Today’s Episode
Have you ever seen a barbecue restaurant using corn as fuel? 🌽🔥 In today’s episode of MaoMi Chinese, we will talk about a viral story from China — how a creative idea sparked a huge online debate about waste, food, and innovation!
Today’s episode is sponsored by Maayot Chinese, a graded Chinese reading platform packed with many helpful features. Explore it and find out more!
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大家好，欢迎回来 MaoMi Chinese！
今天也要谢谢Maayot Chinese的支持！如果你也喜欢一边读中文的文章一边学很多词语，你就可以试试Maayot Chinese的网站或者app。这里有很多的中文文章，每一天读一点，进步就会更快。如果你感兴趣，去试试看吧！
你喜欢吃烤肉吗？中国人很喜欢吃烤肉，在中国也有很多烤肉店。最近，有一家烤肉店，因为他们用玉米做燃料，被很多网友骂了。燃料，也就是用来燃烧的材料，比如木头，炭，等等。这家店用的燃料是玉米。
这家店在网上发了一个视频，视频里可以看到，烤肉的火下面放的不是木头，也不是炭，而是一根根黄色的玉米。火在烧，玉米“噼里啪啦”地响，看起来很特别。
店家说，他们这样做是因为玉米烧得更干净。用玉米烤肉，肉会有一点甜味，更香。他们还说，用的玉米不是人吃的那种，而是 “陈化粮”，也就是放久了、不能很好吃的玉米。他们觉得这样做既环保又有特色。
但是，很多网友不同意。有人觉得，这样做是在浪费粮食。现在大家都在说要节约粮食，你们却拿玉米来烧火，这样看起来不太好。还有人说，农民种玉米很辛苦，玉米是粮食，不应该拿来当燃料。不过，也有人支持这家店。他们说，这不一定是浪费。可能他们还帮了很多农民，买了他们的玉米。
很多人都在社交媒体上讨论这个事。有人说要节约粮食，有人说他们帮助了农民。烤肉店后来也说，他们没有浪费粮食，只是用了不能吃的玉米。
这件事让我们也想一想：什么是浪费？在生活里，我们是不是有时候也太快去批评别人了？你怎么看呢？欢迎给我们留言，和我们分享哦！
Hello everyone, and welcome back to MaoMi Chinese!
Today, we’d like to say a big thank you to Maayot Chinese for supporting this episode! If you enjoy learning new words while reading Chinese stories, you should definitely check out Maayot’s website or app. There are lots of short Chinese articles there — if you read a little every day, your Chinese will improve much faster. If you’re interested, give it a try!
Do you like barbecue? Chinese people love eating barbecue, and there are many barbecue restaurants across the country. Recently, one of these restaurants has become very controversial online because they used corn as fuel. Fuel means material that’s used for burning — for example, wood or charcoal. But this restaurant used corn instead.
They posted a video on social media showing their cooking fire. Under the grill, you could see not wood or charcoal, but rows of yellow corn cobs. The fire was burning, and the corn was crackling — it looked quite special.
The restaurant owner said they used corn because it burns more cleanly. They also said that meat grilled over corn fire has a light sweetness and a better aroma. According to them, the corn they used wasn’t for eating — it was old stock corn, which means it had been stored for a long time and was no longer suitable for food. They believed this method was both environmentally friendly and unique.
However, many people online disagreed. Some said it was a waste of food. Nowadays, people often talk about saving food, yet this restaurant was using corn as fuel — which didn’t seem right. Others pointed out that farmers work very hard to grow corn, and as it’s an important food crop, it shouldn’t be burned as fuel.
But some people supported the restaurant. They argued that it wasn’t necessarily wasteful — maybe the restaurant even helped local farmers by buying their old corn.
The debate spread quickly across social media. Some said we must save food, while others thought the restaurant’s practice actually supported farmers. Later, the restaurant responded, saying they hadn’t wasted any food — they had only used corn that wasn’t suitable for eating.
This story also makes us think: what does it really mean to waste something? And in our daily lives, do we sometimes criticise others too quickly before understanding the full story? What do you think? Feel free to leave us a comment and share your thoughts!