Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, Q () is a culinary term for the ideal texture of many foods, such as

noodles Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures (for example, Chinese noodles, Filipino noodles, I ...

boba Boba may refer to: * Boba, Hungary, a village in Vas county, Hungary * Tapioca pearls, or boba, a starchy food **Bubble tea Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; , ) is a tea-based dri ...

, and

fish ball Fish balls are rounded meat balls made from fish paste which are then boiled or deep fried. Similar in composition to fishcake, fish balls are often made from fish mince or surimi, salt, and a culinary binder such as tapioca flour, corn, ...

s and fish cakes. Sometimes translated as "chewy", the texture has been described as "The Asian version of al-dente ..soft but not mushy." Another translation is "springy and bouncy". The term originates from the

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/ Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 7 ...

word khiū (), which has a sound similar to the letter Q in English, and has since been adopted by other forms of Chinese, such as Mandarin. It also appears in a doubled more intense form, "QQ".

References

Culinary terminology Taiwanese cuisine {{Taiwan-cuisine-stub