WotD Cooperative Challenge: chewy

[muckefuck]

Chewy in the negative sense of "requiring an unpleasant amount of effort to bite or chew" isn't difficult to translate, since it's essentially synonymous with "tough". But translating the positive sense is much trickier, as discussions like this one lay bare. (For those of you who can't read German, several one-word possibilities are offered, but they are all non-standard dialect terms.) How would those of you who are fluent in other languages translate a sentence like, "I was worried they would be tough, but they came out nice and chewy."? (And are there several possibilities depending on what "they" refers to?)

Comments

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've been meaning to ask you:

There's a family term "doppus" that's used for when someone is eating and messes up their shirt/blouse. It's not used in a mean way, but it's not used in any other situation. I've been told it's likely Low German of some sort (considering my family is all West German of some sort - Alsatian, Dutch, Wesphalian) but I'm not sure if it means anything in more common usage.

Any thoughts on this?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard it before, but then my exposure to Low German is slight. We (me, my boyfriend, and a few of our friends) have a word like that too, namely "to lou oneself". This commemorates an old acquaintance of mine who did this seemingly every time he ate. It's even more specific, really, as it means to drop food on that part of the shirt that juts out due to the curve of a beer belly.

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Wow, that *is* specific.

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

Ich hatte Angst, die wären zäh, aber sie waren dann doch ganz gut zu kauen.

Ich hätte gedacht, sie wären zäh, aber sie haben sich dann doch ganz gut gekaut.

is what I could imagine saying. I'm trying to think of a context and the only plausible one I could come up with is someone with tooth problems. Otherwise I don't think one would go into so much detail and mention "kauen". So I guess it's not really a good translation for "chewy".

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

Actually, with meat "zart" would work.

Ich hatte schon befürchtet, das Steak wäre zäh, aber es war dann sehr schön zart.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

It's easy to translate if you have a counterpart like "tough" to go with it, because you can always just use the contrary and it's pretty clear what you mean.

Ich befürchtete, die Brownies wären hart, aber sie stellten sich als schön weich heraus.

I reckon it's much harder to translate without the provided opposite.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

here, though, the brownies are merely soft, rather than pleasingly jaw-exercising, right? I'm trying to figure out how to explain the use of chewy that signals approbation and it's not an easy task directly, because it involves a particular kind of yielding resistance. Perhaps it's easier to go with a metaphorical usage: you can talk about a good, chewy argument or paper - something you can chew over, get your teeth into.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

Of course, I understand the meaning. But there simply is no such word in German. Apparently we don't ever regard jaw-exercises as pleasing. ;)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I can't see myself using anything but mou/molle. It's really more like 'soft', though in the context of cookies it can mean good-chewy. I'll think.

[fainic-thu-fein.livejournal.com]

Bhí faitíos orm go mbeidís róchrua ach ba dheas bog iad (le cogaint/mungailt).

Certainly not a definitive answer but it's what first springs to mind.

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Guess what, it's a pain in the butt for catalan and spanish. The translations are either "duro" or "masticable".
Referring to cookies, or food, a translation could be "de textura firme" - but this is a concept I have never found myself.
English has by far more words than other languages...

[donncha22.livejournal.com]

Au Canada les biscuits de Nabisco/Christie's qui s'appellent "Chewy Chunks Ahoy!" en anglais s'appellent "Tendres Morceaux de chocolat" en français. Voilà.

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Mmm...
Actually "tierno/tendre" would also be used commercially here.
Good one!

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

In French I would just say "mou" I think.