Dear Chinese-Speaking Mefites: Help me find out the name of this grain

December 3, 2017 11:22 AM

I studied TCM a while ago and stocked up on Chinese herbs to make tonics. It´s been a while and today I was organizing my pantry and found this. I usually write down the English names of the things I buy, but somehow this does not have it. I suspect it can be Pearl Barley but I´m not sure. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
posted by Matrod to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

Mom says "specialty product made in China". More pictures please. And she has no guesses as to what the product is by the contents posted.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 11:56 AM on December 3, 2017

Is this the same product?
posted by dilaudid at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2017

No idea on the translation. It looks a bit like barley though.
posted by sulaine at 12:19 PM on December 3, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks for your answers. and dilaudid, it´s not the same product (yours is foxnut). Here are more photos to see if we can identify it...
posted by Matrod at 12:21 PM on December 3, 2017

I'm 90% sure it's Chinese pearl barley, also knows as Job’s tears.
posted by pipeski at 12:34 PM on December 3, 2017

It doesn't say what the product is, sorry. As others have said, it just says "Chinese specialty". Is there anything on the back?
posted by aperturescientist at 12:44 PM on December 3, 2017

Response by poster: Yes, I think it is Chinese Pearl Barley as well! Any additional comments are most welcome!

And no aperturescientist, it does not have any more details...
posted by Matrod at 1:01 PM on December 3, 2017

+1 that it's raw barley (or Job's tear). They sell it on Amazon and Summit Import Corp. has what looks like the same item in its listings.
posted by xenization at 1:03 PM on December 3, 2017

Mrs. Duoshao says it's 薏仁, which is Jobs Tears as other folks have mentioned.

Strange that the package doesn't list the name even in Chinese.
posted by duoshao at 2:05 PM on December 3, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks to you all! It´s seems that it is Raw Pearl Barley. And yes, it´s weird that the name of the product does not appear on the package.
posted by Matrod at 2:23 PM on December 3, 2017

Although called Chinese pearl barley, Job's tears is not actually closely related to barley and is a different plant. Agreed that that's what you've got though.
posted by Athanassiel at 7:19 PM on December 3, 2017