How many can you read? A quiz on difficult kanji for foods

parsley

Parsley is an ingredient that was brought to Japan from the Netherlands during the Edo period. For that reason, it was written as 和蘭芹, meaning “an umbelliferous plant introduced from Holland.” It is also sometimes written as 旱芹 or 旱芹菜.

butter

The kanji “酪” has the meaning of “products made from the milk of cows or sheep.” Therefore, “牛酪” means “a product made from cow’s milk,” and the answer is “butter.” Butter, now indispensable for cooking and baking, is said to have been produced as gyūraku (cow dairy) from the milk of Indian white cows by Tokugawa Ienari in the Edo period, and it was prized among the upper classes as a medicinal substance. It seems that it began to be used as a food in the Meiji era. Another similar word using “酪” is “乾酪,” which is read as “cheese.”

sweet red bean soup with mochi (zenzai)

Zenzai originally comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “wonderful.” It’s said that the dish was named after a monk who first ate it and exclaimed “zenzai” in praise. By the way, the difference from oshiruko is whether it contains a soupy broth or not.

burdock (root)

Gobo is written as “牛蒡.” You might wonder why it uses the character for “cow.” In fact, in China the character 牛 is sometimes used to denote something large. Since gobo resembles the plant called 蒡 and is also large, it was named 牛蒡.

spinach

The origin of the word horenso (spinach) is a bit complicated. Spinach came to Japan from China, but its original home was Persia. That’s why it was written with the characters 菠薐, which represent Persia in Chinese. In other words, it means “the grass from Persia.” By the way, in Chinese it’s pronounced something like “Polin.”

watermelon

Watermelon is loved by many people. In fact, it’s a food that came from the Western Regions of China. That’s why it’s written with the characters meaning “melon from the west” (西瓜). By the way, its original pronunciation was “xī guā,” which is quite similar to how it’s pronounced today.

walnut

There was once a country to the north of China called “Kokoku” (the Old Country). A food that closely resembled the peach pits brought from there is what we call “kurumi” (walnuts). Because there’s a solid story behind it, it’s easy to remember. Incidentally, there’s also a theory that they were named “kurumi” because they spin around (kuru-kuru).