Chinese Ingredients - List of Alternative Words
Alum - Potassium aluminum sulfate
Amaranth - Chinese spinach (refers to the red-colored species only)
Angles or Angled Luffa - Silk Squash, Chinese Okra, and "Dishwater
Gourd"
Aubergine - Eggplant
Baby Bok Choy - Shanghai Cabbage
Bitter Melon - Foo Gwa, Balsam Pear
Chinese Sausages - Lop Cheong
Chinese White Radish - Lobak, Daikon, White Lobak
Choi Sum or Choy Sum - Chinese Flowering Cabbage
Cilantro - Chinese Parsley, Mexican Parsley, Coriander
leaves
Cloud Ears - Black Fungus, Tree Ears
Cornflour - Cornstarch
Dried Lily Buds - Golden Needles
Fish Sauce - Fish Gravy, Nuoc mam (Vietnam)
Fuzzy Melon - mo gwa, mo qwa, hairy melon
Ginger - Gingerroot
Groundnut Oil - Peanut Oil (Groundnut is the British word for peanut)
Napa Cabbage - Sui Choy, Chinese, Peking, or Celery
Cabbage
Rice Wine - yellow wine, Shaoshing or Shaoxing wine (this is the most
popular type of rice wine)
Sea Cucumber - Beche de mer, Sea Slug
Snow Peas - Mangetout (french for "eat it all")
Soy Bean Curd - Doufu (China), Tofu (Japan)
Winter Melon - Dong Gua, Wax Melon or Gourd, Ash
Melon or Gourd. Also, in Indian cuisine you may find references to white
pumpkin.
Return to the Main Glossary of Chinese Ingredients and Cooking Terms

