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FOOD TERMS

Food, glorious food
Mind Our English by DR LIM CHIN LAM

WE Malaysians seem to eat all the time. There are eateries all over the place, some open at any hour of the day or night.

When it comes to food, we use some words and terms that depart from standard English. We should be aware of such departures which can cause confusion or amusement when we talk to visitors and friends from other countries.

I have written about such quirks in various other contexts. This article purports to bring together our quirky (i.e. Malaysian) usage of some food-related words and terms.

Bananas. Consider the terms used in the English of international trade. As harvested from the plant — which, botanically, is not a tree as commonly called but a pseudostem formed from the sheaths of the leaves rolled round one another from below — bananas come in a bunch (local term tandan “bunch”). Clusters of the fruits are arranged around and down the length of the stout stalk. These clusters are called hands (local term sikat or sisir “comb”), and the individual fruits are called — what else? — fingers. The Malaysian English equivalent for bunch is tandan or big bunch, that for hand is comb or bunch (specifically small bunch), and that for finger is banana (He bought the smaller bunch with 11 bananas).

Tapioca or cassava or manioc. That which we locally call tapioca or ubi kayu (ubi “tuber”, kayu “wood”) is the edible root tuber from the tree-like plant, Manihot utilissima. We may as well know that our tapioca is known as manioc or cassava in other countries.

Yam or taro? What we locally call ubi keladi and commonly know in English as yam is the edible, root tuber from plants with leaves arising rosette-like from the soil. They are of the genera Alocasia and Colocasia, from the family Araceae and is known as taro in other countries. In Malaysia, we do have the real yam, which is a large, ill-shaped root tuber from a climbing plant, Dioscorea spp. of the family Dioscoreaceae. Locally it is also called keladi, but a more specific name would be keladi gadong or ubi gadong.

Yam-bean or turnip? Neither name is appropriate. The edible root tuber that we know as sengkuang in Malay, bangkuang in Hokkien, and sah kok in Cantonese, is locally called turnip in English. The latter name is incorrect — we do not have turnip in Malaysia, although the turnip, Brassica rapa, of the Cruciferae family, does resemble the sengkuang in shape and size.

The sengkuang has the botanical name Pachyrhizus erosus, of the bean family Leguminosae. Its name in English is yambean — no doubt because it is of the bean family and because we eat the root tuber, the yam.

Properly, the name should be inverted to become bean-yam because we eat the tuber, not the bean — in the same way that we have oil palm plantations (oil palm, the crop) and not palm oil plantations (palm oil, the pro­duct). Even then the inverted name is inappropriate because the name in question denotes a tuber which is not a yam.

Without splitting more hairs, it is better that we just call the tuber by the Spanish-derived name, “jicama” (pronounced “hicama”), which is commonly used in the United States and other countries. (The word can be found in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004.)

Padi and rice. The word padi is a Malay word which, as spelt, has not been admitted into the English dictionaries. If at all used in English in the real sense of rice in the husk, or rough rice, the word would be deemed a foreign one and therefore would be italicised. Locally, we use the word “padi”, not italicised, to mean “rice in the husk”, and “rice” to mean “dehulled rice”. Standard English uses the word “paddy” (derived from Malay padi) where we use the word “padi” in the sense of rice in the husk.

“To make confusion worse confounded”, where we speak of padi-field (our sawah, an embanked area, flooded for most of the growing season, in which wet padi — as distinguished from dry padi or hill padi — is grown), standard English says paddy, or even rice-paddy. Don’t despair. We may be at odds with the dictionaries, but our special usage of padi and rice is unambiguous. We even distinguish between uncooked rice (beras) and cooked rice (nasi)! Furthermore, we distinguish between non-glutinous rice (beras) and glutinous rice (pulut). What’s more, the word “glutinous” in this application is not appropriate because the so-called glutinous rice does not contain gluten.

Hawk, hawker, and hawker food. The verb hawk means (1) to make a noisy effort to clear the throat of phlegm (a disgusting habit not often seen nowadays, thank goodness!), and (2) to peddle goods, including food, by going from door to door or street to street. (In the olden days, hawkers would also shout their wares, but nowadays they sound a bell or other contrivance — remember, for example, our tok-tok mi seller; also recall the street cries of London as depicted in one scene from the film Oliver.)

Those whom we now call hawkers are associated with cooked food, but they almost never hawk around in the sense of moving from place to place. (Note: The etymologists among us may be interested to know that the word “hawker” was not derived from “hawk”; rather, “hawk” is a back-formation of “hawker”.)

So the hawkers stay put in one place — a contradiction in terms. They may have their push-carts screwed onto platforms bolted in place. They may operate stalls in a coffee-shop or in a hawker centre (what? A hawker centre — another contradiction in terms). They may sell food in an up-market food court (a rather posh term for “hawker centre”). What about food sold by the hawkers? “Hawker food”, of course. In standard English, it is called “street food”. (Foreign visitors please note: Do not look down on our so-called hawker food. It is our hawker food that makes Malaysia a gastronomic paradise!)

I’m done now. Are you game for hawker food?

IDIOMS

Idioms

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by Samuel | Upload your own presentation

PHRASAL VERBS

Wordwise

By S.H. LOKE

IT is not surprising that expressions related to clothes and dressing cover every facet of life. They can be used to describe events, people and jobs. You can use some of these well-worn expressions to add a splash of colour to your language.

1. Cap

To put on your thinking cap means to think hard.

We have to put on our thinking cap to solve the mystery of the missing suitcase.

2. Coat

To cut your coat according to your cloth means to spend within your means.

During bad times, we should learn to cut our coat according to our cloth.

3. Coat-tails

If you do something on the coat-tails of someone else, you are able to do it because of the other person’s success and not due to your own efforts.

He won the post because he was riding on the coat-tails of his father.

4. Belt

To hit below the belt means to resort to foul means.

In any game you cannot hit below the belt.

To tighten your belt means to spend less money and manage without luxuries as you have less money.

We have to tighten our belt since we have just bought a house.

5. Hat

Someone who wears several hats has several roles or jobs to perform.

Joan is a talented lady who wears several hats.

6. Skirt

Something that skirts an area is situated around the edge of it.

There are cows grazing in the field that skirts the lake.

If you skirt a problem, you avoid dealing with it.

He skirted the issue of raising funds for the school.

7. Tie

Ties are connections that you have with people or a place.

Malaysia has close ties with Indonesia.

If two people tie in a contest or game, they have the same number of points or same degree of success.

There is a tie between the Red house and the Green house.

8. Gloves

Something that fits like a glove fits perfectly.

To work hand in glove means to work closely.

He and his brother work hand in glove in running their timber business.

9. Cloak

To cloak something means to cover it or hide it.

Mt Kinabalu was cloaked in mist.

Her wedding plans were made under a cloak of secrecy.

10. Frills

Something which has no frills has no extra features but only the basics.

I stayed at a hotel which provided good accommodation with no frills.

11. Lace

To lace food or drinks with a substance such as a drug means to put a small amount of it into the food or drinks.

Some years ago, some chocolates in Japan were laced with poison.

12. Collar

If you collar someone who has done something wrong, who is escaping, you catch them or hold them so that they cannot escape.

The thief tried to flee but was collared at the junction.

Blue collar jobs require physical work such as making things in factories.

White collar workers work in offices, and are better paid.

Many high-ranking officials are the brains behind white collar crimes.

13. Sleeve

If you have something up your sleeve, you have an idea or plan which you have not told anyone about.

He was smiling at the meeting, so I suspect he has a trick up his sleeve.

If you wear your heart on your sleeve, you openly show your feelings.

14. Pants

If someone bores, charms or scares the pants off you, they bore, charm or scare you a lot.

His sweet talk scares the pants off me.

If one person in a relationship, especially the woman, wears the pants, they are the one who makes all the decisions.

Mei Li is the one who wears the pants in her home.

THE WORD CHALLENGE

The MOE word challenge

By OH TEIK THEAM

FORM the words that contain the letters ‘M’, ‘O’, ‘E’ to complete the sentences below. The words each have eight letters, as today is the eighth anniversary of Mind Our English!

1. “If citrus fruits are bad for your eczema, you should not drink this glass of _ _mo_ _ _e.”

2. She had to withdraw from the play because she just couldn’t m_ _o_ _ _e her lines.

3. His friends gave him the mo_ _ _ _e_ ‘Ash’ because he is a chain-smoker.

4. The rock gathered mo_e_ _ _ _ as it rolled down the hill.

5. Even though they hurled abuse at her, she remained perfectly _ _m_o_e_.

6. “It’s such a bright night,” the drunk said to himself, “I think I’ll climb up a m_o_ _e_ _ to reach the clouds.”

7. “Dew,” the teacher explained to her class, “is the mo_ _ _ _ _e which forms on the surfaces of cool bodies during the night.”

8. “It was rather _m_o_ _ _e of you not to thank him for the present he gave you.”

9. She accepted his marriage proposal after he promised to love her _ _ _ _mo_e.

10. “To call him a supervisor is a m_ _ _o_e_ — he’s more like a tyrant!”

11. As a _ _ _mo_e_, she has been very successful, for sales of the company’s products have increased tremendously since she took up the job.

12. The little girl was smart enough to remain _m_o_ _ _e under the bed during the robbery.

13. “Please listen carefully to my words,” the politician said to the reporters, “so that you will not m_ _ _ _o_e me.”

14. The boss decided to give his secretary a huge bonus to mo_ _ _ _ _e her to continue with her excellent work.

15. I watched the piece of wood _mo_ _ _e_ and then doused it with water to prevent a serious fire from breaking out.

Answers

1. lemonade 2. memorise 3. monicker (also moniker) 4. momentum 5. composed 6. moonbeam 7. moisture 8. impolite 9. evermore 10. misnomer 11. promoter 12. immobile 13. misquote 14. motivate 15. smoulder

Forming a word train

By LUCILLE DASS

FILL in the spaces with letters to form the 18 words as defined by the clues provided. The last letter of each word forms the first letter of the next word. Each letter is used only once in the initial position.

Example: To attack someone in a public place and steal from them (verb): m u g

1. To control or direct the running of a country or a group of people (verb): g - - - - -

2. To discuss in order to reach an agreement (verb): - - - - - - - - -

3. To authorise or give freedom to do something (verb): - - - - - - -

4. Not cooked (adjective): - - -

5. An official document that permits a search or an arrest (noun): - - - - - - -

6. A general development/direction of behaviour or style (noun): - - - - -

7. Feeling sleepy (adjective): - - - - - -

8. To scream or cry out loudly (verb): - - - -

9. To pass the tongue over something (verb): - - - -

10. A round handle — of a door or drawer (noun): - - - -

11. To make someone believe only what you want them to believe (verb): - - - - - - - - -

12. Very funny (adjective): - - - - - - - - -

13. Peculiar to or characteristic of something (adjective): - - - - - - - -

14. To cut or trim (verb): - - - -

15. A remedy for all ills (noun): - - - - - - -

16. The fact or claim that an accused was elsewhere than at the scene of the crime (noun): - - - - -

17. An article or a separate thing (noun): - - - -

18. To cut down, for example, grass (verb): - - -

Answers

1. govern

2. negotiate

3. empower

4. raw

5. warrant

6. trend

7. drowsy

8. yell

9. lick

10. knob

11. brainwash

12. hilarious

13. specific

14. clip

15. panacea

16. alibi

17. item

18. mow