纪录片《舌尖上的中国》挑动你的味蕾!

Food, Glorious Food!
食物,美妙的食物!

I come from a land of hamburgers and French fries where spices are limited to salt and pepper, and occasionally a little mustard. It is the land of bland. How different things are in China where food is a passion and where your taste buds are treated to endless delights.

The recent CCTV series A Bite of China was a celebration of Chinese food. It took viewers on a culinary tour of the country traveling to over 60 places to show local delicacies and, more importantly, to show the people responsible for growing and preparing those delicacies. It was an exploration of food, but it was also an exploration of Chinese culture and how food plays a central part in that culture.

Living in cities, we sometimes forget where our food comes from. We don’t think of the farmer getting up at 3 a.m. to gather mushrooms or digging deep in the soil for lotus roots. Or the grandmother carefully preparing pickles with her own special recipe that will bring memories of home when eaten by members of her far flung family. The series tells wonderful stories about these often underappreciated people.

The series has also been a boon for restaurants and food suppliers. After each show aired, their appetites whetted, people lit up the Internet with orders for the food and ingredients they had just seen. And many restaurants have tripled their business after being mentioned on the show. A restaurant in Fuzhou has to turn away customers now that A Bite of China has made its pigs’ feet famous.

As I watched the show I thought of poor Oliver Twist, the unfortunate Dickens orphan, singing “Food, Glorious Food!” after eating a bowl of tasteless gruel in the workhouse and asking for more. A modest meal in China would have made him think he was eating like a king. And I think that is the key to Chinese food: you don’t have to be a king to eat like a king. Simple food prepared with care and creativity can compare with the most expensive dishes for taste and satisfaction. It is, as A Bite of China shows, what makes Chinese food the king of cuisines.

您可能还喜欢:

>>《上海学生英文报》专题

>>《上海学生英文报》官方网站

>>《上海学生英文报》新浪微博

严肃声明:本系列文章由《上海学生英文报》独家授权,报社地址:上海市闵行区都市路4855号2座708室,电话:021-24175764,如无授权,请勿转载