Unit 4 Food

Word Pretest

• 1. The vegetable pie is the specialty of this restaurant.• specialty n. — a kind of food that is extremely good in a particular

area or restaurant (AmE. 【英】） (某地或某家饭馆的 )特色菜；特色食品

• a local specialty = a specialty of the area

• speciality BrE.【英】

• 2. The house was filled with the aroma of coffee.

• aroma n. — a strong pleasant smell; fragrance

芳香，香气，香味

• aromatic adj.

• 3. Thai （ thailand ） food is hot and spicy.• spicy a. — containing a pleasantly strong taste, and gives

you a burning feeling in your mouth 辛辣的

• Do you like spicy food?• spice girls

• 4. The seeds are tasty and nutritious.

• nutritious a. — containing many of the substances needed for life and growth

有营养的，营养价值高的

• nutrition n. [U]

• 5. Orange groves grow around the village.

• grove n. — an small area of land planted with a particular type of fruit tree that are close together

果园，果树林

• cf. glove n.

手套

• 6. The market stretches all the way along street.

• stretch v. / n. — to spread out or cover a large area of land

延伸，绵延；延续in space: the desert stretches for several hundred miles

这片沙漠绵延数百英里in time: a research program stretching over several years

一个历时数年的研究项目

• 7. He went back to the buffet table for a second helping.

• buffet n. — a meal where people serve themselves different types of usually cold food

自助餐

• 8. The men had gone to hunt wild game.

• game n. [U] — wild animals and birds that are hunted for food or sport

野味 ； 猎物

Section A : Text A

A Food Tour of the United States

Text I A food tour of the United States

A Food Tour of the United States

One of the most intriguing （ =attractive ） features of American cooking is its variety. The traveller who crosses the U.S. by bus or by car will find the food as worthy of attention as the scenery —and full of unexpected surprises, too. For American cooking at its best is regional in character.

A Food Tour of the United States

Except for turkey at Thanksgiving, no single dish has gained wide enough popularity in the U. S. to become a symbol for the country as a whole. Each region sets its table with a different specialty. These regional specialties capture the flavor and aroma and express the character of a particular locality. For instance, Cape Cod （科德角） , a summer resort on the Atlantic Ocean, is famous for its clambakes, a seafood feast pulled ocean-fresh from the Atlantic and cooked over an outdoor fire on the beach. New Orleans is known for its jambalaya( 什锦饭 ), a spicy dish of rice, ham, shrimp, and tomatoes. And Boston, where the winters are long and cold, is called "bean town" because of its baked beans, a mixture of dried beans, salt pork, brown sugar, and molasses. Mixed in an iron pot and baked for hours in a slow oven, this dish is hearty and nutritious. Americans say, "It sticks to your ribs.“

Being regional, these dishes feature the vegetables, fruits, meats, poultry, and seafood that are locally available. And since local conditions — the soil, climate, and topography — vary a great deal in the U.S., as might be expected in the world's fourth largest country, the result is a national food menu on which most of the world's favorite foods are listed.

Seafood of all kinds is abundant in the states that border the oceans or possess lake and river systems. Shrimp, crab, and lobster, as well as fresh fish are all mealtime favorites. Citrus fruit （柑橘类水果） — oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and limes — are produced in Florida and California. The fruit groves in these states supply most of the frozen juice and sun-ripened fruit that grace the breakfast tables of the nation. Across the landlocked states in the Midwest stretch endless corn and wheat fields, rippling in the wind as far as the eye can see. These grains are used to make bread, cereal, and cooking oil. The region is called “the breadbasket of the nation.” For vegetables, California is America’s most bountiful state. It is first in the production of broccoli （西兰花） , asparagus （芦笋） , tomatoes, carrots, grapes, lettuce （生菜） , peaches, and pears, and a variety of other foods. Where is meat produced? In Texas, of course. That‘s where you can see all those tender roasts( 烤肉 ), steaks( 牛排 ), and chops( 排骨 ).

True enough, all these foods are available at your local supermarket. But they have been canned, frozen, or packaged in some way and shipped many miles by rails or by truck. Wouldn‘t it be a treat （ =enjoyment ） to journey to the source, the point of origin, where the raw materials for great cooking begin? Pulled from the ocean or gathered farm fresh, this produce would be transformed by a local chef into a memorable dish fit for a king. After such a trip, what a gallery of memories the traveler would cherish! I recall, for example, a marvelous breakfast I enjoyed at a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. The food was served buffet style from a long table. The first dish on the table was a bowl of grits, a Southern specialty made of cornmeal. The waiter served the grits in big spoonfuls, heaping several pats of butter on top. Then came a large pan of salted beef in cream sauce. It was surrounded by dishes of spiced apples, bacon, and pork sausages. Eggs, sunny-side up （单面煎） , were next on the line. Beyond the eggs was a Virginia ham. Further down the table were stacks of toast and plates of pancakes topped with maple syrup or honey and melted butter.

The traveler who would like to sample the real flavor of American cooking must explore the country as a whole. There are five distinct regions in all. Each has its own characteristic dishes. There is the Northeast, stretching from Maine to Maryland, which is famous for its seafood; the south, which includes Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and neighboring states, where Southern fried chicken, collard greens （芥蓝菜） , corn-bread, and black-eyed peas （豇豆） are popular; the Midwest or plains states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, and Kansas which specialize in fine breads and pastries; the Mountain Sates of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, where wild game such as deer and pheasant are found; and the Southwest states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where barbecued food is a regional specialty.Doesn't each of these regions deserve a visit by the traveler who enjoys good food?

Reading Comprehension

1. The best description of American cooking is that ______. A. It has no individuality B. It is the same all across the country C. It is regional in character

(Fact ： For American cooking at its best is regional in character. L3 Para 1)

2. New Orleans is best know fro its ______ A. baked beans B. jambalaya C. citrus fruit

(Fact: … New Orleans is known for its jambalaya, L4 Para. 2)

3. Which of the following are examples of sea food? A. oranges, grapefruit, lemons B. broccoli, asparagus, lettuce C. shrimp, crab, lobster

(Fact: Shrimp, crab, and lobster, as well as fresh fish – … L2 Para 4)

4. The Midwest is called the “breadbasket of the nation” because ______ A. many baskets are made there B. wheat and corn grow there C. vegetables grow there

(Fact: Across the landlocked states in the Midwest stretch endless corn and wheat fields.The region is called “the breadbasket … L5 Para 4)

5. The state best known for its vegetables is ______. A. California B. New York C. Florida

(Fact: For vegetables, California is America’s … L8 Para 4)

6. The state best know for cattle and meat production is ______. A. Oregon B. Michigan C. Texas

(Fact: Where is meat produced? In Texas, of course. L2 P45)

7. How many distinct regions are there in the U. S.? A. four B. five C. six

(Fact: There are five distinct regions in all. L2 of the 3rd Para on P45)

8. Which of the following states is not in the Northeast region? A. Mains B. Maryland C. Ohio

(Fact: There is the Northeast, stretching from Maine to … L 3 of the 3rd Para on P45)

flavor taste

fragrant having a pleasant smell

bland lacking strong taste

dairy made from milk

staple basic food

Vocabulary Building

芳香的，芬芳的 a.

无滋味的；淡的 a.

奶制品的，乳品的 a.

主食 n.

味道；风味 n. ；调味 v.

pickle to preserve food with salt water or vinegar

smoke to use smoke to flavor and preserve food

mince to cut food into very small pieces

drizzle to pour a small amount of liquid onto sth.

bake to cook food (such as bread or a cake) with dry heat

in an oven

腌制 v. ；腌菜，泡菜 n.

（用烟）熏制 v. ；烟 n.切碎，剁碎 v. ；剁细的肉 n.

洒，淋，倒 v./n.

烘，烤 v.

stew to cook food slowly in hot liquid

braise to cook food by browning in fat and

simmering in a covered pot

steam to cook or heat food with steam

boil to cook food in boiling water

brew to make (coffee, tea, etc.)

小火慢炖 v.; 炖菜 n.

炖，焖 v.

蒸（食物） v. ； 蒸汽 n.

煮 ( 沸 ) ，烧开 v./n.

泡（茶）；煮（咖啡） v.

Vocabulary Building

Key to the exercise: (p. 53)1. drizzled 2. boil 3. bake 4. brewed5. staple 6. flavor 7. dairy8. stewed

prefix(p. 53): mis-, dis-

1. mis- + noun / verb “wrong, wrongly, badly”

e. g. miscalculate, misbehavior, misprint

2. dis- + root / verb / noun “not”

e. g. distrust, dissatisfied, dishonest, disease,

Vocabulary BuildingKey to the exercise: (p. 54)1.disagrees 2. misunderstands 3. disappearance4. misleading5. disadvantage 6. misfortune 7. discourage 8. misinterpreted

Cloze: (p. 55)1. seeds2. foods3. ingredients4. called5. hands6. increase7. rising8. allowed9. final10. oven

Traditional American cuisine has included conventional European foodstuffs such as wheat, dairy products, pork, beef, and poultry. It has also incorporated products that were either known only in the New World or that were grown there first and then introduced to Europe. Such foods include potatoes, corn, codfish, molasses, pumpkin and other squashes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. American cuisine also varies by region. Southern cooking was often different from cooking in New England and its upper Midwest offshoots. Doughnuts, for example, were a New England staple, while Southerners preferred corn bread. The availability of foods also affected regional diets, such as the different kinds of fish eaten in New England and the Gulf Coast. For instance, Boston clam chowder and Louisiana gumbo are widely different versions of fish soup. Other variations often depended on the contributions of indigenous peoples. In the Southwest, for example, Mexican and Native Americans made hot peppers a staple and helped define the spicy hot barbecues and chili dishes of the area. In Louisiana, Cajun influence similarly created spicy dishes as a local variation of Southern cuisine, and African slaves throughout the South introduced foods such as okra and yams.

No one knows who made the first cheese, but according to an ancient legend it was made accidentally by an Arabian merchant. The merchant put his supply of milk into a pouch made of a sheep's stomach when he set out on a long day's journey across the desert. The jouncing( 颠簸 ) of his camel, the heat of the sun in the desert, and the chemicals in the pouch lining made the milk separate into curds( （牛奶变酸后形成的）凝冻 ) and whey( 乳清（制造奶酪时分离出的含水成分） ) . The thick part, or curd, was the first cheese. He found at nightfall that the whey satisfied his thirst and the cheese satisfied his hunger and had a delightful flavor.

According to ancient records, cheese was used as a food more than four thousand years ago. From earliest times it has been considered a very nourishing food. Americans eat less cheese than people in some countries do, yet they still consume eight to ten pounds a year per person.

Today cheese is made all over the world. Most cheese is made from cow's milk, because the supply of this milk is greater throughout the world. Smaller quantities come from the milk of other animals, such as goats, sheep, camels, and even reindeer.

"Fingers were made before forks." When a person gives up good manners, puts aside knife and fork, and dives into his food, someone is likely to repeat that saying.

The fork was an ancient agricultural tool, but for centuries no one thought of eating with it. Not until the eleventh century, when a young lady from Constantinople brought her fork to Italy, did the custom reach Europe.

By the fifteenth century, the use of the fork was widespread in Italy. The English explanation was that Italians did not like to eat food touched with fingers, “seeing （ = because) all men's fingers are not alike clean." English travelers kept their friends in stitches while describing this ridiculous Italian custom.

Anyone who used a fork to eat with was laughed at in England for the next hundred years. Men who used forks were thought to be sissies, and women who used them were called show-offs and over-nice. Not until the late 1600's did using a fork become a common custom.

Today, people have adopted vegetarian diets based on scientific studies showing that diets high in fatty animal foods may cause the early development of disease, including obesity, high blood pressure, and cancer. The United States Surgeon General's report on nutrition and health urged Americans to eat less animal fats, such as those found in meat and dairy products, and to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

The vegetarian plant-based diet typically has the advantage of being low in fat, cholesterol, and salt, but it can be lacking in other ways. Vegetarians need to plan their diets with special care in order to obtain the essential nutrients received from diets that include meat, fish, and poultry. Following the Pyramid Food Guide published by the Department of Agriculture can help vegetarians meet all their nutritional requirements. At the bottom of the pyramid are the grains, vegetables, and fruits that form the foundation of a healthful diet. In the middle of the pyramid are foods from the milk group and the meat and beans group, which should be eaten in moderate amounts. At the top of the pyramid are high-fat and sugary foods, indicating that they should be eaten in small amounts or avoided altogether.

Eating the Sichuanese Way

lf you are invited to dinner in a Sichuanese home, there will probably be a few cold dishes on the table when you arrive — perhaps some deep-fried peanuts, a plateful of preserved radish in chili sauce picked up from the market, some cold meats, or a cucumber salad. When everyone is seated at the dining table, the cook will still be in the kitchen for a while, keeping an eye on the braised meat stew, stir-frying the vegetables and mushrooms, making the simple soup that will conclude the meal. A very informal dinner will have at least one dish per person, but there's no limit to the number of dishes that you may be offered. As a guest, you will be encouraged to eat, and to eat more, and to go on eating, and attentive hosts will offer you the choicest morsels, placing them directly into your rice bowl with their chopsticks. Rice is usually offered toward the end of the meal, with a small dish of pickled vegetables to "send the rice down" (xia fan). Fresh fruit may be served after dinner.

More elaborate restaurant meals follow a similar pattern, but with far more dishes.

Cold food is served first, and then the hot dishes emerge from the kitchen one by one

until the whole table is laden with food. You may also be offered tiny individual bowls

of dumplings, little fancies to be eaten on the side. A final, clear, stock-based soup is a

sign that the meal is drawing to an end. This may be followed by one or two simple

"send-the-rice-down" dishes, with or without the actual rice, and the inevitable

Sichuanese touch, a final nibble of pickled vegetables. There's also a recent,

Cantonese-influenced fashion for platters of cut fruit to be served at the end of the

meal.

  Among the hot dishes, there are no hard-and-fast rules about the sequence of

dishes on menus, although every good cook will try to avoid repetition of ingredients,

tastes, or textures. The typical Sichuanese meal starts with dry, salty, intensely flavored

dishes and meanders among all manner of tastes and textures before ending with a

bland, clear soup and sour pickles drizzled with chili oil. The classic Sichuanese

soups are usually under-salted and often include ribbons of pickled mustard greens —

another sour note. The regional style is very much in keeping with the advice of the

great Qing Dynasty gourmet Yuan Mei, who made the following comments on the

structuring of flavors within a meal:

Salty dishes should come first, bland ones afterwards.

Strong flavors should precede the weak ones.

Dry dishes should come before soupy ones.

There are five flavors under Heaven, so you mustn't attend only to the salty.

If you suspect your dinner guests have eaten their fill, and their spleens are

fatigued, you must stir them into action with spice and hotness.

If you think your guests have drunk too much, making their digestions

sluggish, you must enliven them with flavors sour and sweet.

  To give you some idea of the variety of a Sichuanese banquet, here follows a

translation of the menu of a memorable lunch I had at the Drifting Fragrance (piao

xiang) restaurant in Chengdu.

Cold dishes: five-spiced "smoked" fish (wu xiang xun gui yu), chicken with cold

rice jelly in a spicy sauce (huang liang fen ban ji), cucumber in mustard dressing (jie

mo qiang huang gua), "phoenix tail" lettuce stems in sesame sauce (ma jiang feng wei),

tea-smoked pigeons (zhang cha ru ge), dry bean curd with peanuts (hua sheng dou fu

gan), Sichuanese cold meats (chuan wei lu pin), tripe in hot and garlicky sauce (suan

ni ban mao du).

 Hot dishes: braised sea cucumber (hai shen shao shi jin), hot-and-fragrant crab with

red chiles (hong jiao xiang la xie), fast-fried duck tongues in fermented sauce (jiang bao

ya she), steamed pork with rice meal (piao xiang fen zheng rou), braised white cabbage

with Yunnan ham (yun tui shao bai cai), traditional bowl-steamed duck with pickled

vegetables (dong cai lao pai kou ya), braised turtle with potatoes (tai zi lu bao), South

Sichuan boiled beef slices in a fiery sauce (chuan nan shui zhu niu liu), fish with pickled

vegetables (pao cai gui hua yu), "dragon-eye" sweet steamed pork with glutinous rice

(long yan tian shao bai), soup of green vegetable tips with a chicken-breast coating (ji

meng kui cai tang).

"Send-the-rice-down" dish: pickled string beans stir-fried with green chilies and

minced pork (xiao qing jiao chao la rou jiang dou).

Snacks: deep-fried sweet potato cakes (zha shao bing), boiled dumplings in spicy

sauce (hong you shui jiao), leaf-wrapped cones of glutinous rice with Sichuan pepper

(jiao yan zong zi).

  Sichuan is famous not only for its food, but also for the excellence of its liquors (bai

jiu) and teas. The Sichuan liquors are strong, vodka-like concoctions made from various

grains and drunk in tiny china cups, almost like thimbles. Women scarcely touch them, so

when a woman does indulge, there is a whiff of scandal and danger in the air. Men will

quaff cup after cup, ritualistically, in formal toasts or casual drinking games. At formal

dinners, all men present are expected to keep up a common pace of drinking — if one

guest calls out "gan bei!" (Cheers! Bottoms up!), it's almost impossible for the others to

refuse another drink.

  Sichuan's most famous bai jiu is Wu Liang Ye, an intensely fragrant clear liquor

made from sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, wheat, and corn, traditionally mixed with water

from the middle of the Min River. The liquor, a specialty of Yibin in southern Sichuan, is

60 proof, although apparently they tone this down a bit for export. Some of the wine

cellars in Yibin are thought to date back about five hundred years, to the Ming Dynasty.

At informal meals, Sichuanese people often drink beer or soft drinks, but these are very

recent arrivals. More traditionally, drinks might not be offered at all, but the simple soup

served at the end of the meal has a similar function, to quench thirst and rinse the palate.

    At informal meals, Sichuanese people often drink beer or soft drinks, but these are

very recent arrivals. More traditionally, drinks might not be offered at all, but the simple

soup served at the end of the meal has a similar function, to quench thirst and rinse the

palate. Tea is usually served before or after meals, but not while they are in progress

as is the practice in Chinese restaurants in the West. One exception is a herbal tea called

"red-and-white tea" (hong bai cha), which has cooling properties and is served all over

Chengdu in the hotter months. The brewed leaves yield a liquid that is pinkish red in

color — the perfect accompaniment to a typically Sichuanese meal. "Red-and-white tea"

is a Daoist (Taoist) specialty and is grown on the slopes of the holy Daoist mountain,

Qing Cheng Shan, which lies to the northwest of Chengdu.

Key to Section B: (p. 56-58)

1. A 2. D 3. C 4. B

5. A 6. D 7. C 8. B

Key to Section C: (p. 59-62)

1. T 2. F 3. F 4. T

5. T 6. F 7. T 8. T