Anyone know what san ny is, I'm sure it is a spice. The san, I think is
three. The character for ny looks a bit like the number 73 joined at the
top. I know it is not coriander, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, licorice, 5
spice, dried orange peel or Szechuan pepper.
Thanks
Wazza

There are a few different forms of written 'Chinese' & i'm afraid i don't
know what the '73' looking character is. 'Chinese' to English phonetic
transalation is also a minefield, it could be in Mandarin, Cantonese,
Shanghainese etc. but in this case, 'San' does sound like 3 in Mandarin, in
Cantonese it's more like 'Sarm' & in Fujian dialect it's more like 'Sar'
etc. But having said all that, it could also be a similar sounding
Chinese/Mandarin character to 3, which is common as the Chinese language has
many similar sounding words & characters. For example the Mandarin word for
mountan also sounds like 3.

Knowing how Chinese spell & write... eg. star anise is also known as 8
corner/leg spice in Cantonese & Mandarin etc. i began thinking about 3
corner or traingular shaped spice but could only come up with cardamons &
the Chinese word for cardamon is white 'something?' seed. Maybe there is a
more local name for it in Chinese that goes by the triangular shape of the
spice but i am not familiar with it.

The 'ny' character isn't much to go with either, my initial reaction was
milk as that sounds similar. So if you're following my hypothesis - you'd
end up with Mountain Milk : ) & don't ask me where to purchase this
ingredient, maybe a Tibetan or Mongolian herdsmen can supply you some yak's
milk. LOL. As you can see, this could end up very wrong. So if you could
provide more clues or information like maybe the complete recipe or how you
came about with this 'San Ny' transaltion, it might be more useful.

As you're from the UK (i assume), have you tried posting to
uk.food+drink.chinese? Bee or TastyChef (who is now based in HK) or perhaps
anyone from that group who speaks better Chinese than myself might be able
to help. Or maybe 'Ping' or try the various UK food groups for Fong Yee, i'm
sure she can help.

DC.


"Wazza" wrote in message
...
Anyone know what san ny is, I'm sure it is a spice. The san, I think is
three. The character for ny looks a bit like the number 73 joined at the
top. I know it is not coriander, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, licorice, 5
spice, dried orange peel or Szechuan pepper.
Thanks
Wazza

snip
The 'ny' character isn't much to go with either, my initial reaction was
milk as that sounds similar. So if you're following my hypothesis - you'd
end up with Mountain Milk : )

I wrote the Chinese word for 'milk' down on paper & low & behold... it did
look a little like 73 but it has another character attached to it on the
left hand side. This character signifies 'female/woman'. Add this together &
it becomes 'milk'. Is your mystery ingredient 'milk'? is it for a dessert or
a dish that uses milk? bearing in mind, the word for soya milk is 'Dou
Jiang' & the word for cow's milk is 'Niu Nai'. I can't figure out what 'San
Nai' is unless 'San' is totally wrong.

DC.

"DC." not@home wrote in message
...
snip
The 'ny' character isn't much to go with either, my initial reaction was
milk as that sounds similar. So if you're following my hypothesis -
you'd
end up with Mountain Milk : )

I wrote the Chinese word for 'milk' down on paper & low & behold... it did
look a little like 73 but it has another character attached to it on the
left hand side. This character signifies 'female/woman'. Add this together
&
it becomes 'milk'. Is your mystery ingredient 'milk'? is it for a dessert
or
a dish that uses milk? bearing in mind, the word for soya milk is 'Dou
Jiang' & the word for cow's milk is 'Niu Nai'. I can't figure out what
'San
Nai' is unless 'San' is totally wrong.

thanks for the reply, DC.
The recipe (two different ones) are for 5 spice meat squares (I think not
the common Chinese 5-spice). This included star anise, coriander seeds,
dried orange peel and fennel). The other recipe is for 'Spicy Water
Duckling', and included cloves, star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, dried
orange peel, fennel, cumin, liquorice and cinnamon stick.
I will keep looking and posting. Number one son is returning to China in the
New Year, he can have the mission, too!
cheers
Wazza

Heeheee... you should go to uk.food+drink.chinese & post. We've just
resolved quite a few restaurant & home style recipes over there the last few
months, soya chicken, goose, spicy water duck (loa shao ya) etc. if you
can't find any of these currently listed there, then try google groups for
the archive. It's all there going back a few years. I've got a recipe for
TungPo pork(braised pork squares). And if we still can't find what this
ingredient is... TastyChef will find someone in HK to answer it for you.
Heehee.

DC.




"Wazza" wrote in message
...

"DC." not@home wrote in message
...
snip
The 'ny' character isn't much to go with either, my initial reaction
was
milk as that sounds similar. So if you're following my hypothesis -
you'd
end up with Mountain Milk : )

I wrote the Chinese word for 'milk' down on paper & low & behold... it
did
look a little like 73 but it has another character attached to it on the
left hand side. This character signifies 'female/woman'. Add this
together
&
it becomes 'milk'. Is your mystery ingredient 'milk'? is it for a
dessert
or
a dish that uses milk? bearing in mind, the word for soya milk is 'Dou
Jiang' & the word for cow's milk is 'Niu Nai'. I can't figure out what
'San
Nai' is unless 'San' is totally wrong.

thanks for the reply, DC.
The recipe (two different ones) are for 5 spice meat squares (I think not
the common Chinese 5-spice). This included star anise, coriander seeds,
dried orange peel and fennel). The other recipe is for 'Spicy Water
Duckling', and included cloves, star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, dried
orange peel, fennel, cumin, liquorice and cinnamon stick.
I will keep looking and posting. Number one son is returning to China in
the
New Year, he can have the mission, too!
cheers
Wazza