LIUS Nov. 26
Chopsticks vs. knife and fork’ 筷子和刀叉文化
Today in our traversal of the 300 ways for foreigners to tell if they’ve been in China too long, we discussed the pros and cons of chopsticks vs. knives and forks. Naturally, Kevin was a firm supporter of chopsticks, whereas I put the case that knives and forks are far better-designed tools for eating. It was a very lively show, and it was the first show ever where Kevin and I got so carried away with our talk, that we forgot to play a song in the middle of the show.
We only noticed at the end, when we were running out of time. Kevin explained that Chinese food traditionally has four aspects of perfect preparation, and that this is why people use chopsticks, so as not to destroy the ‘beautiful’ look of the food, before it is eaten. Well, I am more practical. I think the food is all the same when it is in one’s mouth, and that a knife and fork is a much more sensible way to eat a fried egg, or a steak, for example. Anyway, I couldn’t convince Kevin.
And on a related food topic, two weeks ago we discussed some weird flavours in Chinese food. I was too busy to write the blog article for that show, but here it is now…
‘Corn-flavoured ice-cream’
As part of our ongoing series of talks about how foreigners can tell if they’ve been in China ‘too long’, we based today’s talk on the premise that if a foreigner is used to the flavour of corn ice-cream, then he has definitely been in China too long. To this I also added a few other flavours of my own, including pea and taro (the dreaded ‘purple vegetable’). I also found it strange, when I first came to China that red beans are used for sweet things. But I am used to that now, such as hong dou bing. However I still cannot get used to the other flavours, mentioned above, for sweet things.
It is strange how different people and cultures develop different tastes. Another example is that in England we use aniseed (hui xiang) as a sweet taste for certain children’s sweets. Although actually it is not commonly used in food or cooking. But in China it is always cooked with beef. I simply cannot get used to the taste of beef with aniseed. I hate it! And in Holland, they use aniseed in yet another way: there is a special national chewy liquorice sweet, called ‘drop’, which is a mixture of aniseed and sugar (as in the UK) … but also with a lot of salt too! That is a very strange taste, for me. But my Dutch friends love it!
Ed.