巧妇难为无米之炊

1. • The cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (idiom) You won't get anywhere without equipment.

Character by character

• 巧(qiǎo)opportunely
• 妇(fù)woman
• 难(nán)difficult
• 为(wéi)as (in the capacity of)
• 无(wú)not to have
• 米(mǐ)surname Mi
• 之(zhī)(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的 de)
• 炊(chuī)cook food