Takeaway Chinese, where you can take some Chinese away and experience progress day by day.
Takeaway Chinese, we will promise you a difference.
你好,欢迎收听随行汉语。 Welcome to Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Niu Honglin with Steve Hatherley in the studio.
Hello, Steve.
Hi there.
How are you doing?
Doing very well.
Very happy to do the show with you as always.
Of course.
Thanks for having me back.
Always a pleasure.
And for today, we have a really interesting topic to discuss.
But I want to ask you, how many fruit do you have in your everyday diet?
Depends on the season.
But every day, bananas.
Every day?
Nearly.
Wow, you really do love bananas.
No, it's not that.
I don't like bananas, actually.
It's just that they are really... Surprisingly.
Yeah, I know.
But they are really convenient and fast to eat.
So that's why I have them every day.
So that's breakfast.
Breakfast for me is yogurt and a banana.
Very interesting because I recently saw a doctor and I was advised to have a bit less fruits.
When I'm younger, I think...
Thank you so much.
Maybe 10 years or five years ago I started to talk to traditional Chinese doctor and they say some of the fruits carry too much yin energy and they advise you not to have certain type of fruits at certain season or when your body is at a certain state.
So, sorry to interrupt.
So you said certain fruits have too much yin.
Yes, yin energy.
Yin energy.
Like the cold energy, the... The weaker... kind of energy.
The negative kind.
Yeah, but when we say negative, it's not negative in a bad way.
It's just opposite to the positive yang energy.
You need a balance in your body.
It's not like the negative ones are not good.
It's just, you need the right percentage of yin and yang, the right percentage of positive and negative.
Oh, so it would be important to know, then.
If certain fruits carry a certain amount of yin energy, then I would guess that certain fruits carry a certain amount of yang energy.
Yes, yes.
Right?
So the advice would be okay.
Well, if you're going to eat the fruits with the high yin energy, then at least you have to balance that by eating some fruits with the high yang energy too.
Or just high yang energy type of food, not necessarily fruit.
Oh, right.
Okay, okay.
I'm sharing this because I realized that with the development of different types of theories, and also maybe when I'm aging a little bit, your body needs different things.
And also people's understanding about different fruit or different food is also evolving a little bit.
So it's nice to once a while reconsider or look back at the habit we've been having for quite a long time.
And fruit is quite the example here today.
By the way, how do you say banana in Chinese?
Banana.
Let's learn both words.
Let's first learn banana, which is xiang jiao.
Xiang jiao.
Xiang is a Chinese character carrying the idea or the meaning of nice fragrance and also taste.
Really good, positive smell and positive taste.
Xiang.
And jiao is the fruit itself.
So xiang jiao, ba jiao, all these are jiao.
Oh, okay.
So every fruit will have... No, no, no, no, no.
Every banana shape... fruit has that in it.
And the is kind of like the general name for a banana.
What's another banana shaped fruit.
Have you ever seen the really small one, but on one grab, you have a lot.
Oh, like the mini ones?
Yes, there are the mini ones.
There are the green ones.
There are the kind of bananas that is related to apples or related to mangoes, because I think they're grafted.
I don't know which one on which, but the taste of the bananas are genetically modified a little bit.
So there are different types of bananas.
So 香蕉 is the... Banana.
Basic yellow banana that we see in the store every day.
Okay.
And another word is 水果.
水果.
水 is water.
果. Melon.
No, not really.
果 is the result of the plant.
So the fruit is the result of a fruit tree.
Vegetable can sometimes be the result of a vegetable plant.
And rice is the result of... you know, rice, the plant.
So water results would be fruit, 水果.
Oftentimes Chinese will make sense to me.
This is one example.
I don't see the connection here.
The result of water.
No, the result, kind of result that carries a lot of water.
Because fruits...
Inside are often made up of a lot of water.
That's how I understand it.
But you can just remember it as 水果, fruit.
So 水果 doesn't refer to any type of fruit per se.
No, it's just the fruit.
Fruit in general.
In general.
I see, I see.
I think most people would also understand 果 as fruit.
But the reason I don't think it's exactly that is because it carries the meaning of result, which is used in the word 结果.
结果 is result.
And also for the kind of fruit that are not even edible, the kind of fruit on the tree but they're not edible.
They're also considered a type of 果, So it's not fruit, but it kind of is.
You know what I mean here.
I see what you're getting at, yeah.
Yes.
So that's fruit, 水果.
So 水果.
水果.
水果, that's fruit.
And that is today's topic.
So let me know, which is your favorite fruit?
Is it banana?
Do you like banana that much?
No, no, no.
It's not that.
It's just convenient.
My favorite fruit depends on the season.
So, for example, there's a relatively short period of time in Beijing where you have access to pomegranates.
Yes.
And for about a month.
The pomegranate is my favorite fruit because it is absent from my life for 11 months of the year, so when it comes back we usually get a box and eat it, the whole box, and then get another box and eat all that and then it's done.
So it depends on the season and which fruit is happens to be for sale in the marts, for example.
Now, those oranges.
How do you say orange in chinese?
There are two ways.
If you're talking about the ones that are really easy to peel, that are not that huge.
Well, there are huge ones, but you know, really easy to peel and you do not need to cut it with a knife.
It's 橘子.
橘子.
Yes.
And if you're talking about the ones that you cut it into, maybe six or eight slices, you can still peel it.
It's just a little bit harder.
That would be 橙子.
橙子.
Yes.
And by the way, pomegranate, 十六.
十六.
The mart near our workplace now, I believe, is selling the 竹子.
Have you seen them?
No.
They're super cheap.
You get a whole bag for three yuan.
Wow, I should get some.
Now, these are the ones, it's like an orange that's wearing a coat that's too big for it.
Oh, I love those.
It's like the peel is like a little bag almost and the orange just sits inside it.
And it's relatively big, right?
They're kind of big, but actually the oranges themselves are quite small.
Not tiny, tiny, but they're smaller than their package because the package has a lot of air inside.
Yes.
So is that juzi?
It is juzi, and it's ugly orange in Chinese, chouju.
Yeah, chouju.
Yes, because I think the package, like you said, is a bit hilly and bumpy.
Yeah, you can kind of squeeze it a little bit.
Yes, so it's chouju.
We believe it's not very pretty, but it's not why we're naming it as ugly orange, because Chinese people like comparisons.
We like to compare, compare the good ones with the bad ones, the advantages with the disadvantage.
Yes, sometimes we compare similar things as well, but in this case we're calling it because it looks bad but it tastes really good yeah, and we're trying to stress the good of it by saying well, it's ugly, but it's nice.
They're really cheap at the mart right now and they are delicious, they are.
Question Do the 秋子 have a lot of yin or yang energy?
橘子.
Sorry, 橘子.
Depends on different types of 橘子.
In general, 橘子 is the kind of fruit that are not that yin, in my opinion.
And again, like I mentioned already, different types of oranges would be a little bit different.
And the funny thing is it also has something to do with how you eat it.
You know there are the white line fabric kind of thing on the orange.
Yes, eating it would make it less in not eating it, eating only the pump side of it would make it a little bit more in.
Oh Yes, and Do you eat that white stuff or no?
I do because I'm lazy.
I don't want to peel them.
Do you eat the grape skin?
Sometimes, depending on what kind of grape.
Yeah, okay.
It doesn't matter the type of grape for me.
How lazy am I?
I do not spit out the seed of watermelon.
Really?
Yes.
I don't like watermelon with seeds.
That's how lazy I am.
I don't mind watermelon with seeds.
By the way, watermelon, 西瓜...
Xi is west.
瓜 is a melon.
So 西瓜, watermelon.
甜瓜, sweet melon.
甜 is sweet.
And 哈蜜瓜, honey melon.
哈蜜 melon is originated in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.
And the place is called 哈蜜, resulting in the name of the 哈蜜瓜, the honey melon, which is really sweet.
What do they look like?
I think they kind of have a olive shape, but much bigger, similar size as watermelon, as the medium-sized watermelon, and you can see a lot of veins on the peel of the hami melon and the inside of it is yellow and it can be really sweet.
When I had my business trip in Xinjiang, I had the best hami Honey melon.
Oh, really, really nice.
Lots of seeds inside, too.
Yes, but the seeds are gathered together so you can just get.
Yes, you can scoop them, get rid of them.
It's like a pumpkin inside.
Oh, a little bit, but different shape.
So, 西瓜 is watermelon.
And what was that one called again?
哈蜜瓜.
哈蜜瓜.
Yes.
So, 瓜 is melon.
瓜 is melon.
How do you say grape?
葡萄.
葡萄.
Yes.
Oh, this one is hard.
There is a... very famous and very popular Chinese tongue twister.
And it's not very long, but it's 吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮, 不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮.
I don't think you can do it.
Okay, so 吃 is to have or to eat.
葡萄 吃葡萄 Yes, that's the grape.
吃葡萄 不 is no.
吐 is to spit.
葡萄皮 is the grape peel.
不吃葡萄 Not eating grapes.
倒 is on the contrary.
On the opposite, 吐, spit, 葡萄皮.
吃葡萄, 不吐葡萄皮, 不吃葡萄, 倒吐葡萄皮 means someone's eating grapes, but they're not spitting out the grape peel.
Someone's not eating grape, they're spitting out the peel.
Strange, but the meaning does not really matter.
It's because when you're practicing that tongue twister, you need to use a lot of both of your lips.
So it's a way to practice those pronunciations.
葡萄, that's grape.
I have to admit that I feel like these years there are a lot of new fruits in the Chinese market, the kind of fruits that were considered not very common, or you cannot really see them in different seasons, in specific seasons, or maybe some fruits.
In Chinese, we have a saying, 热带水果.
Re dai shui guo.
Re dai shui guo.
Shui guo is fruits and re dai is tropical.
So in tropical areas.
You can only find these type of fruits in tropical areas, like Bo Luo pineapple.
Bo Luo.
Bo Luo, pineapple and mango.
And maybe Ye Zi, coconut.
Ye Zi.
Yes, Ye Zi.
So these are the tropical fruits.
When I was young, I remember so vividly.
When I was in, I think, primary school or even kindergarten, my mom went on a business trip to Hainan province and she brought back this huge, very smells really good kind of mango.
And I didn't eat it for at least several weeks because it smells so good.
And I enjoyed the fragrance of the fruit for a really long time.
And I finally, when I finally decided to have it, it tastes so good.
It just left a really great memory in my head.
Mangoes are one of my favorites for sure.
And it's easy to say in Chinese, 芒果.
芒果.
It's almost the same.
Almost the same.
And that's the thing.
When I was little, these fruits are not that common.
But nowadays, you can almost find... any kind of fruit in your local market.
And if not, you can get them on online platforms so easily and they just arrive at your doorstep.
I totally agree.
And one of the things that my friend, my friend moved to Sichuan province to Chengdu.
And when he was considering, you know moving considering, taking the position he was asking me.
You know how's China?
And one of the things I said I was about the fruit was, I said, oh, you're going to see fruits.
He's American.
I said, you're going to see fruits here that you've probably never seen before.
And my advice is don't ask when you see it at the supermarket.
If you look at it and you say, what's that?
Just get it.
Get it.
It's going to be good.
Cut it open and eat it.
Yes, that's the thing.
And there are also another trend, that is, for the kind of fruits that are used to be very, very expensive.
Now they're cheaper. generally lowering their prices to a relatively more acceptable kind of level.
Yeah, I think, you know, there are different factors, right?
Like the growing season and the harvest and things like that.
Transportation, shipping.
Sure, yeah.
But I remember, so now these oranges in the fruit market are really cheap.
But I remember in the summertime...
The do you say lychee or lychee?
I never know what.
Oh, by the way, Chinese lychee.
Lychee.
So it's probably lychee.
Probably.
So the lychee.
Do you remember in the summertime?
I don't know.
The farmers must have had this amazing crop. because the lychees were so good.
So good and not expensive at all.
Cheap, cheap, cheap.
They were so cheap.
I must have eaten about a thousand of those things in the summertime.
In traditional Chinese medicine concept, lychees are the kind of fruit that are too hot, too much yang energy, which would lead to too much heat energy in your body, which is also not that healthy if you consume too much.
Totally worth it.
No, I remember that.
Uh, I remember reading that though, that you have to be careful with how many leeches you eat, because if you eat too many at a time, it can be can it be fatal.
It was, anyway it was, it was something serious.
But then I thought oh, my goodness you know, is it okay if I have four?
Oh, come on.
Yes.
You'd have to eat like hundreds of them for it to be.
Yes.
And when you mentioned the fact that you like convenient fruit, you know what?
You are not alone.
In China or the Chinese market.
We are seeing gradually the trend that the so-called convenient type of fruit are getting more and more popularity among consumers.
And I'm not talking about super, super convenient like bananas, because when you're having a banana you do not even need to wash your hands, let alone the fruit itself.
You just peel it and it has its own package and you can enjoy it.
Not that kind of convenience.
Yes, convenient is still quite important.
It is in the sense that once you're done preparing the fruit, you can have it with just one hand.
I'm talking about, for example, lanmei, blueberry.
Oh yeah, lanmei.
Yes, lanmei.
When you finish washing it, you just use one hand or sometimes a fork to To have Lan Mei.
And also, like you said, orange.
Because once you finish it, it's also got its own peel and it's easy.
And that is in contrast with, for example, apple.
Oh, I don't like apples.
A lot of people don't.
People believe apples are boring.
Well, it's not about the entertainment factor that I'm missing out on.
And it's not about the eatability either.
Eatability referring to how convenient it is because one hand just keep biting it until it's gone.
I just don't like the taste of an apple.
That's what I'm talking about.
Boring.
It tastes boring.
It does not have a specific type of fragrance that you can only uniquely have from that one fruit, and it's unique enough.
I'm not saying the taste of apple can be replaced by anything else.
It's just not that unique if I know what I'm talking about.
But maybe we're being unfair because there are certain types of apples that I like.
I like the deep, deep, deep red ones.
They're almost like a crimson or scarlet color.
Yes.
I like those ones.
It's the green ones that I don't like very much.
Or just the kind of red ones, like a light red.
Those ones I really don't like.
But you do know that apples are really healthy in all different types of theory systems.
I know.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Do you have a Mandarin expression that's close to that?
We don't, but the Chinese translation of that is also quite popular among Chinese people.
Oh, yeah?
Mm-hmm.
I don't eat a lot of apples.
Me neither.
I like the more interesting fruits.
But when I'm talking about the conveniency like you said, eatability of different fruits, Chinese fruit vendors are doing things about it.
For example, they provide not only the entire fruit themselves, they also provide 果切.
果切.
果 is 水果的果, fruit.
切 is cut.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah. the fruit market.
So I saw these oranges and yes, I am obsessed with them.
I saw them, but I thought, uh, I don't know.
Cause you never know with oranges.
Sometimes they're amazing.
And then sometimes they're just not.
So I wanted to check and there was an open orange on display and it was exactly for that, so that you could take a piece of it and have a tastes.
That, of course, because we have more and more shop owners thinking about consumers' experience and everything but the 果切 I'm talking about here, the fruit cut I'm talking about here is a box of processed fruit.
By saying processed, I mean cleaned and cut into pieces, and you also have a collection of different types of fruits and you can have them at home delivered to you, and you can exactly just do nothing but enjoy them.
Yeah, yeah.
Those are good when you're feeling a little bit lazy.
Yes, and also you can try different type, because usually if you're having an entire huge apple or a big mango, it's enough.
But with that, you can try different ones without having to share it with many people.
Yeah, we buy that one all the time too.
Right.
And of course, nowadays, Chinese consumers think about 健康 health.
Yes, that's when they start to talk about how much sugar are included or contained in this one apple, in this one banana, whether or not it will trigger a sugar surge or blood sugar surge, whether or not you should be having too much fruits, like we mentioned in the beginning of our conversation, in the sense that, whether or not your body is with too much young energy or too much in energy, how do you balance it to you?
The degree that I think it affects the popularity of different fruits.
For example, the reason Lanmei blueberry is quite popular has been quite popular for several years is because people believe it's good for your eyesight.
Good for your eyes.
Yeah, but that being said, I remember reading an article last year and I just looked it up because I knew I remembered it.
This is from CBS News from March of 2024.
This is from America, by the way.
Approximately 95 of non-organic strawberries, leafy greens such as spinach and kale, collard and mustard greens.
Those are vegetables.
Grapes, peaches and pears tested by the United States government contain detectable levels of pesticides according to the 2024 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce.
Now...
I haven't said anything about blueberries yet until now.
Nectarines apples, bell and hot peppers cherries, blueberries and green beans rounded out the list of the 12 most contaminated samples of produce.
They are referred to as the dirty dozen.
So sad.
I love those fruits.
I know.
But I have to say, in the Chinese market you can find a lot of different types of fruit washing machines, particularly for fruits.
Well, maybe not.
Maybe you can use it for vegetables as well.
It's the kind of little machines, kind of like a washing machine for your clothes, but it's lighter.
It's more gentle.
And when you put it inside and also put in a little bit of organic or chemical but edible kind of disinfectant or just fruit wash or dishwash.
Dishwash or soap?
Yeah.
On fruit?
Yeah, but it's edible, so that you can use it to wash fruit and wash vegetable just to get rid of the pesticides and also different types of chemicals that are bad for your health.
Dish soap is edible yes, in some cases, because there are different types of dishwash.
I think it's the.
There's the a level ones and the b level ones.
The a level ones can be used to wash fruits and vegetables.
The b level ones is recommended to only be used on dishes.
See, i didn't know about this.
Yes well anyway, my point is that health is not the kind of you hear what.
It's so hard to eat anything these days because you hear one great thing about something like oh, coffee's really good for this, and then the next day a new article comes out.
It's like a coffee will ruin your life.
It's like You'd have trouble finding out what is what.
But yeah, if you're going to get fruits and vegetables, just make sure you're washing them very very, very well before you eat them.
And, in general, people like fruit, because fruits and vegetables you can eat them without overly process them, which is considered definitely healthier than the kind of food that are highly processed bread cake, bread.
Yeah.
I mean, if you can get it straight from the market and the fruits you know are delivered daily or weekly or whatever, that's a great way to buy them.
And beyond that, it's just fun to go to the fruit and vegetable market.
Yes.
Not the grocery store.
That's fun for different reasons, but the fruit and vegetable market just feels like you're walking into a garden.
Yes, and nowadays on the internet we mention this a little bit that is, you can get the kind of fruit directly shipped to your doorstep from its original places, original home, which means they can be extra sweet, they can be even fresher.
But that's not the only thing.
You can also get the kind of local fruit, the very xiao zhong niche kind of fruit, from directly where it's grown, which can be a very adventurous even, kind of experience.
You've never tried it.
It's something new.
It's very unique.
It's fun.
And that can be a great gift too, right?
Sure.
And that's the thing.
I realized that the reason we got to have so many different types of fruits on the market and having them lowering their price again and again is because the shipping, the logistic, the cold chain supply is being more and more mature.
Yeah, it's getting advanced to the point where they can get the fruit to you in top quality condition, whereas obviously in the past that would be hard to accomplish.
Yes, and that is also why people's demands for these kind of fruits or for anything is is Growing up a little bit.
We are talking about shu shang shu.
It's a way to describe fruits.
Shu is tree.
Shang is on.
Shu is mature, is ripe.
So basically, we're talking about the kind of fruit that have already matured, that is sweet enough, on the tree instead of being harvested after being harvested.
And that's the idea.
Because previously, when we do not have that good a shipping system, you have to take, for example, the mango out of the tree before it riped, fully riped, so that when you ship it to consumers they're not already gone bad.
But nowadays, you do not have to worry about it.
It takes one or two days.
It's true.
And it tastes better.
Do you know how to pick out a great watermelon?
Oh, you have to tap on it.
Yeah, they say that.
I don't know why.
There are two different types of sound.
You have to really listen to it.
Okay, but there's another way that I just learned about this summer.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
One has to do with the stripes, the width.
Oh, sharper stripes?
Yeah, and also the width or the distance between the stripes.
But I think the most important thing is, I always thought the watermelon should be like this beautiful green and dark green all around the melon.
Uh-huh.
All the whole way around.
No.
On the bottom, it should have a little white patch.
Oh, really?
Do you know what I'm talking about?
Yes, yes.
Yeah, it's almost like... it almost looks like a bald spot on a head, right?
Well, that's what you should look for because those are the best tasting ones.
And again, going back to this summer, oh my, seedless watermelon.
Do you remember those?
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
I've never, I don't really like watermelon.
And I said to my wife, cause she brought one home one day, and I was like well, that's for you babe.
I don't really, you know, she was like, I think you better, try this.
And I tried it and I didn't know watermelon could taste that good.
Yes.
Unbelievable.
And my friend that I was telling you about before, that's one of the things I told him.
I said, when you get, cause he arrived during watermelon season.
And when he arrived, after he got there for a couple of days, I said Hey listen, when you go to the supermarket, get a watermelon and look, I took a picture of the white spot on the bottom and I texted it to him and I said make sure you look for this.
And I just thought of one other reason that everybody should learn Chinese, that is, on Chinese social media.
You can find a lot of fun and useful short videos telling you how to pick the best fruit.
I remembered the watermelon one.
I also remembered for durian liulian you should find the ones with most sharp spikes and also so many different types of experience and good tips.
And you should definitely look for it.
How do you say durian again?
榴莲.
榴莲.
Durian.
And that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
No, wait, we can't finish yet.
Go ahead.
An adult should not eat more than 200 lychee at a time.
Okay, that's the data.
Now we can finish.
Yes, 荔枝.
And that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Niu Honglin with this in the studio and you have to after listening to today's show.
Leave us your favorite fruit in the comment area.
Let us know what is your favorite fruit and perhaps we can tell you how to say it in Chinese and how to pick the best ones out of a pile, because we can check it from Chinese social media.
Thank you so much for listening.
You can find our script on radiocgtncom, as well as a lot of other nice podcasts, but you can also search for Takeaway Chinese wherever you listen to your podcast.
Remember to send your favorite, favorite fruit and also a five-star rating to us.
Thank you so much.
感谢收听,我们下次再见。 谢谢,see you next time.
