海鲜Seafood in Chinese
Squid, cuttlefish, and octopus alone have at least half a dozen overlapping Chinese names between them — even native speakers mix them up. Work through shrimp, crab, shellfish, cephalopods, and a handful of other seafood staples, then a few phrases for ordering.
Shrimp
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Crabs
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Shellfish
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Cephalopods
Squid, cuttlefish, and octopus — the category where naming gets genuinely confusing, even for native speakers.
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Why nobody agrees on squid vs. cuttlefish
Taiwan alone has at least three overlapping words for roughly the same family of animal — 透抽小管 and 小卷小管仔 are basically the same squid at different sizes, while 花枝乌贼 and 墨魚墨鱼 both mean cuttlefish and get used interchangeably depending on the region and the restaurant. Even fishmongers will occasionally argue about it.
Other Seafood
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Ordering at a Seafood Restaurant
Many seafood restaurants in Taiwan let you pick straight from a live tank — these three phrases cover most of that conversation.
