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Chinese Food

Date: Sep 25 2007

Themes: Food

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Americans may have hamburgers and mashed potatoes, but at the end of the day, there isn’t really an American cuisine. Thus, Americans love eating food from other countries.

But a lot of the time, the international foods we eat here are a lot different than they are in the countries they’re from. Our Greek and Mexican food is likely to be a lot different than anything you’d find in Greece or Mexico. But no international cuisine is more varied than Chinese food. Chinese restaurants are everywhere in the United States, but the food in some of them is hardly Chinese.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Amanda

Mason: I totally was lazy and went out for Chinese food last night.

Amanda: Where’d you go?

Mason: I order in from this place called the Golden Panda.

Amanda: Is that like Happy Panda, like a chain that’s fast food?

Mason: No. This is this really small place kind of by my house and you know it’s good because it kind of looks dingy on the outside, but tons of Chinese people eat there.

Amanda: That’s how you know that it’s good food and authentic food.

Mason: It sounds kind of like a stereotype.

Amanda: No. That’s true. Because if you want good Chinese food, you go to Chinatown. You go where the local Chinese people are going to go and dine.

Mason: And you kinda…I kind of mistrust the places that are like really flashy and have all the Chinese adornments on the outside.

Amanda: PF Chang’s?

Mason: Well, that’s a whole different…

Amanda: I don’t want to go into specifics or anything, but…

Mason: Yeah. It kind of feels like they’re trying to cater to the people who don’t know better.

Amanda: They don’t know better. And it’s amazing when someone will say, “You want authentic Chinese, go down the street to PF Chang’s.”

Mason: You’ve heard that?

Amanda: Absolutely. But it’s completely Americanized Chinese food.

Mason: Well it’s like everyone’s got kind of a different version of Chinese food though. Because I had Chinese food in London and it tasted nothing like Chinese food here. Who knows what the actual Chinese eat.

Amanda: That’s a good point. Something to think about. I’ll go ask my dad.

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Discussion

Mason got Chinese food from a little place near his house. It has a similar name to a Chinese fast food chain so Amanda is confused for a second.

But Mason said the place he went was really good and he knows it’s authentic because a lot of Chinese people eat there. It sounds silly, but it’s often easy to tell if the food is good at an ethnic restaurant if people of that ethnicity tend to eat there.

Mason says he distrusts Chinese restaurants that try too hard with lots of decorations on the outside. Amanda asks him what he thinks of PF Chang’s, a chain of good, but highly Americanized Chinese food. They both laugh at the fact that some people think that PF Chang’s is authentic.

But Americans aren’t the only ones who alter foods from other countries. Mason had Chinese food in England and said it tasted nothing like Chinese food in the United States! Amanda says she’ll ask her father, who is Chinese, what people actually eat in China.

Have you ever had the same type of ethnic food in two different countries? Did it taste different?

Comments

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Press1

Aruba

Over here Vietnamese food tastes exactly like it tastes in Ho-Chi-Minh City. I’, dying to have it at least once a week. Luckily, there’s a takeaway just around the corner of the building I’m living in. My favorite is of course Pho, the cornerstone of Vietnamese cuisine. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Vietnamese basil, mint leaves, lime and bean sprouts. So, so tasty and delicious.

TOPO

Panama

I’m living in a country where the chinese food is very famous..In fact I like it…a few chinese restaurant sell panamenian food too xDD and they try to keep the same taste…

ericayang

China

I ‘m chinese.I love chinese food .

If you have chance to go to china , pls have a visit to HUnan .There are many delicious food, but a little hot.

Kian_Jan

China

delicious food is a great temptation that we can’t yield to.cuisines around the world have their unique taste,what we should do is totaste them and enjoy them.

Olivine

Indonesia

Chinese food seems more healthy. We ever had same type of chinese food in two different countries. Szechuan cuisine. And yes the taste was different. Szechuan soup we had at singapore was prepared by local chinese people. More hot and very spicy, me and my friends named it crazy soup.

icyman

China

I am Chinese. If you have a chance to go to China, you should go to Chendu city. There are many delicious food, but a little hot.

Koala Q

China

I‘m a Chinese too. And I would rather say that like many other countries, Chinese food is not only something for people to eat, there’s much more inside. What and how people eat food may somehow reflect the characteristics of their culture. And I think Chinese food is the precious treasure from our ancestor, while it’s always in the evolution.

Love Chinese food!~

shirley618

China

Chinese food can change a foreiner into a Chinese. It’s really fantastic!

bonniewang99

China

In China, The same food at the north or south of China even taste different .

Chikako Honda

Japan

I like Chinese food alot. especially guantonese taste with seafoods in ingredient. They are sweeter than suchuan region's, I think, it suits my taste. Chinese food and Japanese food have much common. One of the biggest similarity is both using soy sauce. Chinese food is very popular all over the world , it is much easier to find than Japanese one. So , whenever I trip to overseas and miss my cultural food, I eat Chinese food. The differnce is I notice is they don't have the dish with raw vegetables, like salad. They like greasy food than Japanese. Every country's food diffused its taste once it goes into other countries. I think because the owners of the restaurants rather tend to target the majority than minority in that country. They make Americanized Chinese food, Japanese food, etc…

emsi

Philippines

i definitely loveto eat chinese food..from siopao, siomai, and dumplings..there are various chinese restaurants here in my country..for those who haven’t try, you have to eat now..hehehe

emsi

Philippines

i definitely love to eat chinesae food..from siopao, siomai, dumplings…wow, it taste good…there are tons of chinese restuarants here in the philippines..for those who haven't try eating chinese food,you really have to try it..

yangshangwu

China

Chinese food is really delicious.

sophie teo

China

I am in China, there are so many delicious Chinese food here. But I seem more like western food. Maybe that is so-called exotic flavour which is more attractive to me.

joey1111111

China

you are right.

NancyChocolate

China

Hello Guys I got something to clear about. Not all the Chinese cuisine are spicy and with lot of pepper.In China there have main eight cusine and countless cooking habit. My point is when talking about the chinese food, hope spicy isn't the only word come to you mind. Here like now i'm living in Guangdong, people here seldom eat pepper, not only taste spicy food. Cause the weather is quite dry here. In my hometown Hunan, we enjoy spicy food all our life. Sounds unbelieveable, but it's true. oh I can't live withour spicy food. But i survied here.