Learn Article: 6 Popular Chinese Food Related Slang Made With 吃(chī, to eat)

There is a famous Chinese saying as 民以食为天(mín yǐ shí wéi tiān) which means people regards food as heaven. From this notion, you can see how important and essential the food is in Chinese civilization life. Food and eating have never been an outdated topic in any period of the Chinese history even today. Since Chinese have been so intimate with food and eating, they have been creating many food-related terms. Here are 6 made with 吃chī that are so popular.
1.小吃xiǎo chī, literally means small eating.
People have between-meal nibbles, not for getting full, but for getting a taste of food.The slang means snack; refreshments，between-meal nibbles. Usually we don’t call western snacks such as potato chips, and chocolate as 小吃(xiǎo chī)，we call them 零食(líng shí)，零líng，it means number 0. It can also mean scattered. 零食(líng shí)，scattered food, which means snack/ between-meal nibbles。

Some students may ask: what is the difference between 小吃和零食(xiǎo chī hé líng shí)？
小吃(xiǎo chī)refers to snacks that you can’t stock for long time. Once you cook it, you will have to eat it in short time or it will go bad,such as 酸辣粉(suān là fěn，sour and spicy noodles)；On the opposite, 零食(líng shí) refers to snack which can be kept in relatively long time, for example方便面fāng biàn miàn, instant noodles/ convenient noodles. You can take this as an rule to distinguish whether a snack is小吃(xiǎo chī) or 零食(líng shí) in Chinese people’s eyes.

Some students may also ask: is there a 大吃(dà chī) which means big meal?
Answer: No. We call it 大餐dà cān，which means a big meal or rich meal. You can use 大吃(dà chī) in大吃大喝dà chī dà hē，which means eat and drink extravagantly; eat and drink with enthusiasm.

Example:
裤带告诉我们，我们已经减了肥，尽管一路上我们像王子一样大吃大喝。
kùdài gàosù wǒmen ， wǒmen yǐjīng jiǎn le féi ， jìnguǎn yīlùshàng wǒmen xiàng wángzǐ yīyàng dàchīdàhē.
Our belts told us we had lost weight, though we had eaten like greedy princes along the way.

2.“chī cù (“吃醋”) Literally “to eat vinegar.”

This one has an interesting origin story from the Tang Dynasty era (way, way back). According to the Shanghai Daily:
“Emperor Taizong decided to reward his chancellor Fang Xuanling by giving him a choice of beautiful women from his concubines. Fang's wife was angry and jealous, however, and refused to accept a new woman to share her husband's bed. The emperor himself was annoyed and gave Fang's wife a choice: either accept new, young lovers for her husband – or drink a cup of poisoned wine and end her life. She chose to drink poison – which turned out to be vinegar in the emperor's test of her courage and devotion to her husband.
Hence, eating vinegar has come to signify a woman's romantic jealousy.”

To eat vinegar, then, essentially means to be jealous. The connotation is that it’s romantic.
Example:
当他发现她爱别人的时候， 他吃醋了。
dāng tā fā xiàn tā ài bié rén de shí hòu ， tā chī cù le
He was jealous when he discovered that she loved someone else.

Some students may ask, is there a 吃酱？酱jiàng，sauce，another commonly used seasoning which is similar in the looking to vinegar in Chinese kitchens.
The answer is: not yet. There is a funny slang you can use with 酱。打酱油literally means get sauce. Usually it means just passing by(meaning just taking a look and not really caring about what is happening).
Example:
比如，一个十分依赖客户提供内容和互动的网站会发现10个人里有9个都是打酱油的。
bǐ rú ， yī gè shí fēn yī lài kè hù tí gòng nèi róng hé hù dòng de wǎng zhàn huì fā xiàn shí gè rén lǐ yǒu jiǔ gè dōu shì dǎ jiàng yóu de.
For instance, a site that demands too much interaction and content generation from users will see nine out of 10 people just pass by.