On New Year’s Day, many people eat special food for good luck.

In Spain and some Latin American countries(拉丁美洲国家), people eat twelve grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve—One grape for good luck in each month of the new year.

Chinese people eat dumplings. Some are made with a coin inside. Everyone tries to find the coin for good luck and money in the new year. Of course they don’t eat the coin.

Japanese people eat noodles on New Year’s Eve and on their birthdays.

It may bring them good luck and long life.

Since I grew up in England with a British father and a Chinese mother, I’ve enjoyed food from both countries ever since I was able to hold a knife and fork—and chopsticks!

Mum has sweet memories of the food from her hometown in Sichuan, and often cooks spicy dishes. Because of this, Dad has come to love hot pot! But there are still some dishes that Dad dare not try even after many years of marriage to my mother. He once told me he was surprised by what he saw on the table when he first visited my mother’s parents in China. He was even shocked (震惊的) at their wedding when he saw how the Chinese ate almost every part of an animal. Even today, he still does not easily take (忍受) to eating things like chicken feet.

But I enjoy that sort of food myself. Last week, I went to the butcher’s and asked, “Do you have pigs’ ears?” “No,” the butcher (屠夫) said, pulling at his own cars, “just these ordinary ones.” He must have thought I was joking.

Dad can cook a super “full English breakfast” of bacon, eggs, beans, sausages and toast with butter. Mum and I just have to find a way to get him into the kitchen! He also does a typical Sunday roast. We all love roast beef and vegetables, but Mum says we’d better not cat too much roast food as it may make us suffer from heat inside our bodies, according to traditional Chinese medicine.

I’ll never forget my visit to China. Mum encouraged me to try different kinds of food, and I did! I loved everything. But just when I thought I could deal with all Chinese food, I came across stinky tofu, a terrible grey thing that looked and smelt like a burnt sports shoe. “You needn’t try it if you don’t want to,” Mum said, but I gathered all my courage to take a bite and was amazed to find it wasn’t that bad. It reminded me of blue cheese, a similarly strong smelling type of food you either love or hate. Maybe I’ll fall in love with stinky tofu someday.

People say that one man’s meat is another man’s poison, but I feel at home with different food from both China and Britain. To me, there’s nothing better than a cross-cultural afternoon tea of English biscuits and a cup of Chinese oolong tea in a fine china cup!

When I first arrived in China, some of the first Chinese vocabulary I learned had to do with food. 【小题1】, but still didn’t know most of the things I saw on Chinese restaurant menus. Fortunately, there were pictures to help me.

【小题2】. But many restaurants I’ve been to in the US don’t. What is the reason for the difference?

One thing I’ve noticed about China is that food is a bigger part of their culture than it is in the US. 【小题3】. My Chinese friends post pictures of their meals online more often than my US friends.

Food is just a bigger deal here—and having pictures of food in menus is part of that. 【小题4】, with vivid (生动的) and well-framed (构图精美) photos.

Another factor is the names of the dishes. Chinese dishes sometimes have fanciful (想象的) names like “palace guard chicken” or “three fresh things from the soil”. These are interesting names, but they don’t really tell you what the dishes are like. 【小题5】.

There’s probably even more to it than that. All I know is that I was very grateful to have those picture menus when I first came here all those years ago.