A very interesting question has come up about how to interpret the term xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館 (lit., "small vegetable / dish shop"). Some people say it should be A. "xiǎo càiguǎn" (a small restaurant). Other people say it should be B. "xiǎocài guǎn" (a place where you get side dishes / family style cooking).
See "Gourmet Chinese cookshop" and the comments thereto.
I think that it is not just one or the other, but that it can be both depending upon the circumstances.
When I want xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館 to mean A. (xiǎo càiguǎn ("a small restaurant"]), I pronounce it with a slight pause after xiǎo and emphasis on the first syllable of càiguǎn. When I want xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館 to mean B. (xiǎocài guǎn ("a place where you get side dishes / family style cooking"]), I pronounce it with a pause after the second syllable and a slightly greater emphasis on the third syllable.
For the importance of pause and emphasis in Chinese elocution, see, for example, here and here (4th paragraph).
As we shall see from the survey and analysis below, there are even other possibilities for understanding this collocation. In the end, its precise meaning can only be determined by context.
I asked more than two dozen linguists, language specialists, and native speakers of various Chinese languages how they understood xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館, and also posed the following additional questions:
1. Is xiǎo cài 小菜 a particularly Cantonese phenomenon? Like Dim Sum?
2. Is càiguǎn 菜館 a particularly Cantonese term? Dictionaries say that it is fāngyán 方言 ("topolect"), but they don't say which fāngyán 方言 ("topolect"). By saying that càiguǎn 菜館 is a topolectal expression, they imply that it is not a part of the normal Modern Standard Mandarin [MSM] vocabulary.
For the results of the survey, see the long section in the latter part of this post.
First, some PRELIMINARY NOTES
Here follow some statistics that might be relevant.
Google hits for:
"xiǎocàiguǎn 小菜館" 343,000
"xiǎocài 小菜" 5,580,000 ("side dish" is suggested as a translation)
"càiguǎn 菜館" 1,140,000
"zhōngcàiguǎn 中菜館" 1,340,000
"zhōngcài 中菜" 399,000
"dàcàiguǎn 大菜館" 19,800
"dàcài 大菜" 866,000
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Vocabulary notes (pronunciations are in MSM unless otherwise indicated)
xiǎo 小 = small
zhōng 中 = middle; Chinese
dà 大 = large
cài 菜 = vegetable; dish
guǎn 館 = shop; hall
fànguǎn 饭馆 = restaurant
cānguǎn 餐館 = restaurant
jiācháng cài 家常菜 = home(-style) cooking / dishes
Cantonese nan2 sau2 siu2 coi3 撚手小菜 ("[chef's] specialty"); this reminds me of Mandarin náshǒu cài 拿手菜 ("special dish; specialty of the house"; etc.) — náshǒu 拿手 refers to what one is "good / adept / expert" at.
Here is the Chinese Wikipedia article for xiǎocài 小菜, the understanding of which is key in our current investigation. For those who read Chinese, see especially the first paragraph for a basic definition and explanation of the term. This Chinese Wikipedia article on xiǎocài 小菜 is equated with the English Wikipedia article on "side dish", which begins:
" A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal."
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Survey replies (arranged in order of decreasing accessibility to non-specialists) — followed by a concluding paragraph at the bottom.
1. Specialist on computational analysis of Cantonese and Mandarin:
When I saw this, my reaction was "it's ambiguous". Might be interesting to poll people about their instinctive parse of that expression.
A related phenomenon is called "bracketing paradox"; Wikipedia says something about this. Some of these are just orthographic, but others are real puzzles where one phonetic rule assumes one structure and another simultaneously applying rule assumes the other bracketing. But 小菜館 is probably not a bracketing paradox, just an ambiguity – unless you find that the prosodic grouping is at odds with the expected meaning in some utterance.
2. Specialist on Hanyu Pinyin:
Another possibility would be "Xiao Cai [de] guan" (a restaurant belonging to someone with the family name of Cai who has the nickname of Xiao Cai).
From a Taiwan perspective even that might be more common than the 1 + 2 combination.
I mean that 1+1+1 would probably be more common in Taiwan than 1+2.
3. Native speaker of Cantonese, professional translator:
I favour the second interpretation (B.) as I would say that 'siu choi' is more like an idiom – for dishes other than the main; in other words, side dishes. The two words go together in a phrase . If a 'small' restaurant was meant, the descriptive phrase in Cantonese would be 'sai ge chaan gun.' As a heading for a restaurant, if one was referring to size, they could say 'siu yihng chaan gun' for 'small-size restaurant.'
In fact, the complete phrase sounds more like Mandarin than Cantonese to me as, in the latter, you would usually say 'chaan gun' for restaurant rather than just 'gun'.
As for 'jung' choi and 'daai' choi, it appears they are now following the examples of dim sum which are charged according to the size of the dish. It may be because of this reason that people think 'siu' in 'siu choi gun' has to do with the size of the restaurant, although I am sure the original meaning had to do with 'siu' being not the main dish.
The completely literal translation of 'siu yihng chaan gun' would be 'small-shaped' or 'small-type' restaurant
4. Chinese language professor in an American university, native speaker of Mandarin:
Xiaocai in Shanghai just means dishes (most likely Chinese) and not snacks. They use dacai to refer to western food. So is dacan or xishi dacan (western style big meal). I don't think Cantonese uses the term xiaocai. But even for Shanghai people, I think the more likely segmentation for xiao cai guan is xiao | caiguan, meaning a small eatery.
5. Native speaker of Shanghainese and Mandarin; professor of English in an American university:
I am from Shanghai. The term xiaocai simply means daily food. For example, "Where are you going?" "To buy xiaocai" (meaning going to the food mart to buy daily food with specific reference to meats, seafood, or veggies, not including staple food items such as rice). Xiaocai guan is a rather new term, probably originated from Pudong dialect, which means restaurant. In this sense, the word-character xiao doesn't mean "small" at all. It loses its own independent meaning when used in the character combination of xiaocai.
Another term comparable with xiaocai is xiaochao (lit., small stir-fry), which is the name of a popular dish in Shanghai and Hangzhou cuisine, and which refers to a dish of assorted food items including mainly a variety of veggies and pork cut into thin slices and stir-fried.
6. Native speaker of Shanghainese and Mandarin; professor of modern Chinese history in a Chinese university:
If it refers to something dialectal, I agree that it is xiaocai guan. In Shanghainese, there is a term xiaocai, and dacai, yet no zhongcai. There is another expression called "dacai shifu", which means the main chef of a western-style restaurant.
I think xiaocai guan contains the meaning of Jiachang cai; however, if there are also zhong caiguan, and da caiguan (although I have never heard of them) — I think these two are related to their different sizes.
7. Native speaker of Cantonese:
My understanding is xiaocaiguan is a snack place. Not a restaurant as cantos kinda eat throughout the day instead of the standard three meals a day. There's also the late night meal/snack called siu ye which can often be had at xiaocaiguan.
8. American professor of Mandarin language and linguistics:
In my experience 小菜 is also a Taiwan phenomenon, either something you can get to accompany a large meal, or as a snack. In Taipei, late night snacks (宵夜) either indoors or at street stands are often entirely 小菜, or 小菜 accompanying a bowl of noodles or rice porridge (稀饭).
9. PRC graduate student in an American university; native speaker of Mandarin from Hunan province:
I agree with you that the meaning of "小菜馆" depends upon the circumstances. However, I remember the "小菜馆" I saw before are usually small restaurants. Meanwhile, I think "小菜" in Cantonese means green vegetables, the same as my hometown. Beside "大菜", there is a word "硬菜" (yìngcài ["hard / substantial dish"]) in Northern Chinese topolect. You can find the introduction here.
Also here is the introduction of "大菜".
10. American professor of Mandarin language and linguistics, specialist on Shanghainese:
I agree that it can be both A. and B. depending upon the circumstances. One should ask the owners of particular 小菜館 exactly what they mean by the name. One could canvass some of the establishments that bill themselves as "小菜館" among the 343,000 google hits to see what they say. Perhaps an analysis of what they serve would also provide an insight.
I suspect it is more often probably xiǎo càiguǎn. 小 菜 is a term for vegetables or for cooked dishes (equivalent to 菜 alone) in many places, not just Shanghai or the Wu region. Dictionaries that say 菜館 is 方言 ("topolect") usually mean that it is not a common Beijing or northern word. But I think it is fairly widespread, perhaps especially so in south China. I have not found any dialect lexicons that list 菜館, which means that the compilers of those lists considered it too common to be included as characteristic of their dialect.
11. Chinese graduate student studying in America; native of Beijing:
I think it should be xiao caiguan, meaning a small restaurant. Although xiaocai means side dish, there is no restaurant that only offers side dishes. In the north, people say fanguan (饭馆), which equals caiguan (菜馆). We also say xiao fanguan (小饭馆). But I do not think there is a word *小饭.
I think 中菜 actually means 中国菜 rather than "middle dish". If I see the word 中菜馆, I would understand it as "a restaurant that offers Chinese food." Although 大菜 means entree, I think 大菜馆 only means a big restaurant.
I also do not think Dim Sum is 小菜. In the north, when people say 小菜, they mean vegetables or cold meat served in small dishes before the main dishes (usually duck, fish, hot meat, etc). Dim Sum is usually served after finishing the main dishes as dessert. In the north, when people say 点心, they usually refer to dessert, such as Chinese cakes. Ice cream is not 点心.
Hope this helps. The catering culture is so different in China. I only know what people usually do in the north.
12. Specialist on Mandarin and Cantonese, with knowledge of Shanghainese and Swatow:
I think it means "xiǎocài guǎn" like "家常便饭" ("daily / common / ordinary fare") (kind of 小菜 — I'm not sure if the term has Cantonese roots, but this usage is extremely common in Hong Kong.
As in "撚手小菜" — a phrase that you hear a lot in HK.
So yes, I would think that in the Cantonese context, 小菜馆 means "a place where you get side dishes"; but in mainland/northern Chinese context, I'm not so sure about it — maybe it means a small restaurant…
13. Native speaker of Cantonese; linguist:
I suppose "小菜館" can indeed be interpreted either way (A. or B.).
No, "小菜" meaning dishes is not a Cantonese term; we generally use "餸" (Jyutping sung3) instead. Not surprisingly, "菜館" is also not Cantonese in origin.
As to the origin(s) of the terms "小菜" and "菜館", I was under the impression that they were from Shanghai or somewhere around Jianghuai 江淮 area, but I could well be wrong.
I doubt if "中菜" actually refers to "Chinese dishes".
14. Editor of a major Chinese dictionary; native speaker of Shanghainese:
Zài yǒuxiē fāngyán rú Shànghǎihuà zhōng, xiǎocài jiùshì fàn zhǐ yúròu shūcài děng càiyáo. Xiǎo càiguǎn zhège cí xiànzài bù dà yòng, yìsi jiùshì càiguǎn. Dàcài zhǐ xīcài hé xīcān, Qīngcháo mònián jiù yǒu zhè zhǒng shuōfǎ. Chī dàcài jiùshì chī xīcān. Zhìyú Zhōng càiguǎn, zhǐ Zhōng cānguǎn. Chī Zhōng cài, yìsi jiùshì chī Chinese food. Nín kěyǐ chá chá Xiàndài Hànyǔ cídiǎn de yǒuguān cí tiáo, nàlǐ de shìyì dàtǐ shì duì de.
在有些方言如上海话中，小菜就是泛指鱼肉蔬菜等菜肴。小菜馆这个词现在不大用，意思就是菜馆。大菜指西菜和西餐，清朝末年就有这种说法。吃大菜就 是吃西餐。至于中菜馆，指中餐馆。吃中菜，意思就是吃 Chinese food。您可以查查《现代汉语词典》的有关词条，那里的释义大体是对的.
In some topolects, such as the Shanghai topolect, "xiaocai" refers to meat dishes and vegetables and other dishes. The word "xiaocai guan" means "a restaurant", but it is not used much now. "Dacai" refers to Western food and Western dishes; these terms have been in use since the latter part of the Qing Dynasty. Eat "dacai" means to eat Western food. As for "Zhong caiguan", it refers to a Chinese restaurant. To eat "Zhongcai" means to eat Chinese food. You can look up the relevant entries in Dictionary of Modern Chinese of, where the interpretations are generally correct.
15. Director of the Asian library at a major university in America; native speaker of Shanghainese:
I think that, in Shanghainese, xiao3cai4 always means "side dishes." When I go to a restaurant in Shanghai with relatives and friends, we discuss how many xiao3cai4 we should order (in addition to appetizers, rice, and desert). When my mom cooks at home, she also tells me how many xiao3cai4 she will prepare for us. So, 红烧肉 is one xiao3cai4, 蒜茸豆苗 is another.
But sometimes xiao3cai4 really means "small dishes" or "appetizers." One good example is when Chinese people eat at a Korean restaurant, they will call those pre-entree small and cold dishes (Kimchi, toufu, etc.) xiao3cai4. But this use has a non-Shanghainese origin.
I don't think anybody in Shanghai now uses the phrase 小菜馆. People usually say 饭店 (for big and more formal restaurants) and 餐厅 or 食堂 (for small-size eateries). In my ears, 菜馆 is a northern word. 小菜馆 means a small restaurant in the north.
16. Linguist specializing on Cantonese who is compiling a major dictionary of the language:
Thanks for your material about 小菜館 which I've started working on. If it's a Cantonese word, then I naturally want to include it as part of my documentation of the Cantonese lexicon.
In checking my published references, I've found that 小菜館 has not been included in any of them.
However, 菜館 appears as follows:
On page 123 of Chishima Eichi's Cantonese-Japanese Dictionary (2005) which glosses it as "restaurant" (transliterated in katakana).
On page 431 of English-Cantonese Dictionary of Cantonese in Yale Romanization (Chinese Univ. Press, 2008) it's one of several items meaning "restaurant".
In googling the occurrences of 小菜館 on Hong Kong websites and reading a number of texts that include it, I find it is used to mean "restaurant" and in the names of restaurants. 小菜館 is not limited to any particular type of cuisine, since it can serve French, Chaozhou, as well as Cantonese food.
At this point, the main semantic features of 小菜館 seem to be small-scale, intimate, homey, unpretentious, inexpensive.
The following definition is from Yellowbridge:
小菜館 xiǎocàiguǎn definition: cookshop
Since Yellowbridge is based in Taiwan, I think its inclusion here suggests this word is Taiwan Mandarin.
I've also checked the website for mainland Chinese language "nciku.com" which didn't recognize the word.
17. Native speaker of Cantonese and Toishanese:
From what I understand, there are two things going on here, but not just the two (A. and B.) that you point out.
In the small, medium, big sense, the google hits are probably mostly menus, because at dim sum style or any kind of buffet style restaurant, they are differentiating small, medium, and large dishes with an ascending price structure. For example, your 小菜 might be standard dim sum like siu-mai or har-gao for $2.50, your 中菜 might be larger plates like Chinese broccoli for $4.00, and your 大菜 might be full orders of pork chops or shrimp for $7.00, etc.
中菜 also has the additional meaning of Chinese food vs. 西菜, Western food, no?
The other sense of 小菜 is, I believe, appetizers or side dishes or small plates in general like dim sum or tapas. In the sense that dim sum is Cantonese and this is basically a synonym for dim sum, I suppose it might be Cantonese?
So a 小菜館 is a cafe, a place where they don't serve full proper and formal meals. but just snacks or dim sum, maybe one step up from a 大排檔 ("food stall")?
Not sure on that at all… 小菜館 is not a term I've really heard much in either Cantonese or Toishanese.
18. Instructor of Mandarin at an American university; native speaker of Taiwanese:
In Mandarin and Taiwanese, I have never heard of the term "小菜馆", at least I have never used it myself. My guess is, if one pronounces it as "xiaocai guan", that means it's a restaurant selling "side dishes", which is very rare for a restaurant to only sell side dishes. And if we pronounce it as "xiao caiguan" to mean a small restaurant, we will say "小饭馆" or "小餐厅" instead. I have a feeling that the term "菜馆" is from Cantonese, but I'm not sure since I am not a Cantonese speaker myself.
In Mandarin, 小菜 usually refers to a side dish or an appetizer. Sometimes it refers to snacks that people eat when drinking alcohol (下酒小菜). 中菜 usually refers to Chinese cuisine, and thus 中菜馆 usually means Chinese restaurant. 大菜 usually refers a fancy dish served in a formal meal such as a wedding banquet or a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Actually I have never heard of term "大菜馆" either.
19. Native speaker of Hong Kong Cantonese; graduate student at an American university:
I think it means "xiǎocài guǎn" like "家常便饭" kind of 小菜 — I'm not sure if the term has Cantonese roots, but this usage is extremely common in Hong Kong.
As in "撚手小菜" — a phrase that you hear a lot in HK.
So yes, I would think that in the Cantonese context, 小菜馆 means "a place where you get side dishes"; but in mainland/northern Chinese context, I'm not so sure about it — maybe it means a small restaurant…
Also, "中菜館" in Cantonese/HK context means "粤菜馆" — a place where you get traditional Cantonese food.
I think that could be the reason why you get so many google hits on "小菜馆" and "中菜馆", but not "大菜馆".
I don't know when was the first time you visited HK. But in the older days (not so long ago, like 10 years, maybe?), there used to be "大排档" — don't know what's the English word for that, but people sit in open-air to eat inexpensive but tasty food. HK government no longer renews licenses for 大排档, so those 大排档 transitioned into restaurant/eatery businesses. Dishes like 炒蚬、煲仔饭、炒粉面粥之类的香港人叫做小菜.
I would tend to read this as 小菜-馆. I think of 小菜 as being a Shanghai/Wu term; at least that is the part of the country where I encounter it most. I don't think either 小菜 or 菜馆 is distinctively Cantonese.
20. Professor of Chinese literature in Hong Kong; native speaker of Cantonese:
My reading is "xiǎocài guan." But xiaocai doesn't mean side dishes. It refers to "exquisite dishes," i.e., skillfully prepared courses. I always see 巧手小菜 in front of Chinese restaurants.
I'm not sure if xiaocai is a particular Cantonese term, although it is also used in Beijing.
As for caiguan, I don't think it's used in the north, where people say 餐館 instead.
For 小菜(館),中菜(館), and 大菜(館), my feeling is that 中 when mentioned separately refers to "Chinese" (counterpart of 西) although in the 大中小 context it refers to the size. But again, 中菜 is not a common term for "Chinese cuisine" in China where people usually say 中餐 (as vs 西餐). However, although there is a term 中菜部 referring to Chinese food section, seldom do I see/hear 西菜部.
I never heard of 大菜館 (as "big restaurant"), although I found a 东北大菜馆 in Shanghai via Google.
BTW, 大菜is an ingredient for a kind of jelly dessert called 大菜糕.
21. Native speaker of Cantonese:
小菜 in Cantonese refers to ordinary dishes, not side dishes, as opposed to banquet dishes, such as shark's fin, whole roasted suckling pig, etc. 小菜館 are ordinary restaurants, there is no need to tell people your place is small, by its name! The term is used only in referral to small restaurants. They are usually called 飯店, 餐室/廰, 茶樓 — dim sum are offered in the morning. Restaurants where banquets can be held are usually called 酒樓, 酒家. Note: 酒店=hotel.; quite a difference! — in Hong Kong, 茶餐廰 are restaurants with a limited menu, also include western style dishes, breakfasts, desserts.
中菜 is short for 中國菜, Chinese dishes; 中菜館=Chinese restaurant.
大菜, means banquet dishes, but is rarely used. 大菜館=large restaurant.
小菜, can be appetizers. Note: there are hardly any side dishes in Chinese cooking. While dim sum are appetizers, Cantonese never call 點心 as 小菜.
There is a phrase 小菜一碟; it has nothing to do with any food item, but indicates that the person, or the event, in question is unimportant, the problem is minor…..
22. Native speaker of Hong Kong Cantonese; professor at a university in Hong Kong:
As a Hongkonger, I will say when we talk about 小菜 we are saying 家常小菜. So, 小菜館 is a place where you have some ordinary, everyday life style homemade dishes, and they are supposed to be cheap and not fancy. The meaning of a small restaurant might be a derivative one.
For 中菜館, it means a restaurant for Chinese cuisine, not middle-sized restaurant. And I have never heard of 大菜館。But for your reference, 大菜糕 is one famous traditional local HK dessert.
I want to add one more thing: 小菜 are not side dishes, as I said above. They refer to 家常小菜, and also 撚手小菜: some skillful and signature dishes which a 小菜館 provides. What they are mainly depends on the chef, so there is a great variety of 撚手小菜。
There were many 小菜館 in the old days. Like in the 1980s, when I was a kid, my family always went to some 小菜館 nearby to have 小菜 dinner during the weekend. But now, it is hard to find a real 小菜館, whereas Hong Kong is full of chain restaurants.
23. PRC graduate student from far north China (Harbin) in an American university; native speaker of Mandarin with strong knowledge of Chinese cooking; married to a native Shanghainese speaker
I never use the term 菜馆. So far as I am concerned, 饭馆 means restaurant, but for me 菜馆 does not make sense. I am not sure whether it is used in Cantonese.
小菜, for me, means a dish that comes in a small plate. They are not the main course in a meal, and are usually cold appetizers, like 老醋花生, 海带丝, 凉拌木耳, etc.
24. Specialist on Japanese language and culture
小菜館 seems only to be used in the names of Chinese (mostly Cantonese and Hong Kong-style) restaurants in Japan. I've certainly never seen it as a Japanese term before.
I have seen 小菜, however, and it's in the dictionary w/ 2 definitions:
大辞林 第三版
こな【小菜】
芽を出したばかりの菜，また，間引き菜を親しんでいう語。 ［季］ 秋。
(Edible) greens w/ new buds/sprouts, or an affectionate term for culled greens (season: autumn) ← really? And why the "affection" here? I admit I'm slightly baffled — I assume it's closer to "pity" or at least "sympathy"
シャオツァイ【小菜】
〔中国語〕
In Chinese cuisine, an appetizer like the 口取肴 in Japanese cuisine
Summing up, we have seen that xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館 can mean many different things to different people, depending upon the circumstances. Xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館 (lit., "small vegetable / dish shop") — three simple, and seemingly transparent, morphosyllables, but what a wealth of ambiguity results when they are combined! What is true of xiǎo cài guǎn 小菜館 (lit., "small vegetable / dish shop") is equally true of many collocations in Chinese. Context — and that includes region, topolect, culture, etc. — determines meaning. You really need to be on your toes when you read Chinese texts if you are to understand correctly what the author intended.
[Thanks to Bob Bauer, Richard VanNess Simmons, Abraham Chan, Zheng-sheng Zhang, Mandy Chan, Don Snow, Mark Hansell, Mark Swofford, Jidong Yang, Si Jia, Melvin Lee, Tim Chan, Stephan Stiller, Rebecca Fu, Jing Wen, Wicky Tse, Alan Chin, Nelson Ching, Carmen Lee, Ying-Che Li, John Rohsenow, Wenkan Xu, Fangyi Cheng, Pan Da'an, Sai Law, Bob Chan, and Nathan Hopson]