Cantonese Tuesdays: An Eggtart by any other name

Cantonese has a few loanwords borrowed from English that have slipped into everyday usage. The best example is probably 的士 (dik si) for “taxi”, hence people saying 打的 (da di) for “hail a cab” as far north as Beijing. Chinglish is also pretty standard, especially among trendy teenagers and work colleagues, who might say “Send个email卑我啦” (send go email bei ngo laa) for “send me an email”.

But the biggest number of loanwords has to be for imported foods. The south of China is stereotyped for its fondness of eating everything from snake to civet cat, but we’ve embraced imported food too. Many of our names for those foods are also imported, and it’s safe to assume that many of those words originated during Britain’s rule of Hong Kong, before making their way to the mainland.

My favorite Hong Kong snack, the eggtart (蛋挞 daan taat), is a mix of dan for egg and the loanword tat for tart. Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last British Governor, had such a sweet tooth for eggtarts that he earned himself the Cantonese nickname of Fat Pang (肥彭 fei paang). Here are some pictures of him enjoying an eggtart handover.

Below is a list of foreign foods which have loanwords in either Mandarin, Cantonese or both. Say what I missed the comments!

English – Mandarin – Cantonese
chocolate – 巧克力 qiǎokèlì – 朱古力 zyu gu lik
coffee – 咖啡 kāfēi – 咖啡 gaa fe
salad – 沙拉 shālā – 沙律 saa leot
bacon – 培根 péigēn – 烟肉 jin juk
strawberry – 草莓 cǎoméi – 士多啤梨 si do be lei
pear – 梨子 lízi – 啤梨 be lei
lemon – 柠檬 níngméng – 柠檬 ning mung
cherry – 樱桃 yīngtáo – 车厘子 ce lei zi
cheese – 奶酪 nǎilào – 芝士 zi si
toast – 吐司 tǔsī – 多士 do si
hamburger – 汉堡 hànbǎo – 汉堡包 hon bou baau
sandwich – 三明治 sānmíngzhì – 三文字 saam man zi
salmon – 三文魚 sānwényú – 三文魚 saam man jyu
tuna – 金枪鱼 jīnqiāngyú – 吞拿鱼 tan naa jyu
curry – 咖喱 gālí – 咖喱 gaa lei
whiskey – 威士忌 wēishìjì – 威士忌 wai si gei
brandy – 白兰地 báilándì – 白兰地 baak laan dei

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Rosalyn S is from Hong Kong and lives in Beijing

To look up Cantonese pronunciations with tones, Popup Chinese has a Cantonese translator