立秋了，你抢到秋膘了咩？

20160808ou 一中两外锵锵三人行 今日话题： 立秋了，你抢到秋膘了咩？ Lincoln: Autumn is kicking off in China. You You, take it away. Yoyo: In China we divide the year into 24 solar terms. Yesterday was the beginning of autumn. On this special day we have a special tradition. Previously we’ve spoken about how on each special day, we eat special things and on this day, can you guess what we will eat? Lincoln: Is it watermelons? Yoyo: Not really, but good guess. Michael: I don’ know autumn, is it apples? Lincoln: Because it starts with an ‘a’, that’s a good way to go. Is it avocados? [Wu You: It’s not a fruit]. Is it a biscuit, are we eating that yet? Yoyo: This time we eat more stewed meat. Lincoln: So this is interesting, in the middle of summer [Yoyo: It was the beginning of autumn yesterday] it’s still very hot! I’m not going to eat a hot stew…Goodness me! Yoyo: According to the tradition on this special day at the beginning of autumn most people would eat stewed meat. We have a special name for it, qiu bao-秋膘 it means “the fat of autumn”. Lincoln: Is it any specific type of meat, or is it all tings go here? Yoyo: Usually its pork, and very fatty pork. During the hot summer people believe that we tend to eat less and exercise more and we lose our appetite and lose weight, hence people tend to lose a little bit of weight in the summer. Then at start of the autumn, a little bit of stewed meat can help us get the fat back and help keep us warm for the winter. Eating stewed meat is called ‘stick autumn meat’. Lincoln: Michael you seem perplexed. Michael: I can understand the sentiment of eating a bit more fat in the winter to keep you warm, but I would argue that you don’t need to do that for another two or three months yet. Lincoln: Is that the only tradition; eating a bit of pork fat? Is there anything else attached to this tradition? Yoyo: There’s also a practice where when you’re eating you grab the meat in someone else’s bowl. We call it ‘grabbing autumn fat’. Lincoln: Now this sounds very contentious. This sounds like it could actually lead to a bit of conflict there. What if you’re dealing with someone who is not aware? Do you have to know the person, or can it be any person? Yoyo: Usually it’s just in one family not people on the street! It might be a bit uncomfortable. I have a question. If you guys are invited to a Chinese house, and people start to play this game to grab each other’s meat, would you participate in it? Lincoln: Immediately! As soon as it happened I would grab everyone else’s meat. Michael: I think I would find it very bizarre if all of a sudden people were just having a free-for-all with each others’ fat.