A Bite of China

No trip would be complete without 【小题1】(experience) the local food culture. Actually, China has various kinds of delicious food, including a wide variety of local snacks.

Without a doubt, for the majority of the foreigners I contacted, and myself included, Peking Duck, Dim Sum, Mongolian Hot Pot were the favorite Chinese【小题2】(dish). China is a place【小题3】the food is not only delicious, but the 【小题4】(cheap) I’ve ever found.

【小题5】my last night in Beijing before returning to the States, I went to a Peking Duck restaurant that had been suggested for me to try. What 【小题6】beautiful place! Splendid woodblock prints on the walls, fresh flowers in the vases on the table, 【小题7】(attract) silverware (镀银餐具) and beautiful chopsticks. I was handed a menu and found most of the prices【小题8】(be) especially low for the high quality of the food. The duck came in whole or half, along with all the little decorations that you know if you’ve ever eaten Peking duck--a little tortilla (玉米饼) to put the sliced duck and vegetables in chopped onion, sauce.

Anyway, I ended up ordering a whole duck and thought I’d just take the rest back to my hotel 【小题9】(eat) later if I couldn’t finish it. Unbelievably, in the end there was none of the whole duck 【小题10】(leave) on the plate. Umm, yummy!

Meatballs are a main part of cuisine from Italy to East Asia, and their flavorings and taste vary somewhat, 【小题1】(reflect)local texture (材质) and traditions. China, in particular, is a meatball center of interest, and while you may have come across lion head meatballs before, bouncy meatball soup is as 【小题2】(attract)as its name.

Chaoshan is famous 【小题3】 its unique meatballs. The name “bouncy meatball soup” doesn’t come from its ability 【小题4】(make)you jump, but it comes from the finished spring y texture of the meatballs. In fact, in Xing Ye’s movie “God of Cookery”, these meatballs are even used as ping-pong balls.

Although this may slightly exaggerate (夸大) the springiness of the balls, it’s 【小题5】(general) believed that if one were to take one of the meatballs from the soup and drop 【小题6】 on the table, the meatball would bounce (反弹). This special texture 【小题7】(achieve)by pounding the meat by hand in a process that a machine cannot properly copy. It’s 【小题8】 makes this so up very special indeed.

The birth of these meatballs 【小题9】(date)back to only a century ago. The Hakka people from the mountainous areas of Guangdong began to make meatballs as a helpful way to cook and store fresh meat. Later, the Hakka people began to sell their beef meatballs and soon the meatballs gained 【小题10】(popular)with the Chaoshan communities. And it’s said that they developed the springiness and flavor into what the meatballs are today.

In recent years, robots have taken China by storm and University bosses also want to catch the trend. They have introduced a chef robot to their school canteen 【小题1】 (stop) students leaving the site.

The newly-come chef robot-complete with a white hat, a mask 【小题2】 two knives-soon made a difference in South China’s Agricultural University. Huge 【小题3】 (crowd) gathered to watch it perform, making knife-cut noodles at the canteen.

Feel confused about the term? Actually, knife-cut noodles, also known 【小题4】 Dao XiaoMian, 【小题5】 (be) a specialty of central China’s Shanxi province. Traditionally, Dao Xiao Mian is made by cutting a large block of noodle dough(面团) at an angle and letting the 【小题6】 (slice) pieces fall directly into a boiling pot of soup. The noodle-robot can 【小题7】 (apparent) make 340 cuts per minute-guaranteeing the consistency of the noodles 【小题8】 (thick), China Daily reported. You can imagine 【小题9】 delicious the noodle can be.

Student Zhang, from Shanxi province, said the noodles appeared very popular, 【小题10】 (add): “I feel this is not simply a bowl of noodles. It feels very interesting and very heartwarming.”