It is absolutely true that one can best tell whether a person is well-educated or not at the dinner table.
Chinese people love to bond over dinner, as well as observe and test each other.
Whether a person's eating manners are good or not not only reflects his living habits, family education and family culture, but also his character, inner cultivation and knowledge level.
Take Zhao Zitong for example, her eating manners are not considered good. That's because her family was poor when she was a child, and she was lucky enough to have enough food to eat, so she didn't care about her eating manners.
But later, because I worked in sales, I took a month-long business etiquette course, and only then did I realize how important it is to have good table manners.
Because in the workplace, whether or not you can leave a good impression on clients is really, really important.
While you are observing others, others are also observing you.
Whether you know table manners or not also determines whether your customers have a good or bad impression of you.
I remember the first time I took a table etiquette class, there were ten people at the table and everyone ate differently.
Some people talk while eating, while others eat quietly;
Some people chew slowly, while others wolf down their food;
Some people only pick up big pieces of meat, while others are always the last to pick up vegetables;
Some people spit out vegetable scraps and bones at random, while others catch each fish bone with a tissue.
After a meal, Zhao Zitong discovered that the female boss who usually looked well-dressed actually smacked her lips while eating.
And that dull and honest male colleague actually knew how to take care of others at the dinner table.
Whether one is well-educated or not will always be revealed inadvertently in inconspicuous things.
A person's words and deeds while eating can reveal his living habits, which are derived from his inner cultivation.
Let’s not talk about Zhuo Zhenfeng’s character and family education. After all, he is 27 years old, and any behavior that looks well-educated can be acquired through training.
But Xuanxuan is only five years old this year. If his table manners are as good as Lawyer Zhuo's, it is definitely not a pretense, but a family education engraved in his bones.
From the time he sat down at the table until now, five-year-old Xuanxuan didn't say a word. He ate quietly, without smacking his lips, and not even a grain of rice fell on the table.
Every time, the adults would pick up their chopsticks first before he picked up his chopsticks. When Sun Shaofen picked up food for him, he would politely say, "Thank you, Grandma Sun. I can do it myself."
At this point, Zhao Zitong had completely overturned her previous inference that Zhuo Zhenfeng was a poor international student.
The previous two or three times, she had met Zhuo Zhenfeng in a hurry and never thought about it in any other way.
So his family background actually has nothing to do with her.
In addition, the previous few times they met, he was either detained by customs and was extremely anxious, or he was beaten up by Zhao Wenqiang and became dizzy.
In both cases, Zhao Zitong must be mentally ill to have to spend so much time thinking about Zhuo Zhenfeng's family background.
If Zhao Zitong still had doubts about her judgment at this moment, then the following conversation between Zhuo Zhenfeng and her mother would make her even more certain: Zhuo Zhenfeng's family was either rich or noble.
"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me for telling you this recipe, but it's true that when I was a girl, I saw the cook at home making it and I thought it was so delicious that I remembered it."
"I haven't made it for more than 20 years, and I've forgotten most of what I made. So even Zi Tong hasn't eaten it. It's rare that you like it, so just eat more." Sun Shaofen smiled embarrassedly.
That's really modest.
Although Zhao Zitong didn't know how prominent her grandparents' family was in the past, she could tell from the bright green jade bracelet her mother brought as a dowry that it was definitely from a wealthy family.
Even if he is not extremely wealthy, he is at least a wealthy man.
What's more, from what my mother said, it seems that my grandparents used to have a cook
Can a family with a cook be considered an ordinary family
At first, Zhao Zitong thought that the original owner's mother was a weak and incompetent housewife who dared not resist domestic violence, but she didn't expect that she was the most ordinary person.
Zhuo Zhenfeng did not mean to laugh at Sun Shaofen, but instead discussed it with her seriously:
"My uncle, who is a foodie, is named Cai, and he loves to delve into food.
"Next time I have a chance, I will take you to his restaurant for dinner, and you can discuss this 'Twenty-Four Bridges on a Moonlit Night' together."
Before Sun Shaofen could speak, Zhao Zitong asked, "What is Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlit Night?"
“I can recite this!”
The little guy finally finished eating, and imitated his uncle, tapping his mouth with a napkin, folding it and putting it aside. Then he recited an ancient poem in a baby voice:
"The green mountains are hidden in the distance, and the water is far away. In autumn, the grass and trees in the south of the Yangtze River wither. On the night of the bright moon over the Twenty-Four Bridges, where is the beautiful woman teaching me to play the flute?"
"Is this the poem "To Judge Han Chuo of Yangzhou" by Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu?"
Zhuo Zhenfeng touched his nephew's curly hair and gave him a big thumbs up!
Sun Shaofen clapped her hands vigorously for the cute little kid, which made Xuanxuan feel embarrassed. He bowed to everyone and then sat back in his seat obediently.
Zhao Zitong was so adorable by this little guy that her heart was beating so fast that she no longer cared about what Zhuo Zhenfeng was going to say next.
"Twenty-Four Bridges under the Moonlight is a dish invented by my uncle Cai." Zhuo Zhenfeng continued to explain.
Zhao Zitong then remembered why he felt this sentence sounded so familiar. It turned out to be a dish!
Yes, for a foodie like her, what she likes is not the love between Huang Rong and Guo Jing in “The Legend of the Condor Heroes”, but the dishes that Huang Rong cooks for Hong Qigong!
In the book, in order to trick Hong Qigong into teaching Guo Jing martial arts, Huang Rong specially prepared a dish for him called "Twenty-four Bridges on a Moonlit Night".
The method is to stuff the ham into the tofu and then steam it so that the tofu can fully absorb the delicious taste of the ham.
When Zhao Zitong saw this passage, his saliva almost dripped onto the book.
Seeing that Zhao Zitong was also interested, Zhuo Zhenfeng chuckled and said:
"My uncle Cai was so excited after watching Mr. Jin Yong's The Legend of the Condor Heroes that he had to make this dish."
"Uncle Cai spent a lot of time and finally came up with an idea:"
"He bought a whole ham, used an electric drill to make 24 small holes in the ham, then put the tofu in it and covered it with the ham."
"Then we put it in a pot and cook it for eight hours to make sure the aroma of the ham is fully absorbed into the tofu. Finally, we throw away the ham and only eat the tofu."
This was not just for Sun Shaofen, it was clearly also to spread knowledge to Zhao Zitong.
However, Zhao Zitong felt that this was not like spreading knowledge, but rather like tempting the glutton in her stomach to eat at the Uncle Cai restaurant mentioned by Zhuo Zhenfeng.