商務禮節美語第209期:Food 美食(上)

美國駐中國員工Tiffany 跟中國同事Kelly聊天兒。

Kelly Yan: So Tiffany, you've been workingwith us here in China for a few months now. Are you still feeling cultureshock?

Tiffany Scolini: Yes, a bit. But it's muchbetter than the first few weeks. Back then I was really a fish out of water.

K: Remember the first time I took you toeat real Chinese food? You barely touched anything!

T: I know! I was scared! A lot of the foodhere is very different from back home. And the Chinese restaurants I've been toin America are very different from here.

Tiffany來中國幾個月，文化上還是有些不習慣，Iam still feeling culture shock a little bit. 不過，跟剛開始比已經強多了。剛來那會兒，Iwas really a fish out of water. 就象離了水的魚，意思是跟環境格格不入，特別不自在。Kelly第一次帶Tiffany去中國餐館吃飯，Tiffany幾乎沒動筷子，因爲這兒的中餐館跟美國的中餐館差別太大了。

K: Yeah. We Chinese like to joke aboutAmerican Chinese food. It's really not very authentic.

T: Yes, that's true. But I think it's trueall around the world. You really have to be in the food's original country totruly experience it. My family is Italian and in Italy they thinkAmerican-Italian food is awful!

K: Oh, but I love pizza!

T: Me, too! But the pizza in Italy isn'tanything like American pizza. In the U.S. we like to borrow the general idea ofa food, and then we give it an American twist.

吃中國飯去中國，吃意大利菜去意大利，這樣才能吃到最正宗的，authentic, a-u-t-h-e-n-t-i-c, authentic. 在美國，雖然什麼都能吃得到，但是美國人喜歡把別人的菜拿來，give it an American twist，加入美國自己的特色。

K: I remember when I was in the States I orderedfish one time. When the dish arrived I was surprised to see just a little chunkof meat. I thought "Where is the head and tail?"

T: (laughs) . In the States wealmost never leave the head and tail on a fish! Americans are kind of squeamishwhen it comes to dead animals. We would never - not in a million years - leavethe head on a chicken!

K: Yeah, that's right! I never saw achicken head when I was there.

Kelly回憶說，她在美國點魚，結果上來的只是一盤魚肉。原來，美國人不吃魚頭和魚尾。Tiffany解釋說，Americans are kind of squeamish when it comes to dead animals，美國人對殺生非常敏感。Squeamish意思是容易受驚的，神經質的。Americans would never--not in a million years - leave the head on achicken. 美國人絕不會把雞頭留在盤子裏。這裏說的not in a million years, 一百萬年都不會，是強調的意思。Tiffany對中國菜還有哪些印象呢？我們下次繼續聽。