"Everything happens for the best（一切都会变好的）, "my mother said, whenever things weren't going my way. "Don't worry. One day your luck will change. "

After I had finished my college education, I discovered that Mother was right. 

I had decided to try for a job in radio. I wanted to host a sports program. I went to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station. But I got turned down every time.____In one station, a kind lady said my problem was that I hadn't got enough experience, "Get some work in a small station and work your way up, " she said. 

I went back home. I couldn't get a job there, either, I felt really down. "Your luck will change, " Mom said to me. I tried another radio station in Iowa. But the owner told me he had already had someone. 

As I left his office, I asked, "How can someone be a sports announcer（播音员） if he can't get a job in a radio station?I was waiting for the lift when I heard the man said, "What did you mean?Do you know anything about football?" He put me in front of a microphone（麦克风） and asked me to try to imagine that I was giving my opinion on a football game. 

I succeeded!

On my way home, Mom's words came back to me, "One day your luck will change, Son. And when it happens, you'll feel doubly（加倍地） good because of all the hard work you've done. " At that moment I know just what she meant. 

Do you have a headache? Take an aspirin or eat bird brains. Do you want beautiful skin? Use skin cream or eat pearls. Is your hair turning gray? Color your hair or eat black rice.

"Eating bird brains, pearls, and black rice?" some people ask. "How strange!" But for many Chinese people, bird brains, pearls, and black rice are not strange things to eat. Instead, they are good medicines(药).

Food that people use for medicines is called medical(药用的) food. The Chinese have eaten medicinal food and spices(香辛料) for centuries. Ginger(生姜), for example, is a common spice in Chinese cooking. Ginger gives food a nice flavor(香气). The Chinese began to use ginger many years ago. They used ginger not because it tasted good. They used ginger because it was medicinal. Ginger, they thought, was for the digestion(消化). It also helped people who had colds. Pepper and garlic, too, were probably medicines a long time ago.

Some people don't believe that food and spices are good medicines. They want to buy their medicine in drugstores, not in supermarkets. Other people want to try medicinal food. They say, "Maybe medicinal food can't help me. But it can't hurt me, either. "

People can try medicinal food at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, California. The restaurant serves medicinal food. The menus at the restaurant have a list of dinners. Next to each dinner there is information about the food. The information helps people order "Queen's Secret," for example, is one dinner at the restaurant. This dinner has meat from chickens with black feathers. It is for women who want to look young.

Huabobo is a kind of traditional （传统）food in Shandong. It has a history of more than 300 years. People in Shandong like it very much. They usually eat it on special (特殊的) days, such as festivals （节日）, weddings (婚礼) and birthdays. So there are many factories for making Huabobo in Shandong. 

Yu Lili, from Weihai, Shandong, likes Huabobo very much. When she was a child, her grandmother taught her how to make Huabobo. So she is good at making it. She has a factory in her village. There are about 80 workers in her factory. They can make over 500 kinds of Huabobo. Yu and her workers spent a lot of time on it, but she is happy because a lot of young people show loves to her Huabobo. 

Huabobo is not only a kind of food but also an art. Huabobo comes in different colors and shapes (形状), like animals, flowers and fruit. It looks good and it's delicious. 

For people in Shandong, Huabobo is a symbol (象征) of the Chinese New Year. It shows good luck and people's wishes for a good life. That's why it becomes popular with more and more people in Shandong.