Saliva chicken

October 11, 2021 @ 8:56 pm · Filed by under Language and food, Lost in translation

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We've alluded to this Sichuanese dish in posts and comments several times before on Language, but this is the first time I have captured it in the wild (at Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House in Philadelphia's Chinatown):

kǒushuǐ 口水 ("mouth + water") = "saliva"

liú kǒushuǐ 流口水 ("flow + mouth + water") = "slobber; slaver; salivate; drool; dribble; drivel"

kǒushuǐ jī 口水鸡 ("mouth + water + chicken") = "mouthwatering chicken", i.e., "steamed chicken with chili sauce".

I will try out this peculiarly named dish the next time I go to Chinatown and see if it lives up to its sensational name.

Selected readings

[Thanks to Zihan Guo]

October 11, 2021 @ 8:56 pm · Filed by under Language and food, Lost in translation


1 Comment

  1. John Rohsenow said,

    October 12, 2021 @ 3:41 am

    How about 燕窝汤–'bird's nest soup'–a Chinese soup made from the dried gelatinous coating of the nests of swifts and other birds- – which a friend of mine used to refer to as "swallow spit soup"?
    "Most nests are built during the breeding season by the male swiftlet over a period of 35 days… The nests are composed of interwoven strands of salivary cement." see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_bird%27s_nest#Production_and_harvest

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