Chinese is a richly idiomatic language, so perhaps it’s no surprise, seeing that the Chinese are also such great eaters, that there are many idioms and expressions that involve food. Inspired by the wonderful Chocolate and Zucchini’s Edible Idioms series, I have decided to start my own series of posts, entitled ‘Eating Chinese’, on commonly used food-related idioms and expressions in Mandarin.

In each ‘Eating Chinese’ post, I will look at one idiom or expression. I will include the idiom and the example sentence in both Chinese characters and pinyin (go to this site to download Chinese Perakun, a brilliant add-on that allows you to view the pinyin and English translation when you hold your cursor over a Chinese character). Each post will also include literal and figurative English translations for the idiom or expression, and an example sentence with an English translation. Lastly, there will be a sound file attached to each post, with a recording of a native Chinese speaker saying the idiom or expression and the example sentence (thanks Pablo!)

My hope for this series is that it will prove both useful for students of Chinese, and interesting for anyone curious about the crossover between food, culture and language.

So, without further ado, let’s kick things off with 吃醋 (pinyin: chī cù). Literally meaning ‘to eat vinegar’, this idiom figuratively means to be jealous of something or someone, because, I guess, being jealous and eating vinegar tend to result in a similarly pained facial expression! Here is the example sentence:

她吃醋了, 因为她看到她男朋友和别的女孩子在一起 Pinyin: tā chī cù le, yīnwéi tā kàndào tā nánpéngyou hé bié de nǚ háizi zài yìqǐ. English translation: She was jealous, because she saw her boyfriend with another girl.

In the recording (at the top of this post), first you will hear 吃醋 on its own, and then the example sentence. If you're having any problems with playing the recording, you can open it in an external window by clicking here.

PS. For the full story of this idiom, go to this website.