![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nancylebovI've gotten involved in a pointless research project. Over in rec.arts.sf.fandom, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thomasyan raised the question of champloo. There's an anime called Samurai Champloo. There's a Japnanese (Okinawan?) dish called champloo, or possibly champuru.
Getting this far took more than straightforward googling. Going from champloo to champlu was the result of contemplating whether champloo actually looked like a normal transliteration. Getting to (Goya) Champuru took checking the indexes of all the Japanese cookbooks at Barnes and Noble. The steamed version (described as being like bi bim bop) took asking a waitress at a Japanese restaurant.
Or (having had the inspiration to google champuru), chanpuru. Here's a recipe: http://www.okinawa.com/goyachanpuru.html.
In general, champuru seems to be a rice, veggie, tofu, and meat dish. I've heard of two stir-fried versions and one steamed. The rumor that it's a Japanese gumbo seems unfounded so far, but for all I know, there are people who do it as a soup.
What I'm still trying to find out is whether the champloo spelling is a different shade of meaning, a mere variant, or a bit of playfulness.
More about champlu:
http://www.japanvisitor.com/jc/okinawan-food.html
And here's the explanation for why there seemed to be more affection around champlu (champlu.net?) than could be justified by even the nicest stirfry with bitter melon:
http://www.marja-leena-rathje.info/archives/champuru.php
And in other news, while I was poking around for all this I found someone spelling spam as spamn, as in damn spam. This might be a good idea. It might even be worth expanding into spawnm (damn spawning spam). Sp@wnm is probably overdoing it.
thomasyan raised the question of champloo. There's an anime called Samurai Champloo. There's a Japnanese (Okinawan?) dish called champloo, or possibly champuru. Getting this far took more than straightforward googling. Going from champloo to champlu was the result of contemplating whether champloo actually looked like a normal transliteration. Getting to (Goya) Champuru took checking the indexes of all the Japanese cookbooks at Barnes and Noble. The steamed version (described as being like bi bim bop) took asking a waitress at a Japanese restaurant.
Or (having had the inspiration to google champuru), chanpuru. Here's a recipe: http://www.okinawa.com/goyachanpuru.html.
In general, champuru seems to be a rice, veggie, tofu, and meat dish. I've heard of two stir-fried versions and one steamed. The rumor that it's a Japanese gumbo seems unfounded so far, but for all I know, there are people who do it as a soup.
What I'm still trying to find out is whether the champloo spelling is a different shade of meaning, a mere variant, or a bit of playfulness.
More about champlu:
http://www.japanvisitor.com/jc/okinawan-food.html
champuru (or champroo): an Okinawan staple, champuru is a mixed stir-fry with a seemly infinite number of potential ingredients. Goya (bitter melon – see below), somen (noodles), papaya, eggplant, pork, and fu (glutinous bread) commonly serve as the base, while egg, katsuobushi (fish flakes), seaweed, and Spam are often added to round out the flavor.
goya: a bitter fruit that looks like an extra knobbly cross between a melon and a cucumber. Goya finds its way into almost any dish. It is most often stir-fried but is also eaten in salads or tempura and is even made into tea. Some people argue that it is the secret behind the Okinawans’ famous longevity.
And here's the explanation for why there seemed to be more affection around champlu (champlu.net?) than could be justified by even the nicest stirfry with bitter melon:
http://www.marja-leena-rathje.info/archives/champuru.php
Over centuries of trade with China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, Okinawa has developed a unique cultural mix, popularly called "champuru", which is reflected in its exquisite textiles, ceramics, music and lacquer.
And in other news, while I was poking around for all this I found someone spelling spam as spamn, as in damn spam. This might be a good idea. It might even be worth expanding into spawnm (damn spawning spam). Sp@wnm is probably overdoing it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 03:11 pm (UTC)Irrelevantly, I will add that I hate goya/bitter melon, and cannot abide any dish made with it.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 04:39 pm (UTC)Which might make for one use of it, having tried it, twice, that's saying a lot.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 05:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, this is the sort of Japanese question I'll happily field.
The kana in question are
[ti/chi]
where each item in square brackets represents one kana. Inside the square brackets are some of the choices made in transliteration. The problem starts because Japanese consonants aren't mapped exactly to Latin (the pronunciation of "chi" is never 'ti', but some linguists like to do it that way to preserve the structure of "ta-ti-tu-te-to" rather than going for sound, which would be "ta-chi-tsu-te-to". The 0 is for the diacritic that creates plosives (turning f/h sounds into 'b').[(ya)]
[n/m]
[fu/hu]0
[lu/ru]
The other variance comes from a strange convention where some people like to use the (older English?) transliteration for foreign sounds, where the 'u' sound of "flu" gets rendered as "floo".
So, there you go. Kind of like "(c)ha(n)nuka(h)".
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 07:26 pm (UTC)Ok, so it's possible that oo/u difference is just transliteration customs rather than anything about meaning.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 09:08 pm (UTC)a professional opinion
Date: 2005-12-04 03:34 am (UTC)champuru
champlu
chanpuru
Yes, these are all transliteration variants.
-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
Okinawan Food link
Date: 2006-02-04 11:26 am (UTC)http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=361&pID=374&pName=food-okinawan
Re: Okinawan Food link
Date: 2006-02-04 02:54 pm (UTC)