33.10 Vocabulary: Commenting on Food II

Audio is not available for this page yet.

Degree Words

We put a degree word before an adjective.

Degree Word	Adjective
好	好食	very delicious
hou2	hou2 sik6
very	delicious
有少少	怪	a bit strange
jau5 siu2 siu2	gwaai3
a bit	strange
太	鹹	too salty
taai3	haam4
too	salty

1.	好	hou2	very
2.	勁	ging6	strongly
3.	超	ciu1	super
4.	幾	gei2	quite
5.	太	taai3	too; so
6.	有啲	jau5 di1	a bit
7.	有少少	jau5 siu2 siu2	a little bit
8.	夠	gau3	enough
9.	唔	m4	not
10.	唔係好	m4 hai6 hou2	not very
11.	唔係幾	m4 hai6 gei2	not quite
12.	唔係太	m4 hai6 taai3	not too
13.	唔夠	m4 gau3	not enough

Positive Adjectives

14.	好食	hou2 sik6	delicious (for food, literally ‘good + to eat’)
15.	好飲	hou2 jam2	delicious (for drinks or soup, literally ‘good + to drink’)
16.	好味	hou2 mei6	delicious (for food, literally ‘good + taste’)
17.	正	zeng3	awesome (colloquial)
18.	唔錯	m4 co3	not bad (⚠️ can be used without a degree word)
19.	特別	dak6 bit6	special
20.	新鮮	san1 sin1	fresh (often for seafood)
21.	脆	ceoi3	crispy
22.	腍	nam4	soft, tender (often for meat)
23.	滑	waat6	smooth, tender (often for fish or chicken)
24.	香	hoeng1	smelling good; delicious Note: We usually use 香 hoeng1 to mean ‘delicious’ when the food has good flavors from spices or oil, especially when it’s cooked by deep-frying, stir-frying or pan-frying.
25.	入味	jap6 mei6	flavor well-absorbed (literally ‘to go in’ + ‘taste’) Note: When meat is simmered, it absorbs the flavors of the sauce and other ingredients, resulting in a rich and strong taste. We call this 入味 jap6 mei6.

We usually use the adjectives below with the noun 味 mei6 (‘taste’).

啲味好濃。
di1 mei6 hou2 nung4.
The taste is thick.

26.	濃	nung4	thick, strong
27.	夾	gaap3	matching well
28.	啱啱好	ngaam1 ngaam1 hou2	just right (⚠️ not used with degree words)

Negative Adjectives

29.	麻麻哋	maa4 maa2 dei2	so-so (⚠️ not usually used with degree words)
30.	怪	gwaai3	strange, weird
31.	難食	naan4 sik6	not delicious (for food) (literally ‘difficult + to eat’)
32.	難飲	naan4 jam2	not delicious (for drinks) (literally ‘difficult + to drink’)
33.	淡	taam5	bland, tasteless
34.	油	jau4	greasy
35.	韌	ngan6	stringy, difficult to chew
36.	老	lou5	stringy (often for overcooked food)
37.	硬	ngaang6	hard
38.	嚡	haai4	rough, not smooth
39.	乾	gon1	dry
40.	濕	sap1	wet
41.	腥	seng1	fishy (for fish with an unpleasant smell or taste)
42.	燶	nung1	burnt

Neutral Adjectives

43.	鹹	haam4	salty
44.	甜	tim4	sweet
45.	酸	syun1	sour
46.	苦	fu2	bitter
47.	辣	laat6	spicy
48.	甘	gam1	the sweetish taste in tea or ginseng
49.	生	saang1	raw
50.	熟	suk6	cooked
51.	熱	jit6	hot
52.	凍	dung3	cold

Culture

We sometimes compare different experiences in life to different tastes in food. We can use the term 甜酸苦辣 tim4 syun1 fu2 laat6 (‘sweet + sour + bitter + spicy’) to refer to these different experiences in life.