pan

pan is a starchy staple food such as rice, wheat, barley, teff, potato, and corn. pan can also refer to products made from these, such as breads and porridges. more specific examples include injera, fufu, pasta, tteokbokki, tortillas, cakes, congee, cereal. many speakers will use pan to describe corn products like corn flakes but won't use it to describe corn on the cob. a less common usage of pan refers to legumes as well as grains, as well as their products such as tempeh, natto, and tofu. other plant-based foods are almost never called pan unless they resemble a food usually made of grains, like a zucchini pancake might still be pan even though it doesn't have any grain in it. foods with a type of pan as their primary ingredient can be called pan as a whole, such as poke, ramen, gyro, or a burrito, even if they have a lot of non-pan components.