Dining Characterplay and “My Type”

After you’re done admiring the map, check out the character 菜 at the bottom:

(Sidenote! I have to wonder: why didn’t they choose to use chopsticks instead of a fork?)

菜 can mean “a dish (at a meal),” or “vegetables,” or even just “food,” depending on context. Here, the text reads:

全世界
都是你的菜

The ad uses a common idiom. 是我的菜 means “is to my liking” or, oddly enough, “is my cup of tea.”

Interesting enough, it’s super common to use this expression with relation to romantic attraction:

• 你是我的菜 (You’re my type)
• 你不是我的菜 (You’re not my type)

(In fact, both of the phrases above are the names of songs in Chinese!)

This is a great expression to learn early on because it’s fun, instantly comprehensible, easy to use, and uses only basic words and characters.