Chinese vegetable names that don't vary too much by region

[Christa]

3 hours ago, imron said:

Red.

 

地瓜、番薯、红薯、白薯 and so on (I know the last two are different varieties).  This is definitely a vegetable name that has a large amount of regional variation.

Oh dear...

 

Napa Cabbage / Chinese Cabbage/ Chinese Leaf = 大白菜 / dà báicài
Eggplant / Aubergine = 茄子 / qiézi

Cucumber = 黄瓜 / huáng guā
 
空心菜 / kōng xīn cài can probably be understood in most places for Chinese Water Spinach, as the name's so descriptive.

番茄 / fān qié can probably work in most places for tomato.                                                                                               

 
Western Broccoli seems to be called 西蘭花 / xī lán huā in most places but also qīng huā cài / 青花菜 in others.
Pak choy / bok choy (green stemmed) seems to be called 上海白菜 / shànghǎi bái cài  in the south, 油菜 /  yóu cài in the north and 青江菜 / qīng jiāng cài in Taiwan.

Pak choy / bok choy (white stemmed) seems to be called 白菜 / bái cài in the south. People from other parts of the Chinese speaking world are often unsure what to call it.

Sweet potato seems to have multiple: 地瓜、番薯、红薯、白薯.

[Christa]

I think I should also add choy sum to red. It has at least two names and one of them is going to cause confusion in northern China. The two translations I have for it are: 菜心 cài xīn and (very unfortunately) 油菜 / yóu cài.

 

Anyone else have other translations for it?

[evn108]

I was curious and looked up 菜心 on wikipedia and found this:

 

由於西方人一向不太懂得分辨菜心與白菜等作物，在名稱上經常把各種菜搞混，直到因為各地對亞洲菜蔬的輸入量大增，才開始為各種菜蔬作詳細及嚴謹的分類

 

......

[Michaelyus]

On the subject of the tomato, I grew up calling it 西红柿 in Mandarin and 番茄 in Cantonese. I realised that people actually called it 番茄 in Mandarin about the age of 10.

I admire this project! 加油！(and perhaps 盐 and then 加水 to braise!)