Chapter 7 Part 1: Cambridge New and Old My Chinese Stomach

At noon, I had an extremely unpalatable meal in the cafeteria of the college: rotten rice, limp French fries, and terrible fried carrot sticks.Yi said that in the college canteen you can fully appreciate what is bad British food.Learned.Who said that you can take a Chinese girl out of China, but you can never take away her Chinese stomach. This is true of canteens, and so is the British family.I have been to several British friends' houses as guests, and they are all decent families with rich families, but the food they eat is really unflattering.There are a few dishes that are messy and everything. They are put together in a glass bowl and eaten out after being cooked in the oven. In addition, there is no seasoning added, which is really hard to swallow.What Chinese people think is no different from pig food (forgive my rudeness), they can eat it with relish.No wonder the French, who are also well-known for their cooking skills, want to laugh at the British: "We live to eat, and you eat to live." The blandness of British food is also known around the world.

According to my observations, there are roughly two ways to cook British cuisine: simple ones, throw the vegetables into the water, fish them out, and put them on a plate; more advanced ones, throw the vegetables into the oil, fish them out, and put them on a plate .Although the British are not particular about the dishes, they can get endless fun from eating simple food.The reason lies in the exquisite plates and plates on the table, all kinds of silver tableware, and the polite manners when dining.I am afraid of death Going to the college to have a formal hall (formal dinner), it’s okay if it’s unpalatable, the key is that I can’t afford the time, it usually takes three or four hours, and I often yawn so much that I can’t wait to throw myself on the beautiful dining table.The cumbersome table manners are even more troublesome.Candlelight flickers on the long table, and someone will strike the gong with a small mallet, and all the students will stand up in awe and listen to the teacher's lecture, and then someone will sing a paragraph of Latin that no one can understand .The dinner officially started, and the waiters came up to pour the wine one after another, and asked softly: "Red or White?" The reason why red wine goes with red meat and white wine goes with white meat is easy to understand.During the entire dinner, the waiter is always at the table, refilling wine and serving food at any time.Generally, you can eat buns before the meal, break them open and spread butter on your own.It is taboo to bite a whole piece of bread into your mouth, you have to stuff it into your mouth in small pieces.The first course is usually soup. The soup of Westerners is completely opposite to that of Chinese people. Chinese people drink clear soup, while foreigners drink thick soup.The soup should be scooped out from the side of the body with a silver spoon, which is the opposite of our usual scooping method.When drinking soup, never point your mouth directly at the small bowl. If you make a sound, it will be even more unsightly.The second course is the main course, mostly steaks, pork chops, chicken nuggets or barbecues, usually without seasoning, you must add salt or pepper yourself.There are also a few overcooked ping-pong ball-sized balls, or a few baked potatoes.Next up is biscuit cheese and coffee dessert.Knives and forks have long been placed on both sides of the plate, the outermost ones are used first, and a pair of knives and forks needs to be replaced for each dish. Everything is in order.Diners hold a knife in their right hand and a fork in their left hand. The knife must never be close to the mouth, and the food must be delivered to the mouth with the fork.Generally, Westerners use a fork like a shovel. For example, the Germans can shovel green beans and corn into their mouths without any effort.But in the eyes of typical British people, eating with a spoon is one of the "world wonders", and using a fork to shovel food is even more uneducated.The British are really good at using the fork.They use a fork, always with the back of the fork facing up. When eating, they push the rice grains up the back of the fork with a table knife, and then carefully put them into the mouth. In awe.I once had the honor to observe the whole process of a British gentleman tasting their "national food" - Fish-and-Chips (fish and chips) in the cafeteria of Queen's College.Turns out the really typical Brit doesn't eat the fried bread crumbs that coat the fish.I saw him holding a knife and fork at the same time, using a technique more skillful than us eating hairy crabs, carefully and gently stirring up the layer of fish skin, and he went all out to strive for a "whole fish". I was amazed.One of my French classmates disdains the attitude of the British. He often stares angrily at the food lacking salt and oil on the table, and sighs in a lukewarm tone: "We have good food; in England people have good table manners" (we have good food, the British have good table manners).To the point!

Diet can reflect many culturally essential things.The French have a very well-developed imagination in food. In a restaurant in Paris, when I opened the menu, I suddenly saw the quotation of Sartre printed on the title page: "On the road to freedom" is quite philosophical.The Chinese adhere to the belief that "food is paramount to the people". Regarding eating, they talk about their philosophy, methods, and practice.There are many Chinese literati who are politicians, literati, poets, and senior chefs like Su Dongpo.Ordinary people know Su Shi probably not because of his outstanding talent and splendid articles, but because of the delicious "Dongpo meat" he invented.The Chinese dare to eat anything, anything that flies in the sky, walks on the ground, or swims in the water can be included in the plate.When I was in middle school, my British friend Emily came to visit me from Hong Kong, and there was a hot plate bullfrog on the dinner table for her.After eating, she was full of praise and asked me what was on the plate.The bullfrog is obviously beyond the scope of my English vocabulary. After thinking hard, I blurted out: frog (frog).I swear for the rest of my life I'll never forget Emily's little panic-stricken face as she stormed out the door, vomit, vomit, vomit.When I came back, I stared at me with extremely resentful eyes, gnashing my teeth word by word: My pet is a frog (My pet is a frog).sin, sin.

The famous French cultural anthropologist Levi-Strauss once wrote a brick-thick book "The Raw and the Cooked" (The Raw and the Cooked), which explores the relationship between food cooking methods and ethnicity.The high degree of development of Chinese civilization can also be seen in its extreme enthusiasm for cooked food.In Chinese cuisine, there seem to be many dishes that are "smelted three times in fire, quenched in water three times, blown in wind for three years, and marinated in a vat until moldy".There are also cold dishes, but most of them should be cooked.The stomachs of foreigners are much stronger than ours.My Scottish roommate Simon often puts the lettuce under the tap and chews it, without the oil and salt.There is no need to boil the water for drinking, just turn on the tap and pour it into your mouth.I have a cold stomach (but love ice cream) and weak teeth (but love chocolate), so salads, cold water, and the like are out of my league.

The body structure and digestive organs of Chinese people are different from those of Westerners. Eating Western food once in a while is a sentiment, but eating it every day is a sin.An article by Mr. Lu Xun mentioned the European and American students at that time, saying that Chinese people thought they were westernized, but "I suspect that many of them were locked up in foreign houses and roasted beef..." Several eras have passed, But that statement is still good.A few years ago, Zhang Mingmin sang the song "My Chinese Heart" which became popular all over the country.I think the "Chinese heart" here seems to be changed to "Chinese stomach"-whether the Chinese heart of overseas travelers will never change, I can't say for sure, but there seems to be no doubt that everyone has an eternal Chinese stomach .Acheng, a Chinese writer living in the United States, once enlightened, saying that the so-called overseas Chinese Ye Luo is not patriotic in the end, it is actually the secretion in the stomach called ammonia enzyme, and when he is old, he only recognizes the food that is used to eating less snacks, and finally boils I can't help it, I'm coming back to China to satisfy my hunger.What a hit!Overseas Chinese, for the recognition of China, the most persistent thing is the special affection of appetite.It is difficult for the Chinese stomach, which has been influenced by the ancient Chinese civilization, to be transformed by cream soup of hamburger, salad, steak and french fries. This is probably the reason why Chinese restaurants can flourish everywhere in the world.Cambridge is not a big place, but there are also many Chinese restaurants, such as Wanliyun, Jinling Restaurant and Ugly Duckling.Wanliyun is probably the most upscale Chinese restaurant, and its English name is "Charlie Chan".In the early 1920s, the United States made a film of the same name, which vilified the Chinese people into funny and rude images with long braids.The name of the restaurant is meant to be self-deprecating.The owner of the shop is from Cantonese. Now he not only has two shops in Cambridge, but also a branch in London. The business is booming.Its stuff is really good, but the price is also super expensive.A friend once invited me to have dinner there, and a bowl of wonton noodles was worth 10 "fatties".

In the UK, nostalgia for Chinese food often comes in fits and starts, an overwhelming craving for something salty, oily, meaty, and the beautiful times when the whole family sat at the dinner table and ate. ——This is called being greedy, and I have never been so greedy.Therefore, Chinese international students usually prepare a table of sumptuous food for gatherings, so that their abused stomachs can enjoy it thoroughly. "A gentleman stays away from the cook", Chinese students studying in Cambridge don't believe this sentence, unless they bring a chef (wife), other people more or less have one or two unique skills.At this time, everyone will bring out their own special food, wild mushrooms in the northeast, bacon in Hunan, bacon in Sichuan, mustard mustard in Fuling, and roast duck in Beijing. Some of these good things are bought in two Chinese supermarkets in Cambridge (such as in the famous Chinese supermarket You can buy Laoganma fermented bean sauce produced in Guizhou at Yonghuihang, which costs about 3 pounds, equivalent to RMB 40), but most of them are sent from hometown.Many raw materials can actually be bought in supermarkets in the UK, but the taste is much worse than that in China.Once, I was a guest at the home of Wu Changxin, chairman of the Cambridge Chinese Students Federation. His virtuous wife cooked a pot of braised pork for us. It was delicious, but I always felt that it was not as fragrant as domestic pork.Chairman Wu, a young agronomist with a North Jiangsu dialect, carefully analyzed the genetic differences between Chinese and British pigs, and determined to further popularize the delicious "Sutai pig" gene of our country internationally. .At that moment, facing that pot of braised pork cooked by British pigs, I rejoiced for his great ideals.

After all, eating at parties is an occasional thing, and you still have to take care of your meals on weekdays.I am a woman, how can I let myself eat quick-frozen food and instant noodles and then rush to kill in the heavy schoolwork with a sallow and emaciated face?No, absolutely not.So I decided to cook the delicacies by myself.There is a Market Square in the center of Cambridge, which sells handicrafts on weekends and fruits and vegetables on weekdays. Because there is no packaging, the price is cheaper than the supermarket, and the things are fresher.I often go to those small stalls for a walk, bring back tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, snow peas, among the colorful seasonal vegetables, fish, meat and poultry, choose the menu of the day, and then wash them all with water and treat them with my own hands to make them crystal clear and clean The luster and the true fragrance of natural things.The burning process is the fullest realization of experience and wisdom.Unhurriedly and confidently bringing out the magic of various seasonings, and then putting them on the plate, I am filled with the most real sense of accomplishment: cooking a good meal is not just about satisfying the hunger?It is a kind of reward and cherishment to myself, and it is my own recognition and encouragement to myself.

Once, I thought the spirit was the only supreme thing in the world, as if all the ambitious young people in the world despised matter.And as I continue to mature and grow up, I feel more and more that spiritual content actually permeates every aspect of daily life.Some people will criticize the luxury of Chinese food: It is not worth spending a lot of time and labor on eating, and polluting the house.But for me, cooking in a foreign kitchen is a feeling of nostalgia. Ping and I traveled to Scotland during the holiday.The place is really beautiful, but I can't have a good Chinese meal for a few days, which is really depressing.When we miss Chinese food, we can only look at each other helplessly.When the desire to eat is not satisfied, the fragility of the stomach makes our nervous system vulnerable.Painful, the sense of taste is active, but the nerves are gratuitously sad.On the car back to Cambridge from Scotland, the two of us began to discuss food for hours and hours in a devout mood.A pot of snow-white yellow croaker soup.A plate of bright red fish head with chopped peppers.Fragrant Roasted Chestnut Chicken.Deep-fried pork feet.Steaming hot Chongqing hot pot.There are also shredded pork noodles, pork ribs noodles, beef ramen, fried buns, scallion pancakes, swallow skin wontons, tofu brains, even a bowl of pickled mustard and egg drop soup with a few green vegetable leaves floating on it, sprinkled with a few drops of ground sesame oil, it also makes us worry about our dreams. .I recited to her my most familiar passage in the whole novel - the eggplant that Grandma Liu ate in the Grand View Garden, which was made by mixing a dozen chickens.I imitated Wang Xifeng's tone: "You peel off the eggplant that just came down, you only need to clean the meat, cut it into small cubes, fry it in chicken oil, and then use chicken breasts, mushrooms, new bamboo shoots, mushrooms, spiced spices, etc. Dried tofu and dried fruits of various colors are cut into cubes, simmered in chicken broth, collected with sesame oil, mixed with bad oil, placed in porcelain jars, sealed tightly, and taken out when ready to eat. Just mix it with fried chicken and melon seeds, and that’s it.” Ping said that she couldn’t see that you were quite educated, and I said where, where, didn’t the old Mencius say, “Food is sex, sex is also”, in this regard Therefore, I am not only "bogus" but also "knowledgeable today".I went on to tell her about the scene when I went to Carrefour to buy roast ducks when I was in college: you just watched the freshly baked roast chickens and roast ducks hanging in the air in rows, exuding a woody fragrance, soaked in oil, and shiny, and the stomach Stuffed with spices, with a fat back and shiny thighs, it's sexy!Ping scolded: "It's too evil, it's too evil, you're trying to tempt me."In order to retaliate, she began to take the trouble to describe the practice of her hometown's Fujian classic snack "Da Lumian", describing every process and every detail clearly.That color, that fragrance, that smell, tormented my poor little stomach, and I felt that what is called ammonia enzyme was being secreted vigorously.It was from that "sitting and discussing Taoism" that we often used very exaggerated words to describe food, and we often sighed: Yay, that dish is really classic!

I am ashamed of my gluttonous greedy face.The old master Confucius said: "Eat and drink, men and women, people's great desires exist." The female writer Su Qing's tampering with this sentence is even more heart-warming: "Eat and drink, men and women's great desires exist." In short One is that food and handsome men are women's favorite.Incisive!But if I run out of delicious food, no matter how handsome my brother is, I won’t be in the mood to watch it, so there’s nothing I can do.A friend watched me happily while eating and told me: "Smart women generally like to eat." I was moved by his thoughtfulness and ate several mouthfuls of food.Smart is not necessarily, but at least he found a good reason for my delicious food.When I told my mother about it later, she blinked and said, "I think the pig's appetite is stronger than yours, but it also has a higher IQ than yours?" Sad.Never fall.