Cǎoyuán shàng láile yī qún yáng. Cāi yīzhǒng shuǐguǒ --- cǎoméi!
Cǎoyuán shàng yòu láile yī qún láng. Cāi yīzhǒng shuǐguǒ --- yángméi!

A flock of sheep came to a field. Guess the fruit --- strawberry!
Then a pack of wolves came to the field. Guess the fruit --- red bayberry!

Ingredients: a few mint leaves, 1 lime, simple syrup, ice, rum, soda water, and of course, 杨梅 （pitted and chopped into delicious chunks).

1. make simple syrup (combine equal parts water and sugar over low heat until mixed)

2. place a few teaspoons of simple syrup into the bottom of a sturdy glass. Add the Mint leaves and grind it until its minty flavor is released.

3. add one or two lime slices and repeat the grinding process (either with a mortar or a heavy spoon).

4. fill your glass with ice

5. add rum (I'm not going to tell how you much to add... hehehe)

6. add the 杨梅 chunks

7. fill glass halfway with soda water

8. stir

9. fill the remainder of glass with soda water

10. add a mint leaf and lime slice for garnish and enjoy!

(If you liked this 杨梅 recipe, please add more or post to the ChinesePod blog)

e.g. Wǒmen bù děng bàba le, chī qǐlai ba. (我们不等爸爸了，吃起来吧。) = We're not waiting for Dad, let's start eating.

In this lesson's dialogue I'd say the sense of 吃起来 is that the process of eating begins, continues, and turns out to be 太麻烦了！

http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E8%B5%B7%E6%9D%A5/1311770

There seem to be a number of uses, and its difficult to see a common thread.

There is only one meaning in this lesson however.

Take kànqǐlái, tīngqǐlái and chīqǐlái.

When kàn, tīng and chī are used alone, the subject is doing the seeing, hearing and eating.

When qǐlái is added, the subject is BEING seen, heard and eaten.

But, more than that, it describes how that action is interpreted by the 'observer' - the person doing the seeing, hearing and eating.

So: 'looks ...' (exhausted, for example), 'sounds ...' (pleasant, for example), and - well the 3rd one is harder. I don't think it can be translated directly into English. I think that is because in English we only use this structure to describe the 5 senses - there's also 'smells ... (rotten, for example)', 'tastes ...' (sour, for example), and 'feels ...' (prickly, for example).

Different Nciku sample sentences, the lesson dialog, and the Expansion sentences for this lesson suggest that chīqǐlái can variously refer to the taste, texture, or how easy or difficult the food is to eat.

So its like 'how is it to eat?' rather than 'how does it taste?'.

Anyway thats my take on this one use of qǐlái.

Definitely to the right of杨梅 are 柚子 yòuzi (close to my heart as it is the first thing I ate in mainland China) - dictionaries call them 'pomelos' which we don't have in Australia. They are rather like grapefruit in taste but the texture is quite different. These are another classic breakfast fruit, but they appear in a hundred different dishes. I have seen each 'cell' of the fruit separated (painstaking work for the cook). And柚子茶 one of the best ever teas, when mixed with grated orange peel and honey.

Note on 荔枝 lizhi (lychees) - they are sold tied like bunches of flowers. This slows down the decay process, but they still last only a couple of days where I live. (Difficult to eat? I don't follow that discussion at all. Shanghai people happily crack the husks off nuts with their teeth - normal people need to break them with a hammer. Lizhi have soft skins that break easily.)

I would like to hear other poddies views on stranger fruits.

/Johan

Regarding 起来　：－

　　　　　　１）A simple usage:-

　　　　　　　他起来得很早　＝　he got up very early

2) Used as a complement after a verb:--

a) to indicate beginning / continuation of an action

天气冷起来了=　It is getting cold

b) completion of an action

我想起来了　 = I remembered

c) Indicates impression made:--

听起来　，看起来　＝listened , noticed

d) indicates an upward movement:--

旗举起来　= raised a flag

Therapist

A few more fruits I ate in HK/Taiwan but have not seen here yet: wax apples (bright red, empty in the middle, very juice, not as hard as apples, no seeds) and this little green apple looking fruit but with a seed kinda like a plum in the middle... I forgot the Chinese name but I think it was a plum type fruit.

glad you enjoyed it! In fact it comes from another Chinesepod lesson (link below) which mention of 杨梅 reminded me of!

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/sheep-wolves-and-fruit-a-riddle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Mangosteen

In the video channels > vocab tour there's a lesson called Trip to the Vegetable Market, I think you'd enjoy it.

(I can't give you a link, sorry! I've just tried 3 times to link to it but it seems the site is not working properly and I can't.)

These are the wax apples: 蓮霧 liánwù lotus mist!!! so poetic!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81226325@N00/245171751/

http://www.baanbophut.com/wordpress/koh-samui-guide/thai-fruits/

The other fruit I was talking about earlier is the green jujube fruit!!! Cool name!

is it qīngzǎo 青枣 ?

We have the 'little green apple looking fruit' - I think it is an apple (or pear?) variety - it does not strike me as a plum - but as you say it has a seed like a plum seed in the middle. Delicious.

Generally there is a much greater variety of fruit in China than we have in Australia, and generally the fruit tastes better. Big generalization - but it is seasonal, and does not get transported great distances or refrigerated for long periods. Where I live. In Shanghai and other eastern seaboard cities this Western-style industry is developing. (Australia has been lending its research know-how to the fruit and veg industry - this has its pluses and minuses.)

But also the price of fruit varies enormously from very cheap to very expensive. About a month - 6 weeks ago in SW China cherries were about 50 or 60 RMB a kilo. This doesn't stop people buying them - people are very serious about their food in China.

PS that link does not seem to work for me.

By the way, when I was living in South Florida, My neighbor had a big 荔枝 tree in his backyard. I used to eat them for free :)

http://www.baanbophut.com/wordpress/koh-samui-guide/thai-fruits/

荔枝吃起来很麻烦。

Li4zhi1 chi1 qi3lai hen3 ma2fan.

This is a pair of comfortable shoes.

这双鞋穿起来很舒服。

Zhe4 shuang1 xie2 chuan1 qi3lai hen3 shu1fu.

http://www.nciku.com/search/all/examples/%E7%A9%BF%E8%B5%B7%E6%9D%A5

I can't detect any sign of that drop in pitch you refer to in either of those words. Possibly the rise isn't linear, that is all.

Not bad!

But at least I know it is there if I want to someday....

I'm not sure about the Chinese for soursop. Connie and Jiaojie have no idea what 番荔枝 (fānlìzhī) -- or whatever you want to call it -- is.

草原上又来了一群狼。猜一种水果 (Cǎoyuán shàng yòu láile yī qún láng. Cāi yīzhǒng shuǐguǒ) and they, thinking themselves very clever will answer: 杨桃 (yángtáo) which is the wonderful carambola or 'star fruit', but which could also punningly mean 'the sheep run away' (from the verb 逃走 táozǒu = to run away, flee).

Are you saying you can't use 起来 qilai for "lowered" the flag? or is it simply "HAS lowered the flag" and the same as point b)?

Are the meanings for "raise children" or "raise a temperature" not upward motions of their respected verbs + qilai?

Or are there different verbs for these concepts?

Also: doesn't "hear" or have more of an impression made than "listen" except when you use "have heard" or "have listened"?

:)

Sorry....had to opine!

Fruits and veggies are so plentiful and diverse here in Taiwan, I usually ask a place "what green veggies do you have?". After they go through all the ones they have, I simply pick one I have never heard of before and try it out. Fruit stands are easier to pick and choose, of course. I love the feeling when you notice that a fruit season is changing...whats next, whats next! Pine for the lack of X but be excited for the plethora of Y.

Some have seeds....if the plant had no seed bearing fruit we'd be eating the population down to zero (unless it goes the way of the seedless banana...)!

Some wax apples do have seeds...brown furry seeds...they look like rabbit turds. Which I thought it was the first time I came across one! I have since found many, but you are right that most are seedless.