Hong Kong Wet Market Vegetable Names with Jyutping Audio

A 街市 stall does not sell by the Mandarin name on a supermarket packet. The cardboard tag, if there is one, still wants the Hong Kong spoken name. Pointing works. Naming the vegetables in Cantonese is faster, and it keeps the tones in your mouth when the fan and ice are loud.

This page is the names. Not haggling, not knife instructions. Unlike street snacks, nothing here is a cooked stall order. Unlike dim sum, nothing here is a steamer code.

Each line below has Jyutping playback. Mandarin speakers often bring the wrong word, then misread the right characters. Shadow the audio before you guess from the spelling.

What 街市菜名 is

街市 (gaai1 si5)

Meaning: A wet market—vegetables, meat, and fish in open stalls.

Not a supermarket aisle. You name the item, then the weight. “Go to the 街市” means these stalls, not a snack cart. 買菜 covers the greens and the meat counter.

Learn the pairing first

Hong Kong speech is the stall name. Mandarin is often a different word for the same plant. Match this table first, then drill the entries.

Two vegetable names also live on Mong Kok street signs. The crop came first. See street nicknames for 通菜街 and 西洋菜南街.

Leafy greens

1. 菜心 (coi3 sam1)

Meaning: Choy sum—the everyday green at a Hong Kong vegetable stall.

Thin stems; small yellow flowers if left late. Say 菜心. 菜芯 is the same word.

2. 通菜 (tung1 coi3)

Meaning: Water spinach / ong choy.

Hollow stems, hence Mandarin 空心菜. The stall still says 通菜. Written Cantonese also uses 蕹菜. Same two syllables as the Mong Kok street. 通 is tung1.

3. 西洋菜 (sai1 joeng4 coi3)

Meaning: Watercress.

Peppery, sold in wet bunches. Mandarin often uses the same characters; the botanical name 豆瓣菜 is not what you shout at a stall. 西洋菜街 was named after the old fields, later split into south and north. Keep joeng4; do not flatten it into Mandarin xiyangcai.

4. 芥蘭 (gaai3 laan2)

Meaning: Gai lan / Chinese broccoli.

Thick stems, a bitter edge. 蘭 is laan4 alone; in this name it is already laan2.

5. 黃芽白 (wong4 ngaa4 baak6)

Meaning: Napa cabbage with a yellow heart.

Mandarin 大白菜 names the family. Hong Kong also says 紹菜, especially for the long head. 黃芽白 is the yellow-heart type, not a private stall code for every cabbage. 白 is entering tone: baak6—clip it. Keep ng- on 芽 if you have it; dropping it is a lazy-sound slide.

Gourds and staples

6. 節瓜 (zit3 gwaa1)

Meaning: Fuzzy melon / hairy gourd.

A pale green gourd with fine hair, used in soup. A dwarf relative of winter melon, not a baby 冬瓜 on the stall. 節 is entering tone: zit3. Hong Kong also calls it 毛瓜. Neither name is “Mandarin only.”

7. 矮瓜 (ai2 gwaa1)

Meaning: Eggplant.

The usual Hong Kong spoken name. 茄子 is understood and appears as the official alias. 矮 is ai2. Same gwaa1 as 節瓜 and 勝瓜—lock the gourd syllable, then change the first.

8. 勝瓜 (sing3 gwaa1)

Meaning: Ridged luffa.

Cantonese 絲 sounds too close to unlucky words, so the ridged fruit is 勝瓜 in speech. Mandarin 絲瓜 covers more than one fruit. The smooth-skinned type on the same stall is 水瓜, not 勝瓜. Visitors collapse 節瓜, 矮瓜, and 勝瓜 into one “melon.” They are three goods. Train the three gwaa1 names back to back.

9. 薯仔 (syu4 zai2)

Meaning: Potato.

Stall speech is 薯仔. Written labels often say 馬鈴薯. Mainland 土豆 is a different word, not a Hong Kong stall name. Same zai2 as many street-food diminutives. 薯 is syu4. Sweet potato is 蕃薯—different word; do not guess from 薯 alone.

10. 蕃茄 (faan1 ke2)

Meaning: Tomato.

Same fruit as 番茄. Hong Kong writes both; 蕃茄 is still common on menus and stalls. 茄 is ke4 in citation form; in this name it is the changed tone ke2. Do not borrow Mandarin fanqie.

Aromatics

11. 芫荽 (jyun4 seoi1)

Meaning: Coriander leaf / cilantro.

Mandarin 香菜. The stall says 芫荽. Two syllables people skip because the characters look rare. They are not rare in a 街市. Shadow jyun4 seoi1 until it is cheaper than pointing.

Meat stall

12. 排骨 (paai4 gwat1)

Meaning: Spare ribs—usually pork, the rib cut.

Raw meat, not the tea-house steamer. For 豉汁排骨 as a dim-sum name, see dim sum. Hong Kong pork stalls also split the cut: 腩排, 一字排, 唐排. 排骨 is the family name. 骨 is entering tone: gwat1.

13. 豬骨 (zyu1 gwat1)

Meaning: Pork bones for soup.

Not automatically the same pile as 排骨. 排骨 still goes into 排骨湯; 豬骨 is the broader “bones for broth” request—spine, knocks, leftover bone. Say the full name. Bare 骨 gets you a question, not a packet.

14. 牛腩 (ngau4 naam5)

Meaning: The braising cuts around the cow’s belly and lower ribs.

Not one supermarket “brisket” slab. Hong Kong butchers split 坑腩, 爽腩, and related pieces; 坑腩 is the everyday ask. Later it becomes a casserole in a tea restaurant. 牛 is ngau4—keep the ng-. 腩 is naam5.

Fish stall

15. 鯇魚 (waan5 jyu2)

Meaning: Grass carp.

Hong Kong stall name. Mandarin 草魚 is the same fish. 魚 is jyu4 alone; in this name it is jyu2. Dropping the initial is a lazy-sound slide. Same family of traps as 金魚. You can still point; the name is for when they ask which fish.

Shadow the names together

You do not need every stall on day one. These two lines are enough to hear the rhythm: greens first, then the gourd-and-herb pile.

What these names train

Street Cantonese is living speech. Stalls differ. Your goal is not insider coolness. It is to hear the vegetable name and keep the tones stable.

FAQ

Wet market names, street snacks, or dim sum?
Street snacks are cooked stall orders—see street snacks. Tea houses use steamer names—see dim sum. A 街市 stall sells the raw item under Hong Kong names.

Can I just point if I cannot speak Cantonese?
Yes. Pointing at the pile is always correct. This page trains the reply when staff ask which green, which gourd, or which bone.

Is 通菜 the street or the vegetable?
Both. The crop is 通菜. The Mong Kok road is 通菜街. Same words, two jobs. Details on the road: street nicknames.

How do I avoid lazy pronunciation?
Shadow the Jyutping audio here first—especially 魚, 牛, 芽, and 節. Then listen at the stall. Field accents can be wide; your foundation should not be.

What next for listening practice?
Try street snacks for cooked stall names, or annotate your own market list with the Jyutping converter.