{"id":2647,"date":"2011-08-10T11:10:45","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T15:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2011-08-10T11:19:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T15:19:29","slug":"everything-but-the-table-fast-food-%e5%bf%ab%e9%a4%90%ef%bc%89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/everything-but-the-table-fast-food-%e5%bf%ab%e9%a4%90%ef%bc%89\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything but the Table: Fast Food (\u5feb\u9910\uff09"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>To say that\u00a0city-life in\u00a0China is busy would be a huge understatement. Nothing ever seems to close, cars never seem to leave the streets and crowds only thin out when inclimate weather rears its ugly head. Cities are crowded concrete jungles\u00a0filled\u00a0brimming with people.\u00a0 Yet the hustle-bustle of Chinese metropolises stands as a testament to the vast modernization and urban development that China has undergone in the past few decades. Add in a population boom (as citizens continue to move from rural areas to urban ones) and\u00a0what remains are\u00a0these hive-like cities with millions of people buzzing along with their daily business.<\/p>\n

And what powers most of these people through the day when they don’t have time for a proper Chinese meal (lazy susan included)? Fast food or \u5feb\u9910\u00a0(ku\u00e0i<\/a> c\u0101n<\/a>). Now here I think it is important to make a distinction between corporate and largely foreign\u00a0“fast food” chains, such as\u00a0McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut, and the kind of fast food you can get at on any street, either from a\u00a0cart vendor or from a small restaurant. Unfortunately for the health of most Chinese city-dwellers, corporate fast food chains are growing in popularity, and much like in the United States, can be found on most high-traffic blocks and street corners.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L8hfgElpu-s<\/a><\/p>\n

While I seldom (unless it’s 4 am in Wudaokou) visit these “big three” western fast food chains, Chinese citizens are infatuated with hamburgers, fried chicken and terrible, terrible pizza (it tastes like it has a pound of sugar in each pie…yuck). For them, it’s a sign of affluence and wealth–the ability to clog their arteries with sugar and fat-rich foods. In the US, fast food is seen as a low-cost, high-caloric way to satiate your belly. But in China, it’s a luxury good.<\/p>\n

Barring the\u00a0health concerns (China really should learn from the US’s mistakes, namely heart disease, obesity and diabetes) created by such fast food industries, the prevalence of “fast food culture” looks to emerge as a staple of upper class citizens and the emerging elite. Their “little emperor” children \u5c0f\u7687\u5e1d\u00a0(xi\u01ceo<\/a> hu\u00e1ng<\/a> d\u00ec<\/a>) demand it after all…<\/p>\n

My students, who were mostly from well-to-do families, couldn’t get enough of McDonalds and KFC, and would often grow perturbed when I mentioned my distaste for the burgers, fries and chicken wings. “How can you be an American”, they’d ask. “Why don’t you like your<\/em> food?” When I’d try and respond about the deliciousness of Chinese food and how McDonalds isn’t really traditional American food, they’d all scoff and talk about how much they love\u00a0Big Macs\u00a0and french fries. Now serving 1.4 billion and counting! Mcdonalds even serves “McWeddings” in Hong Kong:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1rhuntig4tk<\/a><\/p>\n

But if you are a westerner and want a little taste of Americana, here are the most popular chains in China. Just don’t overdo it, and remember that Chinese food is healthier, tastier and waaaaay cheaper.<\/p>\n

First off, they’ll ask you what you want or \u4f60\u8981\u4ec0\u4e48?\u00a0Fortunately many of the menus include a picture to which you can point if you “fast food vocabulary” isn’t up to snuff. Then they’ll ask you if you are eating here or want it to go. If\u00a0you want to know how to say “to go”, say “\u5e26\u8d70” (d\u00e0i<\/a> z\u01d2u<\/a>)\u00a0which translates literally as”carry go”. They’ll also ask for cash or credit card, \u4fe1\u7528\u5361 (x\u00ecn<\/a> y\u00f2ng<\/a> k\u01ce<\/a>) and if you want ketchup or \u756a\u8304\u9171\u00a0(f\u0101n<\/a> qi\u00e9<\/a> ji\u00e0ng<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Here are some useful fast food vocabulary words:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

McDonalds or \u9ea6\u5f53\u52b3<\/strong> (m\u00e0i<\/a> d\u0101ng<\/a> l\u00e1o<\/a>)<\/p>\n

hamburger\uff0d\u6c49\u5821\u5305 (h\u00e0n<\/a> b\u01ceo<\/a> b\u0101o<\/a>)<\/p>\n

french fries\uff0d\u85af\u6761 (sh\u01d4<\/a> ti\u00e1o<\/a>)<\/p>\n

cola\uff0d\u53ef\u4e50 (k\u011b<\/a> l\u00e8<\/a>)<\/p>\n

KFC or \u80af\u5fb7\u57fa<\/strong> (K\u011bn<\/a> d\u00e9<\/a> j\u012b<\/a>)<\/p>\n

KFC is a close second to McDonalds and I get the distinct feeling that Chinese people absolutely love the Colonel. I was told that he (and KFC) are even more popular in Vietnam, because the cartoon rendering of him looks eeriely similar to Ho Chi Min…go figure. Anyway, here are some basics:<\/p>\n

chicken\uff0d\u9e21\u8089 (j\u012b<\/a> r\u00f2u)<\/p>\n

leg\uff0d\u9e21\u8089\u9000 (j\u012b<\/a> r\u00f2u\u00a0tu\u01d0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

wing\uff0d\u9e21\u7fc5 (j\u012bch\u00ec)<\/p>\n

Pizza Hut or \u5fc5\u80dc\u5ba2<\/strong> (B\u00ec<\/a> sh\u00e8ng<\/a> K\u00e8<\/a>)<\/p>\n

pizza\uff0d\u6bd4\u8428 (b\u01d0<\/a> s\u00e0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

bread\uff0d\u9762\u5305 (mi\u00e0n<\/a> b\u0101o<\/a>)<\/p>\n

where is the bathroom (cause believe me you’ll need to know this)\uff0d\u6d17\u6fa1\u95f4\uff0f\u5395\u6240\u5728\u54ea\u513f\uff1f<\/p>\n

Follow Steve on twitter: @seeitbelieveit<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

To say that\u00a0city-life in\u00a0China is busy would be a huge understatement. Nothing ever seems to close, cars never seem to leave the streets and crowds only thin out when inclimate weather rears its ugly head. Cities are crowded concrete jungles\u00a0filled\u00a0brimming with people.\u00a0 Yet the hustle-bustle of Chinese metropolises stands as a testament to the vast…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11738,69370,11741,11740,69371,69372,69369,11748,11755,11739,11742],"class_list":["post-2647","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fast-food","tag-hong-kong","tag-kfc","tag-mcdonalds","tag-mcdonalds-wedding","tag-mcmarriage","tag-mcwedding","tag-pizza-hut","tag-11755","tag-11739","tag-11742"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2647"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}