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I've seen 意饺 translated as ravioli.

Obviously 意饺 = 意大利 + 饺子, but does it only refer to ravioli? There's a lot of different kinds of Italian "dumplings", no? Can it refer to other things besides ravioli or not?!

edit:

other stuffed Italian pastas that look like 饺子 have a look: here

  • agnolotti
  • cappelletti
  • pansotti
  • ravioli
  • tortelli (anolini)
  • tortellini
  • tortelloni
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  • Besides those on the list, calzone is also translated into 意大利饺子.
    – NS.X.
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 8:32

3 Answers 3

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Far as I know, names such as 意饺 really don't refer to any specifics - instead, they are simply names given to foreign foods that resemble their "chinese counterparts."

饺子 refers to boiled dumplings (note, dumplings alone refers to, ambiguously, 粽子, 饺子, and 包子) - where a stuffing is wrapped in a layer of dough and boiled in water.

Thus, 意大利 饺子 really refers to any food originating in Italy and resembling Chinese boiled dumplings. So far, the only Italian food I think resembles boiled dumplings is ravioli. So yes, 意饺 does refer to just ravioli - until some new Italian food is invented that also resembles Chinese boiled dumplings.

Lastly, I want to note that terms such as 意饺 really originate from big food industries trying to introduce fancy foreign-ish flavors into the Chinese market, labelling them with fancy names for "marketing" purposes.

EDIT: Many of the foods in this link, pointed out by user330506, could also thus be referred to as 意饺 - far as I know, that is.

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  • Does tortellini not also resemble 饺子?
    – Mou某
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 16:23
  • take a look here foodsubs.com/PastaStuffed.html wouldn't these all be 意饺?
    – Mou某
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 3:28
  • @user3306356 Essentially, yes - they could be called that. However, tortellini seems to more closely resemble 馄饨 from its picture - so you might also be able to call it 意式馄饨.
    – Kye W Shi
    Commented Jul 8, 2014 at 2:03
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意饺 doesn't have any real meaning, it's just a name given to a foreign nouns that aren't seen in China (or foreign proper nouns).

In this case, it can be used as an umbrella term to any italian stuffed pasta (because they all resemble dumplings); however there are probably additional characters that can be added to denote a more specific type of pasta

Another example: 意大利面条 is spaghetti, 面条 is noodles (which is what it resembles) while 意大利通心面 is ziti (通心 is macaroni)

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I think that the character of "饺子" in Chinese is something encapsulated by a sheet,and cooked by boiling. "意" should be "意大利"(Italian). All here(http://www.foodsubs.com/PastaStuffed.html) should be called "意饺".

Because of the cooking method of boiling, The sheet of "饺子" should be thin enough, and the volume should be small enough.

"包子", as a kind of dumpling, its volume can be larger because it is cooked by steaming.

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