【推荐1】Until the 1990s coffee was rarely served in China except at luxury hotels aimed at foreigners. When Starbucks opened its first outlet there in 1999, it was far from clear that the country’s avid tea-drinkers would take to such a different-and usually more costly- source of caffeine. Starbucks tried to attract customers unused to coffee’s bitter taste by promoting milk and sugar-heavy concoctions(调和) such as Frappuccinos.

But coffee has become fashionable among the middle class in China. Starbucks now has about 3, 800 outlets in China- more than in any other country outside America. Statista, a business-intelligence portal(门户网站), says the roast coffee market in China is growing by more than 10 % a year. Starbucks and its rivals see big opportunities for expanding there.

So too, however, do home-grown competitors. A major new presence is Luckin Coffee, Beijing- based chain. Since its founding less than two years ago, it has opened more than 2,300 outlets. On May 17th Luckin’s initial public offering on the Nasdaq stockmarket raised more than $570m, giving it a value of about $4bn.

Luckin’s remarkable growth is sign of change. No longer do Chinese consumers see coffee as such a luxury. Most of Luckin’s outlets are merely kiosks where busy white-collar workers pick up their drinks, having ordered them online. Super-fast delivery can also be arranged through the company’s app. Independent coffee shops are springing up. The growth is striking given the country’s reputation for its tea-drinking culture where many residents like to relax in teahouses sipping tea served gracefully.

But the two markets are different. The teahouses tend to cater to older people who like to spend long hours playing mahjong and gossiping. At the coffee shops it is rare to see anyone over 40. Young people use them for socialising, but much of their interaction is online -sharing photos of their drinks and of the coffee-making equipment. An option on the Chinese rating app Dianping allows users to search for wanghong ("internet viral") coffee houses: ones with particularly photogenic decor(照片装饰) where better to sip and We Chat?

【推荐2】The Chinese words for “fish” and “plenty” are homonyms (同音异义词). A whole fish, eaten on the eve of the lunar new year — represents a wish for plenty to come. It can be deep-fried or roasted in a pan, but if you live on a coast, or have access to first-rate fish, steaming is the way to go.     1    , which symbolizes hopes for a surplus (盈余) in the year ahead. Spring rolls, with their fanciful appearance of gold bars, represent hopes for wealth. Uncut noodles symbolize a long life.

    2    . On the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, Jews make their challah, a traditional enriched bread, in a round shape to represent the cycle of life and creation. The bread, and often apples too, are covered with honey, symbolizing the wish for a sweet year.

On New Year’s Day in America, black southerners have long eaten green vegetables together with Hoppin’ John, a delicious dish of rice and black-eyed peas (豌豆), cooked with salt pork.     3    . Some people put a clean coin in the pot. Whoever gets it on their plate will enjoy a lot of good luck.

Whether anyone actually believes in a causal relationship between eating these foods and receiving the promised benefits is unclear. Mainly, these traditions continue for the same reason that other traditions do.     4    .

Fish and noodles, bread and apples, beans and greens appear regularly on Chinese, Jewish and American tables.     5    . Rather these foods are ordinary, yet with good meaning when eaten at the right time and in the right frame of mind. Good fortune, they suggest, lies all around, and is always within reach.

【推荐1】My poor mother would be the first to tell you that having a food scientist for a daughter was not always easy.

One weekend visit home, I stood in her kitchen and surveyed her food preparation techniques.

“You know,” I said, "there's no nutrition left when you overcook the vegetables like that"

She smiled at me patiently and said, “Oh, my! It's a miracle that after all these years, my kids even survived at all!”.

Survived we did. Mom's meals were simple but well-balanced. My sisters and I grew up with a variety of food on our family table. When it came to vegetables, we ate almost everything- from green chilies to turnip greens.

On school mornings, Mom switched on our bedroom light to silently tell us it was time to get up. Then she'd rush to the kitchen to make a nourishing breakfast we'd eat before heading out of the door. I didn't understand why Mom was always so busy until I had a child myself.

Mom went back to work when I was in high school, no longer a housewife, so I was often the first one home. She LOVED it when I took the initiative to prepare a meal. One day, after I'd finished homework and taken care of the dogs and horses, I decided to try a recipe from one of Mom's cookbooks.

It wasn't a perfect meat. But when she got home and saw the table set and dinner ready, she was so happy. That was an enjoyable moment for me.

Now I understand that food is only one way we receive nutrition. We also need soul food, and my mom did a good job with that. She taught me humility, thankfulness and unconditional love.

I hope I could cook a meal for her this year, I'd even try not to overcook the vegetables.

【推荐2】Mauro Colagreco is the only Argentinean chef who has been awarded three Michelin stars, the highest distinction for international cuisine(烹饪). His restaurant on the French Riviera, Mirazur, is considered one of the best in the world, but when it was forced to close its doors temporarily, Colagreco found a way to use his cooking skills to serve the community.

During normal times, Mirazur does great business. But in March, Mirazur had to close its doors due to the coronavirus lockdown. Within days of the reopening in June, Mirazur had already filled up all its reservations for the rest of the year.

The months of closed doors were not a rest for Mirazur’s staff, however. Colagreco and part of Mirazur^!s team, instead of standing by, used this time and their talents to aid in the fight against the virus. On April 2, Mirazur^’s kitchen, so unique that its menu is a surprise every day, moved its headquarters to nearby La Palmosa Hospital to cook for the health care staff.

Twice a week for two months, the cooks prepared meals to honor those who were facing the pandemic on the front lines. They gave these hospital meals the same elegance and combination of flavors as their dishes at Mirazur. Everything was made with products from the restaurant’s garden, from which its menu is usually nourished, and donations from local suppliers.

A native of La Plata, and trained by Argentine chefs Beatriz Chomnalez and Carlos Alberto “Gato” Dumas, Colagreco has been living in France since 2001. As time went by, his name began to stand out and great new restaurants started to bear his signature. In addition to Mirazur, for example, he opened Grand Coeur in Paris, and L'Estivale by Mauro Colagreco at Nice Airport, Cote d'Azur.

Although he has been an expert in cooking, Colagreco’s work for good causes shows that, like the produce he grows, his roots are firmly in the ground.

【推荐3】Many people prefer eating out instead of cooking at home. A change appears to be taking place, though, and millennials are leading the way. According to one survey, more young people are starting to cook at home for three basic reasons: They can save money, eat healthy and waste less food.

Popular TV chefs are also getting millennials excited about learning some basic cooking skills. Many millennials view cooking as a form of entertainment and self-expression. They proudly post pictures of their cooking creations on Facebook or Instagram, and invite friends over to share the cooking experience.

Many millennials have also found ways to avoid wasting food. After roasting a chicken, they put the leftover bones in their freezer instead of the garbage can. Later, they use the bones to make chicken stock which is an important ingredient in many dishes.

They also hate throwing out fruit that’s too old. To avoid that situation, they bake ripe fruit like berries and bananas for 15 minutes at 175 degrees C. Then they freeze it overnight. After that, they place the fruit in plastic bags and store it their freezer for later use.

Now any millennials only eat at restaurants that have excellent food-waste policies. These servants use every part of the vegetables they buy, including their stems and roots, in dishes. They also use beef, chicken and pork bones to make their own stock.

Millennials also reduce food waste by only buying what they require. Before going to a market, they write down what they need and don’t buy anything else. They way they won’t purchase more food than they can consume.

【推荐2】Taking good care of your teeth may be linked to better brain health, according to a study published in the July 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology. “Our study found that gum (牙龈) disease and tooth loss were linked to brain shrinkage (萎缩) in the hippocampus (海马体), which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔兹海默症), ”said study author Satoshi Yamaguchi, Ph. D. of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.

The study involved 172 people without memory problems. Their average age was 67. Participants had dental exams and took memory tests at the beginning of the study. They also had brain scans to measure the volume of their hippocampus at the beginning of the study. This was measured again four years later. For each participant, researchers counted the number of teeth and checked for the amount of gum disease.

Researchers found that the number of teeth and amount of gum disease were linked to changes in the left hippocampus of the brain. For people with mild gum disease, having fewer teeth was associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage, which is the same for people with severe gum disease having more teeth. After adjusting for age, researchers found that for people with mild gum disease, the increase in the rate of brain shrinkage due to one less tooth was equal to nearly one year of brain aging. By contrast, for people with severe gum disease, the increase in brain shrinkage due to one more tooth was equal to 1. 3 years of brain aging.

“These results highlight the importance of preserving the health of the teeth and not just maintaining the teeth, ”Yamaguchi said. “The findings suggest that controlling the progression of gum disease through regular dental visits is crucial, and that teeth with severe gum disease may need to be removed and replaced with appropriate false ones. ”

Yamaguchi said future studies are needed with larger groups of people. The limitation of the study is that it was conducted in one region of Japan, so the results may not be applied to other locations.