Enteral fever

December 16, 2019 @ 6:19 pm · Filed by under Language and food, Lost in translation, Philology

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Fuchsia Dunlop has a real talent for finding these things (cf. "Explosion Cheese Durian Pie" [9/23/19]):

Baidu Fanyi is the source of the translation above, but it also gives a somewhat better definition / interpretation:  "Pig’s intestines with hot sauce".  The first part of the name of this dish, chángwàng 肠旺, does mean "pig's intestines", but the second part actually means "blood" — as an artsy euphemism.  The name of the dish originally explicitly mentioned xuè 血 ("blood"), but the celebrated artist, Zhāng Dàqiān 張大千 (1899-1983), thought that designation (though accurate) insufficiently elegant, so he proposed to substitute wàng 旺 ("prosper[ous]; flourish[ing]; vigorous") for it, on the grounds that the color "red" symbolized "prosperity".

I discussed the philological and culinary background of all this in great detail here:

"'Boiled Blood Curd' and 'Semi-rotted Vegetables Cake'" (9/17/18)

See also here (in Chinese).

 

Selected readings

 

[h.t. Jeff DeMarco]

December 16, 2019 @ 6:19 pm · Filed by under Language and food, Lost in translation, Philology


1 Comment

  1. Calvin said,

    December 17, 2019 @ 1:32 am

    I think the dish in Ms. Dunlop's post (apparently from Yunnan, neighboring Guizhou) is more related to 肠旺面, a famous Guizhou noodle dish cooked with pig intestine and blood. It has over 100 years history according to [Baike] (https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%82%A0%E6%97%BA%E9%9D%A2).

    The dish 張大千 named was 五更肠旺, originally from Taiwan. It is a pig intestine stew usually cooked with duck blood.

    In Cantonese the euphemism for 血 in food is 红, like 猪红.

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