Hi everyone, I hope all of you are fine
My name is Valeriia. Welcome to our Cultural
Evening at Foyer International. Tonight
We will have a very special event because
I will offer you a Chinese buffet but you
will have to cook it yourself, of course, with the
help of the Chinese students of our University
Zhong Siqi and Pan Xiaolu, so let’s cook and let’s talk!
Thank you girls for being with us tonight and 
What are we cooking today? Today we will cook
Hot pot. It is one of the typical Chinese dishes.
And it’s popular to have it in winter or
Or especially for festivals
It’s not winter yet but you can remember how
To cook it and here we’ve prepared some ingredients
Let’s talk about them a little bit, so, for example
Can you explain, what this is actually
It looks very interesting. This is the root
Of the lotus. And
Lots of Chinese people use this to fry
Or cook but we’ll put it in Hot pot
Because it has different flavor
Okay. I thought it actually doesn’t 
Have any taste itself. No
When it’s raw it’s really crispy
But when you cook it you sometimes
With some soil juice 
It tastes really special, I think
You should try it. Okay, I will today for sure.
And this is some kind of noodles, right
Noodle rice. This one. 
Okay, and what’s the Chinese name. ‘Fen tiao’
This looks also very interesting. Yes, this is dry
Food from China. This one is called
‘Mu er’. Okay.
If you put it in water, it will become bigger
Is it a mushroom or? Just like mushroom but
A bit different
It has similar growing process with mushroom
But it looks a bit different
This is the dry mushroom. It’s like
Shiitake mushroom. Yes. I read a lot
That it has a lot of healthy benefits. And
It can prevent people to get cancer actually
I don’t know how right is that
You can read it probably. And this is
Seaweed. This is my favorite.
And this is dry yellow flower. Okay.
Let’s show. It looks like this in dry
Condition. ‘Huang hua’
Okay, and we have a little bit of 
Meat here for meat eaters. And kind of 
Fresh vegetables. 
And we have also potato which we should cut now
And what would you say are the necessary equipment
Like a rice cooker, maybe, or something else 
And necessary spices or ingredients to prepare proper
Chinese food? 
Chopsticks. Okay, this is like already final
Stage of cooking
Yes, for Hot pot we must prepare 
sauce and some  oil 
And a cooker. Okay
Do you both have like a rice cooker at home?
Yeah. And what’s the difference:
To cook rice in rice cooker and just boil it in a normal pot?
Because I think the most pots we use here
Is like we boil the rice but
With the rice cooker we steam the rice, so
The flavor can be different. Okay, so
If you want to cook proper Chinese food you must have a rice cooker.
What did you buy first when you heard that 
The epidemy is coming? Actually,
I bought lots of instant noodles. Because
It’s really easy to store at home and easy to cook
I already bought almost more like
Than one hundred instant noodles
I still have it in my house. And I don’t know how to deal with it
Because it’s really difficult to eat them all. 
And you? I bought almost 20kg of rice. 
So, we all knew from before that China
Is a land of tea. And from recent years
I can say that China is a land of bubble tea.
And you actually can buy b ubble tea everywhere 
On the streets in China, in big cities as well as 
In small cities. And this drink is really
Addictive. When you try it once, especially
These round bubbles 
Inside the tea, you cannot stop
Not buying it. And today we are doing it at home
And actually the process is not that hard. So,
Everyone can try. And here we have ingredients
And what actually the process itself
Looks like? 
We need some ingredients here and we also need some
Boiled water. So, we can start now.
So, for now we are cooking three different bubble teas
They can be based on green tea
Black tea, Mocha. Yeah, Mocha
I don’t know how to say it in English. Probably, it’s also mocha
So, we have three pots with boiling water
No, two pots. This one is for milk
And one pot for milk. Do we have any special milk?
No, I think the normal one is okay.
Okay, and this one? This one is
Coconut milk. We want to make 
‘Yezhi ximi lu’. Okay, so it will be
Not actually a tea-based drink?
Yeah, it’s based on milk. It’s not a tea-based…
So, we are having two bubbles teas and one 
Milk-based drink.
When you buy bubble tea you can choose
Which one you would like to drink:
Either very hot or room temperature 
Tea or the cold one. Which one do you personally prefer?
I prefer the hot one. 
Because I think cold one is not really good
For people’s health from the saying of
Traditional Chinese medicine. Okay
And you can also actually adjust sugar level in each
Cup of tea you buy and
It's really comfortable, especially if you order the tea online
You can adjust the level 
And say like without sugar, with a little bit of sugar
In Chinese it's called ‘wu tang’
‘Wu tang’, ‘ban tang’, ‘quan tang’
But if you don’t tell the shop which one 
You would like to order they will choose
‘Quan tang’. Yeah
It's always full pack of sugar if you don’t 
Specify that you don’t need it or you need 
Just a little bit. So, be careful
When you order it
Okay, girls. I’ve prepared a small game for you
The rules are: you should choose one thing between two 
And you should answer as fast as possible
But you should explain afterwards why
You choose this thing and not another one. And you can take as much time as you want
To explain why. I start with you. Okay. 
No, I start with you. 
Okay. The first question: Baozi or jiaozi? Baozi
Why? Because baozi is bigger than jiaozi
So, I can feel full. Okay, and 
How many baozi in one time do you need to eat
To get full? Two or three. Okay
So, baozi and jiaozi are both Chinese dishes. Basically,
Jiaozi, we can say it’s like dumplings. Yes
And baozi are a bit bigger. They look like this
They have a lot of meat inside, and what else 
Can be there? Chinese bread. 
Instead of meat it can be some vegetables inside. Yeah
Next question: Malatang or hot pot?
Hot pot. Why? Because
I really like the flavor. And it is easy to
Make at home, even in Germany. 
Can you explain what is Malatang? 
Malatang is kind of
You put everything in the pot and
With a boiled water and then
Take it out with sauce
And mix them together
Always it’s a little bit spicy
And you can choose the meat,
Vegetables, or some seafood if you wish
Okay, next, you. WeChat or WhatsApp?
WeChat. Why?
Because it’s very popular in China
To use WeChat and we can pay
Hongbao. Red pocket
Red pocket. I think, it’s limited to two hundred yuan?
Yeah. One time you can send like a gift
Usually bosses do it for employees for some 
Holidays. Or relatives send you this Hongbao
And scan QR-code and everything.
Instagram or TikTok? Instagram
Because when you use
TikTok you don’t know the time
You spent on it
So, I just stopped to use it
And I only use Instagram to post
Some pictures or some short videos
You can do some similar thing on Instagram 
But you don’t waste too much time 
On the funny video
Next question: Beijing or Shanghai? Shanghai.
Why? Because Shanghai is near my hometown.
And have you ever been to Beijing? Yes, I studied in Beijing 
For my Master’s. This was first Master
And here is the second. 
Confucius or Laozi? Confucius. Why?
I think, he is master of teachers
And we get heart with his idea earlier than Laozi
Okay, and what do you think? Same question
For me, Confucius 
Wants people to engage
More in the society. But Laozi
Makes people just to feel more
In the nature
So, if you want at the present
Modern time people are
They are human beings, are in groups
So, you always get involved in other people
So, maybe you just follow more
Or obey the rules more of Confucius not Laozi
How would we pronounce correctly actually your names?
My Chinese name is called Zhong Siqi
One, one, two. Yes. Okay
And let’s tell our viewers where is actually
Family name and your personal name?
The family name is the first character 
You can hear from my pronunciation - Zhong
And the second and the third character 
Is about my first name 
Given by my parents.
So, we can call you miss Zhong or just
Siqi if we are friends. And
How long can be a personal name?
How many characters?
Normally, most people have two or three
Characters Chinese name. But for now
Some parents they want to make their kids
Look a bit special at school
So, they will give them four-characters name
But it's not so normal. But it's becoming a kind of
Some parents’ preference
To make their kids special.
And does your name actually mean anything?
Yeah, my mom gave this name 
Based on proverb from the ancient Chinese
It’s called ‘jian xian si qi’, ‘si qi’
Is the last characters of this sentence and it means
You can learn some good from the
Good behaviors from the good people. It's kind of
Her expectation for me, I think. Thanks
And what’s your name and how we pronounce it?
My name is Pan Xiaolu. 
Pan – first, Xiao – third, lu (fourth) 
And Pan is my family name
And Xiaolu is my name
And Xiao means ‘know’
‘Know something’, ‘know a lot of things’, and lu is
Kind of beautiful jade
So, maybe my parents want me to know a lot of
About this world, and my virtue 
can be like beautiful jade
There is a tradition that 
When coming to Europe or America, to the West
Chinese students should take 
Western names. Do you have Western names?
Yes. What are they? My English
Name is called Cassie
Did you choose it yourself? No
It was given by my primary 
English teacher and I use it for now
And yours? I have an English name and a German name
They are different
My English name – I chose it for myself –
Is Gabriella. Because of an American
Film called “High school musical”
I like this movie very much. And a figure
In this movie is called Gabriella, so I take this name
And my German name is Luisa
Because of this ‘lu’ in my Chinese name
And did you choose it yourself too? No, from my first
German teacher
Do you think, it’s really necessary to take
Western names? And why it became a tradition?
For me, it’s like my Chinese name is really difficult
For the Western people to pronounce
And if they only know my Chinese name
Sometimes when they want to
Say my name
There are always like 
different pronunciation
And I don't know. Mm? I don’t know
Who is calling
So, if I just told them my English name 
They can say it really easy
I think, it helps a lot
And do you think, it also helps?
Yes, I agree with her. Because my family name is easy 
To remember but Xiaolu is difficult for many
Europeans
Especially X and I
Many people pronounce it quite differently
While we are waiting for the food let’s
Learn how to use chopsticks
Because we’re going to eat all of this with chopsticks, right?
So, what are the main rules for the beginners? I think,
There are no specific rules for the beginners
But you should know if you’re at the table
You can see, that there are some more chopsticks
Than we, than the number of people
Because there are two chopsticks for us
To put the food
Into the pot. We shouldn’t use
Our own chopsticks, we should use the chopsticks here
Okay, let’s assume
That I cannot use it. How do we hold it?
So, there should be space between them, right?
And that they can open and close
Let’s use this chopsticks and put something somewhere
You do that and I will be like a student
We pick the mushroom, I’ll pick the fresh one
And then we put it… No
In Hot pot. But it’s not ready yet
We assume we put it there. And we take it
And put it in our plates. Yes 
And then we put the chopsticks back
And we eat it with our own chopsticks
Yes. Okay. Are there certain rules
Where you shouldn’t put your chopsticks? 
Like, for example, to the rice like this
Yes, most time
People won’t put chopsticks in this way
Small kids, they just some time make fun of the chopsticks
Like this way. And parents always told
The kids like you shouldn’t do that
And I also know that in different areas
It's like people put their chopsticks in different order
It’s like put the chopsticks 
Like this way
In some areas they think this is kind of
Impolite behavior. They always want people to
Put chopsticks in this way
But it depends on the area
Not whole China has the same habits
What do you do in your area? 
For my family, I think, just like this
Both are okay
And what do we do with dirty chopsticks? If we
Ate already with it. And we put it like this or?
Yeah, the dirty chopsticks.. You already used the chopsticks
But you don’t want to put it on the table, it's like here
Because you will use it to your mouth, so
People will put it in this way
So, you eat with the thin ends of the chopsticks and when they are dirty
You put thin ends towards yourself
Not on the table because you will eat
With them again and you don't want to be infected or something
And what is actually this? 
This is …
This is my own, and, I think, she also has one. It’s for the hot water
Hot water? Yes. So, it's not a myth
That Chinese people drink a lot of hot water?
I think, that depends on the age. Most people
When they are young they prefer cold water
Like always really fresh but
When they become older and with some
Instructions of the Chinese medicine
It’s like the five elements within your body
And you need to keep them in a balance
So, sometimes you need to drink more hot water and
This can help you to keep healthy
So, let’s have a bit of hot water before we start
You can see the steam here. Sometimes we will
Put some goji. With the common chopsticks?
You can… Okay, that’s much easier
For your health
Usually Hot pot consists of several flavors
Base flavors. And we will also have two flavors today
We don’t have one big pot with two sections
But we will use two pots. And one pot
Will have mushroom flavor
And that one is spicy one. Of course, spicy one
Do you personally prefer spicy one? Yes
I guess, mushroom is only for me.
And wait for a moment when the water boils again
We can put all the ingredients into the soup
So, we don’t use anything else just these bases?
And now we can make some dipping sauce 
This would be a part of the dipping sauce
And this one. 
So, you have initial base sauce inside the pot and you can also use
An additional sauce according to your own tastes
Now we make a sample
Today we chose sesame paste
And sesame oil
And coriander 
Our favorite dipping sauce
Just like this. And we can
Put food into dipping sauce and eat
So, each person has his own bowls where he puts 
The sauce according to his taste
And then you boil ingredients you want and 
Put it in the sauce 
And you eat it using your chopsticks
To continue our tradition we would like to deliver a gift
From our girls to one of you
And you already know that there will be a task
So, please, share your favorite recipe below this video
And the recipe which will get more ‘likes’
Will win the price. And thank you for
Watching our video tonight, so let’s say
‘Goodbye’ in Chinese. One, two, three
Zaijian! And
We will enjoy our food and I hope you will also enjoy
Your food which you cooked with us
