My American dinner host, an old couple, has a rich family and a good income; Now that the child is older, there is no financial burden; However, over 60 years old, they still refuse to rest, working on time and even working overtime every day. It's just that every afternoon, Dai Yan will go home early to cook dinner. After I came, she picked me up at school at three every day, and then we went home to cook together. I am an omnivore who grew up in the canteen of a snack bar. There are many kinds of food. I can't cook American food, but it's rare to have the temperament of "I'm willing to try any food", so I declared, "I can't cook American food, you do it, and I will actively help; I promise I won't eat anything, and I will definitely contract to wash dishes every day! "I don't understand, but after all, I have been working in the kitchen for many years, and it is more than enough for me to help Dai Yan every day. So when we fry, bake and cook, our kitchen becomes my classroom. We are in a hurry, chatting casually about "English is puzzling", talking about China and the United States, talking about children and relatives, talking about good things, bad things, strange things and absurd things, talking about "private words" that women all over the world know, and enjoying the most vivid "first oral class"! The "second oral class" is the "discussion" of the three of us after dinner every day. After dinner, I will wash the dishes. Three people don't wash much tableware. Besides, in the United States, every faucet has 24-hour hot water, and the washing conditions are really good. Many people have dishwashers at home, but that guy is time-consuming and laborious, and people who are not too lazy rarely use their hands. Americans cook, as I often say, "A master is not like a chef, but more like a student taking an exam"-because the stoves in American homes are very similar-the electric oven with four eyes above and the electric oven below have the same temperature settings; Common "American chefs" always hold "recipes" in one hand and "follow the trend" in the other. American recipes are strictly quantitative. A few kilograms of flour, a few grams of salt, a few grams of sugar, a few ounces of water, and even a few pieces of a catty of meat, how many times a pot of soup is stirred, are clearly marked. Each kitchen has a variety of measuring cups for measuring flour and liquid; In this way, the so-called cooking is very primitive, but different people hold recipes in one hand and teach "weighing, measuring, stirring and frying" in the other. Mary Joe cooks like this, and so does Dai Yan; The difference is that Mary Joe holds the book with her left hand, while Dai Yan holds the book with her right hand, because she is left-handed. It is precisely because of this that "foreign fast food" such as "KFC" and "McDonald's" can travel all over the world and still taste the same (unless people cut corners). Dinner is often the most abundant meal in a day: all kinds of spaghetti (spaghetti, spaghetti, macaroni, spiral, twist, spaghetti, precious, wonton, bow, Orzo) can be cooked and eaten like noodles, but their shapes are far from those of our China noodles except spaghetti: spaghetti and precious like jiaozi and wonton. Manicotti is similar to China's rice noodles or Longxu Noodles, but Americans prefer to call it Angles Hair. Once in class, I told my students: According to the tradition of China people, they don't eat cakes on their birthdays, but eat a "very long" food. Guess what this is? For a long time, no one guessed it was noodles. It was not until I saw American noodles that it suddenly dawned on me. No wonder my classmates couldn't guess that the pile of "noodles" that Americans generally call pasta on it is really difficult to be associated with "longevity". (The most common pasta salad Rotini ["spiral" or "twist"]. Color is absolutely rich, but who will associate it with "longevity"? ) Spaghetti occupies a prominent position in the American dining table, so that people have developed a series of tableware specially used for cooking noodles: noodle pot, noodle spoon, noodle measuring tool and so on. Americans eat more spaghetti, but less noodle soup. Therefore, no matter what kind of pasta, it is cooked, decanted and added with sauce. Therefore, people invented a special pot for cooking noodles. The pot cover has a decanting hole, which saves the chef a lot of trouble. A toothed spoon specially used for grasping noodles was invented, which is much better than chopsticks. Sometimes, we may cook some rice and stew a pot of beef for dinner, and steam a drawer of Gusgus. -Dai Yan told me that it was Jewish food, but I found out from the Internet that it was called "North African millet", which was made by Moroccans with coarse wheat flour and looked like millet. Maybe bake some bacon; ; Maybe steam a slice of salmon or tuna; Although I strongly advise these two kinds of fish not to steam or cook, it is better to slice them and dip them in soy sauce to eat "sashimi", but you can't accept this "barbaric" eating method anyway. Bacon is simply interpreted as "bacon" in our domestic English textbooks, so most people in China will interpret it as "Chinese bacon" that can be stewed or fried quickly. In fact, bacon is the "pork belly" cut and pickled in the picture. Americans put them in a flat pan, heat them, bake them into oil and bake them into hard strips; It tastes crisp and has a strong meat flavor. Sometimes, we will make some pot stickers: the supermarket buys special flour, adds water to make paste according to the requirements of the box, scoops a spoonful and pours it on a special pot, and it will be cooked in a few minutes; Delicious, easy to do and eager to learn; (Simple and delicious "delicious" food: Pancake) I quickly learned to make Pancake, so Diane took the opportunity to find a big salad bowl and mix it with colorful bowls. The introduction of "salad" in domestic English textbooks is similar to that of "cold salad" in China. But in fact, in addition to vegetables, American salads can also include bread crumbs (cut into cubes), ice cream, cooked macaroni, beef, chicken, strawberries, grapes, pineapple chips, salad dressing and champagne, all of which are delicious. One day when Diane came home, she said unconvinced that a colleague in the company actually said that chicken and strawberries could be put in the salad at the same time, so she would try it today. Originally, it was a fallacy, but it made me realize the taste of strawberry mixed with chicken, which was really good. Sometimes, Dai Yan cooks some apple pies, desserts and cookies. At this time, she ordered step by step, and I just contributed and stole art; I am good at painting and decorating finished products, and I will spare no effort to draw a table full of China customs. Of course, I also show off my skills from time to time, making buns, jiaozi, wonton and the like, or frying some Chinese food. In a supermarket in a remote town like lyttleton, it is difficult to buy round dumpling skins and square wonton skins. But every time I cook, oil stars splash everywhere, and then I always have to turn on the range hood for a long time, which makes me feel guilty.