Dennis M. Reed "Califa" - Cooking - Asian Tastes and Flavors

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"TASTE IS NOT FLAVOR": "Some people use the terms taste and flavor interchangeably, as in 'that vanilla ice cream tastes good,'and 'I like the salty flavor of clams.' That's fine because that's the way normal people speak, yet taste and flavor have simple scientific distinctions that every cook can benefit greatly from understanding." from "The Fifth Taste - Cooking with Umami" by David & Anna Kasabian. According to the Kasabians, flavors are the result of taste and aroma.

Tastes or Flavors ===>	The Five Elements	SWEET	SOUR	SALTY	BITTER	HOT (PICANTE)	BLAND	FRAGRANT	GOLDEN	UMAMI (Japanese name) Xin Wèi 味 (Mandarin name means "tasty taste") Chinese information provided by liuzhou from eGullet
Source of Information \| \| V		taste & flavor	taste & flavor	taste & flavor	taste & flavor	flavor	flavor	flavor	flavor	taste & flavor
The Five Elements Theory of Chinese Cooking - Learn about the Role of the Five Elements in Chinese Cooking chinesefood@about.com	Element Yin Yang Feeling Color Taste	Earth Spleen Stomach Thought Yellow Sweet	Wood Liver Gall bladder Rage Green Sour	Water Kidneys Bladder Fear Black Salty	Fire Heart Small intestine Happiness Red Bitter	Metal Lungs Large intestine Sorrow White Spicy
The Fifth Taste - Cooking with Umami by David & Anna Kasabian ©2008		taste	taste	taste	taste					taste maybe flavor
Eight Immortal Flavors by Johnny Kan ©1963 W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka hzrt8w from eGullet has provided the Chinese characters suggests that the Chinese Flavor Names are probably Toisanese dialect because "This author most likely speaks the Toysanese dialect, as clued by the pronunciation of his family name".		Chinese flavor name: TEEM 甜 Toysanese: HEM not necessarily sweet like syrup; the flavor of lotus root is considered sweet	Chinese flavor name: SEEN 酸 Toysanese: THLUON like vinegar	Chinese flavor name: HOM 鹹 Toysanese: HAUM (falling tone) like salt	Chinese flavor name: FOO 苦 Toysanese: can be FU or more commonly "NIK" from very slightly bitter to very bitter	Chinese flavor name: LOT 辣 Toysanese: LAHT like in mustard or chili peppers;	Chinese flavor name: TOM 淡 Toysanese: HUM (rising tone) like rice or the "baked" flavor of bread	Chinese flavor name: HEONG 香 Toysanese: ? pan aroma Wok Hay 鑊氣	Chinese flavor name: GUM 甘 Toysanese: ? cool, acrid-sweet like citrus peel	Chinese flavor name: ? Toysanese: ? not defined in this source
The Good Food of Szechuan - Down-to-Earth Chinese Cooking by Robert A. Delfs ©1974 (7th printing)		Sichuan flavor name: TIAN sweetness, from sugar or honey	Sichuan flavor name: SUAN sour, the taste of vinegar	Sichuan flavor name: XIAN salty, from salt or soy sauce	Sichuan flavor name: KU bitter, the taste of green onion or leek	Sichuan flavor name: LA taste of red peppers or sometimes the taste of black pepper or Sichuan peppercorns Sichuan flavor name: MA the flavor of sesame imparted by seeds or oil; also the pepperiness of black pepper or Sichuan peppercorns	Sichuan flavor name: ?	Sichuan flavor name: XIANG the taste of garlic and/or ginger	Sichuan flavor name: ?	Sichuan flavor name: ?

Toysanese pronunciations from Ben Hong at eGullet:

Posted 12 March 2010 - 09:52 PM

Unofficial Toysanese pronunciation of above terms:

Green plum sauce ... teng moi deng
Plain old fish sauceyu loo...ngui loo
hom (salty)...haum (falling tone)
fu (bitter)...can be fu or more commonly "nik"
Tom (rising tone) bland like plain white rice...hum (rising tone).
Heung means aromatic in any dialect, as in ng heung foon (5 spice powder)
teem (sweet)...hem (Toysan)
Seen or suen (sour) ...thluon (Toysan)
Laht means "hot" in a capsaicin or chili sense.

To outsiders Toysanese sounds like the clearing of a lot of throats in conversation but to the speakers it was the only true Chinese dialect that was understood by all overseas Chinese until about 50 years ago. Sun Yat Sen (almost a Toysanese) had to speak the dialect when he went to all the Chinese enclaves all over the world to gain support and to recruit money. You might say that modern China was born speaking Toysanese.

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