Meaning of 美食
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- culinary delicacy
- fine food
- gourmet food
How to use 美食
美食 is a common, positive word for tasty or special food, often local dishes, street food, or food worth traveling for. You see it in phrases like 美食街 (měishí jiē) food street and 美食节 (měishí jié) food festival. Example: 成都有很多美食。(Chéngdū yǒu hěn duō měishí.) Chengdu has a lot of great food.
美食 combines 美 (měi), beautiful or delicious, with 食 (shí), food. Think of it as "beautiful food," the kind you want to photograph before you eat it.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes use 美食 for ordinary food, like "I need to buy food." For everyday food use 食物 (shíwù) or 吃的 (chī de), and keep 美食 for delicious or famous dishes. Also note the tones: měi is third tone and shí is second tone.
美食 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
美 měi · beautiful · 9 strokes
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食 shí · food · 9 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 美食.
Questions about 美食
What does 美食 mean?
美食 (měishí) means "culinary delicacy; fine food" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 美食?
美食 is made of 2 characters: 美 (9 strokes), 食 (9 strokes). That is 18 strokes in total.
Is 美食 an HSK word?
Yes. 美食 is on the HSK 3 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 美食 and 食品?
美食 (měishí) praises food as delicious or special. 食品 (shípǐn) is a neutral, practical word for food products, like packaged goods or food safety, as in 食品安全 (shípǐn ānquán).
How do you say "foodie" in Chinese?
A common word is 美食家 (měishíjiā), which literally means a food expert or gourmet. In casual speech people also say 吃货 (chīhuò), a playful word for someone who loves to eat.