Vocabulary Idioms & Phrases

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Indicate T (True) or F (False) for the

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□ □ In helping us decide what foods to choose for celebrations and feasts, geography plays a very important role.

Folklore and myth play important roles in the foods we select for celebrations and feasts. In Greece, for instance, a cake containing a single silver coin is served on New Year’s Day. 原句 = a cake with a silver coin inside

原句 = It is said that no matter who finds the coin in his or her own cake, he or she will have good luck throughout the coming year.

Whoever finds the coin in his or her serving is said to have good luck throughout the coming year.

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文化背景資料：Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes “coming full circle,”completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.

Similarly, in the U.S., Southerners traditionally eat black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Year’s Day to bring good luck in the coming year.

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文化背景資料：Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. Black-eyed peas are thought to bring wealth because they look like little coins, in addition to the fact that they swell when cooked—a sure sign of prosperity.

At birthday celebrations in Japan, lobster is the traditional birthday food, because its shape is thought to resemble someone growing old and bent.

The birthday person who is being served lobster is being wished a long life.原句 = People who are serving the birthday person with lobster are wishing him/her a long life.

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除了在生日時吃龍蝦以求長壽，日本人在新年時亦會吃蕎麥麵以求長壽：New Year’s Eve is a big occasion and one of the highlights of the season. Buckwheat noodles are eaten during the day or the evening to ensure prosperity and longevity. The noodles are called toshikoshi soba (buckwheat noodles for passing the year) and are eaten at a buckwheat noodle shop or at home.

Almost every country has at least one special food that is eaten on New Year’s Eve or in the first days of the New Year that is believed to bring luck, wealth or success in the year to come. Whether you normally believe in these traditions or not, eating lucky foods might work out to be in your favor! At all recipes, we operate under the assumption that the more auspicious dishes we make, the luckier we’ll be!

Lucky FoodLucky Food

Lucky FoodLucky FoodTo give everyone the opportunity to prepare luck-inducing dishes from all over the world, we’ve rounded up a few traditions, recipes and folk tales. So have a look and have fun dishing up some international-flavored luck this year!

Lucky FoodLucky Food

Lucky Food in JapanLucky Food in Greece

Lucky Food in ItalyLucky Food in America

Lucky Food in Spain

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Lucky Food in JapanThe Japanese celebrate the New Year in high fashion. The celebration lasts 3 days, beginning January 1st, and is celebrated with the unbending practice of everyone getting a rest. Yes, in Japan even the cook of the house gets to kick back, relax and celebrate! The holiday is celebrated with fine foods, bonenkai (year forgetting) parties, and visits to the Buddhist Temple to offer foods to the gods. The food for the

Lucky Food in Japanentire 3-day holiday is prepared in advance so that the cook need only defrost, reheat or fry dishes to serve. Sounds good to us! Foods that are believed to be particularly auspicious are soba noodles which are especially long noodles that should be sucked up and eaten without breaking them to ensure long life, and mochi rice, which is a rice that is more sticky than ordinary rice and is pressed

Lucky Food in Japaninto cakes called omochi—then it’s either broiled or eaten in soup called Ozoni. Large omochi cakes are first offered to the gods, then cut into pieces and eaten by the family to bring the opportunity for luck and good health to every New Year’s meal. Omochi cakes can be bought in Japanese grocery stores.

Lucky Food in GreeceThe Greek tradition of eating Vasilopita (a cake baked with a coin inside) originated from the famously high taxes that the Ottoman Empire imposed on the Greek people during the long Ottoman reign. It is believed that a Bishop of Greece, through some miracle, managed to recover a large portion of the Greek people’s riches from the Ottoman’s grasp. When he attempted to return the riches

Lucky Food in Greeceto their respective owners fighting among the Greek people broke out—no one could agree on who had owned what! The second miracle of the story unveils itself here: Saint Basil asked the women to bake a large cake with the valuables inside. When he sliced the cake, the valuables miraculously found their way back to their rightful owners! Today, a cake is baked in honor of this miracle and one

Lucky Food in Greececoin is baked inside of it. The person who bites into his piece of cake and finds the coin will be blessed with good luck in the year to come.

Lucky Food in ItalyMany Italian people ring in the New Year in an extremely interesting way, by tossing old things out of their windows! Old things are tossed out in an effort to make room for the new and lucky to enter their households and lives in the year to come. More traditionally, the Italian people eat a dish called cotechino con lenticchie: pork sausage served over lentils. This dish is eaten because of the presence of fatty rich

Lucky Food in Italypork sausage and lentils in the dish. Cotechino sausage is a symbol of abundance because they are rich in fat, while lentils symbolize money (being both green and coin shaped). This dish packs a double-whammy of luck!

Lucky Food in AmericaThere is a Southern saying that dictates eating habits in the Southern United States’ New Year: “Eat poor on New Year’s Day, eat fat the rest of the year.” A traditional Southern New Year’s meal includes ham, cornbread, black-eyed peas and collard greens. Both black-eyed peas and collard greens are considered especially lucky additions to the dinner table. Collard greens are considered

Lucky Food in Americalucky because they are green, like greenbacks—money!

Lucky Food in SpainA magnificently large harvest only happens every so often, and when it does, the year that the harvest blossoms is celebrated. At the turn of the century, Spain experienced a gigantic grape harvest. The harvest was so grandiose that the year was marked as a time of great luck. Every year since, Spanish people have brought in the New Year by eating 12 grapes as the clock strikes

Lucky Food in Spainmidnight. At each strike of the Plaza del Sol clock (which is broadcast to the entire country much like the United Statesbroadcasts the Time’s Square clock), another grape is eaten in celebration of lucky years past, and in hope of a lucky year to come.

As people continue to move from country to country, taking their foods and customs with them, people will become familiar with eating customs from other cultures.

taking their food and customs with them 為分詞構句，表示 take...them 與 move...country 這兩個動作「同時」或「連續」發生。• A student was caught cheating in the exam. Next

As people continue to move from country to country, taking their foods and customs with them, people will become familiar with eating customs from other cultures. 原句 = As people, with their foods and customs, keep moving among different countries, they will know other cultures’ eating customs better.

As a result, food choices will grow. Before long, it may be just as common to eat octopus in the United States as it is in Greece and Spain, or to enjoy Mexican tacos and mole in Turkey and Korea.

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Reading for the Main Idea____ 1. We may reach for the same food

that gave us comfort in the past.____ 2. The choices people make about food often have less to do with nutrition than with customs and pleasure.____ 3. Folklore and myth play important roles in the foods we select for celebrations and feasts.____ 4. People in different countries have different eating habits. However, as

the world today has become more of a global village, the differences among people will be less and less.

1.What is your favorite food? Why do you choose this food over another?

Reference answer:I like chocolate most. The reason why I love chocolate most is that it smells good and tastes great. Eating chocolate makes me feel good. Whenever I feel down or tired, I eat chocolate. It can comfort me and cheer me up. It keeps me in

Reference answer:a good mood. That’s why chocolate is my favorite food.

2. Specific foods have different associations for different people. For example, many people associate chocolate with love. What do you associate with each of the foods in the following pictures? Think of one or more associations for each food. Compare your

associations with those of your classmates. Are they the same or different?

Reference answer:cake: birthday, candles, blessing...coffee: free time, relaxing, friends, Paris...turkey: Thanksgiving Day, cranberry sauce, Pilgrims, Indians...

Reference answer:hamburger: coke, French fries, high calories, gaining weight...

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