Common beans and lentils in Europe and America navy beans (Europe), used in baked bean tins red kidney beans (common in America and Europe) chickpeas (Middle East, Mediterranean and India) black beans (South and Central America) butter beans, aka Lima beans (originate from south America and USA, now common in the UK) lentils (originate from Middle East, now common in the UK) cannellini beans, aka white kidney beans (originate from south America) chili beans, aka pink beans (originate from South America) pinto beans (common in Mexican and Southwest of the USA) Common beans in Asia soybeans (common in Asia), called edamame when they are immature soybeans 黄豆 edamame 毛豆 mung bean 绿豆 (Asia, esp. China
Our house has no cellar, and all terraced houses we viewed during our house hunting have cellars.
The function of the cellar, firstly should be storage, people used to store food and wine in the cellar. Because refrigerator has not been invented yet.
During the World War Two, cellars were reinforced as bomb sheds. It's quite amusing to know that British were also scared to death by German bombs, same as Chinese by Japanese. But as far as I know, most of Chinese has no cellar to hide, especially in southern China, I have never seen any cellar under houses in our area either old fashioned or modern one. There was a joke that whenever bomb siren sounded, all people in Wenzhou city started to look for toilet (commode). They were too scared and upset to hold the urine.
The cellar also used to store coal! This idea came to me as I read this line:
Whenever I pass an old terraced house, I can see grate-covered hole leading to the cellar at the pavement. The grid is rotting, the hole is dark, dirty. Dust, rubbish, and rain goes through the grate and accumulated in there. I always wonder what's inside. What else people need this hole except for emergency escape and ventilation. Now I know before gas and electricity, coal was used as fuel and delivered through the grate and stored in the cellar.
The function of the cellar, firstly should be storage, people used to store food and wine in the cellar. Because refrigerator has not been invented yet.
During the World War Two, cellars were reinforced as bomb sheds. It's quite amusing to know that British were also scared to death by German bombs, same as Chinese by Japanese. But as far as I know, most of Chinese has no cellar to hide, especially in southern China, I have never seen any cellar under houses in our area either old fashioned or modern one. There was a joke that whenever bomb siren sounded, all people in Wenzhou city started to look for toilet (commode). They were too scared and upset to hold the urine.
The cellar also used to store coal! This idea came to me as I read this line:
We had a big cellar, which was reinforced with wood all around and the
escape hatch to the outside was up the grate where the coal was delivered.
Whenever I pass an old terraced house, I can see grate-covered hole leading to the cellar at the pavement. The grid is rotting, the hole is dark, dirty. Dust, rubbish, and rain goes through the grate and accumulated in there. I always wonder what's inside. What else people need this hole except for emergency escape and ventilation. Now I know before gas and electricity, coal was used as fuel and delivered through the grate and stored in the cellar.
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