Garlic

[skylee]

I feel stupid for asking this ... but I really know little about food ...

大蒜 is mentioned in this thread -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/4792-when-%e5%a4%a7-or-%e8%80%81-is-already-part-of-its-name

And I think (don't know why, probably my mom told me) that 大蒜 is something different from garlic. I have the impression that it is leek. I have done some searching on the internet and almost all of the information says garlic = 大蒜 and leek = 大葱 or 韭菜.

Yet I doubt it. Finally I have found this website, and this is what I believe to be correct ->

大蒜 = leeks

韭菜 = chives

So, AM I VERY WRONG?

[shibo77]

This is what I think:

洋葱 Allium cepa "Garden Onion" or just "Onion" I hate it.

大蒜 Allium sativum "Spear Leek" or just "Garlic" It's white, it's good, common in China.

大葱 Allium cepa "Spring Onion", it's just onion harvested before it is fully grown, common in China.

青葱(也做绿葱) Allium fistulosum "Green Onion" or "Welsh Onion".

细香葱 Allium schoenoprasum "Chives" It's green, it's small.

韭菜 Allium ramosum "Garlic Chives" or just "Chives", common in China.

韭葱 Allium ampeloprasum "Leek"

so many smelly plants....

-Shìbó

[Ian_Lee]

Skylee:

garlic = 蒜頭

leek = 大蒜

But when you order 葱爆牛肉 in Beijing style restaurant in HK, actually it is leek and not green onion.

And if you order ramen in Japan, the green stuff on top of your bowl is shredded leek. But the green stuff floating on top of the miso soup is shredded green onion.

[Yang Rui]

I think there might be some regional variations in usage here, both in the English and the Chinese.

For example, i always thought spring onion was 小葱, the food that i believe is known in the US as scallions.

All through my Chinese learning career i have used 大蒜 to mean garlic. Since reading this post I have asked my Chinese friends about this and they all agree.

The controversial word in all this appears to be "leek". I have heard it referred to in the south as 大蒜头，in the north as 大葱 and also simply 葱。Although here in the UK, the leek is seen to be a symbol of Wales, i have never heard it called Welsh Onion.

韭菜 always seems to be translated as "Chinese chives" in the UK

This all seems quite confusing

[Altair]

Very, very surprising and confusing. There seems to be a whole lot of reference material that is wrong.

This is a picture of "garlic":

Garlic

When you buy it in the store, you find it as white bulbs with dry flaky skin. Bulbs divide easily into individual sections called "cloves." They are quite firm to the touch. When you cook with them, you usually separate out one or more cloves from the bulb, mince (cut finely), and put the small pieces into what you are preparing.

Garlic is a major ingredient in Italian cooking. I had thought it was also a major ingredient in the oil used to stir fry many Chinese dishes. Every single Chinese recipe I have ever stir fried seems to requiring putting minced garlic in the oil, before adding other ingredients. Garlic is pretty familiar in U.S. cooking of all types, but is never eaten raw and rarely prepared whole.

Onions are yellow, white, and red and are found in the store with dry flaky skin similar to garlic, but do not divide into cloves. They are peeled essentially like apples and make you cry if you do not keep your mouth tightly closed. Onions are by far the most common of these things in U.S. with no "ethnic" heritage. They are what can be sliced in circles and optionally put on hamburgers. They can be eaten chopped up raw in salad, but have a pretty strong flavor, especially in quantity.

I think of shallots as a French version of garlic, but with a milder flavor. It has no uses in "traditional" American cooking.

I think of spring onions as the immature version of the entire onion plant, essentially the version of the plant that would be available only during the early spring growing season. It is like a tough grass. All the plant is used to give mild flavor as a topping to things, but it is usually chopped up.

I think of green onions as essentially the same as spring onions, but maybe the term simply refers to the stem of regular onions.

I am not sure how scallions differ from spring onions or green onions, but they are common and trendy. They are what is put into the pancakes with 背景烤鸭 Peking Duck.

Leeks are to me a European thing and more like a vegetable. I think stem and root are often used together. I also think they are frequently stewed whole in soup.

[skylee]

I think there might be some regional variations in usage here, both in the English and the Chinese.

Then there is no way to figure this out, is there?

My understanding is the same as Ian_Lee's.

I know what garlic is. To me, it is simply 蒜 or 蒜頭 in Chinese. It is the plant in Altair's picture.

Onion is 洋葱. I am very sure about this. 葱, on the other hand, is spring onion. No doubt about this, either.

I am pretty sure that the plant in the first picture in my post above is called leek in English and it, being so big in size, is unlikely to be 韭菜, which is thin like spring union. I think it is called 大蒜 in Chinese.

Probably because of the regional differences as Yang Rui pointed out, to some people garlic is 大蒜 and leek is 大葱.

I cannot handle any more such terms. Another good reason for not cooking.

[39degN]

I believe Leek is Miss Garlic in her childhood, which was called 青蒜 or 蒜苗 in North:

Link

When she was even younger and lives in a condition without sunshine, she was called 蒜黄：

and her scape is called 蒜苔：

haha, I swear i m not a chef.

[39degN]

oops, the leek seems is stronger than 青蒜：

Leek