For caffeine addicts, a morning without a pot of coffee is a no-go. But it hasn’t always been as easy to make coffee as it is today — and as Rebecca K.Shrum writes, the dawn of coffee machines came along with a lot of manly marketing (营销).

Mr. Coffee, the first electric drip coffee machine for home use, appeared in1972, forever changing the way Americans made coffee. Before its rise, women used percolators (渗滤式咖啡壶) to make their coffee on the stovetop or on the counter — a method that produced bitter, scorched (烧焦的) coffee. Despite the availability of complex, non-electric drip systems, percolators ruled American kitchens.

They also gave American women a reputation for making terrible coffee. Part of that was based on the coffee supply itself, writes Shrum. Due to wartime shortages and poor quality, “coffee tasted bad no matter what method consumers used.”

At the time, women were households’primary coffeemakers, and cultural pressures such as the popularity of percolators as wedding gifts kept the task in a firmly female sphere (领域). Coffee ads described coffee-caused family issues and threatened women who made bad coffee with relationship problems. This cultural pressure cooker presented the perfect opportunity for Mr. Coffee.

Mr. Coffee looked and worked differently than percolators. It also made better coffee. In order to get consumers to give up their familiar percolators for this expensive new product, not only was Mr. Coffee given a masculine (男子气概的) name, writes Shrum, but its marketing suggested that it would produce a man’s preferred coffee. The company hired Joe DiMaggio to give his masculine endorsement (宣传) to the product — adding an additional layer of masculine advice to a product that claimed to teach women how to make better coffee.

Mr. Coffee encouraged men to get into the kitchen themselves. Since it was so easy to use, men no longer had an excuse to avoid coffee-making. Mr. Coffee played into existing ideas about gender and domesticity. It all goes to show that everything around us has historical and cultural significance — even that morning cup of coffee.

Beijing is no stranger to Western food. American restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC have brought more Western dishes to the local food scene in recent years. Now, two new restaurants have joined them.

In August, Taco Bell and Shake Shack opened their doors to eager customers in Beijing. Taco Bell is a popular American fast food restaurant that features Mexican food. Hard⁃ and soft⁃shell tacos are a staple(主食) on the menu; they are generally served with beef, the lettuce and the tomato. And of course there are burritos—chicken, beef or beans wrapped in a tortilla(墨西哥薄馅饼).   However, there are new menu items that are special to the Beijing location, such as the Yang Berry Freeze and Avocado Oolong Tea.

Shake Shack, known for its traditional American⁃style hamburgers and milkshakes, is also serving up dishes that won’t be found in branches outside of the capital. Harry Wang, who studied in the US, visited the restaurant soon after it opened. “The last time I had Shake Shack was more than a year ago when I was in the United States,” Wang said. “They are pretty similar to what we had in the United States, but there is a milkshake special to Beijing.”

The milkshake Wang referred to is the Hutong Hawthorn. The shake mixes hawthorn, a traditional Chinese snack, into a milkshake, a common ice cream drink in Western fast food. The Beijing Shake Shack also offers roasted chestnut ice cream.

Both restaurants also reflect elements of Chinese culture in their decorations. Shake Shack’s windows feature cartoons showing hutong life, and Taco Bell has a picture of a palace at the Temple of Heaven on one of its walls.

From the design to the menus, the two restaurants are “adding a touch of the local flavor”, noted China News.

Porridge doesn't have a very tasty name, does it? It doesn't have a very tasty reputation, either. I'm here to try and convince you that porridge isn’t boring and tasteless, that it can be a delicious, convenient and very healthy way to start the day.

If you’ve never eaten it (although you probably have), porridge is a type of food served for breakfast. It is usually a type of grain, like rice or oat (燕麦), mixed with either milk or water, and often heated up. It is often thicker than liquid, but not solid and is very easy to digest, so it's a better option for people who are ill, and it provides long-lasting energy for the day.

Porridge preparation--the amount of ingredients (配料) and cooking time—depends on what you choose to use as your porridge base. If I'm cooking for myself, I put a very big handful of ‘rolled’ oats in a saucepan, add a little bit of water and about 200ml of milk, and let the mixture boil. I stir the porridge constantly, and it takes about five to ten minutes to cook.

Once it's cooked, the fun part is adding the flavors. Porridge alone doesn't have a very strong flavour. Although some people think this makes porridge boring, I think this is what makes porridge exciting! It is like a blank piece of paper—you can add almost anything you want to the porridge base. Greens, nuts and dried fruits are very healthy options to add and can give you energy for the day. But if you don't like these, or you're allergic, then honey and chocolate are also very tasty options. (Just don’t add to much!)

One of the best things about porridge? You can make it almost anywhere in the world. Either oats or rice or both are “staple foods (主食)” for many people across the world. You can usually buy big bags of either, then add local ingredients to make your porridge interesting—whatever is cheap and convenient to find, wherever you are. I am currently in Mexico, and I love to heat my oats up with milk, then mix in peanuts and pumpkin seeds and cacao nibs, and I put a layer of sugar over the top to make my porridge sweeter.

Porridge? Hopefully it sounds a lot tastier now!