Hi, everyone and welcome back to Global Village. 欢迎回到你们最喜欢的板块【小酒馆大世界】。

Today we have two new guests. As I know, 70% of our audience are women, you are very independent, you're fun-loving, you have a lot of interesting stories. And today we've invited two amazing girls, women to our studio, and they are from Italy. I'll pass the mic to them for them to introduce themselves. Hi Carlotta. Hi Michela.

Ciao a Tutti.

Ciao Amici.

So both of them have lived in China for quite some time, right?

Yes, for 5 years.

And they've also lived in other cultures, they have a lot of amazing stories to share. And in the coming episodes we're definitely gonna invite them back to talk to us about Italian lifestyles and also what their opinions are on a lot of things.

And these two girls they own business in Beijing as well, but for now let's get Carlotta. Could you tell us a little bit about your background?

Sure. Hi everyone. And my name is Carlotta. I'm from the north of Italy. The city is called Torino. And since I was very young, I've always been in an international environment both for my studies and also when I was traveling abroad since a younger age.

After high school I moved to the UK for my bachelor degree, so I lived there for 4 years, but also since 2010 I have been coming to China back and forth, both for traveling and studying.

And since I love China, fell in love with the country, the culture; and in2017 I decided to move here eventually.

Yeah, since then I've just been here and I'm here with Miky, and now we're starting our new business, as you said, which is really exciting.

That's sort of a very interesting experience you had. No wonder I felt like when you're speaking, there's somewhere in your accent, there's a little bit of British influence that I can tell.

I've lost it a little bit, but it used to be stronger, now is more like…

Great, we'll get more into that in a bit. What about Michela?

Hi everybody. My name is Michela, but everybody calls me Miky. I'm from Italy. I also come from the north of Italy close to Torino. But in the more… Ferrato, which is really famous for wine, this is also probably why I love wine.

I've always liked languages since I was like a little kid. So I started to like learn English, French in the high school, and then I went as an exchange student to live in the States in Georgia. But in 2006 I came to China with my family. I was like that kind of teenager when my Dad said something I had to say the opposite, so my dad said let's go to China. I was like no, I don't want to go to China, but then I still remember that we arrived in Beijing and we had the hotel in 建国门.

I was 16 years old, and we arrived in the hotel by bus. And I went to my Dad, I hugged him and I said Dad this is my place, I'm gonna come and live here. Then I studied English, went to the States, but then I went to the university in Venice to study Chinese and Chinese business; and in 2011, I came back to China.

So both of you speak Chinese, right?

对, 会说中文。

Now, I'm just blown away by a lot of people come to my show and then their Chinese is just really good. Yes, I'm starting to see that a lot more now.

So very interesting experience, and today we're gonna compare this, not just two cultures but China, Italy and also UK and America. We have done a lot of segments on British culture, on American culture.

But first things first, let's do Italy and China, and we're gonna start with something that's everyone knows about, everyone has something to say, food.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm a foodie and I know you too.

Yeah, we are Italian, for sure we have to be…

And this whole idea of food, then I just wanna say that do you find some similarities in, let's say, Italian food or Italian people's attitude towards food compared with our Chinese attitude towards food?

Well, definitely. First of all, as you said, how we relate to food. So food is like the most important part of the day, like we planned the meals and the rest of the day revolves around food; or if you have to plan something fun or if you have to meet your friends, there is always gonna be food involved in drinks, wine for us, but in general it’s gonna be like a social and gathering and there has to be food.

And when we eat we always talk about food, we think about food, we plan about what we're gonna have next, or the day after or for special holiday that is coming up.

Yeah.

So it's definitely a big part of our life and our conversations, and I feel like in China is the same, we're both super proud of our food culture.

Yeah. Definitely.

We love to share it, also, that's the thing.

I think the best way to entertain maybe a Chinese or Italian is to treat them to good food, they will love it.

Another thing is, for Chinese if they have been really traveled that much for a lot of Chinese, European food in general can be a little bit hard to get used to.

But I always feel like Italian food has no such problem. For us, Italian food we can find a lot of familiar elements like we have rice, you have risotto, right; we have noodles, you have pasta; we have 饼, you have pizza.

So when you first arrived in China, did you find the food to be very foreign, very difficult to get into or how did you feel?

No, it was amazing. I actually loved the Chinese food. And I could say that it wasn't hard to get used to it because as you just said, we had pasta and we had the like 炒面 or any kind of 面; or we had rice and many vegetables. It was really nice actually.

Yeah, and maybe you don't like some dishes, but it's the same in Italy, but the food is so rich. And so there is such a big variety that you will always find something you like. We also have a lot of regional differences same as in China, so everywhere you go, you will have different dishes and different tastes, so you will always find something new and something that you like for sure. So, me too, I didn't find this such a big difference.

How about the way to eat? Because I know that in Italy you have by course, right? In China we don't have courses, we just have one person orders a lot of food for everyone. How did you feel about that?

That was weird in the beginning, because first of all, as you said we have different courses, so we have like the starters and then we have the first course, the second course, the third, and so on.

And second, in Italy, we usually order our own food, so like I order what I want to eat, and we don't share. So these are like something that we had to get used to, but I actually kind of liked that. I don't have to order everything by myself.

I love the sharing part, because you can try lots of different things. You don't limit your choices, not just one or two dishes.

But what about house parties, if you invite someone to your home, do you still do the first course, second course, you can't really do that because, I mean, that would end by entertain ten people if they all want different things, you have to cook 20 different...

If it's like a big celebration like for Christmas, for sure we have to do it, like ten starters and then two first dishes and then probably 2 second dishes and then desserts.

It requires a lot of preparation, as you said to avoid the person that is cooking just spend a whole time in the kitchen.

So we just prepare everything beforehand, kind of, and then finish with the last touch up at the end, so that everything is gonna be ready, like in a restaurant. So everyone has his own little restaurant, and they stay at home. You just make sure everything is ready when it has stored, just because it's a long meal, normally we stay, like for big celebrations, we spend 2 or 3 hours at the dinner table.

Yes, even more.

You have time, you just chat between each course.

This is for big events, for smaller events it would be just maybe some starters and just first or the second…

One thing that is very popular now is to have like finger food.

Like a happy hour sort of dinner and we call it Apericena which is in between dinner and Aperitivo, something in between. So you just put a lot of different appetizers, but there can also be pasta, our second courses, but it’s smaller portions.

So everyone has a little bit of everything, but it's on the table. So it's like a buffet style, that's becoming very popular.

I have to ask it sounds like a lot of preparation goes into it. So when that happens who in the family is doing the cooking, say you have a big family friends sort of gathering for Christmas or other sort of festivals who does the cooking.

Who likes the cook, normally.

So you don't have like traditional, for example, in some cultures, it's grandma, does all the cooking.

I think it depends on the family.

Depends on the family, usually like women cook, but it really depends on the family. I have many friends like their families, the Dad cooks.

For me, it’s my Mom, she wouldn't let anyone else in the kitchen. She would just be the one cooking and directing everyone else, and if you try to help….

No, get out of my kitchen

Yes, you're just slowing her down, you know.

I know. I'm exactly the same. I'm such a tyrant in the kitchen. I don't like…

I learned from her, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I just like to boss people around in the kitchen, get things done how I want them to be.

Exactly.

But also something that is really common is someone who comes over for dinner, maybe they can bring some food also.

Like a potluck.

If they are friends, like really close friends.

Do they ask like if you invite me over and do I …I have to ask right?

Organize that in advance.

The guest asks, oh, can I bring something? Can I cook? Can I bring appetizers? Can I bring the dessert?

Okay, but do I have to report to you what kind of appetizer I'm bringing?

Yes. Normally.

So I don't cook the same thing or then I know like if you do appetizer and I'm gonna make pasta, otherwise we both make pasta.

But sometimes it's frequent for the host to say no need to bring anything. It depends on the situation and depends on the occasion. If it's my birthday, I would not ask you to bring food to my birthday, I will provide everything, I will make sure everything is ready.

So for your birthday, you are going to cook everything.

Yes, that's what I did last month. I was cooking with Miky for two days.

Sounds like a very exhausting birthday, but you enjoy it.

I enjoy it. Yeah. So for me it was like my birthday lasted longer because I started preparing like days in advance.

Yeah