The Middle Ground Journal

Chinese Table – Food, Customs, Traditions, Identities – by Mariya Taberko. The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy, at NorthStarReports.org and facebook.com/NorthStarReports

[Image 1] Hot pot (火锅 huo3 guo1) seems to be everyone’s favorite meal, particularly on special occasions.

During my time studying Chinese in Beijing, our program would take each class to a local restaurant after the weekly Friday exam, and would treat us to lunch while we chatted with our classmates and teachers about things outside of course material. Because my class and the class directly above mine both had a mere two students each, we joined forces on Fridays and invited two office staff members, bringing our group total to about eight people every week. For every Chinese table, we would designate a different student to select a restaurant and reserve seats for our group—this way, we got to try all sorts of new foods…