The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters

by James D. McCawley

Lauded by Calvin Trillin as a man who "does not have to make to with translations like 'Shredded Three Kinds' in Chinese restaurants," in The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters, James D. McCawley offers everyone a guide to deciphering the mysteries of Chinese menus and the opportunity to enjoy new eating experiences. An accessible primer as well as a handy reference, this book shows how Chinese characters are written and referred to, both in script and in type. McCawley provides a guide to pronunciation and includes helpful exercises so users can practice ordering. His novel system of arranging the extensive glossary—which ranges from basics such as "rice" and "fish" to exotica like "Buddha Jumps Wall"—enables even the beginner to find characters quickly and surely. He also includes the nonstandard forms of characters that often turn up on menus.

With this guide in hand, English speakers hold the key to a world of tantalizing—and otherwise unavailable—Chinese dishes.

Genres: China, Food, Language

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the author doesn't go too deep into the linguistiques, it is a fun-filled introduction to interpreting Chinese language menus. There are ample primary source examples of real menus, which you can translate yourself by referring to the glossary (or by using an app like Pleico). The glossary itself has a novel method of looking up characters, which simplifies searching for non-native readers. My only quibble is the size of the printing of the traditional characters within the text (a bit small for my non-native eyes to decipher the details of each character).

[Terry Montlick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for people like me, who don't understand Chinese but badly want to know what that damn Chinese menu item without any English translation is. After you spend some time trying to translate it, you find that the name is metaphorical, and you still have no idea what it is. But along the way, you learn to identify some basic Chinese food words.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

An amazing piece of work but I can't see it being of any practical use.
You can't possibly sit down in a restaurant and plough through this in order to see what the Chinese characters mean in English.
It's interesting to a Foodie perhaps for the example of genuine Chinese menus, but its revealed that many are in both Chinese and English.