当前位置: Language Tips> 新闻播报

You're only kind of what you eat

中国日报网 2016-07-19 09:00

分享到

 

Get Flash Player

Writer: Erik Nilsson

You're only kind of what you eat

Sheep brains. Hamburgers.

Bats. Steak.

Rice. Pasta. Noodles.

Would you like fries with that?

Chicken feet?

A side of stereotypes? An extra order of personal preferences?

Food is perhaps China’s most pervasive conversation topic.

The good, the bad and the ugly are fair discussions about fare.

Hence, there has been fierce controversy surrounding the recent Yulin Dog Meat Festival’s official cancellation due to its impact on China’s image.

But personal preferences sometimes signal individual rather than cultural culinary tastes.

I recently recounted with a Chinese food writer my experiences eating snake.

First time: Kebabs in Beijing. Hated it.

Second time: Broiled, with minced peppers, garlic, cilantro and purple basil in Cambodia. Loved it.

Third time: A salty soup in Wuxi. Savored it.

She puckered her face while shaking her head: “I couldn’t.”

But she adores sea cucumbers.

I detest them.

I’m from a place where snakes aren’t staples. She’s from a place where sea cucumbers aren’t endemic. Palates are personal as well as cultural.

I didn’t know it was sheep’s brain kebabs I was gnawing on in Gansu province’s Dunhuang. I found out after I discovered I loved it. Crispy.

A Tibetan in Dali bought me a bowl of soup filled with fibrous meat orbs I couldn’t chew. Gristly.

He later informed me I was eating water buffalo testicles. Our jaws ached — his from laughing, mine from biting. Funny.

Menus in Bangkok’s Chinatown offer crocodile, bat and monkey. I’ve never seen those in 10 years of traveling China.

I liked deep-fried bees. They were presented by ethnic Miao women who made them zoom between pinched chopsticks as diners chomped to catch them with their mouths in Guizhou province.

You're only kind of what you eat

Crickets? OK.

Pupae? No thanks.

I don’t like fish balls. Or Western lunchmeat.

Horse intestines? Not bad. I ate them on the floor of an elderly nomadic ethnic Kazak’s home in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region while he explained how he hunts with eagles. We scooped the boiled horse guts and noodles with our hands.

Horse heads? Yummy.

Rabbit heads? So-so.

Fish heads? I’ll pass.

It’s easy to see why burgers are the epitome of Chinese discussions about what Americans, and often other Westerners, eat.

In 2005, I reported on how Chinese staged graduation parties and Valentine’s dates in McDonald’s.

The company then had a mostly burger menu, plus vegetable-seafood soup, purple sweet-potato pie and the Triangle Meal — a pita wrapped around beef or lamb with rice and soy sauce.

(A slice of time. KFC later overtook them by faster and vaster localization.)

I’m not bonkers for burgers.

That’s heresy not only to Chinese but also US pieties ascribing what Americans eat.

I adore pizza. My 4-year-old recently told me it’s her “favorite Chinese food”.

(She has only eaten it in Beijing.)

Lily also loves chicken feet.

Her preferences are personal and cultural.

She has individual tastes. Like I do. Like Chinese do.

Like everyone does.

There’s more than just culture to explain why certain people love or hate brains, burgers, bats and steak.

It’s more often than we realize a matter of individual taste.

(编辑:丹妮)

Broadcaster:

You're only kind of what you eat

Greg Fountain is a copy editor and occasional presenter for China Daily. Before moving to Beijing in January, 2016 he worked for newspapers in the Middle East and UK. He has an M.A in Print Journalism from the University of Sheffield, a B.A in English and History from the University of Reading.

 

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。

中国日报网双语新闻

扫描左侧二维码

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我们这儿都有!

中国日报双语手机报

点击左侧图标查看订阅方式

中国首份双语手机报
学英语看资讯一个都不能少!

关注和订阅

本文相关阅读
人气排行
热搜词
 
 
精华栏目
 

阅读

词汇

视听

翻译

口语

合作

 

关于我们 | 联系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版权声明:本网站所刊登的中国日报网英语点津内容,版权属中国日报网所有,未经协议授权,禁止下载使用。 欢迎愿意与本网站合作的单位或个人与我们联系。

电话:8610-84883645

传真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn