Why do Chinese in China eat less than Americans?  They only spend about $1,320 per year.

为什么在中国的中国人吃得比美国人少？他们一年只需要花费1320美金。

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Herbert Lee DTM

They don't get ripped off for food prices.

The government monitors prices.

1320 a year will buy a lot more in China than in the US. $5 for a dozen eggs? In China a dozen eggs is less than $1.

Even imported foods can be cheaper. No tariffs and volume buying.

他们不会被食品价格狠宰一顿。

政府一直监控食品价格。

1320美金/年，在中国可以购买到的份量比在美国多得多。美国一打鸡蛋售价5美元？而中国一打鸡蛋用不到1美元。

就连进口食品也更便宜，因为不需要关税，又是批量采购。

Li Pengii

See my food space.

I literally live in one of the MOST expensive parts of China and yet I can eat far better than westerners can for less.

An example:

看看我的美食空间。

我其实生活在中国物价最高的地方之一，但我还是能比西方人花更少的钱吃得更好。

举个例子：

To buy that in London China town? You’re looking at £13 at the very least and that’s at 2016 prices (the last time I was in London).

In HK it’s £3.50

如果在伦敦唐人街吃这样一顿饭，至少得13英镑，而且还是2016年的价格了(那是我最后一次去伦敦)。

但在香港，这样一顿饭只要3.50英镑。

Michael X

Because food in China is actually cheap.

Meat consumption is about the same with a lot of developed countries.

因为中国的食物价格很便宜。

中国人的肉类消费与许多发达国家大致相同。

China has the highest vegetable consumption per capital, which some of the poor people in America can not afford.

中国的人均蔬菜消费量是全球最多的，这是美国有些穷人负担不起的。

China's vegetable production is 20 times larger than the US.

中国的蔬菜产量是美国的20倍。

Fruit consumption per capital also beats the Americans.

中国的人均水果消费量也超过了美国人。

Water melton cost only 0.15 usd per 500g. As long as people don't go to fancy super market, food cost like nothing in China, comparing to the US.

西瓜的价格仅为0.15美元/斤。只要人们不去高级超市，那么跟美国相比，中国的食品价格就约等于不要钱了。

R.M.L.

There's so much anti-China propaganda on Quora.

The Jews on Quora really despise China and Chinese people, and I thought that Jews say that they're the most intelligent people.

I take it that the $1,320 is in USD. You can get a bowl of cooked noodle soup in China for less than 0.50 USD. Food is very cheap in China. The foods in China that are expensive are the imported foods. There are many people in rural China who grow almost all of their own food. (Clothes and public transportation are very cheap in China too.)

Quora上有很多反华宣传。

Quora上的犹太人真的很鄙视中国人，我记得犹太人说他们自己是最聪明的地球人。

以1320美元来说说。在中国，你可以花不到0.5美元买到一碗煮好的汤面。中国的食物价格很便宜。中国只有进口食品才卖得比较贵。在中国农村，很多人几乎能实现自给自足，吃的全都是自己种的养的。中国的服装和公共交通也很便宜

Alex Calet

The amount that is spent is not an indicator of the amount of food or of nourishment that can be obtained for that money. Some places have a higher cost of living than others.

花费的金额并不能反映用这笔钱可以买到多少食物或营养品。有些地方的生活成本是会比其他地方高的。

Torben Sanders

China has more obese people than any other nation. It is not about the actual sum of money; but how big a share of the income is used for food.

中国的肥胖人口比其他国家都要多。这和实际的花费无关，而是把多少收入用于购买食品。

Khengchat Ng

How come Chinese food is so cheap?

The ingredients are cheap because their sliced meat for stir frying can mined from otherwise discarded pieces. Same for their veggies - they do not have to be presentable whole spears of asparagus or zucchinis. As overseas students we got chicken claws from neighbour butchers for the price of the plastic bag and the trouble of storing it i.e virtually free. We bought gravy beef and oxtails from supermarkets. Wet markets had cheap misshapen veggies perfect for slicing and cubing. There is also minimal use of cooking fuel with stir frying and rice cooking.

为什么中餐这么便宜？

中国的食材之所以便宜，是因为用于炒菜的肉片可能是要被丢掉的部位。蔬菜也一样—不用是漂亮的整根的芦笋或西葫芦。作为留学生，我们从屠夫邻居那里得到了鸡爪，邻居只收了塑料袋的钱，几乎可以算是免费了。我们从超市买了肉汁牛肉和牛尾巴。菜市场上还有卖不上好价的畸形蔬菜，非常适合切片和切块。炒菜和煮米饭也不太耗费燃气。

Vivian Chen

How come Chinese food is so cheap?

为什么中餐这么便宜?

Mostly because of racism where people refuse to pay higher prices for Chinese cuisine (Mexcan, Indian, and Thai cuisine also deal with this stigma). In the West, Chinese cuisine is regarded as a “cheap” cuisine while something like Japanese cuisine is regarded as “expensive” even though it has been continuously demonstrated that Chinese cuisine utilizes more expensive ingredients and is more labor intensive than Japanese cuisine is. This means that Chinese cuisine is “undervalued” while Japanese cuisine is “overvalued”.

主要是因为种族歧视，人们拒绝为中餐支付更高的价格(墨西哥菜、印度菜和泰国菜也有这个问题)。在西方，中餐被视为“廉价”的美食，但日本料理就被视为“昂贵”的美食，尽管中国料理不断被证明使用了比日本料理更昂贵的食材，耗费的劳力比日本料理更多。这说明中餐被“低估”，而日料被“高估”了。

In this UK analysis of the five most popular foreign cuisines in the country, they found Chinese dishes were the most expensive of them to cook at home. They were twice more expensive to prepare than the average Korean dish. The average Indian dish isn't as expensive as the average Chinese one, but a lot Indian dishes are really time consuming to make IMO.

在英国对五种最受欢迎的外国菜系进行的分析中，人们发现在英国做中餐的成本是最高的。中餐的制作成本是普通韩国料理的两倍。普通的印度菜不像普通的中国菜那么贵，但在我看来，很多印度菜做起来真的太耗时了。

(This research was conducted by South Korean chef Kelly Choi in response to the cost-of-living crisis in the UK right now. A lot of British families are struggling to figure out what the cheapest things they can cook are.)

(这项研究是由韩国厨师凯利·崔为应对英国目前的生活成本危机而进行的。很多英国家庭都在努力弄清自己在家做饭时什么食材最便宜。)

Michael Chan

What does the typical meal in China consist of?

You made one assumption - that meals throughout China is homogeneous. It is not. The people of injiang and Yunnan would eat differently from those in Shantou, Shanghai, Beiing or Heilongjiang.

Generally, though, for the Han Chinese, a meal is not complete unless it has a dish of meat, a dish of vegetables, a dish of soup and a staple (rice or noodles). All these dishes are placed centrally, and the diners take whatever portion they need. In certain cases, alcohol is also on the menu, especially if guests are expected.

在中国，标准的一餐包括什么？

你这是做了一个假设—假设全中国的饭菜都一样。但事实并非如此。新 疆人和云南人的饮食与汕头人、上海人、北京人或黑龙江人的饮食是不一样的。

不过，对于汉人来说，如果少了一盘肉、一盘菜、一碗汤和一份主食(米饭或面条)，那么一餐饭就不算完整。这些菜会放在餐桌中间，用餐者可以根据自己的需要随意选择。

在某些情况下，饭桌上也会出现酒水，尤其是有客人来做客的时候。

Greg Blandino

What does the typical meal in China consist of?

I'll echo what Michael Chan says that the assumption your question is based on is faulty. However, as meals go, there are some basic rules of thumb that a meal at a restaurant follows. Everyone will get a serving of 主食, or "staple food." That generally consists of rice, especially at higher end restaurants since rice is considered a more prestigious staple food while noodles, or steamed buns are considered more pedestrian.

在中国，标准的一餐包括什么？

我认同Michael Chan所说的，你的问题是基于错误的假设的。但在餐厅用餐可以遵循一些基本的经验法则。每位食客都会得到一份主食，通常都是米饭，尤其是在高端餐厅，因为米饭作为主食的地位更高一些，面条或馒头则更为普通一些。

Next would be the number of dishes. A good rule of thumb is the number of dishes is the number of people eating plus 1 or 2. Still, your mileage may vary with this. If the person who is paying for the dinner is looking to make a good impression for whatever reason, he may deliberated over-order so as to give the impression that the entire table is covered with food.

接下来是菜的数量。有一个很好用的经验法则：菜的数量可以是用餐人数加1或加2。不过，你也可以自行决定。如果买单的人出于某种原因，想给客人留下好印象，他可能会故意多点一些菜，让客人觉得餐桌摆得满满当当，菜色非常丰盛。

Besides dishes, it's customary to order a soup for the table. The dishes are organized by cold dishes and hot dishes. The cold dishes are served first, and will generally consist of about a quarter of the total dishes ordered. These can generally be considered the equivalent of a western appetizers. Next is hot dishes, which are impossible to really generalize beyond saying that there will be a meat dish and vegetable dish. Depending on the restaurant, a fruit plate will be served after the meal is finished.

除了菜，人们还习惯点一份汤。菜肴分为冷盘和热盘。冷盘先上，通常占菜肴总数的四分之一左右。这些菜就相当于西方的开胃菜。接下来再上热菜，除了分类成肉菜和蔬菜之外，就没办法继续概括总结了。有些餐厅会在用餐结束后提供一个水果拼盘。

If there are "honored" guests present, or if there is some sort of purpose for the meal, the host will generally order alcohol of some sort. While this will vary by region, class, and age group of the diner, and the drinking etiquette of China is worthy of it's own separate question, generally the drinks will either be beer, wine, or Chinese Baijiu drank straight.

The meal is served to a circular table with a lazy susan in the middle. You have an individual bowl of rice, and everyone eats off of the communal plates.

如果有贵宾到场，或者此次宴请有什么缘由，主人通常会点一些酒水。虽然不同地区、不同阶层和不同年龄的用餐者会有不同的饮酒礼仪，中国的饮酒礼仪也值得单独探讨，但通常情况下，酒水一般就是啤酒、葡萄酒或中国白酒。

餐桌是圆形的，餐桌中间有一个转盘。每个人会有一碗米饭，每个人都从公碟里夹菜吃。

Richard Seeto

Is Chinese food expensive in America?

中餐在美国贵吗？

Chinese food if bought and eaten in the ordinary family run suburban restaurant is generally much cheaper and more tasty and nutritious than those of Caucasian cuisine and that includes your KFCs and McDonalds.

The reason being:-

如果在家庭经营的普通郊区餐馆吃中餐，通常会比西餐更便宜，更美味，更有营养，我这里说的西餐就包括你们的肯德基和麦当劳。

原因是：

1. Chinese foods are usually prepared from natural ingredients and vegetables bought fresh with very quick cooking and not cooked to death.

2. Because it is family owned and run, usually have a much lower cost of doing business and therefore has a lower overheads which is reflected in the cost of the meals.

1. 中餐通常是由天然的食材和新鲜的蔬菜快速炒制的，不会把营养成分煮死。

2. 因为餐馆是家庭经营的，经营成本通常比较低，因此管理费用更低，这就体现在餐费上了。

3. Chinese restaurant operators know they have to compete with the likes of the previous names fast food places as well as pizzas, Hungry Jacks and Red Rooster etc. Therefore it behoves them to make their prices more affordable.

4. The reason Chinese food tastes good is that they have known for generations the skill in combining compatible vegetables with meat dishes makes for better taste and better nutrition.

3. 中国餐馆经营者知道，他们必须和快餐店以及披萨、Hungry Jacks和Red Rooster等品牌竞争。因此，他们必须把价格定得更加实惠。

4. 中餐好吃的原因是他们很早就掌握了一项技艺：把蔬菜和肉类结合在一起，口味更佳，营养也更好。

I hope I have given you most of the answers you require.

我希望我已经给出了你所需要的大部分答案。