Butter arguably makes everything better — even tea. Yak (牦牛) butter tea, a traditional drink of China’s Tibetan ethnic group, is catching on with its     1     (salt) and unexpected flavor.

For Jason, who works at Café Himalaya in New York City,     2     butter in the cup of tea before him ideally comes from a yak.     3    , in New York yak butter is pretty hard to come by, so Jason, as well as anyone who orders it at Café Himalaya, has to make do with butter     4     a cow. Back in Tibet, yak butter is plentiful, yet no one knows exactly when yak butter     5     (add) to hot tea for the first time.

The     6     (introduce) of this hot butter tea to Tibet provided Tibetans with warmth and supplemented their meager (贫乏的) diet. Also known as Tibetan medicine, it is believed to be able to     7     (sharp) one’s mind and body. Today it is part of Tibetan hospitality to offer guests butter tea and refill the bowl again and again until it’s time for goodbyes — at which point a polite guest will drink up     8     is left.

To non-Tibetans, yak butter may taste strange at first as it makes for a very different taste than the sweet butter     9     (produce) by corn-fed cows. Some of them find it helpful     10     (think) of it as a sort of light soup rather than as tea.

Scientists at South Korea’s Yonsei University have created a new type of hybrid (杂交) rice that not only has a meaty pink color but is also packed with beef protein (蛋白质) and fat cells.

Rice is already one of the most nutritious foods available in nature, but thanks to some scientific “magic", it could soon become     1     sustainable (可持续的) alternative to meat. The new hybrid grains are firmer than natural grains, and when     2     (cook) they maintain their traditional appearance. While the new rice doesn't yet taste like beef, it does offer an     3     (enjoy) flavor experience, which is characteristic of meat. Thanks to the animal cells, this new pink rice could one day become a complete meal by itself,     4     (guarantee) a sufficient, sustainable food supply for the whole world.

“Imagine obtaining all the nutrients we need     5    cell-cultured protein rice,” said Park So-hyeon, co-author of the study. He said the team     6     (experiment) with different types of food products, but the models they got weren't as successful.

In the future, scientists plan to use sustainable supplies of cells     7    can be maintained in the lab. For now, the percentage of protein in the hybrid rice is still     8     ( fair) low. So they are also exploring the     9     (possible) of lacing (掺入) the rice with other types of meat or fish, in order to satisfy different tastes.     10     (replace) meat actually, researchers need to increase the rice's protein content significantly.

Following the barbecue-induced travel craze to the city of Zibo in East China, Chinese social media has once again highlighted the next internet-famous city worthy of     1     (explore).

This time it’s Tianshui, a low-key city in China’s Gansu province that     2     (take) the spotlight recently. It has attracted considerable attention     3     food enthusiasts and social media influencers online,     4     (celebrate) the city’s iconic dish of hot pot.

Known as Tianshui Malatang, which     5     (literal) means spicy and hot, the local dish is popular for its large portion of skewered meat, vegetables,     6     hand-made potato noodles in a pot of boiling broth (肉汤).

Two food bloggers, with over 3 million followers in their account on the popular Chinese Weibo,     7     (be) among the influencers praising the deliciousness of Tianshui Malatang. Their vlogs show eager food enthusiasts lining up on the streets, many of     8     traveled from cities far away.

Dong Liangyan, 29, from Daqing in Heilongjiang province,     9     (locate) more than 2,000 km away from Tianshui, told Xinhua that she was absolutely delighted     10     (enjoy) the local delicacy.

What to Eat in China: A Traveler’s Guide

Shaoxing is known for its ancient canals crossed with stone bridges and the best     1     (tradition) rice wine in China. I first tried the latter in one of the city’s old wine shops, surrounded by tall jars     2     (fill) with aged wines. There, it     3     (serve) from a small ceramic flask (扁酒瓶) that was warmed in a bath of hot water to enhance the drink’s flavor — perfect for sipping     4     a cold winter day.

Given its long history, it’s no surprise that variations abound. The wine, which is made by fermenting glutinous rice with w heat and aging it in deep earthenware vessels for up to several     5     (decade), can be anywhere from light amber to deep brown in color. And,     6     the slight raisiny sweetness and mellow sherry-like flavor are typical, the wine ranges from quite dry to     7     (extreme) sweet. Because of its unique flavor,     8     great many of people like to use it for cooking. A good bottle will have been aged for at least five years and cost a minimum of $10. Once you’ve got     9     (you) hands on true Shaoxing wine, make the most of it,     10     (integrate) it into your cooking and sipping it on its own.

With there being so many different cultures to discover across the world, I often find myself contemplating (考虑) how I will ever begin to explore the traditions of such a large number of     1     (country). Finally, I have found an answer     2     this question, and that answer is food.

Food is     3     important aspect of any culture, and often     4     (become) the basis for cultural stereotypes (文化定势). England, for example, is renowned for its Sunday roasts, while snails and frog’s legs 60.     5     (associate) with France. Stereotypes aside,     6     (try) different cuisines can be a great way of exploring foreign culture in the comfort of your own home, providing a taste of culture while also avoiding the high costs of travel.

There is an abundance of cheap and simple recipes online these days, so you don’t need to be an expert chef if you want     7     (cook) some foreign food. Indeed, online websites provide a great opportunity for young people     8     want to learn to cook. This way, you can avoid the habit of ordering takeaways on a daily basis when you leave home. In     9     (add), most recipe websites now have different pages for different types of cuisine, so it is     10     (easy) than ever to discover popular foreign food.

Statistics show that there are more than 1. 9 billion videos related to stove-boiled tea on a popular Chinese short video platform. Stove-boiled tea, a newly     1    (emerge) social activity among young Chinese people, has been filling up social media feeds in recent weeks. Usually several friends sitting around a fire stove enjoy     2     smell of charcoal-grilled snacks and socialize while waiting for the tea     3     (boil). In many ways, it is the perfect activity in the winter,     4     (warm) body and soul in the colder months.

    5     it has recently regained popularity, cooking tea on a stove actually has a long history in China. Stove-boiled tea is derived from an intangible cultural heritage from southwest China’s Yunnan province: huotang roasted tea and a kind of huotang culture thus     6     (form) around it.

The reason why stove-boiled tea is gaining such popularity, apart from its embodiment of traditional Chinese tea culture, is     7     (part) because of its portrayal in the costume television drama “A Dream of Splendor”, which     8    (broadcast) last summer. The activity also shows young people’s pursuit of a sense of ritual, with their     9     (long) for traditional tea culture and aspirations returning to the pastoral (田园). It also helps that tourism is gradually recovering.     10    , stove-boiled tea acts as a social way of combining ancient and modern elements, attracting many young people who love both tourism and traditional tea culture.

I, as a BBC food writer, traveled China last year. Then I fell in love with hairy crab (螃蟹), which is one of     1     most prized Chinese dishes. Hairy crabs are only available in the fall, starting     2     late September to early October, and     3     (end) around November. Supplies are limited and Chinese consumers spend a lot on good-quality crabs obtained from particular rivers.

Hairy crabs’ flesh is well-known for its     4     (sweet). Also of value is the crabs’ golden roe, which is creamy and delicious. Female crabs are more prized     5     male crabs because they contain much more roe and are believed     6     (taste) sweeter.

Traditionally, the recipe for hairy crabs     7     (be) simple—the crabs are steamed and then eaten with a sauce (调味汁). They pair     8     (excellent) with huangjiu, a Chinese liquor (酒) made from fermented (发酵) grains. There are eight different tools used to process the hairy crabs, each     9     (design) for specific parts. It is a mark of art, and in fact a show of skill to be able to eat crabs without cracking the bones.

Many restaurants are now offering to do the work for you, and will bring you the ready-processed ones. It’s surprising     10     great hairy crabs are after you’ve removed the obstacle (障碍物) when eating them.

Low-Hanging Fruit

If you are the first person to arrive at an apple tree during harvest time, you can easily find some low-hanging fruit. These are the apples that     1     (be) on the branches closest to the ground. Low-hanging fruit describes the most obvious or     2     (easy) things to do to help you reach a goal. Anyone or anything     3     can be won over or gained very easily is low-hanging fruit. Here is an example: “Changing the company logo is low-hanging fruit. It won’t cost much, and I can do it in an hour.”

Suodiu is an unusual type of Chinese street food that consists of small river stones stir-fried (被煸炒) with a mixture of ingredients (配料) . The practice involves sucking (吮吸) on the stones and then     1     (throw) them away.

Suodiu is believed to have been invented hundreds of years ago by boatmen     2     would prepare the dish when they became stranded in the middle of a river     3     any real food while delivering goods.     4     (comfort) their stomachs, they would stir-fry some river pebbles (鹅卵石) and then suck the flavor from them.

The traditional dish     5     (pass) down through several generations, and today, roadside cooking in China sometimes showcases Suodiu.

A series of videos showing the preparation of Suodiu has recently gone viral on Xiaohongshu, a social media platform, exciting the    6     (curious) of millions of people. It wasn’t just the uniqueness of the dish that interested viewers, but also the high price per serving, considering there is hardly any edible content in it. However, it’s important to note that river pebbles are used because they     7     (supposed) acquire the flavor of seafood over time. Thus, when sucking on them while eating Suodiu, one can experience the taste of fish     8     (combine) with various ingredients.

“Do I have to return the pebbles to you     9     I finish?” one person asked in one of the viral videos, to which the cook replied, “Take them home as     10     happy remembrance.”

The Canal Culture and Food Festival     1     (hold) at the renowned Sen Long Restaurant last month to show the signature dishes of Huaiyang cuisine     2     people in Beijing.

Sen Long Restaurant was established in Beijing in 1924 by Zhang Sanlong from Jiangsu province.     3     initial(最初的)location of the restaurant changed because of subway construction in 2005, and in 2019 it was reopened in Dongcheng district.

According to its general manager Wang Peixin, a master chef     4     specializes in Huaiyang cuisine was hired to preserve the authentic(正宗的) flavors of the     5     (tradition) dishes while upholding the nature of Huaiyang cuisine. “In the past, Sen Long Restaurant positioned     6     (it) toward the high end market, with relatively expensive prices that put off many ordinary people. After reopening, the restaurant has shifted its pricing strategy to be more affordable,     7     (aim) to make it possible for everyone     8     (taste)the authentic flavors of Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine,” Wang said.

Wang said all the ingredients of the dishes of the food festival were gained from the     9     (place) along the Grand Canal. In July, the restaurant took part in the food skill competition of “Taste the Canal” in Beijing and     10     (win) the creative restaurant award.