美食
měishí · HSK 3
delicious food
🍽️ 美食 = 美 (beautiful) + 食 (food) — beautiful food, i.e. fine cuisine
Compound of 美 měi 'beautiful' and 食 shí 'food/eat'. Same 食 appears in 食物 (food) and 食堂 (cafeteria); same 美 in 美丽 (beautiful) and 美国 (America, lit. beautiful country).
美 — sheep 羊 on top + big 大 below
美 is traditionally explained as a pictograph of a person (大) wearing a large sheep or ram's-head ornament, suggesting beauty through adornment. An alternative reading takes 羊 (sheep) over 大 (big) to mean 'a big, fat sheep'—seen as delicious and pleasing, hence 'beautiful, good'.