Do people have any good resources for learning about the differences between 國語 and 普通話? I'm interested in both lists of different pronunciations and also vocabulary choices. The Wikipedia page on Taiwanese Mandarin has some good examples, but I'm looking for larger lists.

The impetus for this post is a somewhat embarrassing conversation in which I learned that in Taiwan, cauliflower is translated exclusively as 花菜. On the other hand, 菜花 means genital warts. As in "可以給我你的菜花嗎?"

Thank you, that made my evening.

hmmm... that might make for an interesting blog post/ study list. I'll do some poking around here in Taiwan and talk to a few friends to see what I can find out.

I'm interested in this topic as well. My Chinese is more and more becoming a stew of Mainland and Taiwanese usage, with a pinch of Malaysian Mandarin thrown in for good measure.

The official name for Cauliflower in Taiwan is 花椰菜. Both 花菜 and 菜花 are acceptable alternative names.
http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=花椰菜&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&ukey=-32997273&op=&imgFont=0 .

I've found menus from Taiwan that actually use the name 菜花. e.g. http://granary.tw/shop/article.php?id=219

Yes, 菜花 can also mean warts. But this usage can also be found in the mainland as shown here: http://pfxbk.xywy.com/jrsy/arc608213.html and here: http://www.ymotc.com/mikuimote/mikuimote08.htm