Ch 26 · Lesson 24Mandarin · Chapter 26 · Lesson 24 · Themed review
Eating together
Have you eaten? Noodles in the north, rice in the south, eight great cuisines, and the polite fight over who pays.
Practise this lesson
18-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
Have you eaten? Eating the Chinese way
Between neighbours, friends and colleagues, one of the commonest greetings in Mandarin is 吃了吗 (chī le ma)? Have you eaten? It is not an invitation. It is a way of saying hello, from a time when a full meal could not be taken for granted, and the answer is a simple 吃了 (chī le), yes, whether or not you have.
North and south
The old divide is the grain. Wheat grows in the north, rice in the south, and the food follows.
| The north | The south | |
|---|---|---|
| staple | (miàntiáo), noodles, and (jiǎozi), dumplings | (mǐfàn), rice |
| the word for a meal | (chī fàn) everywhere: literally to eat rice, even when there is no rice in sight |
Eight great cuisines
Chinese cooks speak of eight great 菜 (cài), cuisines, each named after a province.
| Cuisine | Province |
|---|---|
| 川 (Chuāncài) | Sichuan |
| 粤 (Yuècài) | Guangdong: Cantonese food |
| 鲁 (Lǔcài) | Shandong |
| 苏 (Sūcài) | Jiangsu |
| 浙 (Zhècài) | Zhejiang |
| 闽 (Mǐncài) | Fujian |
| 湘 (Xiāngcài) | Hunan |
| 徽 (Huīcài) | Anhui |
菜 (cài) does three jobs: a vegetable, a dish, and a whole cuisine. 点菜 (diǎn cài) is to order the dishes, and 菜单 (càidān) is the menu.
At the table
The dishes arrive together and go in the middle, usually about one per person at the table, and everyone helps themselves, with their own 碗 (wǎn), bowl, of rice. At a round table for a group there is often a turntable, so the dishes come to you.
One rule worth knowing: never stand your chopsticks upright in your rice. It looks like the incense left for the dead, and older people in particular will notice.
The fight for the bill
请客 (qǐngkè) is to treat someone, and among friends it is an honour people compete for. At the end of a meal you may see two people 抢 (qiǎng), grab, for the bill, each insisting 我来付 (wǒ lái fù), let me pay. Offer politely, by all means. But at a formal dinner the host expects to pay, and insisting too hard spoils their part in the evening rather than flattering it.
If someone treats you, offer to 请 (qǐng), treat, them next time.