Welcome to listen to our chicken and duck talk podcast. I'm Ke Zhen.
I am Gigi, Zheng Xingzhi.
I'm Du Du.
Yeah, Dudu is my podcast again, welcome.
Welcome myself.
So the topic we want today is food, right?
So yeah, after I come to the UK, I don't actually cook like a Chinese.
Yeah, most of the time I'm just cooking a lot of pasta.
After I come here, living in London for the first month,
The first time when I went to Sainsbury's, I was like, I have a recipe in my hand.
And then I'm just looking in all the way I can find the eggplants.
And then I just, when I'm looking, when I was just wandering in the supermarket,
I just find out where, there's nowhere to find eggplants.
And then I just realised because I'm looking into a recipe writing in American English.
So it's not written in UK English.
So that's why I started to realise that in the UK, the eggplant is aubergine.
So that's why I was so confused that I am nowhere to find aubergine.
Aubergine, in English.
Aubergine, okay, aubergine, yeah.
There's so many differences of the languages that, yeah,
There are a lot of strange, some very interesting vegetables
That I wouldn't be able to find in the UK.
That's the same in China, right?
It's because there are red cane and tomatoes, and they are the same.
Yes.
In Shanghai, there is a word used in Shanghai, or in Shanghai is tomato, or tomato.
It's called persimmon in the northeast, is that right?
Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't know that.
I don't know either.
It's called Yang Persimmon in the northeast.
But yeah, this also causing difficulty for me to learn, but I actually enjoy the experience of learning about what kind of food I can cook, yeah.
So, Dudu, do you have any...
What is the most daily food that you eat within a week?
Oh, okay.
I thought most of the sport, if you are gym, a lot of them, they're eating chicken, right?
Chicken breast, I guess.
Yes, yes, yes, exactly.
So, yeah.
It's hard to smoke, so I eat steak.
So when you cook at home, do you also cook steak?
Yes, yes, yes, buy it in the supermarket and then fry it. It's very simple.
So, yeah, they also have the olive oil to be sprayed on the pan, right?
Yeah, so, I remember Janette is a vegan, right?
Right.
So...
All-sophylists.
So, yes.
Is that right?
Yes, yes.
Is it true?
For the Chinese, it's actually very difficult to understand the differences between vegan and vegetarian. Is that correct?
So, yeah, when I'm thinking of vegetarian food in China, most of them, I think they might have a religious belief about Buddhism.
Buddhism, one, yes, yes.
I also met a lot of Buddhists when I travelled in China.
Be a vegetarian, right.
For in China, I would say the definition of vegetarian is actually including the eggs.
Even the eggs would be considered, I would say in China is that they would consider it's a vegetable, right?
I don't eat eggs, I don't drink milk, that's it.
So, yeah, so could you tell me that what is the clear definition in the UK?
If my friend says she is green, what is the food she doesn't want to eat? What foods should not contain it?
I don't eat all the things I get from animals.
So I don't eat honey, eggs, milk and meat.
The shoes I chose are also made of plastic.
So there are no leather, not anything.
This is not possible, but it is my own choice, not for the sake of Buddhism or religion.
But I think it's because it's very simple in the UK. There are many ethnic groupists, or you are talking about ethnic groups. There are many, many.
So there is nothing difficult for me,
Or it's quite normal.
But I also don't think I need to eat meat.
I don't need to drink milk.
For animals, their lives are also very important.
So I guess one of the major reasons of that you would like to become a vegan
Is about the benefit of the animals.
Is there any other reason that you would like to become a vegan?
Rice, vegetables, and so on.
So this is good for your health.
Yes, I also know that you cook a lot of Chinese food at home.
The first time when you invited me to your home and I tried your dish,
And then it was surprised me that you are actually using an old pump to replace with a raw pump.
I don't know, but I don't know what the difference is.
There are very few in the UK, and not so many people know the difference, so there is no big difference between this old soy sauce and this fresh soy sauce.
Yes, because this is the first time you have invited me to your home, and you are also a good host.
Cook Chinese food for a Chinese man.
I want to be very critical, yeah.
But I just like to keep my mouth shut at it.
Using Lao Chou to replace with the shen cheng.
No, no, no.
So yeah, I'm just because.
But yeah, it's a nice experience too.
What is he doing?
Using Lao Chou instead of light soy sauce.
Making dumplings.
Did we make dumplings at that time?
I think this is...
Three hours.
I think this is...
Is that dumplings?
Yes.
Yeah.
Inviting friends to like wrapping dumplings is also one of them.
Most interesting activities I'm hanging out with the foreign friends or something like that.
So, Dudu, do you have a lot of gatherings with your friends?
What kind of food that you will be eating most of the time?
Hot pot.
Yes.
I like hot pot very much.
Because it is very easy to share.
So yeah, eating hot pot in the UK is actually quite expensive, right?
Yeah, so I'm doing it myself.
So, I assume that you bought the electric hot and then make it at home, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so you just buy the ingredients and then...
It's actually that, especially that when you're hanging out with the English,
That actually amaze me is that a lot of them, they're actually really into spicy food.
Yes?
This India, that curry in India, many British people especially like Indian curry.
Yes, spicy food, they're particularly interesting in it.
Spicy, right.
No, I think they are actually English.
They're not, it doesn't come from the Indian background,
But they are indeed very into the spicy stuff.
Yes, but for many British people, this curry is a kind of British dish.
It's from India, but it's a part of our culture.
Yes. Right now, I'm cooking a lot of curry with chicken, and then I cook a lot of green Thai one, the green Thai curry paste.
Yeah, they actually have a lot of different type of curry paste.
So where we can find in the Oriental market, we have the green one, which is Thailand paste.
And then we also have the red one and also the yellow one.
I think it's mainly from India, right?
Probably all of them are from Thailand.
Really?
Right.
I thought Sri Lanka also have their own personal preference of the curry as well.
They're actually a little bit different.
So I assume most of this curry-based cuisine is mainly located in South Asia, I guess.
That's about it.
I think curry is very common.
I like Caribbean food very much.
What is the definition of Caribbean food then?
What is the main ingredient inside of Caribbean food?
I think it's also similar to British cuisine.
Use a very heavy spice
Then the kind of rice with distinct grains
Serve with meat and vegetables
Yeah, I'm particularly intrigued by the herbs and spices. When you're going to the Sainsbury's and go to the supermarket, it's just like they have a lot of jars of different spices, you know, herbs and spices. This is something that I'm very particularly interested in.
So one of the things that intrigues me is actually about the Chinese five spice.
Do you know about the Chinese five spices?
I just said I have, and I have that.
Yes.
Yes, I like it very much.
Yes.
But you told me that this is not a kind of Chinese.
Yes, because I'm Cantonese, so most of the time when I'm cooking, we don't actually use the Chinese five spices.
Chinese fire spice is actually like...
Big material, hexagon, that...
Fennel?
What is Cinnamon? Cinnamon stick.
That's fennel, right?
Cinnamon is...
Yes, so yeah, there's actually a lot of ingredients that I actually don't use.
So yeah, I think the spices, the Chinese fire spice, five spices.
I don't know. What is this?
Yeah, I think they're actually for barbeque or something like that, I guess.
It is possible, it is possible.
So yeah, I actually don't use the Chinese five spices a lot, so...
The dictionary says it's cinnamon.
Cinnamon, yes, cinnamon, yes, cinnamon.
One of the most intriguing ingredients and spices
That I find in the Sainsbury's rack of the spices
Is actually poppysit.
So, do you know about what is poppysit?
I know.
Poppy
It's actually quite interesting that
Because when we were a child,
When we were watching documents at school,
They specifically said that poppysit is actually forbidden
Because it's going to make us very...
Some kind of like addiction.
Dubtion to this kind of stuff.
If you're putting pot of seed inside this hot pot
Or something like that,
This is actually like,
This is forbidden and not allowed in China.
Oh.
So yeah, but in the UK,
This is actually sold by the Swats.
You can buy a jar.
Another thing.
In February?
Yeah, in Schwartz.
It's a brand of the herbs and some ices.
Schwartz, yeah, right.
So you can actually buy an entire jar of pot of seed.
I like it very much. I like those very much. I like to eat them very much.
This is bread. You can put it on bread or cake.
It's delicious, especially delicious, right.
I read a study before that adding poppy seeds and poppy shells is not addictive.
Oh, interesting.
It is the merchants who sell these spices in order to deceive the people who open the restaurant. In fact, scientific research is not addictive.
That's interesting.
So what strange things did you encounter in England? What to eat?
What would be the weirdest food you've eaten here?
Let me think about it.
Fish and chips?
I wouldn't consider first-hand chips weird, but just like...
I'm in an Italian restaurant. He put a lot of celery, and I don't like the taste very much.
So, yeah, just like He Jiong, you really don't like the taste of the celery.
I don't like that smell very much.
Yes.
My weirdest English food diet.
Yeah, because I'm Cantonese, I eat everything.
Things I'm just joking okay no I'm joking I'm not but uh the weirdest food I'm quite
Inclusive about what kind of food i actually tried a lot of strange food but something that
I tried but I don't think I actually I ate the parsnips is parsnips is a very english traditional
Food. Delicious. So parsley is just like a carrot, but most of the time they're just putting honey on it, and then roast it. It's a kind of carrot, but it's white and tastes stronger than carrots. Very sweet, yeah. Do you like that?
Yeah, it's good to try, but I will never cook it again or something.
So do you have any...
I remember that you really like the hotou gu.
Yes, yes.
It's delicious in China, right.
Salty is better than dry, right.
That's a food with very fragrant meat in the night market.
So it's a kind of mushroom, a very big mushroom.
Yes.
It's white, but it's still delicious.
What is GiGi's favourite food in the UK?
I cook a lot of Italian food.
So most of the time, the first year when I was living here, I cooked a lot of risotto.
Risotto is another rice, but they categorise it as a pasta, right?
I don't know.
In Italy, they have a very specific definition of what is rice and what is pasta.
It is possible that Risotto is a kind of rice, but orzo may be a kind of pasta, right.
Yes, orzo is a pasta.
And you know what, it's actually like Italian dishes, especially only the pasta, the yifen.
I think they have already like 100 or 200 names for different shape of the pasta.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Why are you creating so many names?
This is one of the difficult issue for me that every time when I went to an Italian restaurant,
I just don't know what to order
Because I have no idea what I'm ordering, do you know?
So it's just like, yeah.
You can also look at the photos in Chinese restaurants.
It's different in the UK.
There are no dishes, and there are basically no photos.
There is no photo.
So yeah, you also mentioned that
When you were travelling in China,
There are also some very interesting names
That you saw about the cuisines.
Something like they are putting some poetic
Meanings insiders.
They put a lot of poetry, words and phrases in the dishes. This is actually
AA, not Chinese.
Oh, AA, Kodash, okay.
A, they don't have a very specific term for AA, right?
AA is just like a Chinese way to describe AA.
It's possible that I don't know. It's normal in the UK.
Sometimes I tell my friends that my relatives and guests are sometimes different.
Sometimes if you go to a restaurant, then AA.
There is no problem with this, but I also know it's not easy for the Chinese, right?
Is there any problem?
It depends on the culture. It is more common among young people. When I was in college, I was with my friends and classmates. If no one said to treat me, it was A by default.
Yes, it's the same.
Yes, but it's different when dating. When dating, especially when dating with heterosexuals, does this boy treat him or with a girl?
It's a very sensitive topic.
Therefore, boys must treat others.
There is no need, some people think it, some people don't.
Yes, good.
So, if a Chinese guy dating an English girl, or dating a girl from Germany,
Do you consider that the Chinese guy should pay for the bills?
For me, no, this is AA, right?
So, okay, so now, okay, we learned something. Cool.
After the meal, the waiter paid the bill. The waiter stood in front of us. At that time, the girl had already taken out her wallet. She had already taken it out. I can't imagine that. But the waiter was still standing in front of me, looking at me. I was like, it's not me. And the girl had to take out her card and wave in the air. It's me, pay the bill.
-
- Don't look at me, my sugar mommy with a pill bill.
- Well, you do look attractive to have some sugar mommy.
I celebrate for that, yeah.
Very well said, very well said.
Good.
I will also remember that if that's the case, I also think it's possible, right.
Everyone laughed, because the other guests also heard it.
So what impact do you have on falling in love in the UK?
I assume that you had some relationship back in China and back in UK, right?
So what would be the feeling of dating a girl in the UK and the differences?
There are some differences between...
It's no different, because they're all dating Chinese people.
Yes.
Right.
I see.
But would you consider the Chinese society nowadays, the girls are already modernised,
Have a very modern feeling as that, being like, yeah, it shouldn't be the boys to pay the bills.
Yes, there are many such people.
Oh, cool.
But there's another type of people who think that they need to pay the men.
On the Internet, there's often a lot of controversy.
Because of the new enterprise of Internet women's rights,
Some men laugh at women, saying that you want to be independent,
And you want to eat with men to pay the men.
But in real life, those who want to be independent and want to pay the men are actually two different people.
But they seem to be women, so they fight over this matter.
Interesting so in uk what would be the case then
I mean the majority, just my observation.
And coconut coffee or something like that.
They have a lot of flavour.
Every month they are producing a new one.
So after I relocated to the UK,
I just find the coffee they're drinking is so boring.
They just have limited choices of coffee.
There are many flavours in China, but not in the UK.
I thought about it. Why is it like this?
Yeah, why?
But I also think that in Denmark, there are many kinds of black tea flavours.
Not in the UK.
Yes.
It's so boring.
Yes, this is some time that I started to consider is that the English culture itself does not actually consider the food is not the most important part of their daily life.
It's not a traditional coffee shop.
So you should classify those coffees as milk tea, not coffee.
It's possible.
Yes, when I was thinking of the UK doesn't care about the food, I'm mainly thinking of fish and chips.
Yes, they would consider this food would just feed their tummies and then it's quick and you just need to like get it done.
So it's convenient for them.
So I think it doesn't really want to spend a lot of time on cooking the food, I would consider.
Is that inaccurate?
Indian curry, the flavour is too strong, very, very strong.
Many British people especially like windaloo, windaloo, have you heard of it?
No.
It's a very spicy, yes, yes, a very spicy curry, yes.
Yes, I'm more likely, I'm more like a Japanese curry person, so the mild version, the Japanese curry are more mild.
This is because you are from Guangdong.
Yes, yes.
So, yes, have you eaten? I live in Sichuan, so of course I ate it. So when you were in England, did you ever go outside China? No, no, I rarely eat outside. Ah, good. So you cook a lot at home. Yes, or eat in the restaurant when you go out. Oh, wow, so when you cook at home, do you still cook in Chinese food?
Simply put, fry steak, cook dumplings, and make oil-sprinkled noodles.
Oil-sprinkled noodles? Oh.
How about you, GG? Do you have any experience? What dishes have you experienced? What do you take away?
No, I, yeah, I ate some very horrible Chinese takeaway and then I never do that again.
The Chinese takeaway that I eat here is that they put a lot of like
The definitely so much and then they put a lot of sugar in it so no matter if you are eating in
Australia or eating in UK I would consider although the Cantonese also put a lot of sugar
Inside their dishes but for me the level of how many sugar inside those dishes a little bit
Too much for me.
Yeah.
Everything has to be very sweet.
So I kind of develop a feeling that
The definition of Chinese food in the UK
As the foreignness,
The definition of most of the Chinese food
Are actually very sugary.
Stand up for the British.
I ordered pickled pepper chicken giblets at a Chengdu snack shop next to the University of the West of England, and I also put sugar in the pickled pepper chicken giblets.
Yeah, they put a lot of sugar inside our dishes.
Yeah, it's a very traditional Sichuan food.
We never ate sugar in that.
I couldn't imagine it.
Every dish that...
Yeah, I'm very intrigued by how much sugar they put inside the dessert,
In English dessert.
Okay, let's talk so much today.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you, Dudu.
Thank you.
Okay, bye.
Goodbye.
Goodbye!