* A Gift For You... *

Cough drops. No joke.

Excuter, I beg to differ. 圈 implies a circular doughnut shape, pets de nonne are just balls of fried "pâte à choux". How about 法式卷心油饼? 油饼 = kind of beignet

eyedrop

Don't worry, there's no ritual involved here, you can just send a "little somethin" (小意思 xiǎo yìsi) that shows that you care, sth personal. A gift must be a token of affection, not a token of cultural understanding... :)

What you send her. I am always forced to drag suitcases full of cough drops to China, the demand is massive (do not know why, and whether this might be restricted to German cough drops). Franch is of course correct. Try to avoid white or black packaging (red is preferred). Gifts with a local and/or personal touch are always a good idea; candy is a always a good gift. Now if there is a regional cough drop brand that comes with red packaging, then you hit the jackpot... ;)

Eyedrops? LOL

Was that the wrong English term? I am talking about that hard candy that you preferrably take when you have a sore throat (usually with Menthol). Hustenbonbon?

Henning, I don't know if this is the right term, but it definitely made me think of you as a chemical warfare fanatic.

Obviously the nearest Chinese translation is 止咳糖 (zhǐ ké táng). It is *not* medicine, and, no, it is *not* a dual-use product for chemical warfare (like 臭豆腐). It is candy.

Henning Cough drops? Really? I had no idea. I love 臭豆腐 stinky tofu...it's not chemical warfare : ( Italiana What's your avatar a picture of?

I give her cough drops, or is that what she gives me?

Hi Bazza, Henning is speaking of lozenge or cough sweet ( in British English).Hi Italiana, why don't you send your penpal a huge pannetone..! Walter

AZERDocMom, My avatar is a picture of Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Great movie. So I should send her some red-packaged cough-drops?

kmkfr, shave my tonsils if you can find a Chinese word for pets-de-nonne. It's hard enough to find out 法式棍子面包 for baguette :)

Yes I know what a cough drop is, but an eyedrop is liquid you squirt into your eye. ;)

franch, It was expected. The chinese vocab for pastry-making and candy-making is very poor. I have to make do with the direct translation : 修女的放屁 or 法修女的放屁
... no in fact 小蛋糕 sound much better for a presentation. ;)

or 小法式蛋糕

for the english explanation of it see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beignet from there I went on with french doughnut to Google translation and voila, bingo, deng deng... it gave me this: 法国甜甜圈

so about the tonsils... you can keep ém ;-)

Btw Franch, How would you call "Pets de none" (small beignets) in chinese ? [img]http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6367/666/200/pets-de-none.jpg[/img]