic, Shallots
Malay: Ubi kentang, Bawang Putih, Bawang Merah
Mandarin: 馬鈴薯 (ma ling shu), 大蒜 (da suan), 蔥頭 (cong tou)
Cantonese: 荷蘭薯 (ho lan xu), 蒜米 (xun mai), 蔥頭 (chong tao)
Japanese: じゃがいも (jagaimo)、にんにく (ninniku)、シャロット(shalotto)
French: Pomme de terre (feminine; lit. apple of the earth), Ail (masculine), Échalote (feminine)

 

English: Green onion / Spring onion / Scallion
Malay: Daun bawang
Mandarin: 蔥 (cong)
Cantonese: 蔥 (cong ← but pronounced with more force)
Japanese: わけぎ (wakegi)
French: Oignon cébette (masculine)

English: Pumpkin
Malay: Labu
Mandarin: 南瓜 (nangua)
Cantonese: 南瓜 (namgua)
Japanese:　かぼちゃ / 南瓜 (kabocha)
French: Citrouille (feminine)

Price: RM2.60

 

English: Broccoli, my favourite vegetable!
Malay: Brokoli
Mandarin: 西蘭花 (xi lan hua)
Cantonese: 西蘭花 (sai lan fa)
Japanese: ブロッコリ (burokkori)
French: Brocoli (masculine)

English: Cucumbers x 4 + Brinjal x 1
Malay: Timun + Terung
Mandarin: 黃瓜 (huang gua) + 茄子 (qie zi)
Cantonese: 黃瓜 (wong gua) + 茄子 (ke zi)
Japanese: きゅうり (kyuuri) +　なす (nasu)
French: Concombre (masculine) + Aubergine (feminine)

English: Bell Peppers
Malay: Lada Benggala
Mandarin: 菜椒 (cai jiao)
Cantonese: 甜椒 (tim jiu)
Japanese: ピーマン (pee-man) lol
French: Poivron (masculine) And apparently Francophones in Quebec call them ‘piment’ so that’s probably where Japanese’s ‘pee-man’ originated from.

English: Carrots
Malay: Lobak Merah
Mandarin: 紅蘿蔔 (hong luo bo)
Cantonese: 紅蘿蔔 (hong lo bak)
Japanese: にんじん (ninjin)
French: Carotte (feminine)

English: Coriander / Cilantro / Chinese parsley ♥︎
Malay: Ketumbar (nope, never used this word)
Mandarin: 香菜 (xiang cai)
Cantonese: 芫茜 (yin sai)
Japanese: パクチー
French: Coriandre (feminine)

English: Celery
Malay: Daun saderi
Mandarin: 芹菜 (qin cai)
Cantonese: 芹菜 (kan choy) / 西芹 (sai kan)
Japanese: セロリー (seloliiii)
French: Céleri (masculine)

English: Asparagus
Malay: Asparagus
Mandarin: 芦笋 (lu sun)
Cantonese: 露筍 (lou sun)
Japanese: アスパラガス (asuparagasu)
French: Asperge (feminine)

Price: RM33/kg

Level 2 Vegetables

English: Jew’s ear / Jelly ear (I remember laughing at an advertisement in Japan translated as ‘all you can eat Jew’s ears’ )
Malay: ???
Mandarin: 木耳 (mu er)
Cantonese: 木耳 (muk yi)
Japanese: キクラゲ (kikurage)
French: Oreille de Judas (feminine; lit. Ear of Judas)

English: Spinach
Malay: Sayur bayam
Mandarin: 菠菜 (bo cai)
Cantonese: 菠菜 (bo choy)
Japanese: ほうれん草
French: Épinard (masculine)

English: Lotus Root
Malay: Akar Teratai
Mandarin: 蓮藕 (lian ou)
Cantonese:  蓮藕 (lin ngau)
Japanese: れんこん
French: Rhizome de lotus (masculine)

English: Bitter gourd
Mandarin: Peria
Mandarin: 苦瓜 (ku gua)
Cantonese: 苦瓜 (fu gua)
Japanese: ゴーヤ
French: Margose (feminine) according to Wikipedia, but apparently nobody in France likes to eat this vile thing.

English: Dragon fruit (only the coolest name for a fruit ever)
Malay: Buah naga (lit. dragon fruit. omg, still cool)
Mandarin: 火龍果 (huo long guo; lit. fire dragon fruit!)
Cantonese: 火龍果 (fo long go)
Japanese: ドラゴンフルーツ (doragon hurutsu)
French: Fruit du dragon (masculine)

Note: I was quite curious so I googled what a dragon fruit plant looks like. It is the fruit of a cactus↓ how cool is that? It is produced mainly in hot countries so yes, there are plenty of dragon fruit plantations in Malaysia too!

Source

The Pink Fruit
English: This fruit is native to Southeast Asian regions so there isn’t an original English name but the most common one would be ‘Rose Apple’
Malay: Jambu
Mandarin: 洋蒲桃 (yang pu tao) First time hearing this word
Cantonese: ??
Japanese: フトモモ
French: ??
Note: Based on personal experience, this is one of the most difficult fruit to describe to non-Southeast Asians or people who don’t understand what ‘jambu’ is. 

The Green Fruit
English: Guava
Malay: Jambu Batu
Mandarin: 番石榴 (fan chi liu)
Cantonese: 雞屎果 (kai xi go; literally chicken shit fruit)
Japanese: グアバ (guaba)
French: Goyave (feminine)

English: Bok Choy
Malay: Sawi Hijau
Mandarin: 小白菜 (xiao bai cai)
Cantonese:  小白菜 (siu bak choy)
Japanese: チンゲンサイ (chin gen sai)
French: Chou de chine / Bok Choy (masculine)

Note: This Bok Choy (Brassica rapa subp. chinensis) is very closely related to the Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis). But, they don’t look alike at all!?

Level 3 Vegetables

English: Chinese flowering cabbage (lol, I don’t think anybody calls it that here)
Malay: ???
Mandarin: 菜心 (cai xin)
Cantonese: 菜心 (choy sum)
Japanese: サイシン (菜心）but this vege isn’t very common in Japan
French: ???

I honestly don’t know what this is.

English: Purple Stemmed Malabar Spinach
Malay: ???
Mandarin: 落葵 (luo kui)
Cantonese: My mum calls it ‘guai fei choy’
Japanese: ツルムラサキ (tsurumurasaki) extremely rare in Japan
French: Épinard de Malabar (feminine)

Price: 2 bunches for RM3.00

English: A type of baby Romaine lettuce
Malay: ???
Mandarin: ???
Cantonese: 油麥 (yau mak)
Japanese: ロメインレタス (romein retasu)
French: Laitue romaine (feminine)

English: Beetroot
Malay: Buah bit
Mandarin: 甜菜 (tian cai) / 紅菜頭 (hong cai tou)
Cantonese: 紅菜頭 (hong choy tao)
Japanese: ビートルーツ (bi-to ru-tsu)
French: Betterave potagere (feminine)

Price: RM12/kg

English: ???
Malay: ???
Mandarin: 帝王苗 (di wang miao)
Cantonese: 帝王苗 (dai wong miu)
Japanese: ???
French: ???

Note: I’m sorry! The seller told me the Chinese name but I didn’t get any nice hits on Google for the other languages.

Non-Vegetables

English: Fried Bean Curd / Tofu Puffs
Malay: Tau Fu Pok
Mandarin: ???
Cantonese: 豆腐朴 (tau fu pok)
Japanese: いなりと似たようなものだけど、中華料理では塩辛い料理に使われる (it’s similar to what is used for the sweet inari sushi but it’s commonly found in savoury dishes in Chinese cuisine.
French: ???

English: Bean Curd Skin
Malay: ???
Mandarin: 腐竹 (fu zhu)
Cantonese: 腐竹 (fu cuk)
Japanese: ゆば (yuba)
French: Peau de tofu / Feuille de tofu (feminine; lit. Skin or sheet of tofu)

Price: RM2.60 / 100g (around 3 pieces)

English: Steamed Chinese buns or another suggestive alternative, ‘steamy buns’
Malay: Roti Mantau
Mandarin: 饅頭 (man tou)
Cantonese: 饅頭 (man tau)
Japanese: まんとう (mantoh)
French: Mantou (masculine)

Price: These two bags for RM8.

English: Pineapple
Malay: Nanas
Mandarin: 菠蘿 (bo luo) or 鳳梨 (feng li)
Cantonese: 黃梨 (wong lai)
Japanese: パインアップル (pain appuru)
French: Ananas (masculine)

Price: RM3.30

English: Dried shrimps
Malay: Udang kering
Mandarin: 蝦米 (xia mi)
Cantonese: 蝦米 (ha mai)
Japanese: 干し海老
French: Crevettes séchées (feminine)

Price: Rm6/100g

Will be updated after the next pasar trip!