cai png

9.9

A meal of rice with several cooked dishes you choose at food stalls

noun

Philippine

: cai png

You can choose your preferred dishes when ordering cai png at the food court.

Examples

Many locals eat cai png regularly because it's affordable and offers plenty of options.
I grabbed a cai png for lunch because it was quick and filling.
I love cai png for lunch.
Have you tried cai png from that new stall?
I grabbed a cai png for lunch because it was quick and filling.
Many locals eat cai png regularly because it's affordable and offers plenty of options.
You can choose your preferred dishes when ordering cai png at the food court.

Synonyms

chow

vscai png

Informal

59 8.2

A simple meal or food eaten casually

is a rice-based meal with various cooked dishes sold at stalls

Chinese meal

vscai png

1 1.3

A meal of Chinese dishes like rice, vegetables, and meat

is a rice plate sold at stalls featuring mixed cooked dishes

rijstaffel

vscai png

1 9.9

A meal of rice with many small dishes like curries and sauces

is the street-stall rice meal sold with assorted cooked dishes

Surface Forms

cai png singular

cai pings plural

Morphology

cai + png

Although the provided constituent forms are non-English loanwords with no dictionary gloss here, the compound literally combines 'cai' (菜, dish/vegetable) + 'png' (饭, rice), so the phrase denotes 'rice with dishes' in a directly compositional way. This dish+rice pattern is cross-linguistically common (cf. Malay/Indonesian 'nasi' compounds, 'mixed rice' concepts), so a B1 learner who already knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Cai png comes from local Chinese words: cai means 'dishes' and png means 'rice'. Imagine a food stall where you point to several cooked dishes and the vendor puts them on top of a bowl of rice; that picture explains why cai png means 'rice with mixed dishes'.