My dad wants to know what the phrase “Moo goo gai pan” means, and has never gotten an answer to his satisfaction. I suspect that it’s a meaningless phrase, or a phrase like, say , “Pizza” - Pizza has no meaning (as far as I know), it’s the name of the food, and Americans use the word as well as Italians.
Does “Moo Goo Gai Pan” have a meaning?
No words have any innate meaning if you trace them back far enough; they are just sounds to which we have attached meaning; sure you can trace them back to their Latin, Germanic, French, whatever roots, and maybe a little further, but you’ll never find out why the word was fitted to the meaning (except for onomatopoeic words like ‘ding’ and wordless expressions like ‘Aaargh’)
Pizza is related to Pitta (as in bread).
How about if you told us where your dad heard the phrase and in what context?
If you’ve paid attention to the other entrees on a Chinese restaurant menu, you should have noticed that many chicken dishes contain the word gai–a word for Chicken in at least one dialect of Chinese. Similarly, you should see pan in other entrees. Pan indicates “dish” (although I think it is used as “presentation dish” and only coincidentally looks like the English word for a cooking dish).
I believe, although I am not sure, that moo goo indicates something about mushrooms. Whether it means mushrooms in general, a variety of mushrooms, or a preparation of mushrooms, I do not remember.
So Moo Goo Gai Pan is a serving of mushrooms and chicken.
If you’ve paid attention to the other entrees on a Chinese restaurant menu, you should have noticed that many chicken dishes contain the word gai–a word for Chicken in at least one dialect of Chinese. Similarly, you should see pan in other entrees. Pan indicates “dish” (although I think it is used as “presentation dish” and only coincidentally looks like the English word for a cooking dish).
I believe, although I am not sure, that moo goo indicates something about mushrooms. Whether it means mushrooms in general, a variety of mushrooms, or a preparation of mushrooms, I do not remember.
So Moo Goo Gai Pan is a serving of mushrooms and chicken.
I’m not sure why the MB has gone back to doubling posts. ::: shrug :::
According to this site, pan does not mean “dish,” but “cut into small pieces,” so Moo Goo Gai Pan would be “chicken and mushrooms cut up into small bites.”
But I’m still afraid to sample the Pu Pu Platter. That’s something they’ve got to rename.
And, doesn’t ‘pizza’ merely mean ‘pie’?
Perhaps, but what does ‘pie’ mean?
Allow me to confirm:
Moo goo= a variety of mushroom
Gai=chicken
Pan=slices
I’m not sure if the pronunciation is very badly romanized Cantonese, or if it’s Mandarin. I speak Cantonese at home, and it’s pronounced “Maw goo gai peen.”
Well… come to think of it, there’s really no way to romanize Cantonese into something that sounds nice, 'cause Mandarin is the ‘poetic’ dialect, and Cantonese is all harsh sounding.
moo = hair, hairy 
[no, really]
goo = mushroom
Cantonese is more musical than Putonga because there are more tones 