Food in China and western countries is different. China has about five thousand years’ history. They may spend half of their time on food. Chinese people choose food very carefully. They only use fresh materials（新鲜的材料）to make food. For example, they only eat fresh fish. Chinese have a lot of ideas for cooking. They can cook a chicken in over ten ways.【小题1】Western countries, like England or America, don’t have fresh food because they buy their food from supermarkets which only sell stored materials (储存的材料).【小题2】They are healthy for man’s body. Western people do not have many skills for cooking, and mostly they only boil, steam (蒸) and bake the food. By the way, western people are very good at making desserts and chocolate. They can make very good cakes and chocolate.【小题3】

In China, the person who invites other people for meal would pay for the meal, but it’s not the same way in western countries.【小题4】They can afford it. They won’t be happy if you pay for them. In western countries like America or England, people will always give tips (小费) to the waiter after they finish the meal in a restaurant. If you don’t, the waiter will not be happy. In China this only happens in some top restaurants and hotels in large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Another difference in eating is that:【小题5】

Chinese people only have three meals during a day. But western people may have more. They usually have afternoon tea when they would have fruit, cakes or biscuits with cheese (奶酪饼干).

Every country has its favorite food. Italians like to eat pizza. Indians like to eat hot food. Japanese like to eat fish. Often they don’t cook it.

In England, one of the most popular kinds of food is fish and chips. People usually buy it in a fish and chip shop. They put it in paper bags, and take it home, or to their workplace. Sometimes they eat it in the park or on the road. The world’s favorite food is American fast food. If you go to some important cities in the world, you can find people eating hamburgers and chips.

Fish and chips, and Chinese take-away food are very popular in England. But they are less popular in the USA. They eat take-away food, too, like chicken. But the most popular kind of take-away food is the hamburger. It looks like bread with meat in it. Ham (火腿) is a kind of pork, but the hamburger does not have any pork in it. The beef is inside a kind of cake. Hamburgers are delicious. They are also popular in England and Australia.

What is the common yexiao in your city?

Yexiao is the fourth meal of the day in China. It usually starts from 8:00 p.m. and closes until 2:00 a.m. It is different in the north and the south of China.

In the north, barbeque（烧烤）is liked best, they also have noodles. While in the south, crayfish（小龙虾）in Hunan and desserts（点心）in Guangdong have a lot of fans.

Taiwan’s night market is very famous. It is a place for both eating and shopping. Parents take their children to eat at street stalls（路边摊）. Young people shop around. Old people just sit around and chat（闲聊）.

“In southern China, we have longer days, so we often stay up late and have more meals.”Janice Leung Hayes, a Hong Kong food writer, told the BBC.

But yexiao is not just about food. People eat, chat and hang out with friends. All these things make yexiao a way of life.