hum bao and humbao (1990)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 10:18 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
> On Aug 17, 2011, at 7:05 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>
> > I don't know if anyone cares, since this doesn't go the the heart of the
> > matter in English, but "bao" is an extremely popular Dutch "snack" (see "dim
> > sum"--I'll post on that later). Every Dutch supermarket carries at least two
> > (beef and pork) and up to six varieties of "bao" in the freezer--they are
> > meant to be microwaved briefly before consumption. The problem is, there is
> > virtually no food in supermarkets that could be described as "Chinese". The
> > Dutch equivalent is Indonesian fast food--what with noodle and rice mixes
> > all meant to resemble Indonesian creations. AFAICT "bao" is also considered
> > Indonesian (although most Asian restaurants are tagged with
> > "Chinese-Indonesian" label). This does not mean it's not Chinese in origin,
> > but the distribution is very wide.
>
> Based on Google Translate, the Dutch Wikipedia page (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bapao)
> seems to say they are from Chinese culture via Indonesia.

"Bapao", more frequently spelled "bakpao" (the "k" represents a
glottal stop), is popular street food in many Indonesian cities.
Anyone who has spent time in places like Jakarta or Bandung will be
familiar with the call of "bakpao!" from street vendors, competing
with similar calls of "satay!" (meat skewers), "bakso!" (meatballs),
etc. On his Indonesia trip, Obama reminisced about the calls of
"satay" and "bakso" (though he left out the "bakpao"):

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2765

The "bak" /ba?/ element in "bakpao" and "bakso" is from the Hokkien
version of 肉 meaning "meat", which Wikipedia tells me may actually be
derived from proto-Austronesian "*babuy" ('wild pig').

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%82%89#Noun_3

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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