According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word chow\u2014meaning\/ood, as in chow time\u2014derives from the name of a Chinese dog, the chow, once eaten as a delicacy in China. This suspicious etymology may have been inspired by an anecdote involving Charles George Gordon, the famous British General who suppressed several rebellions in China in the 1860s: according to this tale, Gordon presented a pedigreed dog to Li Hung-chang, a visiting Chinese statesman who, after returning home, sent a note to the general thanking him for his delicious gift. It is indeed true that some Asian cultures consider dogs to be a source of meat (it is also true that a visit to any wiener assembly line in North America will make a slice of real dog seem more palatable than any hot dog). However, even though dog is a menu item in some Eastern cultures, the suggestion put forward by the Oxford English Dictionary\u2014that chow meaning food derives from chow meaning dog\u2014is nothing more than a cultural cliche, a simplification whereby one culture reduces another culture to its most “peculiar” elements. Indeed, the word chow does derive from Chinese, but from the Mandarin chao, meaning to fry. The word appeared in English at the end of the eighteenth century as chow-chow, the repetition of the word being characteristic of the pigeon English that evolved from the attempt by British and Chinese merchants to communicate with one another. By the mid nineteenth century, the term had been shortened to chow, and by the early twentieth century it had been reintroduced as part of chow mein, a dish of noodles whose name literally means fried flour.<\/p>\n
A Chinese delicacy that consists of ginger and orange peel as well as additional fruits that are preserved in a sweet syrup. It can also refer to a combination of pickled vegetables that includes mustard and a variety of spices.<\/p>\n
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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word chow\u2014meaning\/ood, as in chow time\u2014derives from the name of a Chinese dog, the chow, once eaten as a delicacy in China. This suspicious etymology may have been inspired by an anecdote involving Charles George Gordon, the famous British General who suppressed several rebellions in China in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c"],"yoast_head":"\n