Riceburners

[muckefuck]

There are a number of words I find so charming or useful or both that I'm trying to collect them in as many languages as possible. One of them is "the crispy/burnt portion of rice on the bottom of a cooking pot". I first came across a term for this in the title of the Japanese movie お焦げ Okoge, which was left untranslated in English. (In Japanese slang, the word for "rice pot" is slang for "homosexual"; therefore, the word okoge or "rice sticking to the bottom of the rice pot"--from kogeru "burn, scorch"--is used for "fag hag".) I immediately figured that, if the Japanese had a word for it, the Koreans must, too, and eventually managed to track down 누룽지 /nwulwungci/ (related to 누렁 /nwuleng/ "deep yellow colour"). Later, after reading more about Chinese cuisine, I learned that what is often called "sizzling rice" on menus, 鍋巴 guōba, is none other than the Chinese equivalent (lit. "cooking pot crust") and just now I used a Chinese-Vietnamese dictionary to track down: cơm cháy ("burnt rice").

Of course, it only makes sense that cultures to whom rice is so vital that their languages possess three or more distinct roots relating to it (e.g. Viet. lúa "rice plant; unhusked rice", gạo "uncooked husked rice", cơm "cooked rice", etc.) would have lexicalised terms for "burnt rice on the bottom of a cooking pot". What's surprising and oddly gratifying is to find a word for it on the other side world where it's scarcely been cultivated for three centuries. And today, that's exactly what I did find: corroncha (Costa Rican Spanish). No idea what the ultimate origin of this root is; it seems to be unknown outside of Central America and Colombia where it means "rough scaly surface; hide [of an alligator]; shell [of a tortoise]".

ETA:

• Persian: ته دیگ lit. "bottom of the pot"
• Thai: ข้าวตัง /khâaw tang/ "burnt rice stuck to the pot" (lit. "rice mat")
• Indonesian: kerak (also has the generalised meaning "crust")
• Ecuadorean Spanish: cocolón (according to Uncle Betty from Loja)
• Cuban Spanish: raspita
• Barranquilla Spanish: cucayo
• Colombian Spanish: pega, pegao

Comments

[wiped.livejournal.com]

in persian it's called ته دیگ tah dig, literally "bottom pot." the skill of an aspiring persian cook is often judged by their ability to make rice with a good tah dig. rather than simply being the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot, tah dig is a side dish that has to be carefully prepared with saffron, yogurt, and sometimes potatoes, timed just right, and removed without unnecessary breakage.

and just like vietnamese, et al., persian has several distinct roots for rice: برنج berenj "rice plant/rice in general," پلو polo "cooked rice," also used as a general term for rice, چلو chelo [i'm not really sure how this differs from polo, to be honest], کته kateh "sticky rice," دمی dami "simmered rice," and so on. however, i think kateh refers to a kind of food container and dami just means "simmered," so maybe they aren't really words for rice per se.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what the associations of corroncha are in Spanish, but I'm willing to bet they also describe a tasty treat rather than the product of a cook's neglect. That seems to be a common thread among all the cultures which have a consecrated expression for this and that's why I object to "burnt rice" as an English translation; IME, this can only mean that something has gone wrong with the cooking, whereas I imagine that if an East Asian had to indicate that the dish was ruined by overcooking, they'd use a different expression from the ones listed above (e.g. something like 탄 밥 /than pap/ in Korean, etc.).

[areia.livejournal.com]

okoge

Hmm - I think I'll start using to that to describe myself... I'd much rather be crunchy rice than an ugly old woman. ;)

[exentric.livejournal.com]

I read the same thing about that in a book on queers and linguistics. There was a chapter on Japanese - everything from that, to the use of feminine particles by males, to Western orientalism vs. the Japanese perception of homosexuality as a Western phenomenon. Kinda cool.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

I submit that all cultures with cooking need this. In my family, the well-done perimiter bits of most anything starchy were bitterly fought for, and we had no word for it (I think we ended up with "edge piece"), despite the 10 or so languages represented at the table. Is corroncha rice-specific?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

According to the DRAE it is ("arroz tostado que queda pegado en el fondo de la olla al cocerlo"), but I don't think they're the last word on costarriquenismos. What's wrong with using "crust"?

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

The top of something baked may be crust (or just crusty), but the bottom bits around the perimeter were always the sought-after bits.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

But the crust of a bread goes all around!

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

Right, I'm trying to explain why "crust" wouldn't be adequate - even though the entire top surface of something baked might be crusty, the desireable parts were only the bottom parts, and pretty much only the bottom parts on the perimeter of the container.

[zompist.livejournal.com]

The Peruvian is concolón... my wife is very fond of it, too.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

The DRAE lists both that (which apparently has the meaning "beverage sediment [e.g. of hot chocolate]" in Costa Rican) and the variant cocolón, the latter found as far north as Panama and as far east as Venezuela. sconstant's candidates for adoption increase!

[tisoi.livejournal.com]

their languages possess three or more distinct roots relating to it

OH MY GAW!! JUST LIKE THE ESKIMOS AND THEIR GAZILLION WORDS FOR SNOW!! WOW!

Hehe.

I asked my mom, and she said it's "tutong" (stress on second syllable) in Tagalog. And I thought I knew all the Tagalog words for rice. The dictionary says that figuratively, tutong refers to the thick dirt on the skin.

Ilokano has ittip. Which appears to be the first layer because it also refers to "kidkid" which is what is still sticking after the "ittip" is gone. Also, kidkid in the saying "kimmidkid a tugangna" refers to a flatchested woman.

Here are some other Philippine languages I found - I'll ask other Filipinos how to say it in their local tongues.

Ibanag: kikkid

Kankanaey - deket, agapang. deket looks like it's cognate with dikit which is Tagalog for "to stick."

Pangasinan: garol

Waray-Waray: tukag