{"id":7204,"date":"2017-04-25T19:57:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T11:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/?p=7204"},"modified":"2017-04-23T15:00:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T07:00:25","slug":"guabao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/2017\/guabao\/","title":{"rendered":"Guabao"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"guabao\"<\/div>\n

Today I’d like to talk about a sign at a stand that sells guabao<\/em>, a quintessential Taiwanese snack. <\/p>\n

I took my own photo, but it didn’t make the guabao look particularly appetizing, so I’m using a public-domain image instead so you can see what one looks like if you don’t already know. But when I buy one I have them leave off the cilantro\/xiāngcài. I hate<\/em> that stuff.<\/p>\n

Here’s the sign. <\/p>\n

\"guabao<\/p>\n

私房a
\n刈包<\/p>\n

獨家口味
\n50元\n<\/p><\/div>\n

(NT$50 is about US$1.50.)<\/p>\n

The sign uses some Taiwanese, specifically “a刈包.” If the whole thing were in romanized Taiwanese, it would be <\/p>\n

Su-pâng ê
\nkoah-pau<\/p>\n

To̍k-ka kháu-bī
\n50 îⁿ<\/p><\/div>\n

But parts of that are unidiomatic, as Taiwanese expert Michael Cannings informs me. (Alas, my Taiwanese sucks.) So this is a sign in both Taiwanese and Mandarin, which isn’t particularly surprising given that guabao<\/em> is a Taiwanese food but most people in northern Taiwan use Mandarin most of the time. (I’m using the spelling “guabao” rather than “koah-pau” in most of this post because this is a Pinyin site.)<\/p>\n

Something about this sign did surprise me a lot. Can you guess? <\/p>\n