Hot answers tagged food
14
Observe:
飯 meshi
ご飯 gohan
They both mean the same thing, which is (cooked) rice and/or meal. Since rice is an essential part of Japanese cuisine, the two meanings very much overlap. As you said, ご〜 go- is an honorific prefix, which makes ご飯 gohan the politer alternative used in more polite speech.
昼飯 hirumeshi
昼ご飯 hirugohan
Both mean ...
12
まぐろ (also written as マグロ and 鮪) is the Japanese word for thunnus, a specific kind of tuna. It refers to both the living fish and the food. Traditionally, まぐろ also referred to billfish because billfish was considered to be a close kind to thunnus. Because of this, even today まぐろ can also refer to billfish.
ツナ comes from the English word tuna and it refers ...
11
Although 並(nami), 大(dai) will works on most of the place, but others would depend on each restaurants.
For Small - 小 (shou), ミニ (mini), 半分(hanbun), 少なめ (sukuname), S (エス) ...
For Normal - 並 (nami), 普通（ふつう）, 中(chuu), M (エム)...
For Big - 大 (dai), 大盛り (oomori), 多め (oome), L (エル)...
For Special Big - 1.5盛 (ittengo mori) (sukiya invented it)
For extra Big - ...
11
Both さけ and しゃけ mean salmon and are written as 鮭 in kanji (but I will avoid using this kanji in this answer for an obvious reason). As far as I know, there is no difference in meaning, but some people seem to distinguish the two words in meanings (see below).
According to a webpage by Maruha Nichiro Foods, Inc., the Kōjien dictionary lists the word しゃけ as ...
11
I don't have a full answer here (at least not yet), but I do want to note that the kanji here are definitely not any kind of ateji - they are actually the exact opposite, a gikun (義訓 - 'meaning reading'), since 山 has no reading わさ, and 葵 has no reading び.
That means the etymology of the word わさび itself is unrelated to the etymology of the kanji わさび, and ...
9
The 丼 donburi in 牛丼 gyūdon specifically denotes a bowl of rice.
The 飯 meshi in 牛飯 gyūmeshi just means rice or even more generically meal.
Both describe the same thing:
ぎゅう‐どん【牛丼】
「牛飯（ぎゅうめし）」に同じ。
"See gyūmeshi."
ぎゅう‐めし【牛飯】
ネギなどと煮た牛肉を、汁とともにかけたどんぶり飯。牛丼（ぎゅうどん）。
"A rice meal with onions and fried beef [...]. Gyūdon."
I'm not sure which one is ...
9
This answer from another site claims to be しゃけ is as accent difference on Saitama, Chiba, Shizuoka (basically Kantou)
http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/11481.html
But, when I did part-time job at 居酒屋(いざかや) during my college time on 四国(Shikoku - Not in Kantou region) around 2005, some people use しゃけ.
I didn't know the meaning at that time, and some people smiled ...
9
食べ物 - appropriate as written or spoken language, a basic word, commonly used in speech
食品 - food product, think of a packaged food product on a shelf in the store
ご飯 - literally rice (polite), used to refer to "a meal" as in breakfast, lunch or dinner
食事 - a meal, frequently used in hotels and restaurants as 「お食事」 (おしゅくじ)
〜物 - assuming you mean 揚げ物 ...
8
Yes, there is the more broad term [鯨肉]{げいにくor くじらにく} However, because this term usually refers to whale meat, イルカ肉 is more common to discern between the two.
Also, I should mention that the likelihood of you ever having the chance to eat dolphin meat nowadays is very slim, unless you travel to Wakayama prefecture perhaps. In the past, in some areas, such as ...
8
ご飯 (ごはん), 飯 (めし) and ライス all refer to the same thing: steamed rice. ご飯 and 飯 can mean meal, too.
As you said, it is not uncommon to see ライス in a menu at a restaurant, even when it is not part of a compound word such as カレーライス. I do not know why they do not say ご飯, and I can only make a guess at possible reasons:
As Jeshii said, they may want to make it ...
7
There's really no difference other than politeness. But politeness is a huge difference in Japanese. For instance, if we take it to the extreme, saying that there's no difference between あなた and 貴様 in Japanese is like saying there's no difference between "Thank you" and "Go to hell." in English. :)
飯 is not as outrageously impolite as 貴様, but in some ...
7
つまむ can mean "to grab," so anything you can just grab casually and eat (usually with some sort of alcohol), or anything you can つまむ, is therefore おつまみ. There's lots of words that are just the noun conjugation of verbs, especially in food! (おにぎり、煮物、おひや... okay, not all of those follow the pattern, but you get the idea!) There's also another word つまみ食い, which ...
7
It is a "rice ball", usually with some kind of meat inside and wrapped in seaweed (similar to sushi). Unlike sushi though, which you hold and eat with chopsticks, an onigiri is made to hold in the hand.
The o- is an honorific prefix. It is used to give respect to an object or person, and is done with several choice words (including o-sushi). This ...
6
In terms of the “substances” they could refer to, ミルク includes 牛乳, plus all the other examples that are given, like baby formula, creamer, and even semen (when used as sexual innuendo).
To keep it simple, let’s just say the “substance” we want to refer to is 牛乳. As long as it is clear in the context that you mean 牛乳, it isn’t technically wrong to use ミルク in ...
6
丁寧 (ていねい ) is an "na-adjective/adverb" with two meanings, (1) polite (as you know) and (2) careful or conscientous.
The second meaning can apply to the way something is made, prepared or wrapped. I imagine your friend was referring to the way the ramen was made but for food (in general) there could be situations when any one of those three could apply.
...
6
I make it a general rule when I translate these kinds of things from Japanese to English, those being things which may be common in Japanese culture but are rare or otherwise not present in Western culture, to either preserve the Japanese word (for example we say 'sushi' instead of raw fish on rice or whatever) or to go with something descriptive when the ...
5
For different contexts, here are a few more:
料理 【りょうり】 - food/cuisine; 日本料理、料理を作る、など
食料 【しょくりょう】 - food, groceries; 食料品 (foodstuffs/groceries)、食料費 (food expenses)
糧 【かて】 ・ 食糧 【しょくりょう】 - food (supply), provisions; 食糧不足 【しょくりょうぶそく】 (food shortage)
5
Is there a word for the type of onigiri that comes in the triangular wrap that keeps the nori fresh?
Not really. The closest is "三角のおにぎり" to describe the shape. Onigiri have been made in many different shapes over time, including a round shape and the occasionally clever shape that a creative mom might try to make. But many people now think of triangular ones as the normal mode, so you wouldn't need to say anything other than "onigiri" to imply the ...
5
I can get into this answer a bit because I'm lactose intolerant, or as it is called in Japanese, 乳糖{にゅうとう}不{ふ}耐症{たいしょう}.
Despite the fact that genetically, all Japanese should most likely also all be lactose intolerant, outside of medical practitioners, most people have never heard the term, and so usually it's easier to just say I have a milk allergy ...
5
ご飯{はん} is the 美化語{びかご} version of 飯{めし}, i.e. a beautified version. Usually 美化語 has the form of お／ご+the unbeautified version, but ご飯 is an exception. Another exception is 腹{はら}→おなか, belly. はん and なか do not exist by themselves (with those meanings).
Please remember that not all お／ご+noun are 美化語, some are 尊敬語{そんけいご}, respectful language. E.g. お車{くるま}, car. ...
5
Wasabi 「山葵」 is jukujikun -(熟字訓 - word reading), which is kind of 当て字、but based on word 「熟語」 level
Regarding origin, 語源辞典 says that 山葵's leaf is looks like Hollyhock 葵, so used it such way from Heian-Era 「794年-1185年」
Following are "Three Hollyhocks inside Circle" logo from Tokugawa clan and Wasabi leaf.
Note: Images taken from Wikipedia 1, 2
5
You know how Eskimos have 80 words for snow?
Seriously though, I think it has to do with the fact that there are certain dishes that are western in origin. They use rice, but they are served differently. Take a look at dishes like 「カレーライス」 or 「ハヤシライス」 or 「タコライス」. All of these are served on plate or with western ingredients. ご飯 and 丼 are usually served in ...
5
The literal meanings of these words are:
巻寿司 (まきずし): sushi roll
海苔巻き (のりまき): something rolled with nori, a specific kind of seaweed
巻物 (まきもの): something rolled
海苔巻き usually refers to sushi roll with nori, but depending on the context, it can refer to other kinds of food, including 海苔巻き卵 (のりまきたまご) and 海苔巻き煎餅 (のりまきせんべい).
Unlike 海苔巻き, I do not think that ...
5
The easy answer is that it's six in one, half a dozen in the other.
The longer answer is that having the き there makes it clear that you're supposed to use the kun-yomi for it. See this question and its answers for a good discussion on on- and kun-yomi.
5
In my experience...
The ones ending in ご飯 are most polite. Actually, using them around friends may get you some strange looks. The ones ending in 飯（めし） seem very informal, somewhat "rough", and mainly used by men. The ones ending in 食 seem to be the most neutral and most widely-used.
However, they may regionally have different acceptance levels and/or ...
5
[夕・晩・夜]+[ご飯・飯・食]
(1) ~~+ご[飯]{はん}
We have [夕]{ゆう}ご[飯]{はん}, [晩]{ばん}ご[飯]{はん}, [夜]{よる}ご[飯]{はん}.
I don't see much difference among them. We (especially children and women) use ~~ご飯 most in daily conversation. I normally use 晩ご飯 and 夜ご飯, and I think my mother uses 夕ご飯 too.
(2) ~~+[食]{しょく}
We have [夕食]{ゆうしょく}. I didn't know [晩食]{ばんしょく} so I googled it, and I ...
4
Norimaki & Makizushi both refer to the rolled up sushi. Makizushi is used more commonly used than Norimaki. INterestingly Google has 2.28M occurrences of Norimaki but 4.85M of Makizushi.
Makimono (lit: rolled up thing) covers rolled sushi but also describes calligraphic scrolls.
From my experience, older people to use the term Makimono, whereas ...
4
Is there a word for the type of onigiri that comes in the triangular wrap that keeps the nori fresh?
I do not know a specific term referring to onigiri with a plastic film separating nori from rice.
Wikipedia calls this plastic film “おにぎりフィルム,” but I did not know this name and do not expect that many people know the name.
If I want to refer to this kind of onigiri, I would say something explanatory such as “海苔がフィルムでご飯から仕切られているタイプのおにぎり” ...
4
There is no convenient rule you can use. The different pronunciations come from the different origins of the words.
There are basically three kinds of words that are written in kanji in Japanese.
和語 were developed in Japan, 訓読み words are likely to be 和語
漢語 originated in China, 音読み words are likely to be 漢語
There are also combinations of 和語 and 漢語, and ...
3
With a search on the web, I found ja.wikipdia.org/wiki/...(also mentioned by sawa) , http://gfhis.com/towa.html , http://www.vege-fru.com/ , etc. From these pages, we can see the "野菜ソムリエ" is not a job, but a qualification. It is a qualification for people withe various knowledge of vegetables and fruits: classification, nutrition, cooking method, quality, ...
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