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Hello everyone. Welcome to Take Away Chinese, I am Noo Noo and joining me today.
Hello Steve, great to have you.
Thank you so much! I always love doing Take Away Chinese with you and I can't wait.
It's my favorite topic today.
Oh, really? We'll get to it soon.
We'll get to it. And for those of you who are listening, if you're interested in Chinese culture and want to get a grip on the Chinese language, then this is the show for you.
Stick with us for 30 minutes, and you'll soon see the rewards.
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Before the opening part, actually, Steve has already shared that we're talking about your favorite topic.
What is that? Well, food in general.
Food in general? Do you know how to say food in Chinese?
That should be the first word that I learned how to say in Chinese.
It should, it should.
And also, it is not that hard. Or maybe, I can put it this way.
It is the kind of word that you have many choices for.
You can say in general kind of fish all but also very useful way to say it is shoe shoe shoe shoe Shoe carries the meaning of eat but relatively formal and we'll is an object so the object that you can't the object that you eat shoe quite straightforward shoe shoe and Also in everyday life what you can do is to put it in very simple ways That is when you eat you wait That is a verb, and in Chinese there is a simple way to turn the verb into a noun and that is to put the character after it.
So means the things that you can eat, the things that you can drink, the things that you can play, so easy way to turn verbs into nouns.
Isn't it funny? I thought, you know, you learn about the dish names.
You learn about beverage names you learn how to say certain things, but the actual Overall general term.
I guess you don't use it that often you don't use it that often, right?
Yeah, you don't use it that often in everyday conversations so did you see my face when you said do you know how to say food I realize uh, no heard that before but you can use it because I think one of the most important questions in life the question that that troubles me all the time is what to eat this morning, what to eat this noon, what to eat this evening.
In Chinese we say in the morning eat what?
In the evening eat what?
So, yeah, you kind of still do that.
Is that your personality too?
You struggle with deciding what to eat in the morning at Yeah, in China.
Yeah, not because I don't have enough choices.
On the country, it's because I have too many choices.
That's exactly it. And in that case, sometimes instead of knowing what I want, I kinda know what I want.
I do not know exactly what I want but I know I want something good.
So in Chinese, we sometimes say, I would like to go eat something good.
Don't think, just everybody says that every day.
That's the thing. You still need to learn about food, the word food.
When you know you want to eat something, yet you do not know exactly what it is.
Just yet. So we talked about shi -duh being things that you can eat.
Hao is good. So good eating thing would be good food.
Ha chu -duh. HAO CHU -DH.
HAO CHU -DH. Well. I'll tell you what.
If you're having trouble deciding on a snack for later on today, maybe a dish, you can get some ideas from what we'll talk about.
Oh yeah, also these ideas are to be honest, brand new to me personally, because I'd like to try new things, but I think I don't want to travel too much to different places.
As in I don't want to travel in the city too much, I like to travel to different places when I'm in a traveling mood but when you're in a working, living in the same city kind of mood, I just, you know, do not want to go to different parts of the city that much. which limits my exploration area.
Yeah, but you can just get the delivery app opened up and you can order food from almost anywhere in Beijing.
That's true, that's true.
Which is an amazing thing, even if it's...
Why am I, it saves my life.
Even if it's on the other side of the city, they'll still deliver that restaurant food to you.
That's true, so on that note, what is your favorite food and maybe beverage?
Well, you said in the morning you can't decide what to start your day with.
for me it's easy coffee.
Oh coffee sure. I cannot start my day without coffee.
That's like the on switch for my brain.
For some people it is like that.
So what is your favorite type of coffee.
Do you have a favorite type because I don't.
In Canada people used to drink or people still drink cream and sugar in their coffee.
I don't know if that's common in China or not but it certainly is in Canada.
Two creams and two sugars we call that a double double by the way.
A double double. Yeah, two creams, two sugar.
Listen, when I lived in Canada that was totally normal to me.
I didn't know any other flavor of coffee.
I didn't drink black coffee.
And then I moved to this part of the world and I started drinking black coffee, then I went back to Canada and I had two cream and two sugar in my coffee again.
Oh my gosh. I felt like I was just licking a stick of sugar.
It was like pure sweetness.
That's what I was thinking about because in China, in general now, people are looking for less sugar and even decaf coffee in certain occasions.
So instead of having the choice of 你知小, double sugar, 你知小, double cream or double milk in this case, what we usually would see as choices when you're delivering or when you're ordering would be 你知小, so half sugar, 你知小 or 你知小, no sugar at all.
I think it's just what you're used to, right?
so I used to drink double cream and double sugar then I moved to this part of the world I started drinking black coffee That's true and now the healthier by the way.
Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, so that's what I drink now No cream no sugar at all Just straight black coffee black coffee is Americano in a way.
Yes with ice always with ice I'm one of those weird people that even in the winter time.
I have to have ice in my coffee.
It's not weird It's just high tolerance to cold stuff All right, so by the way, Americano in Chinese would be méi shu.
And also there's nà tìe for example.
That sounds like latte.
It is latte. And the thing is, sometimes again in China would like to use easier or shorter form of words, so if you just directly say méi shu in a coffee shop, people do understand.
So, it's easier. Yeah, exactly.
I think that was the first lesson that I learned after arriving in Beijing is how to order a coffee.
Because as I said, I can't go without it, so that was a good one for me.
Why are you asking me about coffee today?
Because actually, with more and more people enjoying coffee and having a particular interest in other things, we're getting very creative here in China about coffee.
I learned that, and I think it's pretty well established that the tea culture here in China is quite strong.
There's a lot of history there, right?
The coffee culture is kind of in its beginning stages.
Is that fair to say, or has it been around for a while?
It depends on how you define beginning stage.
If you compare coffee's history here in China with the almost hundreds of years of tea history in China you can say it's in its beginner stage.
Yet if you talk about the actual situation like the size of the market, people's habit, how many of us are developing the ritual of having a coffee to start the day, and even sometimes blend coffee and tea?
I would say it's pretty much nice already.
I've never heard of blending coffee and tea.
You have never heard of blending coffee?
What do you call that?
Cha -cha? Oh, quite close.
Cha -cha. Cha -cha. Oh, I got it backwards.
Yeah, tea coffee. Yeah, cuz cha is tea, so I thought if you just combine the two words.
I've not tried that before, is it good?
I think it's good. It has this special smell of tea, and also you can taste different layers in the coffee and in the tea, and in the mix, in the mixture for sure, but tea is definitely not the weirdest thing you can mix in coffee.
Tell me. Have you ever heard of frozen pear?
Yeah, that's dessert right, that's enjoyed in, uh you're gonna have to help me with the locations, but in Southern part.
In the southern part of the country?
Uh -huh, have you tried it?
No, I haven't tried it, I heard about it, they freeze the pear and when they freeze the pear that changes the texture of the hair, flesh a little bit, maybe making it a little bit softer or a little bit maybe even change the flavor, make it a little bit sweeter.
Yes, and actually, it's something quite popular in the northern part of the country.
I've just tried it several months ago, or maybe just several weeks ago in Harbin.
It's quite nice. It turns the texture of the pear into popsicles, okay, because Do you it because you know some pears they have this little Uh even like particles in the texture you can taste it and if you turn it into almost like ice, it's quite different and It is quite Commonly loved especially in this harsh winter days.
It's really easy to freeze a pear Just throw it outside of her window and after a night it can go grab it Right.
Nature is your refrigerator in that sense.
Oh yes. But we're talking about coffee.
So why are you talking about frozen?
There's no frozen pear coffee, is there?
There is. And we call it Dong Lee Cafe.
Dong Lee Cafe? Yes, so Dong stands for freeze or frozen.
And Li is pear. So Dong Lee Cafe.
It is a flavor. Have you ever tried for example the orange type of coffee?
orange juice with coffee with you haven't tried that you're blowing my mind you started with the tea and coffee orange juice coffee orange juice like actual pieces of orange or orange juice soda oh interesting yes I think Don Lee half is kinda inspired by the orange flavor coffee as well but don't leave since it's pretty much a really Chinese style thing a northern part of the country -style thing it is quite something new and I actually tried it several weeks ago how is it I love it yeah yeah because with the fruity flavor and also the essence of the coffee and that type of coffee in my opinion has to
go with ice which is your favorite type well that's what I was gonna ask you so how do they serve it do they cut off a piece of the pear and then put it in the coffee so it kind of acts like an ice cube because of the pear is frozen in the beginning but then I was thinking no because the coffee would melt the frozen pear almost immediately would it not?
There are different ways to do it actually since it's something brand new and it's basically a mixture of the Western style and the local Chinese style different coffee shop would have different ways.
Some would squeeze the juice in the frozen pear, Dong Li Ju and then mix it with coffee.
Some would use a blender and just mix everything together.
There are different ways and they're all tasty.
Because it's new. They're still figuring out or being creative with different ways to come up with recipes.
Yes. That's what I would say.
very much have a lot of chuangyi, innovation, our innovation is chuangyi.
yes chuang is chuan zou, so if you create something you chuan zou something and Yi is idea, so being very creative.
so you said it's gonna get weird?
that doesn't sound overly weird to me?
that doesn't sound overly weird because I'm easing you in.
okay it gets weird. OK, so have you ever tried tang jar or yang xiao?
You must have. Sure.
Those are the little the little snacks, right.
Popular during spring festival time.
Lantern festival time as well, with fillings in it, black sesame, different or red paste beans, yeah, a glutinous rice bowl.
Try putting them in coffee.
OK, we're right, it was gonna get weird. Because this is typically a well, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's typically a dessert, right?
Or you can kind of regret it as a special staple food for the special occasions?
Yeah, right. So the interior of the glutinous rice ball can vary.
It can be the red bean paste, it can be my favorite, which are the little seeds with some sort of sugar.
I don't know exactly.
I don't know. You're But what do you do you put it in the coffee you put it in the coffee and then and then you enjoy the whole thing So the right having a beverage as well as I don't know a dinner The right falls apart from the because the glutinous rice balls.
They look like little table tennis balls They look like ping -pong balls.
Right? So what happens to the rice?
they're still, you know together and My suggestion is to finish all the tongue yuan before they mess up with your coffee No, so you have to drink it faster.
Have you tried this one?
No, I haven't tried this one, but I would like to.
Yeah, I'd give it a shot, but I'm not sure I'd love this, to be honest. If you really think about it during Lantern Festival, you love your coffee and you still kind of want to experience a little bit of Chinese culture from the style or in the area of Chinese cuisine, then glutenous rice ball or tangyuan is something quite auspicious in a way, because it represents reunion, getting together, completeness, and these are all really nice connotations.
And when you explain it like that, and remember during the Spring Festival the weather's still kind of cold, right?
During the Lantern Festival still a little chilly outside, so it kind of turns the coffee into a dessert kind of beverage slash snacks.
So, chilly outside I'm thinking, okay, maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
Yeah, if you think that maybe now you're more open to the idea of having deep -fried dough sticks in your coffee.
Yes, please. Yo tiao.
Yo tiao. Have you ever tried Yo tiao?
Of course, I've tried Yo Tiao.
In coffee really? No, but this makes sense to me, so Yo Tiao, these are the deep -fried pastry bread sticks, they're usually about this long or so and people eat them when they order their congee in the morning which I've done about a hundred times so far.
Now it's just a perfect accompaniment.
It tastes so good. The flavor of the breadstick itself it's not really strong.
No it's not strong at all and it itself just tastes like a I don't know a donut maybe or something like that?
Well you say that it makes a lot of sense to match it with coffee.
No exactly and sometimes in Canada we'll take our donuts and dip them into the coffee cups.
So this is not a strange thing for me at all.
Interesting, because I was thinking it does make sense because in China we match up yoyo tiao with doujiang.
What's doujiang? Soy bean juice.
Which is also served at breakfast time.
Exactly. That's the thing.
If you have a habit of having coffee during breakfast, and then you're pretty much matching every breakfast material with your coffee already.
And yu and tiao, by the way, these deep fried dough stick, yu is oil.
And tiao is basically a long object.
So the stick. Oil stick.
You're matching your yu and tiao with the coffee already.
but I think the reason it's getting popular in different places is because no one has sell it before.
So that's the idea.
So I've only had the youtiao without any flavorings at all but I always thought to myself this would be really good if you sprinkled some powdered sugar on it or dipped it in sugar or something like that.
Do people do that? I don't.
I can imagine it would be really nice especially if you're going to dip it into your coffee.
I'll try next time but you know in China, if you wanted two people from the south and the north to get into a fight, ask them whether or not they have their for example mooncake or Tang Yuan or Yuan Xiao or Dao Hua any of these things, sweet ways or savory ways.
There's the fight. For me, Yaudio -Chiao is definitely something that goes with salt, not with sugar.
So I've touched upon a sensitive nerve.
I've unknowingly touched upon a sensitive cultural nerve.
No, maybe just for me.
It's just a funny little check.
I see. But I think it's fun to see that we're getting more and more open to the idea of being a little bit naughty with our food.
Yeah. And it's being creative, right.
And it's and it's being fun.
And it doesn't mean that every time you create a new dish, it has to be this amazing five star, you know, Michelin star dish.
It's try it out. See if it's amazing.
See if it's great. See if you like it, if you like it.
Try it. Do you like Hong Jao You?
Hong Jao You. braced pork.
Oh my gosh with the soy sauce, sometimes the cinnamon, sometimes the star anise right, I think it depends on the restaurant, depends on the recipe yes there's pork belly now pork belly for me you can never go wrong but that sauce it's got this sweet caramel flavor to it it's almost syrupy but not really syrupy a little bit a little bit right it's one of my favorites actually i think where i'm going with this and coffee yes that's a hard no pork and coffee yes no no no no listen the pear okay you had me at the pear i'm okay with that the rice balls fine if we do slippery slope if we have to do
the rice balls the no the bread stick is no problem at all but the a pork belly in coffee.
Why? Because we can.
Because we can. This is the perfect lesson just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
Because if you really think about it, as long as you do not put sugar in coffee, coffee in its own way is neutral.
It's not sweet, it's not sour, it's not savory, it's not definitely not spicy.
It's a little bitter.
It's a little bitter, but bitter is the kind of taste that can go with any other ones.
If you put savory and sweet together, it can be a little bit weird. But if you put sweet and bitter together, that is just coffee with sugar.
Yeah, that's true. That's why people are getting creative.
In China when we describe different flavors, we say sweet, bitter, sweet, bitter, sweet, noises So these are the flavors.
Those are all of the flavors.
Sometimes we say, w Fujian, so all these 5 flavors together.
Usually used to describe the life, not the food, but it can be.
You blend things together with different portions.
And that is why Hong Shaozhou Cafe is not impossible.
It's just putting a bit more sweet and savory into the bitterness.
So, when I... I'm justifying Hong Xiaoro's coffee by the way.
When you started this I thought, no way.
Because in the image I had in my mind, you're dipping pork into the coffee.
I thought, no, that's weird. I don't want pork in my coffee.
But then I thought, wait a minute.
If you had a pork dish and you just poured some coffee on top of that, where you had coffee flavor.
Well then it kind of made sense to me so what difference does it make if the pork's going in the coffee or the coffee's going into the pork?
It's all gonna be the same flavors matching together.
I'd give it a try I think.
I'm hesitant on this one but I'll give it a shot.
In that case you might not hate the last choice which is Qingjiao Cafe.
Qingjiao Cafe? Yes.
Qingjiao is green pepper.
Green pepper coffee.
This one is not that bad because instead of chopping them into little pieces and putting them in coffee and forcing you to finish everything we're using it as a cup.
So you cut the top off the green pepper, you scoop out the inside, all the seeds and those white walls.
I don't know what you call those.
And then you pour coffee inside.
Interesting concept.
Does Does it hold the coffee?
It doesn't leak at all?
It holds the coffee pretty well.
And on that note, I think we can have Xinjiao Cafe.
We can have Pumpkin, received a Nangua Cafe.
We can even perhaps have Bo Lo Cafe.
Anything that you could scoop the inside out of.
You could turn into that.
So it's not that bad.
And I think this is a fun topic for sure.
It's not that common in China just yet.
Not everybody is pairing up their breakfast with coffee, not everybody is having home with coffee, but we are actually happy to see these kinds of innovation and food and every little detail in life because we're embracing different types, we're embracing different culture, and it's always a fun thing to create new things.
And that's why I said I've been to a lot of breakfast restaurants here in Beijing, and I haven't seen coffee served with your traditional Chinese breakfast items but that could be changing now and then when new things start to change then the owners the chefs they'll start to get a little bit creative with their ideas so you know maybe everything on here might not be for us or might not be for everyone today but I think it's definitely worth a shot.
It's a fun concept in general.
So which type is your favorite and your least favorite?
Well the least favorite I think is gonna have to be the pork.
Oh really? Oh really?
Houng Shao -Rou, can't they.
I think so. I'm gonna force you to learn that word. Houng Shao -Rou.
Houng Shao -Rou? So houng is red because it carries...
Oh, I think it's brown.
Brownish red. Brownish red, but it's still red.
And also houng shao is actually a way of cooking here in China.
That's a method. Yes, you can houng shao -rou or you can houng shao yu.
So houng shao is a method.
So, shao in itself means to burn.
But shao is also again a cooking method so hóng shao is a type.
And zhón is merely just meat.
So hóng shao zhó, that's the meat.
Hóng shao zhó. That's your least favourite.
Zxì bu xi huan. List favourite.
Which one is your absolute favourite?
Just among these ones?
Well, I was going to go, you know, with the fried dough.
Really? really. Difting coffee because that's so natural for me.
Like I said, we do this in Canada already with donuts so it's really not that big a stretch at all.
I would go with that.
I know this upsets you culturally.
I would still make it a little bit sweet if I had the option.
I've never tried that with salt by the way.
You don't try it with salt.
It's just in a dough?
No. In my experience, I try it with dough for you.
It's a kind of sauce generated from tofu.
And I would also try it with dofu na 'o.
That is the tofu, very tender tofu soup thing, and also, I try it with doujiang.
So the way – when I say I still like it, to be – see.
When I'm talking, I realize I have tried sweet ones.
We have yuobing instead, so yu… you already know that's oil.
So, yó t 'yáo, that is the stick.
Whereas yó bien is like a oil cake but it's not cakes, it's like pancake kind of cake.
And on that one, you do have a layer of sugar already.
See? So I do do that.
And did you like it?
I like it. Well, there you go.
I'm questioning the very core of what I said...
Who you are as a person.
... who I am! This is so weird!
And if I dip yó bien in coffee, it actually makes sense!
Right. Okay let's make a deal then okay we'll go out for some coffee I'll get the pork in the coffee you can try the sweet dough and we'll see what happens.
Yes and I have to say my favorite would be Dong Lī cafe the frozen pear.
That's because you've tried it and you know.
I try it I tried it and I like it I think the concept of fruity coffee is actually a good idea especially if it's fruity soda, qi pao cafe.
So qi pao mei shu, by the way, it's also a thing.
Qi pao mei shu. Yes.
Qi is air. And pao is bubble.
So bubbly water, bubbly soda.
Carbonated. Qi pao cafe, that's a thing.
That's kind of what I really enjoy.
Ahh, see I've not tried that one either.
You know, I've been drinking coffee for almost my whole adult life and I've just realized today quite limited in what I've tried so far so I have a lot of work to do.
Oh glad you think that way.
Here in China I try different things.
I'm actually finding it quite amusing because when we are super proud of something from our own culture there are different approaches some of us would find it a bit offensive if you do weird experiment on our stuff, on our food.
Yeah, the traditionalist, the purest. They don't want you to mess with the original recipe at all.
Yeah, I've heard that if you want to make someone from Italy angry, then you put fruit on pizza.
Yeah right. Maybe a little bit stereotypical.
But what I'm saying is there's that approach. And there is another approach, which in my opinion is the kind of approach that most Chinese people will take.
that is if you like what we offer and if you use it and apply it in your life, either dressing up with traditional Chinese costume from different ethnic groups or trying Chinese dish or learning to cook Chinese dish in your own kitchen, in our opinion it is taken as a compliment.
Yeah, that's great.
That's my next step I think.
I love to cook so I'm going to start to try some Chinese dishes at home.
I haven't done it just yet.
which means I'm ordering a lot more food than I'd like to but every time I order some dish I kind of look at it and kind of analyze like okay here's what's maybe I can try to find these ingredients now I know it's probably gonna be harder than what you think I know exactly it's not gonna be harder than what I think I know it's gonna be hard which is it's fun right try to pick out what the spices are and the next time go to the Mart and see if I can replicate it at home I think is opening to new ideas and enjoying innovation.
But still if you can use different words to describe this kind of mixture of Western style and Eastern style or Italian pizza.
Pineapple on pizza.
Some people really don't like that, right?
Or spaghetti in Chinese potato or tomato fried egg kind of sauce, whatever those.
What would be the word you wanna use to describe this kind of new approaches.
Unique. Unique, dù -tù.
Literally, unique because dù means single, a single one.
For example, dù -shìn it means you're single, you do not have a final girlfriend, dù -shìn and dù.
Tù is special, so it is special and it's one of a kind.
Okay, I would also say well I I wouldn't say, but for some people they might say, oh, it's a little bizare.
Bizare, qiguai. Qiguai.
Qiguai. So both qi and gwai carries the meaning of you find it a bit strange.
Okay. Can you help me out with that pronunciation again?
The first syllable.
It's not the CH sound from English, right?
It's somewhere in between.
Somewhere in between.
So xi. xi. xi. xi. You put the middle part of your tongue against the ceiling of your mouth.
Okay. A little bit.
Now you're using the tip of your tongue to touch the ceiling.
You wanna use the middle part.
Better. Yes. That's funny how you knew where the tip of my tongue, I was using the tip of my tongue as opposed to the middle of my tongue.
You're a good Chinese language teacher and for those of you who are learning Chinese, who want to know what you're doing wrong, you can send us a clip of you reading certain Chinese words or Chinese sentences and we'll tell you what you're doing wrong.
Yeah, or what you're doing right.
It sounds much better in my head.
Now I'm saying I can be very picky with your Chinese pronunciation.
It doesn't mean like that.
I mean, I can help you with it.
Yeah, and I would encourage our listeners and our viewers to send questions related pronunciation as well because I can tell you this first hand and I'm not sure if this depends on other languages but when you're a native English speaker there are some mouth placements and tongue placements that are just foreign right they just they just don't really naturally appear and for that kind of sound that you just told me so for example putting the tongue in the upper part of your or the roof of your mouth and then making that Chi sound that you're getting better.
I well now I know where to put my tongue but with that kind of explanation then it makes it easier so don't be shy about asking questions about like tongue placement and lip placement or whatever the case may be because it really does help.
It really does help and since we're on the subject of learning things um that can be used we're learning words that can be used to describe something weird, bizarre, strange there is a word that we use um quite a lot these days, but I think from around 20 years ago, the meaning of it changed a little bit.
What's that? Qui pa?
Qui pa? Yes, so pa is actually a kind of flower in its original meaning.
It means a strange, a hard -to -see, rare, beautiful flower, so it used to be a very positive word, yet around 20 years ago, people started to use it as something strange and something bizarre with a relatively negative connotation.
Really? Well, I wonder why?
It's just the evolving of language and when people started to use the original words to describe something else and it's getting popular, more adopted by more people.
So qi pa is now, in my opinion, relatively negative.
So weird in a bad way?
Yes. Let me ask you this question.
if you say weird in English, sometimes it can we sometimes ask the question weird bad or weird good, right?
So, does weird always mean something negative in Chinese or for example if you say qi 'pa qi 'pa in my opinion in most cases would mean something weird bad, okay, qi 'gewa is relatively neutral, okay?
And qi 'tuh, qi 'tuh I think qi qì would be relatively positive.
Okay. So we're good.
You know, one thing when I… Qi qì.
Yes. When I was browsing on the internet buying stuff, for those of you who follow my Facebook page NyoNyoChinese or who are really really long time fan of learned Chinese Facebook page.
You might notice that there has been a series of Bits and Pieces by NyoNyo.
That's the bits and pieces I bought, strange little things.
I like to buy strange little things, fun things that make me feel like, wow, this person creating this one is really creative, something like that.
And I used to search the keyword, xin -qi -tu -uh.
xin -qi -tu. Yes, so xin means new, qi something strange, tu -be, something special.
And with that keyword, you can find a lot of strange stuff.
Strange good in my opinion.
I'm curious to see what's in your closet.
Oh, there are many and that is why qi -tue in my opinion carries the meaning of weird good.
Gotcha. Yes, so qi -tue, relatively positive.
Qiguai, neutral. And qi -pa, relatively negative.
So the pork belly...how to say that again, the pork belly dish in the coffee.
奨結笤你, shape it in a restaurant.
奨結笤你, shape it in a restaurant.
Yes, 是笤你, shape it in a restaurant.
In Chinese one, you want to say the noun is the adjective.
What you do instead of saying which is you say or very, it's just a habit.
If you use in public, so for example, if you are in a restaurant or if you're in a shop and the server wants you to try something and you taste it is that a bad would that be a rude thing to say I'm thinking like in English if you said oh this is a little bit weird but I like it see the part is the most important hardest but I like it don't just say so I thought yeah it's weird good yeah you're right cuz in English you wouldn't only say those words, weird, good.
Yeah, you within do that on it.
Yeah, so you can say very creative, or it's very strange, but I like it.
Or how about Yes, that works as well.
Okay. Because means it tastes good.
It tastes good. Okay, good.
Learn something new I can use if I'm trying some sort of unique dishes, because it's true, right?
I'm in China and I'm learning all kinds of new foods or new dishes that I haven't tried before, so this is a good expression for me.
Tzì tói dánxia haozóu.
Tánxì means but. But it's good.
It's a weird good but it's still good.
Yeah, that's the idea.
And there are other ways to describe different fusion food or a different mixture of things when you're creating new things, but I think the overall idea behind all of these is that we want something special and new in our lives, and no matter it's because we have a whimsical idea all of a sudden, or it's because we are deeply in a conversation with a brand new concept and we want to blend it in our original ones.
it's still kind of a qi tue, but good idea.
I can agree with that because how are we supposed to find new things if we're only sticking with the traditional things?
Since we already covered the beverage part we've talked about a lot of different types of coffee even though coffee is originally something from the West and now you get to see that Chinese people are doing a lot of Thanks with the coffee, with Chinese element.
How about Chinese food or Chinese dish?
What is your favorite Chinese dish?
Oh, favorite Chinese dish.
I would have to say still, you know, I'm trying new things all the time.
But I keep going back to the duck.
I think that's my favorite one.
The Beijing duck. Beijing cow, yeah.
Beijing cow, yeah. Yes, that is your favorite one.
I think so. Yeah. that's where I started and from there I started branching out to different dishes right so I think what I'm doing in my mind is every time I try something new I'm asking myself do I like this as much as I like the duck and sometimes it's yes and sometimes it's no but I think if I have to choose one overall that's still gonna be the answer I want to ask you this because I think for a of people who have never been to China, they still have chance to try Chinese food, authentic, or pretty much localized ones.
But what is your overall impression or idea about Chinese food?
Well, it's different from the Chinese food that we get in North America.
We call that American Chinese food, right?
In fact, in Canada, we don't call it American Chinese food, we just call it Chinese food.
But I think that people in Canada probably don't realize that the food that we get at those types of restaurants Is kind of different from the food that we might get here in China What I've found though, is that there are some dishes that are the same kung pao chicken for kung pao ji ding Yeah, kung pao ji ding.
That's almost exactly the same is what you'd get in Canada But then there are dishes that we have in Canada that you well, I can't find here in China For example, we have something called egg rolls.
Have you ever heard of egg rolls before?
Egg rolls? I'm not really sure if it's because of translation, or because we do have, for example, spring rolls.
We call it chuanzhiyun.
Yeah, it's kind of the same thing, but yet somehow it's a little bit different.
I think it varies from restaurant to restaurant, but it's still kind of a fried dumpling.
But then we eat that with plum sauce.
We call it plum sauce, which is, I don't even know if There's plums in it to be honest with you.
It's like this sweet sauce that only goes with Chinese egg rolls.
We never eat it anywhere else that I know.
Ooh, you can also put it on the fried rice as well.
But outside of that, we don't eat it anywhere else.
But yeah, I would say some of the dishes are similar, but a lot of them are very, very different.
That is the thing, because when we are doing something qì chì with the coffee, I think people all around the world are doing something in our opinion, sie t 'eau, with Chinese food, but I don't think it's a bad thing in the sense that localization is always needed because in here we already talked about having double sugar, double cream as a habit.
Yet here in China you have no sugar or half the sugar as a habit.
So different people would have different preferences.
Yeah and I think when you're...
See Chinese food doesn't necessarily need any introduction to other food cultures because it's been around for so long and everybody's so familiar with it but still you want to change your flavor profiles a little bit when you're introducing food to another market.
It's just a more comfortable way for customers to become accustomed with certain dishes.
Yes and that goes back to our previous discussion about whether or not we like people to make changes to the things that we're proud of.
And to me, personally at least, I very much like that.
I enjoy people enjoy the things I like and they can make changes about it.
And I think that is one way to popularize the proud element, the proud creations of my people.
Yeah and that's a great attitude to have about it.
It's You've had Chinese food outside of China before?
Yes. Yeah. And what's your thought?
What's your opinion?
My opinion is, ci tue, thank you.
It's strange, but it's good.
Yes. So for those of you who are listening, let us know what is your favorite type of Chinese food.
And in the meantime, what is your favorite creation of Chinese food?
Did you do something about it?
Or maybe you have your very own great creation, and we'd love to know that.
And if you can send us a picture on our Facebook page Learn Chinese, that would be even better.
And that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Nion Nion with Steve here in the studio.
For more episodes of the show you can visit our website at video .cgtn .com and go to the column podcast. You can also listen to the show and read the script there.
Find us wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Just search for Takeaway Chinese.
Chinese. Don't forget to leave your questions, comments and hopefully a 5 -star rating.
And also, don't forget the pictures of the dishes that you've been cooking to.
Ooh, yes. You definitely wanna see those.
That'll give me ideas for what to eat and what to try to cook when I go to the mall next night.
Yes. So, again, hello, welcome to my very first show.
See you soon. Thank you so much. Bye bye.
