How some groceries get their names
In the last times we have used to, that in our market and directly on our dishes, appear strange, formerly unknown foods. Few of them get new name from us. In most cases we také them with their original names, that is a little adjusted to English. Even in macrobiotic diet, that gives priority to products of local, ergo american at best of origin, does occur range of exotic ingredients thus words. Huge amount of them comes from Japanese. For interest I offer you short guidebook for some of these words with explanations why do they sound like this and not otherwise. Part of them is however etymologicly opaque (kuzu, shoyu, miso, kombu).
Probably the most widespread speciality of orient origin is soya cheese (sometimes also called cottage cheese) tofu. This word is of Chinese origin and is compounded from phrases tó and hu, which do mean “spoilt soya”. Japanese pronunciation is really more closer to tóhu then tófu; in Japanese books of travel we can read, how through villages and cities did cruise boys on bicycles, they were called tófuja-san, thus roughly “mister tofu”, because in the box on carrier they were delivering fresh tofu and sell them to families. When about these tofu carriers replace mobile icecream mans in our countryside. The second mentioned product natto does also include component tó (soya bean in Chinese), but first part of the word does mean probably “cleaned”. My Japanese friend contribute to this: “Do you already know that tohu in cubes does look like “cleaned soya”, but by this name is called natto, that is evidently spoiled, but is called cleaned!” The word for soya - daizu - does mean “big bean”.
You can easily analyse names of seaweeds - nori does mean “ocean moss” by the Chinese characters, that is this word recorded with, but the meaning is not clear from the sound meaning of the Chinese word. Arame is “sparse ocean plant” (arai - sparse + me), whereas wakame “young ocean plant” (wakai - young), but Japanese friend comments again: “If this wakame does grow for example four or five years, we still call it wakame.” By the other seaweeds the names are not so clear, I’ll give notice only about everlasting problem, what to do with hiziki - I have seen already probably four versions spelling, that try to successfully put it well to original. Thus make notice, that right Japanese pronunciation is chižiki. And write is as you want.
Even among vegetables does appeared new product from the world of raising sun - big rooted daikon. And his etymology? Dai is big and kon is root. Nothing very inventive. The same for our favoured umeboshi don’t mean nothing else than dried plumps (ume - plump + boshi - dried). And if we are with the names that don’t boast with resourcefulness, let’s add rubbing bowl suribashi, that Japanese read suribači, because it’s compounded from verb suru - rub and bachi - bowl. If we see written “rubbing bowl suribachi”, it’s the same nonsense as “CD - disc”.
Gomasio, according to original reading gomashio is formed from parts goma - sesame and shio - salt, again nothing spectatular. And the last mention I’ll do about tea. You have probably noticed, that most from macrobiotic recommended teas is ending by cha. Right from this Chinese base have Czech language name for tea - čaj. Japanese do use the same term but they always characterize it somehow, for example by adding kuki, that does mean twig. The same for sencha does mean “roasted tea” and our favorite bancha hides in itself a little of xenophobia, because it could be translated as “alien tea”. And we are home.
People come here for:
tea tofu
soya tea
origin of soya
tofu pronunciation
gomasio meaning
spoilt tofu
macrobiotic groceries
soya and tofu