Chinese Restaurants in London

The script of this programme 本节目台词

Wang Fei: 大家好，欢迎收听《都市掠影》节目。我是王飞。

Finn: And I'm Finn. Wang Fei, today we're talking about something really exciting: Chinese food in London.

Wang Fei: 对，这是一个很有意思的话题。很多在英国的朋友都会问我同一个问题， 他们说： Do you think Chinese restaurants in London are authentic?

Finn: So let's find out some people's opinions about this. Here is an American visitor talking about her experience eating in Chinese restaurants in London.

Freshly roasted ducks hanging in the window of a Chinese restaurant

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Definitely I think they’re quite authentic. But I think one of the problems for a lot of Chinese Chinatowns around the world is they’re specifically from the south. A lot of them are from, you know Canton, a lot of Hong Kong. So, definitely… But in London, actually, [you] definitely find, you know, people from northern China, western China with different cuisines. So, actually, you know, British people got a priority with all different variety of choices. So they’re luckier than Washington is of course!

Wang Fei: So, generally speaking she thinks the food in Chinese restaurants in London is quite authentic. 还是比较地道的。

Finn: Interesting, but she also thinks that people in Chinatowns around the world are mostly from the south of China. So food in these Chinatowns also represents a southern Chinese style of cooking.

Wang Fei: 是的。I think it's true. Most restaurants in Chinatown in London serve Cantonese food, 也就是广东菜。

Finn: 广东菜。But she also found that in London you could find different people from different parts of China with different cuisines.

Wang Fei: Yes, different cuisines, 也就是不同的烹饪方法、不同的菜肴。

Finn: Indeed, and I think that Sichuanese cuisine is starting to become really popular right now.

Wang Fei: 是的，我也感觉到了。四川菜在伦敦越来越流行。但是它们的味道正宗地道吗？我们听一听一位四川人的看法。

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For me, absolutely not, because I’m from Sichuan Province, and I believe the best food is from Sichuan! Among different Chinese restaurants they sell different kinds of dishes, so I don’t want to say, like they…. they’re not good or they’re not bad. But comparatively not good as the same in China we have.

Finn: Wow, she is really proud of her home, Sichuan, and of course Sichuanese food.

Wang Fei: 是的，Sichuanese food 也就是四川菜。So she thinks the best food is Sichuanese food and the food here in London is absolutely not authentic.

Finn: Of course she is comparing the food in London with the food from her home in China in Sichuan. But of course this is only her opinion. Actually many people in London think that Sichuanese food here is too hot and too spicy.

Wang Fei: 是的，我也有这种感觉。很多中国人喜欢吃四川菜，但是很多外国人会觉得川菜太辣。他们并不喜欢吃。

Finn: 那我就是一个例外。Let's listen to another Londoner talking about Chinese restaurants in London.

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I haven’t been to that many (Chinese restaurants) but the couple I’ve ordered from were not terribly authentic in my opinion. I think they’re catering more to Western-style preferences, and not to authentic Chinese cooking.

Finn: She thinks they were not terribly authentic.

Wang Fei: Not terribly authentic, 不是太正宗地道。

Finn: The reason, she thinks, is that "they're catering more to Western-style preferences".

Wang Fei: Cater to, 就是迎合某人或某物的口味。在伦敦的中国菜迎合西方口味的选择。

Finn: So, what did she eat and why did she have this opinion? Let's continue listening to her story.

Wang Fei: Ok.

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It was Sichuan chicken in fried rice. It was kind of a reddish sauce... kind of something closer to sweet and sour chicken than I would think a Sichuan chicken should be. There were some peppers in it that I guess were supposed to give it a little bit of extra spice, but not too much!

Finn: So she ordered some Sichuan chicken. What do you suppose Sichuan chicken should be like, Wang Fei?

Wang Fei: Of course, with red chilli, sesame, spring onion and red chilli oil. It should be very spicy!

Finn: Lovely, it sounds great! And I think it's what I would think of as well. But she got something closer to sweet and sour chicken with a kind of reddish sauce.

Wang Fei: 她得到的菜很像 sweet and sour chicken 糖醋鸡肉，还有一些 reddish sauce, 红色的酱。

Finn: And also some peppers in it as well.

Wang Fei: 还有一些菜椒在里面。听起来有点怪。是不是 Finn？

Finn: I think maybe a little bit strange. So some Chinese restaurants in London might serve this type of food which caters to Western-style preferences. But of course we can also find more and more authentic Chinese restaurants in London too these days. And if you want to find the very authentic ones, you'll find most of the guests are Chinese people. When I had 火锅 recently in London, all Chinese. I was the only 外国人。However, maybe the not very authentic ones might be full of people from different countries.

Wang Fei: 对，中国人会去那些正宗的中国餐馆，而中西结合的餐馆则符合世界不同国家人的口味了。

Finn: You know what？I think it's always really really exciting to explore these different foods in London.

Wang Fei: Yes, we should continue this topic.

Finn: Let's go and eat.

Wang Fei: 对，在今后的节目中我们会继续向大家介绍 — 吃在英国。

Finn: Bye for now.

Wang Fei: Bye!