via: talk talk china - Chicken or fish?
i came to read this post the day before yesterday and waited to see if any foreign commenter could give the correct answer. the question is:
We’re all used to the usual routine on an airline at meal time: the hostesses come down the aisle and give you the meal options: “Chicken or fish?” “Beef or pork?” etc. But not in China. In China, they come down the aisle and say: “Rice or noodles?”... Somebody - ANYBODY - please explain this to me.
surprisingly (or, not surprisingly), nobody there could answer the question until 37 comments have been made, then a commenter called "Ralph" said:
Going back to the original question (if I may): surely a no-brainer? In most Chinese cooking meat is used sparingly for its flavour, rather than as big lumps of dead animal in the middle of your plate as in many European traditions. Noodles and rice form the bulk of the meal. I guess meat is splashed about more now in relatively affluent Chinese cities, which is maybe what most of us are used to, but ‘meat as flavouring’ is still the way people think, and what they practice in their own homes. Imagine a European flight offering its passengers coq au vin or steak and ale pie, but describing the choice as ‘wine or beer’. Perhaps that’s what it would be like to ask ‘chicken or pork’ on a Chinese plane.
the author of that post, Dawanr, claims to live in china for a long time:
Dan, DD, and Dawanr are 3 laowai that have been here for way too long (collectively over 45 years!!)
either s/he doesn't understand that rice and noddle are the "main food" while meat and fish are the "auxiliary food" in chinese cooking, or, s/he hopes the chinese foods are served in a western way. after 15 years in china (averagely), is it cultural insensibility or cultural superiority? somebody - ANYBODY - please explain this to me.
update: i have to ask "talk talk china" to forgive my ignorance. how can i expect non-professionals to tell the difference between chinese "main foods" and "auxiliaries" when their professional journalists can not even distinguish a chinese flag from a japanese one.
