Wokking On The Run

Top Foodie Cities in China

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 19:47:00 +0000

What are the best places in China for food? If you just came to China to sample the best of its authentic food in authentic settings, where should you go? Of course food is usually only ever part of the Chinese experience that visitors are looking for, and if you go to the following cities, you can also experience a wide range of the best sights China has to offer when you’re not eating.

1. Hong Kong

Location: Southeast China
Culinary Style: Cantonese cuisine, Hong Kong Cuisine, Foreign cuisine

Cantonese food is enjoyed the world over and is closest to the flavor of Chinese takeaway food. It is the sweetest of China’s Eight Culinary Styles, and is the most similar to the Western palate. Hong Kong offers this style, along with good seafood, and dim sum (tea and a light meal, peculiar to HK).

Hong Kong, being a wealthy international city, has restaurants selling high-quality food from many countries of the world, most notably Japanese, Korean, and British food.

2. Beijing

Location: Northeast China
Culinary Style: Jing cuisine, Northeast cuisine, Mongolian cuisine

Peking duck or simply roast duck is a delicious classic among Chinese foods. It is prepared no better anywhere than in Beijing, where it originated as an imperial food. Quanjude Restaurant serves the duck feast in lavish and studied style. Beijing food is in a class of its own, called Jing cuisine.

In the north of China wheat is the staple, more than rice, so many wheaten foods are eaten, like pancakes, noodles, steamed buns, and dumplings. There is also lots of braising in the Northeast style.

Mongolian hotpot is another classic that should be eaten in Beijing, which is surprisingly only about 250 kilometers (160 miles) from Inner Mongolia, or 500 kilometers (300 miles) from Hohhot.

3. Chengdu

Location: Central China, Sichuan Province
Culinary Style: Chuan cuisine

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province, which gives its name to the spiciest, and also a very popular, Chinese culinary style. China’s Sichuan food should be braved. It is too hot for most in all but small quantities, but if you love chilies this is heaven. Classic dishes that should be eaten here are the Sichuan hotpot, kungpao chicken and mapo tofu. Chongqing is also a great city to eat Chuan food.

4. Turpan

Whole Roast Lamb

Location: Northwest China, Xinjiang Autonomous Region
Culinary Style: Muslim cuisine, Xinjiang Cuisine

Anywhere in the Muslim Northwest of China would be a great place to eat whole roast lamb and hand-pulled noodles, as this is where these dishes originate. Also do not miss the Xinjiang ‘large flatbreads’, known locally as nang (/nung/).

Turpan pips Urumqi for food, the capital of the Xinjiang, because it also has excellent locally grown dried fruit in its almost rural setting. Its small town restaurants and shops provide a more peaceful and authentic atmosphere than the biggest city in Central Asia.

5.Xiamen

Location: Southeast China, Fujian Province
Culinary Style: Min (Fujian) cuisine

For great seafood and authentic sweet and sour dishes go to Xiamen.

Fujian cuisine, developed in Fujian Province on the Pacific, is known for its spices and soups. Xiamen’s attractions make it the most interesting city in Fujian.

6. Guangzhou

Location: Southeast China, Guangdong Province
Culinary Style: Yue (Cantonese) cuisine

Guangzhou (once known as Canton) and other Pearl River Delta cities, like Shenzhen, are good places to go for original Cantonese food.

Guangzhou’s specialties include white cut chicken and roast suckling pig, as well as spring rolls and sweet and sour dishes.

7. Macau

Pastel de Nata

Location: Southeast China, by Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, on the Pacific coast
Culinary Style: Portuguese-meets-Chinese, Cantonese cuisine

For an interesting mix of Portuguese and Chinese style food journey to Macau. This small former colony has a menu different enough and tasty enough to merit a place on the list.

It is in the Cantonese food zone.

8. Xi'an

Location: Central China, Shaanxi Province
Culinary Style: Northwest cuisine, Muslim cuisine, imperial feasts

Xi’an should be on the list for its imperial feasts, including many exotic meat platters, like camel and donkey, that can be eaten while viewing a Tang Dynasty show.

Xi’an is a representative place for the Northwest food style, which is actually quite similar to the Northeast style, represented by Beijing above, but more noodles, with less buns and dumplings. Lanzhou is famous for its pulled noodles.

Other Interesting Food Cities

Lijiang snacks

Those top eight food cities cover the range of China’s best mainstream foods, and those generally preferred by the foreign palate. Much of China’s ethnic minority food and less well-known culinary styles are more of an acquired taste.

China’s biggest variety of minorities are concentrated in the South. Key cities are Kaili, Kunming, Guilin, Xishuangbanna, etc. Besides minority food, cities on Hainan Island like Haikou and Sanya have fresh tropical fruit and excellent seafood.

Tibetan food is the least accessible of China’s foods, but besides in Lhasa and other Roof-of-the-World places, Tibetan food can be found in places like Lijiang, Diqing, and Dali in Yunnan, and in Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province.

Five provinces in Central and East China give their names to five lesser known of China’s eight regional culinary styles, not covered by the cities listed above: Lu Cuisine (Shandong Cuisine), Su Cuisine (Jiangsu Cuisine), Zhe Cuisine (Zhejiang Cuisine), Hui Cuisine (Anhui Cuisine), and Xiang Cuisine (Hunan Cuisine). Visit their capital cities (Jinan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, and Changsha respectively) to taste these styles.

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Hui Cuisine — China's Wild Cuisine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 19:41:00 +0000

Anhui cuisine is one of the lesser known of the Eight Great Cuisines of China. Anhui Province is a poorer inland province west of Shanghai, so its food is basically a hearty mountain peasant food, famously the diet of the Yellow Mountains and the tourist area of Huangshan.

The best Anhui food is known for incorporating wild ingredients from the local mountains for a tasty, different, and healthful cuisine.

Names: Anhui food, Hui cuisine (徽菜 Huīcài /hway-tseye/)
Location: Anhui Province (inland E. China)Huangshan (Yellow Mts.), Hefei
Distinctives: many wild plant/animal ingredients, more stewing and oil

Ingredients of Anhui Cuisine

Anhui cuisine is famous for its wild picked ingredients from mountains

Wild food: Anhui cuisine is known for wild picked or caught delicacies from the mountains as the main ingredients and flavorings. Anhui has large mountain forest areas. Wild caught frogs, local small shrimp, turtles, and lots of other wildlife are put into their soups and stews.

Fungi: Both wild and cultivated fungi and mushrooms are relished as flavorings and for their nutritional value.

Herbs and vegetables: For Chinese, food is medicine. They pay attention to both the season and the weather, and use yin foods and yang foods as necessary to achieve balance and promote health and comfort. Locally produced bayberry, tea leaves, bamboo shoots, and dates all come from mountain areas. Locally picked wild herbs add both aroma and medicinal effects.

Staples: Nowadays, both rice and wheat products are the staples. But in times past, the traditional staple was rice. Anhui-ers also grow various root crops for staple foods, such as kinds of potatoes that fit their climate and land.

Pork and ham: If you like pork, this cuisine is for you since it makes it way into many popular dishes. These include:

Li Hongzhang stew is a complex stew with many different ingredients that depends on what is available or seasonal. It contains pieces of chicken and/or ham and/or other meat, vegetables, and perhaps seafood. It is named after Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), a Qing Dynasty general. (李鸿章杂烩 Lǐ Hóngzhāng záhuì /lee hong-jung dzaa-hway/)
Farmhouse egg dumplings: This traditional peasant food is pork filled dumplings with an egg wrapper instead of a flour wrapper.(农家蛋饺 nóngjiā dànjiǎo /nong-jyaa dan-jyaow/

Cooking Methods and Styles

Reflecting the peasant origins, their chefs use comparatively simple methods of preparation.

Hui chefs are particular about controlling cooking time and temperature. High, medium, or low heat is applied according to the quality and characteristics of the different ingredients, and the flavor requirements of finished dishes. They aim to cook food to perfection, and not overcook to protect the nutrition. So they have special skill in sautéing and stewing to achieve a delicate lightness in taste.

There are three regional styles: the Huai River (north Anhui) and the Yangtze River (central Anhui) lowland regions, which traditionally used river fish and aquatic creatures, and the more famous style of the southern Anhui region where the Yellow Mountains are.

Food You Could Try in the Yellow Mountains

The Yellow Mountains are a popular tourist area, where foreign tourists like to hike. Here are some local specialties to try if you go:

Mao tofu: It is a traditional snack made from the local fermented "stinky" tofu. It is cooked in sesame oil and hot pepper, and locals love it. It is often sold as a street snack.
Yellow crab shell cake: This isn't made from crab shell at all. It gets its name because it has a yellow color and a round shape. It is sort of a dumpling filled with chopped vegetables and fatty meat such as pork. It is baked instead of boiled or fried.
Luzhou Roast Duck: This is a local meat dish, and when well made by a chef, it is a local gourmet delicacy.

Hui Cuisine Menu

English	Chinese	Pronunciation	Characters
Ham and “Whippy” Bamboo Stew	huǒtuǐ dùn biān sǔn	Hwor-tway dwnn byen swnn	火腿炖鞭笋
Stewed Turtle with Ham	huǒtuǐ dùn jiǎyú	Hwor-tway dwnn jyaa-yoo	火腿炖甲鱼
Red-Cooked Chicken	fú lí jí shāo jī	Foo lee jee shaoww jee	符离集烧鸡
Snowy Winter Roast Chicken	xuě dōng shāo jī	Sshwair dong shaoww jee	雪冬烧鸡
Tasteless Smoked Duck	wúwèi xūn yā	Woo-way sshyoon yaa	无味熏鸭
Fat King Fish in Milk Soup	nǎi zhī féi wáng yú	Neye jrr fay wung yoo	奶汁肥王鱼
Honeycomb Tofu	fēngwō dòufu	Fnng-woo doh-foo	蜂窝豆腐
Braised Masked Palm Civet	hóngshāo guǒzi lí	Hong-shaoww gwor-dzrr-lee	红烧果子狸

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Hunan Cuisine/Xiang Cuisine — Hot (Spicy) and Sour

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 19:40:00 +0000

Most tourists who visit China get to know the spicy red hot flavors of Sichuan cuisine since it is a tourist favorite. But in Hunan Province, the food is maybe even hotter. Their food tastes less numbing and sourer.

Names: Hunan food, Xiang cuisine (湘菜 Xiāngcài /sshyang-tseye/)
Location: Hunan Province (southern central China) — Changsha, Zhangjiajie
Distinctives: spicy, favoring sautéing, stir-frying, steaming, and smoking

The Flavors of Hunan Cuisine — Hot and Sour, and Salty

Eating Hunan food is fun. You'll have a chance at trying your tongue on a new kind of cuisine. If you've experienced the burning numbness of Sichuan or Chongqing food, see how your body reacts to the vinegar/chili mix of Hunan food.

The many different tastes of the food partly stems from an unusually wide variety of agricultural products. Several kinds of chili peppers are grown. Citrus fruits are one of the major crops, and it lends the yummy sour flavor to dishes such as the popular Hunan Orange Chicken.

'Chopped chili' (剁辣椒 duò làjiāo /dwor laa-jyaow/) is made from vinegar, chili peppers, and salt. It is liberally applied in noodle soups and meat dishes to produce the sour, hot flavor they love.

Stimulate Your Appetite the Chinese Way

Hunan food is actually hotter than Sichuan food. The Sichuanese use pepper corn that numbs your mouth so the food all starts tasting the same. Instead, the Hunanese use vinegar with the pepper. It serves to stimulate the taste buds and make them tingle, so you can better perceive the wide range of flavors and the rich variety of ingredients and spices.

The numbing Sichuan food might give you a higher blood pressure/pulse rate so that you'll need to drink something cold or go out for a walk to cool down. Hunan food does the opposite. Vinegar lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels too. So it is good for those with high blood pressure.

Why Such Hot (and Sour) Food?

Common saying: 四川人不怕辣，湖南人辣不怕，贵州人怕不辣！ (Sìchuānrén búpà là, Húnánrén là búpà, Guìzhōurén pà búlà!) It means: "Sichuan people don't fear hot food, Hunan people don't fear any degree of spiciness at all, and Guizhou people fear to eat food that isn't spicy."

Perhaps the wet hot summers and chilly wet winters drive the people to eat sour hot foods. The Chinese think that extra heat (yang) of peppers and other hot spices balances out the excessive cold and wet (yin).

Vinegar also packs yang, and along with helping with digestion, you'll find that it helps cool your body on hot days. In traditional Chinese medicine, vinegar is used to help people be more comfortable in the heat of summer and stay healthy. It also kills parasites and bacteria that grow in hot weather.

Notable Features — Many Vegetables, Hot Seasonings, and Rice

Crunchy vegetables: Eating a wide variety of vegetables keeps them healthy as does their cooking method. They generally like to sauté with a little oil so it is still crunchy "al dente." It preserves vitamins in food this way.

Refreshing summertime vegetable: 'Slapped cucumber' (拍黄瓜 pai huanggua) is an appetizer of cold cucumbers served in garlic, dried chili flakes, and vinegar. To prepare it, cucumbers are 'slapped' down to absorb the vinegar dressing.

Daily staple: The area is in the subtropical rice growing area of China, so white rice and rice noodles are the the main staple cereal foods. For example, mi fen (长沙米粉 mǐfěn) rice noodle soup is popular in Changsha.

Seasonings of Xiang Cuisine

Yang sources: They use hot peppers and green onions, shallots, garlic, ginger, spicy oil, duo la jiao and cassia cinnamon to provide the needed daily yang. Soy sauce and tea seed oil are also used in cooking.

Sweet foods: Honey is enjoyed in some dishes, and sugar is used in some dishes and candy. They like sweet food, but not as much as the Cantonese further south. Lotus seed candy is a local product.

Their Favorite Cooking Methods

Their cuisine is thought of as the melting pot of the larger regional cuisines around them. Their cooks use various ways to prepare food. They commonly boil soups or stews, stir-fry, sauté (炒香), bake, braise, smoke, pickle or ferment.

Fermentation: To store vegetables and meat for the winter or preserve it through the hot summers, Hunanese have traditionally eaten much pickled and fermented food. They pickle tofu by letting it sit for few weeks. It is then mixed with liquor, salt, star anise, and chili and fermented in pickling jars for a month or more.

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Zhe Cuisine/Zhejiang Cuisine — The Mellow Seafood of Zhejiang

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 19:38:00 +0000

Zhejiang Cuisine originates from the populous and rich eastern province of Zhejiang on the Pacific. If you don't like spicy cuisine, but prefer fish and seafood, then this is the food style for you.

Hangzhou, its capital, was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the city was renowned for their wealth and sophistication. Maybe this is why the food is unusually dainty and refined.

Names: Zhejiang food, Zhe cuisine (浙菜 Zhècài /jer-tseye/)
Location: East China, Zhejiang Province — Hangzhou
Distinctives: mellow flavors, seafood, artistry, many cooking methods

Main Features — Seafood, Refined Artistry, Freshness...

The great seafood dishes are the main draw of this style of food. But most tourists will find the artistic refinement of the cuisine attractive too.

A wide variety of seafoods are used to make Zhejiang dishes. Unlike most Western seafood restaurants where the main dishes include a few varieties of fish and oysters, the people of Zhejiang can eat all these and things from the sea most people have never seen such as sea cucumbers and varieties of sea vegetables that you can explore.

Zhejiang is the richest province in China, and it was called the "land of milk and honey", so the people expect some extra refined touch to their food. It isn't greasy, not mouth numbing, not too sour, not too sweet, but not bland either.

However, they focus less on colorful dishes and artistry than the Fujianese do and focus more on serving fresh food. The food is often served raw or almost raw and is fresh and crispy and seasonal. It is more like Japanese food in this way.

The Three Styles of Zhejiang Cuisine

Hangzhou style is the most refined. They prefer stir-fried dishes, soups and seafood and are said to include bamboo shoots in half of their dishes.
Shaoxing is inland, and poultry and freshwater fish is the common fare.
Ningbo is noted for salty seafood and sweet confectioneries.

Sweet Desserts

Wealthy people often prefer sweet deserts, and the province is traditionally noted for sweet confections made from sugar, beans, rice, and wheat. For those in Hangzhou on the Yangtze River, northern wheat was readily available for making confections.

Sweet Ningbo rice balls (宁波年糕) and rice cakes are an example of local sweet foods. Glutinous rice and sugar gives a sweet taste that is often eaten for celebrations, festivals, and snacks. The rice balls may have a black sesame or red bean filling mixed with sugar, and flavorings might include cassia (cinnamon tree) flowers.

Many Cooking Methods — Sautéing, Braising, Stewing...

Zhejiang chefs have developed numerous ways to cook and prepare food. Perhaps this has something to do with their location next to Fujian, that also traditionally used diverse cooking methods, the influence of Shanghai's cosmopolitan culture, and influences from abroad.

Soaking in Brine

This style of "cooking" is unusual. But it is common in Ningbo where salty food is popular. It is similar to pickling. Meat is simply left to soak in brine and eaten.

An example is the popular Ningbo salty crab dish prepared by soaking crabs in very salty brine for about 24 hours so that the brine impregnates the crab meat. They prefer female crabs with an orange roe (crab eggs), so when it is served, the roe on the meat looks like an orange sauce.

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Refined Healthy Gourmet Food

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:37:00 +0000

Jiangsu cuisine is one of the lesser known of the Eight Great Cuisines of China among foreigners. Jiangsu Province has the highest per capita income. Probably for this reason, the food is more gourmet style. It is very refined and presented colorfully and artistically.

Names: Jiangsu food, Su cuisine (苏菜 Sūcài /soo-tseye/)
Location: Jiangsu Province (coastal east China) — Nanjing, Suzhou
Distinctives: seafood; richly aromatic with fine presentation

Flavors — Marine, Moderate, and Natural

A wide variety of seafoods are eaten. Unlike most Western seafood restaurants where the main dishes include a few varieties of fish and oysters, Jiangsu people eat many things most people have never seen. The wide range of sea vegetable dishes is something healthful to explore.

Their chefs emphasize bringing out the distinct natural flavors in the rich range of meat and plant ingredients in their dishes. So they don't add much salt, sugar or seasonings like chili powder that hide and overwhelm the ingredients' flavors. So their meals are richly aromatic.

Ingredients of Jiangsu Cuisine

Seafood: Since Jiangsu is on the coast, the fresh seafood is the highlight. The high income means the people demand high quality ingredients, and the chefs are known for selecting the best seafood for their dishes.

Staples: Both rice and wheat products are the staples. Jiangsu people also grow various root crops for staple foods. A favorite dish and a popular snack is sweet taro filled rice balls or rice cakes.

Herbs and vegetables: The province is also known for its wide diversity of agricultural products. There are a lot of lakes and ponds in the region, so much watershield, lotus, Chinese chestnuts, winter bamboo shoots, water bamboo, and water chestnuts are eaten. Jiangsu's comparatively wealthy people are also particular about choosing vegetable/herb combination dishes for their health effects.

Jiangsu chefs pay attention to both the season and the weather, and according to their understanding, they use different foods to achieve balance and promote health and comfort. For example, ginseng is thought to be good for consumption in cold weather, and by most elderly people.

For Chinese, food is medicine. You could talk with your guide, waiters, or local Chinese friends about your health or how you feel physically, and they'll help select the right dishes for you. Yancheng City in particular is known for medicinal dishes. Learn more about Chinese Medicinal Food.

Cooking Methods and Styles

Reflecting the wealthy and imperial origins of the style, their chefs use very elaborate and precise cooking methods and presentation. Their cooking methods are more complex than stir-frying. They commonly stew, braise, simmer, and warm to preserve the original flavors and to maintain clarity, freshness, and mildness.

Six Main Regional Styles

Su Cuisine is composed of six styles: those of Huaiyang, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and the less notable styles of Xuzhou and Haizhou.

Chinese chefs think that the Huaiyang (Huai'an) style is one of the four best in China, and it is frequently served at government banquets. It is considered to be one of the four most influential regional cuisine styles (四大菜系 'Four Great Cuisines'). Their forté is aroma and a high degree of visual artistry. Expect food set down in a rainbow of colors at a gourmet restaurant.

Nanjing style is famous for its fine cutting and preparation techniques. The dishes are not only fine-tasting, but also very good-looking. It features freshness, fragrance, crispness and tenderness. Like the rest of Jiangsu styles, the dishes tend to be mildly sweet in taste. The excel at seasonal vegetables, freshwater fish and seafood.

Yangzhou style is renowned for fine cutting techniques, perfect timing, fresh color and original design. The Yangzhou fried rice is a favorite dish. It is much more complex in terms of ingredients and probably more nutritious than fried rice in the West.

Su Cuisine Menu

English	Chinese	Pronunciation	Characters
Water Melon Chicken	xīguā jī	sshee-gwaa jee	西瓜鸡
Brine-Boiled Duck	yánshuǐ yā	yen shway yaa	盐水鸭
Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish	sōngshǔ guìyú	song-shoo gway-yoo	松鼠桂鱼
Duck Wrapped in Shark Fins	yā bāo yúchì	yaa baoww yoo-chrr	鸭包鱼翅
Fireside Broth	qīngtāng huǒ fāng	ching-tung hwor fung	清汤火方

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Fujian Cuisine — Healthy Food of Fujian Province

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 19:34:00 +0000

Fujian Cuisine originates from the southeastern province of Fujian on the Pacific. The history of the cuisine dates back 5,000 years. Great seafood soups and the precise use of scintillating, but not tongue numbing, spices are the highlights.

Names: Fujian food, Min cuisine (闽菜 Mǐncài /min-tseye/)
Location: Southeast China, Fujian Province, Xiamen, Quanzhou
Distinctives: lighter, with a sweet and sour taste, using ingredients from the sea and the mountains.

The Three Styles of Fujian Cuisine

There are three regional styles: Fuzhou style that is light fare compared with other styles and is often sweet and sour to the taste; western Fujian style that features a slightly spicy flavoring from mustard and pepper; and southern Fujian style that usually tastes spicy and sweet.

The Four Notable Features — Unusual Ingredients, Soups, Decoration, Seasonings

Their cuisine is known for the use of exotic delicacies from the mountains and sea as the main ingredients, an emphasis on soup eating, precisely applying various kinds of seasonings, and an emphasis on artistically cutting and decorating food.

Fujian's abundant natural resources mean that their cuisine is rich in quality nutritious ingredients. They'll use somewhat exotic ingredients such as wild foods, wild herbs, varieties of mushrooms, bamboo, and many kinds of seafoods. So it is nutritious, and it is good for dieters since it isn't high calorie.

Flavors of Fujian Cuisine — Sweet and Sour, Many Flavors of the Sea

A wide variety of seafoods are used to make Fujian dishes. Unlike most Western seafood restaurants where the main dishes include a few varieties of fish and oysters, the people of Fujian eat all these and things from the sea most people have never seen. There are various kinds of mussels including big ones, sea cucumbers, sea worms, kinds of snails and slugs, and varieties of sea vegetables that you can explore.

Condiments and Seasonings

Spices used: The Fujianese are distinguished for applying a wide variety of herbs and seasonings to flavor the food. They apply them to make the food taste good and make it aromatic. They also want to make it different and interesting, something new. When applied artistically, the various colors and herbs can also make a beautiful presentation.

Salty seasonings: sea salt, shrimp sauce, shrimp oil, and soy sauce.
Sour seasonings: white vinegar and qiaotou (a vegetable similar to green onion.
Sweet seasonings: brown sugar, anise, and cassia cinnamon.
Hot seasonings: pepper, mustard, and shacha sauce.

Their Favorite Cooking Methods

Their chefs have developed numerous ways to cook food perhaps reflecting the history of the province. The region was a haven for refugees from the large Western Xia Empire and the Tang Empire. They brought with them their cooking styles. The position on the coast meant they had contact with Japanese and people from Southeast Asia too.

They use numerous methods to cook: pan-frying, deep-frying, boiling, baking, stewing, mixing, sautéing with wine, stewing in gravy, grilling, cooking with red rice wine, simmering, stir-frying, smoking, braising and salting.

Red rice wine: Their most peculiar method of cooking is cooking with red rice wine. This includes stir-frying with red rice wine, baking with red rice wine, quick-frying with red rice wine and deep-frying with red rice wine. The "drunken" (cooked in wine) dishes that are prevalent in Fujian Province are famous throughout China.

Soup making: The people of Fujian love soup more than most of the rest of the Chinese. A common saying about their food is "不汤不行" (bù tāng bù xíng). It literally means: "No soup is not OK." Or, a meal without soup isn't a good meal. Soup will often mean the main beverage or only beverage at a meal.

Their Daily Staple Food

Daily staples: The area is in the subtropical rice growing area of China, so white rice is the main staple cereal. They also eat red yeast rice that is a type of rice that is coated with a red mold. This mold is slightly sweet, and it is thought of as having medicinal effects.

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Shandong (Lu) Cuisine — The Ancient Mother of the Northern Cuisine Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:32:00 +0000

Shandong Province has a long coast, so fresh river fish and seafood were always the local delicacies.

Shandong was one of the first civilized regions in China and an early cultural center, so its cooking tradition set the style for the regions around it, especially to the north in Beijing and northeastern China. Now Shandong cuisine is relished for the many kinds of different seafood and vegetable dishes and their style of frying in high heat that locks in the flavors and isn't oily.

Names: Shandong food, Lu cuisine (鲁菜 /loo-tseye/)
Location: northern east-coast China — Qingdao, Jinan, Qufu, Mount Tai
Distinctives: salty and crispy, favoring braising and seafood.

Flavors of Shandong Cuisine — Fishy, Salty, Tender, Light and Crispy

A wide variety of seafood are used to make Shandong dishes, and the people also like to eat pork. An ancient medical/science text describes the people in the area as relishing both fish and salt, and the people still do.

Seasonings Used in Lu Cuisine

Onions are commonly used in Shandong dishes

Spices used: Shandong people like spices in the onion family such as green onions and garlic. They include onions in many dishes. Ginger is also commonly used along with a little red pepper. But spice is less heavily applied than in Sichuan cuisine. It is meant to accentuate the flavor of the food.

Condiments and Other Seasonings

Vinegar is heavily used and so is lots of salt. The province is known for its fine dark connoisseur kinds of vinegar that some people drink as a medicinal drink. Soy sauce is also used.

Their Favorite Cooking Methods

The Shandong chef's goal: Unlike other Chinese styles such as Sichuan style where the cook buries the food in a lot of spices and oil, the main aim of an authentic Shandong style chef is to preserve the cut, color, and taste of the main ingredients. So relatively little spice or sugar is used generally and the bao stir fry method is used often.

Extreme heat stir frying — "bao": Their chefs love to cook meat and vegetables in a wok over a big hot flame. They make the oil boil at an extremely high temperature and toss in the ingredients for a quick fry. This singes the outer layer and locks in the flavor. It also keeps oil from seeping into the food. They usually pour out the oil after the main ingredients are cooked, and then they will add spices, herbs, and seasonings, stir it quickly, and serve it hot. There is little residual oil on the food. This cooking method is called "bao."

Sometimes though, the oil will be part of the sauce that the food is served in. They may add flour, herbs and seasonings to the oil to make a tasty sauce.

Fried dough coating method — "pa": Another method of frying is to apply flour to a cut of meat and then stir fry it to make it crispy. Then they add a sauce to sauté it while stirring continuously.

Soup making: Clear broth and white varieties of soups are also popular. The white variety may contain milk or cream. The tradition of making soups stems from the western side of Shandong.

Healthy food: Since the main aim is to preserve the cut, color, and taste, the style of cooking preserves the nutritive value of the food. So the cuisine is generally healthy providing you eat wisely and don't overindulge in any particular food such as pork dishes or lobster.

Daily Staples and Common Vegetables

Steamed wheat buns are commonly eaten in the Shandong region

Daily staples: The area lies along the border between the temperate north and the semitropical south, so both wheat and other temperate grains and rice are available and are daily cereals. Wheat noodles, steamed wheat bread and steamed pastries are commonly eaten and is the staple in many meals. Porridge made from oats, millet, and/or barley are also eaten. White rice is regularly eaten, and corn on the cob or fried corn is common. Their meals are sort of a combination between hearty and heavier northern Chinese regional food and light southern Chinese regional food.

Common vegetables: Peanuts are eaten often. Soybean products are common. Commonly eaten vegetables include tomatoes, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, eggplant, seaweed, and especially cabbage.

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China - Cantonese - The Most Popular Abroad

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 19:31:00 +0000

Cantonese or Yue cuisine originates from Guangdong Province (SE China around Hong Kong), and it is the most widely served style of Chinese cuisine in the world. This is because most of the Chinese who immigrated and set up restaurants overseas were from Guangdong. Though what's served abroad now has departed from authentic Yue cuisine.

What distinguishes Cantonese food is lightly cooked fresh vegetables and meat, and sweet sauces.

Names: Cantonese food, Guangdong cuisine, Yue cuisine (粤菜 Yuècài /ywair-tseye/)
Location: Southeast China — Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau...
Distinctives: sweeter, favoring braising and stewing, adding various sauces

Cantonese Cuisine Flavors — Mild, Fresh, Natural, and Slightly Sweet

Cantonese style porridge

A wide variety of foodstuffs are used to make Cantonese dishes. Therefore, it surprises foreigners sometimes. The saying "They eat everything with four legs except tables and everything that flies except airplanes" is an exaggeration. But dishes might contain snakes, cats, dogs and sea life not familiar to most foreigners. Keep that in mind when you are ordering something off the menu with strange Cantonese names.

An authentic Cantonese chef's goal is to preserve the food's original flavor. Unlike other Chinese styles of cooking such as Sichuan style where the cook buries the food in a lot of spices and oil, a Cantonese chef aims to bring out or highlight the original flavor of the vegetable, meat, or fruit. So little spice or sugar is used generally.

The result: The result of this cooking technique is to produce food that might seem bland or insipid to foreigners who are used to the overseas style of Chinese food where a lot more sugar and spice is used. It takes some time to appreciate the mild and distinct flavors of the meat, vegetables and fruit.

Steamed oysters with ginger garlic

Not fattening: Unlike overseas Chinese food and some regional styles, a lot of oil or grease isn't used either. Neither are dairy products. So unlike creamy cheese wontons or a sweet and sour pork on rice meal deal at a Chinese fast food restaurant overseas, there are not a lot of calories in the dishes. This combined with the white rice or rice noodles that is the staple and the dim sum made with little or no sugar may leave a foreigner feeling hungry.

On the other hand, it makes for fine well balanced meals for dieters. If you are not dieting and still hungry, the solution is simply to eat more or order ice cream for desert if it is available.

Seasonings Used in Cantonese Cuisine

Spices used: Chives, coriander leaves, anise, touches of black pepper, and slivers of ginger provide a mild tanginess that accentuates the flavor of the food. But unless the food in itself smells or tastes bad alone, just a little of these spices are used.

Condiments and Other Seasonings

Spices used: Chives, coriander leaves, anise, touches of black pepper, and slivers of ginger provide a mild tanginess that accentuates the flavor of the food. But unless the food in itself smells or tastes bad alone, just a little of these spices are used.

Steamed fish with slivers of ginger

Rice vinegar accentuates the flavor of vegetables, and a little salt does also. A pinch of sugar gives food a mildly sweet taste that is characteristic of many Cantonese dishes and snacks. A little sesame oil adds a mild tanginess too.

But if the food is delicious as it is, almost no seasoning is added. An example is fresh sea fish. It isn't served raw like Japanese sashimi, but to preserve and accentuate the delicious flavor, the Cantonese steam it and add just a little soy sauce, ginger or perhaps bits of chives. Like the Japanese, Cantonese delight in the natural flavors of fresh sea fish.

Several sauces are important condiments in Guangdong cuisine. The most widely used sauces include hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, plum sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and soy sauce.

Cooking Methods

Stir frying and steaming are the two most common cooking methods. But stir fried dishes are not as common as in Sichuan. Cantonese like to boil soups, braise or roast meats, and sauté food too. These cooking methods are aimed to preserve the flavor of the dishes. There are also popular deep fried foods that are often eaten as snacks, deserts, or breakfast foods. See below for examples.

Common Cantonese Dishes

These dishes are often simple and easy to learn to cook, and they are widely served in Cantonese homes. They are also the most common foods on the menus of Cantonese restaurants (see below for a menu).

Chinese Steamed Eggs are made by beating eggs to a creamy consistency and then steaming. Variations are derived by adding different ingredients such as spring onion and soy sauce.

Deep Fried Dishes

Youtiao

Although deep fried dishes are not the main stream of Guangdong dishes, there are quite a number of them which are popular around the region.

A youtiao (油条 /yoh-tyaow/ 'oil strip') is a long, golden-brown deep-fried strip of dough. Youtiaos are usually eaten for breakfast with soy milk.

Zhaliang (/jaa-lyaang/ 'fried two') is made by tightly wrapping a rice sheet around a youtiao (deep-fried dough stick). Zhaliang is widely eaten in Guangdong and Hong Kong. It is usually eaten with soy milk.

Noodle Dishes

Shahe noodles (shahefen /shaa-her-fnn/) are a kind of rice noodles which probably originated from the town of Shahe that is now a part of Guangzhou. They are broad and white in color. Their texture is elastic and a little chewy. They do not freeze or dry well and are thus generally (where available) purchased fresh in strips or sheets that may be cut to the desired width. Shahefen is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan in southern China.

Meat Dishes

White cut chicken

is made by boiling salt-marinated chicken in water or chicken broth. When it is done, the chicken looks golden in color and tastes fresh and light, preserving the best of the original taste of chicken.

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Your Guide to Sushi

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 19:27:00 +0000

OK, to all you restauranteurs: Do you want to jump on the sushi bandwagon, but you find the whole subject a little intimidating? Here's a rough-and-ready guide to everything you need to know about sushi, so that Westerner and Easterner alike will find your sushi service an authentic experience.

First, a glossary of sushi terms:

Nigiri-zushi - This is the most well-known kind of sushi. It is comprised of a thinly-sliced piece of raw fish that sits either on top of or tucked into a small, shaped ball of rice. The rice has been steamed and then treated with vinegar, both to enhance flavor and help it stick together.

Sashimi - Sashimi is also a thinly sliced raw fish. The difference is, it is usually served slightly thicker than nigiri-zushi, and without rice.

Maki - Also called maki-zushi, this is rolled sushi. The popular "California roll" is one of these types. This usually consists of fish and vegetables tucked inside rice, and wrapped in some toasted seaweed.

Nori - A rich, green, tasty seaweed. Nori are the sheets of dried seaweed used to wrap maki (see above), or to make tiny belts to keep some ingredients on top of nigiri-zushi.

Temaki-zushi - A sushi cone. Originally it was created by sushi chefs wanting a quick snack during busy meals. This is simply nori wrapped around vinegar-soaked rice and fish ingredients, shaped like an ice-cream cone.

Shouyu - Just plain soy sauce. Used in many types of cooking, Japanese soy sauce is lighter than the thicker Chinese soy sauce. One common mistake is to smother sushi in soy sauce. Sushi is meant to be a light, delicate food, with the role of soy sauce being to gently highlight the subtle flavors of the fresh fish. Think of sushi in general as the seafood opposite of sardines and anchovies. Don't drown your sushi in soy sauce, and while we're at it, don't drown any of your rice dishes in soy sauce either.

Wasabi - Wasabi is the source of much confusion in the United States. Virtually all of the wasabi available in the States and some of it in the cheaper Japanese establishments is an imitation made from horseradish, mustard seed, and green food coloring. True wasabi (which is more expensive) - distinguished as 'hon-wasabi' - is made from the wasabia japonica plant, a member of the cabbage family. The hot taste is more of a mustard-hot than a pepper-hot. A small drop is sufficient to flavor sushi, as it is very potent.

Gari - This is a thinly sliced ginger which appears as wasabi's partner on some plates of sushi. It is not used to flavor the food directly, but rather it is served as garnish on the plate for use as a palate cleanser, eaten between different varieties of sushi. Sashimi is not usually served with gari.

Now for some of the more common ingredients in sushi:

Tuna - The number-one sushi fish, which comes in three varieties. Blue Fin 'Maguro' is the most expensive and rarest, Hawaiian 'Ahi' the next in rank and Albacore tuna is the most commonly used.

Fatty tuna - Also called 'toro', it comes in many different qualities, but all of them originate from the belly region of the tuna fish. Much more tender and flavorful than the rest of the tuna meat, you may see this as the 'filet mignon' of the tuna fish.

Salmon - Mainly used in North America, and becoming more popular in Japan, salmon has a meaty flavor that is almost more like a steak than a fish. Prepare it a little more carefully, as its strong flavor will overwhelm the sushi creation.

Octopus - Known as 'tako', boiled octopus has a chewy quality that makes it combine very well with wasabi and soy sauce. It's also served raw in Japan. Most Americans are too scared to eat it, and they're pretty squeamish about squid, too. Very difficult to prepare right.

Yellowtail - Popular in sushi only in North America, yellowtail is best when caught in the winter season where the fat content is at its highest. However, usually by the time it has made its way over to North America, the quality is a little less than the original thing.

Squid - Known as 'ika', this is distinguished from octopus by being creamy and chewy. It's usually sliced into thin strips. It has a very light, subtle flavor that is an excellent candidate for sushi. Not as difficult as octopus, but still beyond the skills of all but the top culinary school graduate.

Eel - Usually served grilled and served with a sweet sauce. If Americans are nervous about octopus and squid, they're liable to run screaming if you say "eel". However, the yuppie set is eager to try it just because they saw it served on the TV show 'Friends', which is even more depressing.

Shrimp - Shrimp in sushi primarily comes in two different varieties; either boiled and named 'ebi' or raw and called 'amaebi'. Amaebi is prized for its natural creamy sweetness. You can't go wrong with shrimp. It is loved everywhere.

Sea urchin - Called 'uni', this is only the ovary of the sea urchin and is regarded as a delicacy worldwide, not only in sushi. Compare it to the high esteem caviar is held in; likewise, uni is said to be something you either love or hate. It has a slightly fishy, but sweet taste and soft, smooth texture.

Crab - Its Japanese name it 'kani' and you actually won't find much crab, real or imitation, in sushi, as its inclusion in the sushi palette is largely an American idea.

That's just a round-up of the main bulk of the sushi universe; many more ingredients and variations are out there.

Safe handling of the fish is of the utmost importance. Never trust sushi preparation to anyone not well-schooled in food safety, as the raw serving is particularly susceptible to bacterias.

The fun part of sushi is that it is practically begging for an artistic presentation. Check out the works of sushi chefs online and in trade magazines - this stuff is edible art! Sushi pieces and their associated garnishes are frequently presented with an arrangement which brings to mind a flower garden or a Zen sand garden. Utensils - not even chopsticks - are not necessary, since it is intended as a finger food.

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Thai Food Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 19:14:00 +0000

Are you having a standard American dinner tonight? Bored with chicken, potatoes, salad and pasta? Thinking of Thai food but worry that it seems hard to cook? Thai food should be easy and quick to prepare. In Thailand, street food or food vendors are everywhere in a city or small town. There are all kinds of street food, appetizers, noodle soup, curry, desserts, fruits, etc. This is the way of life in Thailand. It is common to find a very good food vendor, even better than a restaurant. Most street vendors in Thailand did not go to a culinary school. How do they make such delicious food? Their experience comes mostly from helping in a kitchen.

Thai food is all about putting the right ingredients together. In America, finding a restaurant that serves authentic Thai food can be somewhat challenge especially if you are not living in a big city. Many Thai restaurants offer Thai food that is very Americanized. Some dishes are way too far from the original Thai food except the name of the dish.

If you have not been to a Thai restaurant or eaten much Thai food before, going to your local Thai restaurant is an option to get acquainted with Thai dishes. Go with your friends so that you can try a variety of dishes. Also, using the Internet, you can find authentic Thai recipes. You might ask what kinds of elements define an authentic Thai recipe.

Ingredients make a difference. If a recipe requires lots of standard American vegetables, it is not likely to be a real Thai recipe. If you find a recipe that has lots of unrecognized names or something that is uncommon to find in the local grocery store, that might be it. For example, in Thailand, a green curry dish has four main vegetables: Thai eggplants, pea eggplants, kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil. Americanized green curry might have green beans, carrots, eggplants, or perhaps tomatoes.

If this is your first time to make a Thai dish, plan ahead. Find the dish you like on the Internet or in a Thai cookbook. Learn about the ingredients and visit either a local or online Asian grocery store. Templeofthai.com and importfood.com are popular websites specializing in authentic Thai ingredients and products. They carry almost everything from flour, sauces, curry paste, noodles, cookware, fresh produce and vegetables. Don’t be discouraged. Really, making Thai food is not too complicated. It is easy once you have and know your ingredients.

Another component is having the right cooking equipment. Many people say having a wok is a minimum requirement, but I would say it depends. It is a nice thing to have. If you have an electric stove, using a wok is not going to do much for some dishes. If you have a gas stove, adding a wok in your kitchen could spice up your meals because of how gas stoves distribute heat. I have a wok at home but also an electric stove. So I do not really use my wok that much at all because with the electric stove, it does not distribute heat evenly to the side of the wok. Mortar and pestle are needed if you like to make your own paste. Many people find ways to use a food processor instead. It is certainly a substitute, but in my opinion, it does not deliver the same texture of paste.

When you are ready to cook, following your recipe directions is a good start. However, when it comes to taste, follow your own preference, given that taste varies from person to person. You will need to find your own balance for seasoning your dish. If the recipe tells you to add 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, add 1 tablespoon first. Taste it and see how you like it. If you would like more, then add more. As my mom always told me, "it is easier to fix the taste if you add little at the beginning. If you add too much at first, you might not be able to fix it."

Thai cuisine is versatile and offers a range of flavors and textural variety. It is aesthetically pleasing, and there are many ways to make Thai cuisine part of an enjoyable culture experience. Cheers to Thai food!

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The 8 Great Regional Cuisines of China: Sichuan Cuisine — the Most Popular Cuisine in China

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:02:00 +0000

Chuan Cuisine, originating from Sichuan Province in southwestern China, is the most widely served cuisine in China. The dishes of Chuan Cuisine are famous for their hot-spicy taste and the flavor of Sichuan pepper that are rare in other regional cuisines.

Flavors of Chuan Cuisine — hot and spicy

A variety of seasonings are used in Chuan Cuisine, and each dish can be cooked differently. Therefore Chuan Cuisine enjoys a reputation for variety. As the saying goes it's 'one dish with one flavor and one hundred dishes with one hundred flavors'.

The most common flavors of Chuan Cuisine are hot and spicy, “the five fragrances” (Fennel, pepper, aniseed, cinnamon, and clove), other mixed spices, chili and Sichuan pepper (made with prickly ash), and sweet and sour.

Seasonings of Chuan Cuisine

Dry red chili peppers is one of the most common Chuan Cuisine seasoings.

Some of the most common seasonings that contribute to the hot and spicy flavor include Sichuan pepper, black pepper, chili, broad bean chili paste, shallots, ginger, and garlic.

The ingredients used range widely, including poultry, pork, beef, fish, vegetables, and tofu.

Cooking Methods

The methods of cooking Chuan Cuisine vary according to the texture required, including stir frying, steaming and braising, baking, and the most widely used method — fast-frying. Chuan Cuisine has good combinations of flavors and often has thick gravy.

The Most Famous Sichuan Dishes

Mapo tofu

Chuan Cuisine mainly features pungent, hot, and fragrant home-grown dishes. The most typical Chuan dishes are mapo tofu, kungpao chicken, fuqi fei pian, and hotpot.

'Pockmarked Granny' Bean Curd (Mapo Tofu)

Mapo (/maa-por/) tofu is bean curd served in a chili-and-bean-based sauce, which is usually a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, and often topped with minced meat, usually pork or beef. Seasonings include water chestnuts, onions, other vegetables, or wood ear fungus. The taste of mapo tofu is fittingly described as numbing, spicy-hot, fresh, tender and soft, aromatic and flaky. Mapo tofu is easy to find outside of China.

Spicy Diced Chicken (Kung Pao Chicken)

Kung pao chicken

Kung Pao chicken is the Cantonese name, but the Chinese name is Gongbao Jiding (宫保鸡丁 /gong-baow jee-ding/ 'Palace-Protected Chicken Cubes')

It is cooked by frying diced chicken, dry red pepper and golden peanuts. Spicy diced chicken is more popular among Westerners than mapo tofu, and is usually less spicy, or not at all spicy, when served abroad, or far from Sichuan.

Fuqi Fei Pian ('Husband and Wife Lung Slices')

Fuqi Fei Pian is made of thinly sliced beef, or bovine lung or tongue seasoned with chili oil. There is a romantic story of the origin of this famous Sichuan dish. Guo Zhaohua (the inventor) and his wife sold their vinegar-ized beef slices by trundling a small cart along the street. Their beef slices were very delicious, and no one could resist the charming smell in that street. People liked the food made by this couple very much, so they gave it the name Husband and Wife Lung Slices in honor of the couple.

Sichuan Hot Pot

Sichuan Hot Pot, like most of the cuisine in that humid and populous province, is very spicy. The broth is flavored with chili peppers and other pungent herbs and spices. The main ingredients include hot pepper, Chinese crystal sugar and wine. Slices of kidney, chicken breast, beef tripe, goose intestines, spring onion, soy bean sprouts, mushrooms, duck, and sea cucumber are the usual meats used in the dish.

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Chinese Food Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 16:55:00 +0000

Nowadays Chinese food is enjoying a high reputation in the world due to its delicious taste and charming appearance. China is famous for its claim as home to the most popular cuisine in the world. Chinese dishes have developed a wide range of unique local and specialized dishes and local flavor refreshments best suited for the different produce, climate, regions, historical conditions, and food and drink customs also.

In China, food and its preparation has been developed so highly that it has reached the status of an art form. Typically, Chinese people think that delicious and nutritious food is a basic necessity of life. Food in Chinese country is typically seen as consisting of two or more general components: a carbohydrate source or starch accompanying dishes of vegetables, meat, fish, or other items.

In most dishes in Chinese cooking, food is prepared in bite sized pieces, ready for direct picking up and eating. (Think chopsticks and the limitations that come with their use.) Chinese culture considered using knives and forks unsuitable at the table due to fact that these instruments are regarded as weapons.

Chinese people use meats, poultry, fish and vegetables known to the Western palate but also include some exotic ingredients. Because of different weather conditions, environment, tastes and products, there are about 57 regional styles of food in China. There are also a number of methods of cooking such as baking, boiling, braising, deep frying, double boiling, poaching, sautéing, scalding, shallow frying, simmering, smoking, steaming, stir frying, barbecuing and blanching that produce many varieties of mouth watering dishes.

For healthy side dishes, skip the fried egg roll and wontons and instead have a cup of soup. Skip the order of fried rice. It is an unnecessary supply of large amounts of calories. It may also contains high concentrations of cholesterol. If available, brown rice is the most healthful alternative to fried or white rice. If possible, on the day you choose to order Chinese takeout, limit your intake of sodium rich foods. Many Chinese meals are high in sodium content due to the use of soy sauce and other additives. Don’t add any more salt than necessary once your meal arrives! Additionally, if you are ordering a dish with peanuts, eat them in moderation. Peanuts can be very beneficial and contain many good fats and nutrients. However, eating too many can make a somewhat healthy dish unhealthy quite quickly.

Chinese food, when authentic, is probably the healthiest food in the world. Some restaurants, which are not authentic, prepare their menu by frying the food then seasoning with highly saturated fats or with meats that contain unhealthy amounts of animal fat. These Chinese restaurants are not recommended and they are both neither authentic nor healthy.

Good Chinese food however, is prepared and cooked with poly unsaturated oils. Authentic Chinese food does not require the use of milk-fat ingredients such as cream, butter or cheese. Meat is used, but not in abundance, which makes it easy for those who love authentic Chinese food to avoid high levels of animal fat. Many believe that authentic Chinese food is really the ideal diet.

More to come later. Until then, eat well...

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Fun Fruit Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:32:00 +0000

Fruits are temple offerings. Did you ever wonder why? What about oranges? Did you get any this past Chinese New Year holiday? Were they fresh? The Chinese love fruits, they like them big and beautiful, and they prefer fresh fruits, though sugared ones are common at this time of year. Fresh fruit at the New Year symbolizes life and a new beginning. Sugared ones are a wish for a sweet year. Traditionally, the pomelo, mandarins or what we call the tangerine or clementine, as well as limes, bananas, pineapple, and water or winter melon are seen as temple offerings. And speaking of traditions, during the harvest festival, the Lunar New Year, and other special occasions, fruits are common gifts, as well as common offerings.

The orange is a prayer or wish for good fortune. That is why it is probably the most common food offering. As a harbinger of wishes for good luck, they are often eaten on the second day of the New Year. Why not the first, because once an Emperor distributed oranges to his officials on the second day of the New Year. Thus you are also wishing for officialdom if you eat them on this day

The mandarin and other fruits in the citrus family have other interesting roles. For instance, after her wedding, the bride is given two of these fruits by her new in-laws. She is to peel them the evening of the nuptials and share them with her husband. These two fruits are symbolizing a family wish that the bride and groom share a happy and full life together. Also, the name of the mandarin in Cantonese also means gold, clearly a dual wish here adding hopes for a life loaded with prosperity.

I was told that in the north of China two types of dried fruits are placed under the marriage bed, both wishing for many offspring. These are dried lychees and dried longans. The reason for these particular items, the words for them also mean "to have children quickly."

Melons and the pomelo are symbolic of family unity, they hold out the wish that the family will, like the moon, stay round, large, whole, and also united. Families love to share them and many other fruits. That may be why they buy large fruits and share them together.

Pomegranates have special family meaning, too. They symbolize fertility; this fruit is full of seeds. A picture is often a wedding gift, a special picture with one of these fruits shown half-opened. The meaning is a hundred seeds, or more completely, a hundred sons. The word for seed is zi, it is also the word for sons.

The pomegranate is one fruit not used for sacrifice. The reason, it is considered to be too seductive. If you see a pomegranate on an old sash or cap of office in an ancient painting, the meaning has nothing to do with the seeds of this fruit, rather, it is saying or maybe praying to keep the title or rank from generation to generation in the same family. As in the two meanings for zi, what we call a homonym, only in this case it the word shi which also means generation.

Banana, found on some offering altars are there for other reasons. This fruit's leaves are one of the fourteen precious items to scholars. So on the offering table or altar, you are finding a wish for education, brilliance in work or school, or a related thought.

Apples have meaning, too. They symbolize peace. The word for apple in Chinese is ping, the homonym of ping is peace. Now the blossom of the apple is different; it stands for beauty. If you see one in a picture along with magnolias, the meaning is a hope that your house be honored and rich (with beauty).

Apricots are symbolic, too, they can stand for or mean a beautiful woman. But beauty had best not be to give your husband a red one. If you did, it would tell him that his wife is having an affair with a lover.

The loquat in Chinese is called pipa, which is the name of a Chinese musical instrument. Now this fruit ripens in early spring. So young boys out with less than honorable women were said to be running with loquat blossoms. Peaches portend longevity, and one almost always sees them in the hand of a man. That could be because the peach blossom advises of a somewhat loose lady. One rarely sees these two fruits together, though in real life less than honorable women could be out with young boys.

Pears symbolize something else. For example, lovers should never share a pear because the word for pear is identical to the word for separation. Many fruits are shared, but never is the pear divided with a husband, a lover, or a friend. And, whatever you do, don't give pears as a gift, especially on the 15th day of the 7th month; if you did, you would be wishing a separation from or to someone loved.

Symbols in fruit and other foods are fascinating. Allow me to end with a tripartite Chinese image wishing you (with a peach, a pomegranate, and a finger-lemon) a long life, many sons, and every happiness.

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Chinese Food Truck ABC's for Me!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 01 May 2015 22:02:00 +0000

I trust that we can agree that most food truck ideas originate from either a Mom’s, Grandmother’s, or family heirloom recipe. The same principle also applies to ethnic product recipes like Korean BBQ ribs. Unfortunately, most of these recipes are limited in scope such as one or two products – which is not enough to make a menu to build a brand around. The stronger the brand, and the execution of new products, translates into a stronger business strategy and financial model.

Food Truck Comfort Foods

A second driving characteristic of food truck menus are the concept of ‘comfort foods.’ Comfort foods reflect those menu items that have a degree of “flavor familiarity’, contain ‘locally grown’ ingredients, contribute to ‘eating indulgence’ (without guilt), and provide a ‘one-up’ eating experience.

I'm going to do it. So I've laid out some ground rules for myself.

Menu Execution Mistakes

I know that I can significantly improve my business bottom line profits through avoiding the following food menu execution pitfalls:

1. First, I must remember to resist the urge to sell large numbers of core products. Instead, build a menu around a limited number of core protein-based products like chicken, seafood, beef, and pork. Remember that core protein products also represent the highest food costs, and the highest end-of-day food cost if they are not sold. The driving principle is “Manage down core protein food product availability, portion size, and food costs.

2. I will not demonstrate a failure to focus on higher margin protein product carriers – usually the carriers like French fries or mashed potatoes (a la KFC and other Southern fried chicken restaurant chains), rice (a la Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants, noodles (a la Chinese noodle favorites, etc.) are lower cost, have longer service hold times, and can create an additional point of differentiation.

3. I'll resist the tug to add numerous “accent sauces”. Instead, limit the number of accent sauces. Examples of these sauces are a range of Mexican sauces such as pico de gallo, green pepper sauce, hot pepper sauce; or a range of Indian sauces like Tikka, Vinaloo, Saag, or Korma. I recommend limiting “accent sauces” to four when you begin the food truck business. Never forget that “accent sauces” may represent the highest per ounce food cost on your menu.

4. I'll resist the pull to list multiple menu add-ons. Instead, limit the number of add-ons used to build check average. Examples include biscuits (used on fried chicken menus), fresh vegetable sides (apply mix and match blends), breads (used to top of Asian or Italian dishes), jalapeno peppers, etc. Menu add-ons can represent high margins like jalapenos, or high per serving costs like flour-based products.

5. I'm going to resist the urge to have multiple dessert items. Instead, I'll limit the dessert food cost exposure, and leave desserts to food trucks that specialize in sweet tooth products. (Which means I most likely won't have any.)

I trust this menu discussion will make a food truck menu more indulgent and profitable. The guiding menu principle is always to sell fewer items at higher margins – which will allow you to spend more time on operations execution and customer interfaces.

Hopefully you'll come try this out soon.

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Chinese Food Service Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 21:49:00 +0000

How a Chinese Meal is served

A typical Chinese meal is normally composed of several main dishes as opposed to one main dish. Normally, all dishes are set on the table at once and everybody helps him/herself to the selection. There is typically a couple meat dishes, chicken, beef or pork, a vegetable, fish or seafood, and a soup.

White rice is always at the core of the meal, and is the base for all the individual dishes being served.

Desserts are not common, a meal normally finishes with fresh fruit and in some special occasions with some other sweet like almond custard. Fortune Cookies are not really Chinese, they are an American invention, and you will not find them in China.

Cold drinks like sodas or juices are not served with a typical Chinese meal, although the practice is catching on specially in touristy areas and the bigger cities. Instead, Chinese enjoy a cup of tea or a variety of soups with their meals.

A balanced Chinese meal involves two elements:

the fan element made up of starches and grains, normally white rice in the southern provinces, and noodles or dumplings in the north where wheat is common.
the tsai element containing the meat and vegetable element, all cooked in a variety of ingredients and methods producing a large range of flavors.

A typical place setting includes:

a rice bowl
chopsticks
Chinese porcelain soup spoon
plate which is placed under the bowl and serves as a bone/discard plate
smaller sauce dish for a dipping sauce
tea cup

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Fun Food Facts - in Chinese!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 21:46:00 +0000

In a country as immense as China, the diversity of its food is vast, but there are five major styles which can be attributed to the different regions from which they come from:

Traditional Chinese Food Types

Beijing Cuisine in the North: Beijing cuisine is the style prevalent in Northern China. It emphasizes light and subtle flavors and the best ingredients.
This style originates in the Imperial court, so the food must be "fit for an emperor". The most famous dish is of course Peking duck and is a must on your trip to Beijing.
Wheat is widely grown here in the north, so noodles made from wheat flour replace the rice. Steamed dumplings are also common.

Sichuan Food in the West: Hot and Spicy characterizes Sichuan food. Chili paste or dried chilies, garlic and ginger are some of the most common ingredients.
Some of our favorite Sichuan dishes are Ma Po Tofu and Kong Pao Chicken. Chengdu will be a great place to try out some of these dishes.
Also well known in Sichuan is the Hot Pot. In Chongqing, hot pot is considered a local specialty.

Hunan Food in Central China: Hunan cooking is known for its spicy zest and also sweet and sour flavors. Fresh chilies, garlic and shallots are the staples in the Hunan kitchen.
Hunan cuisine relies mainly on frying, stewing and pot roasting as cooking methods. The food also tends to be more on the oily side.
The Hunan Sweet and Sour Chicken or Pork are our favorites.

Fujian cooking in the East: Fujian cooking predominates in Eastern China. Famous for its clear soups, seafood dishes and subtle flavors.
Both rice and wheat are grown here, so rice as well as noodles are the staples.
From Fujian comes Red cooked chicken and the popular egg rolls.

Cantonese Food in the South: Cantonese is the style best known abroad as it was from this region that most immigrants to America, Europe and Southeast Asia came from, bringing with them their cooking style.
Soy and ginger are the main seasonings, and their cooking relies on a great variety of fresh ingredients for flavor.
Cantonese food specializes in stir frying, steaming and roasting.
This is the style we grew up with at home. Some of our favorite Cantonese dishes: char siu (bar-b-que pork), stir-fried beef and peppers with black bean sauce, lemon chicken and Dim Sum of course!
Some well-known Cantonese Delicacies: Sharks fin soup, Birds nest soup.

The above five styles are considered the "classical" Chinese Cooking styles. Even though the above characteristics are considered typical to each type, the mixing of different regional and traditional styles, cooking methods and ingredients is so widespread, it is difficult to pin point what is "Authentic Beijing Style" or "Authentic Sichuan Cuisine" as nowadays, they all "borrow" from each other. Sweet and sour dishes for example are quite common in Cantonese cooking.

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Chinese Food - Betcha Didn't Know...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 21:37:00 +0000

All About The (Chicken) Baste

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 21:15:00 +0000

Perhaps as far back as anyone can determine, and maybe as old as the Chinese culture itself, there are reports about the use of chickens. However, the earliest usage has nothing to do with eating these birds; or does it? As a food item, they were written about as being consumed during the Zhou Dynasty (1066 - 221 BCE). Pictures of them are found on pottery. Some sculptures of chickens have been located and dated circa 3,000 BCE. And, chicken bones themselves have been found in both Han dynasty Tombs #1 and #2. These were radio-carbon dated circa 5,000 BCE. Were that not early enough, there are bones dating chickens circa 6,500 BCE in the north of China.

While chicken was the first fowl to be domesticated in China, it is believed that they were first valued not for food, but for waking folks up. Goose may have been the first fowl consumed. Eating chickens came later, or that is what some historians seem to believe. One of the main reasons given is that the very early Chinese did lots of hunting for goose, an animal not domesticated until long after the chicken was. Considering chicken’s popularity now, it is hard to think of a time when the Chinese did not eat this bird.

There are no guarantees as to when chickens actually were first consumed. It used to be thought that colonization in the Pacific some five thousand years ago was a probable time. But chicken remains have been recovered from domestic sites such as the Hemandu site in Southeast China some seven thousand years ago. It is hard to believe they were not consumed there, at least by some of those people.

Archeologists and historians know that chickens were one of the six domestic animals reported about and reared as livestock before Zhou Dynasty times (1046 - 221 BCE). The other five animals first domesticated were the horse, ox, sheep, pig, and dog. These important animals were written about very early on as were the first five grains that included two kinds of millet, soybeans, wheat, and rice. No one believes they were not eaten that early. As to chicken consumption, they were eaten thousands of years ago in other places in Asia, so the same is probably true in China.

It is only natural that they made their way to the table and were an easy-to-consume food item. After all, there are many reasons to keep/raise chickens. Most particularly, raising and keeping them is easy as they are scavengers who find their own food. Keeping them provides lots of valuable excrement, as theirs is excellent fertilizer. Their feathers make great bedding material. These birds are easy to slaughter, and it is virtually effortless to salvage their blood for medicinal and culinary purposes. Other reasons include that there is no need to worry about spoilage after killing a chicken because all their meat can be consumed quickly even by very few people. The chicken is a small bird so slaughtering one is a quick job.

Keeping chickens is a regenerative process. That is because they lay lots of eggs when young, more than two hundred and fifty in the first year, fewer each year thereafter. Those that are fertilized can hatch and lay more eggs. The Chinese know that when older, long after their laying-egg-life is over, chickens make great soup. For eons, the Chinese have considered chicken feet a great delicacy, and they cut and cook all large pieces of meat, and easily use all wings and giblets. Chicken fat is appreciated as are all of this bird’s bodily components.

In the 'Year of the Rooster' and in all years past and present, since they began eating them, it is believed that the Chinese use all parts of the chicken. In the countryside, most raise their own and kill them as needed. City folk prefer buying theirs alive, then having them slaughtered. Many save the blood, have the feathers removed, the bird gutted, and all organs given to them with the whole chicken, head, feet, tail, and all left attached to the bird’s body.

Chinese purchasing their own chickens always wanted the head left attached to the body. Once I asked a lady why and she said the brains in it would make her kids smart. She also said the blood was gelled and used in soup and other dishes including what I now know are very early recipes for hot and sour soup and several stir-fry dishes.

Chickens are very versatile. The Qing Dynasty poet Yuan Mei (1716 - 1797 CE) once wrote about two that he used to make a ten-course meal. Qing Dynasty emperors. (1644 - 1911 CE) reportedly liked their chickens fat. They smoked them, boiled them, and fried them. And on the eve of Chinese New Year, they ordered them made into a soup. The fat and blood, both considered strengthening foods, may have been why they wanted theirs fat and alive.

For those living in the Yuan Dynasty (1280 - 1368 CE) and wanting a popular recipe for chicken, recipes indicate making one with salt, soy sauce, vinegar, fennel, and Sichuan pepper, and roasting it over hot coals. Near and during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE) the chicken dish of delight was boiled bones from chickens made with cardamon into a soup. During that same dynasty, chicken was cooked with sheep stomach, sprouted ginger, carrots, eggs, and spinach, and seasoned with coriander. This melange they thickened with ground sunflower seeds. Popular, closer to the end of the Ming, Chickens were roasted after stuffing them with apricot kernels, onions, and vinegar.

It’s not always all about the baste…

Until then, good eating, Friends…

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Easy Wok Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:07:00 +0000

Some of the most fun I have while cooking is in a busy kitchen at dinner time. That pales in comparison to what I have experienced in the restaurant industry. One of the most active professional kitchens you'll see is in a busy Chinese restaurant at lunchtime. The woks will be fired up and, even if the eatery only has few of them, the cooks will be able to whip up a large menu of offerings faster than you can say "kung pao chicken."

Wok cooking is quick cooking, and same rules apply, whether it takes place in a restaurant or in your home.

If you peek into a busy Chinese restaurant kitchen or frequent one like I do that has a window looking into the kitchen, you'll see bowls and containers of chopped and ready-to-cook ingredients, sauces and other items the cook can use to create a dish quickly.

When cooking in a wok at home, follow this technique and don't turn on the stove until all the ingredients needed for your dish are chopped, measured and ready to go. If you do so, you can focus on cooking your dish to perfection, and not be distracted by chopping an ingredient while the others blaze away in the wok. In a good Chinese restaurant you'll also notice how precisely things such as vegetables and meats are cut, which ensures they will cook evenly.

Wok cooking is often high-temperature cooking, so be sure that the wok is sufficiently heated before starting to add ingredients. If you add them to the wok when it's just barely warm, foods will steam rather stir-fry. In a restaurant they usually have powerful, gas-fired woks that heat up in seconds. At home, though, your wok might take a few minutes to heat up, particularly on a electric range.

I like to use vegetable or peanut oil in my wok because they have a high smoke point, the temperature at which they start to burn. After the oil is added to the wok, allow it to heat up before adding the food, evenly swirling it around the bottom and up the sides of the wok. When starting to add your ingredients, move them around so that all come in contact with the hot surfaces of the wok.

Wok cooking often involves cooking ingredients in stages and then combining them at the last minute. Doing this ensures you are not trying to cook too great a volume of ingredients at once, which in turn ensures foods get properly cooked and nicely colored.

I use this technique in most of my recipes, where the vegetables are quickly stir-fried and then removed from the wok. Marinet slices of meat are then added to the wok and cooked through. A sauce mixture is added to the wok and brought to a simmer, and then the vegetables are returned to the wok for a quick heating. This dish tastes great served over steamed rice.

It makes for easier cooking than most realize. Until next time, Good Eating, Friends...

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Wok Solid Education

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 20:35:00 +0000

As I was preparing myself to cook for some of my good friends, I could not help but to think back on last April, when I cooked a Chinese food lunch for 85 church friends. It was a menu of regular favorites, including a teriyaki chicken, mongolian beef, and kung pao chicken. With it I served steamed white rice and fried rice. And there was a LOT of fried rice.

Fried rice, when serve best, is served fresh. I was not willing to compromise on the quality of the rice, so while everyone was in line filling their plates, I was cooking batch after batch of fried rice. I marveled over the fact that my wok was so hot and so perfectly seasoned that I was literally able to pour a fresh batch into a chafing pan, give it a quick wipe, then start the next batch. There was no residual food stuck on the wok!!

It is almost a science, one that I really enjoy.

WOKS are missing in many new Asian restaurants. This baffles me, and should baffle anyone who knows that steel cookware withstands flames and heat up to seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit while other pots and pans melt at that temperature.

Traditionalists, and thankfully I am one, are appalled, even horrified. I often wonder how places such as 'The Big Bowl' chain of restaurants out of Chicago can get decent taste, good caramelization, and fine looking Asian food now that they have scrapped their woks.

Martin Yan, who plans to open a couple of hundred sit-down restaurants tentatively called 'Yan Can Fresh Asian Cooking,' says he never plans to scrap using woks in his upcoming restaurants. Yeah Martin! His upcoming eateries are to be in association with Yum Brands Inc., the parent corporation of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. Hope he holds his course on that issue because that small feature can help their restaurants gain some market success.

Woks, known in Chinese as guo, usually come with two handles, both made of metal. A few are made with one long wooden handle, these are called tiao. Both pans are curved at the bottom, somewhat akin to an upside down coolie hat. And, no matter their handle design, they are the most versatile cooking implement known to man.

Woks have been known for at least two thousand years. Some have been found made of pottery; these were buried in tombs even before that. The purpose for putting them in a tomb is to help the deceased cope in their spiritual afterlife. Metal woks were introduced just about when the Han Dynasty began in 202 BCE. Interestingly enough, their early use was to dry grains. The drying of tea leaves came much later than that. An early record of tea drying can be found in Chien Chun Nien’s Cha Phu which was said to be written in 1539.

Stir-frying, something thought ubiquitous with the wok, did not start and become popular until the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE). Only one or two sources say there probably was a very small amount of this type of cooking in use in the Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE). We recently learned that in the sixteenth century, when cookery books were searched, they found only five of every hundred dishes were made using a stir-fry technique while in the eighteenth century, that number increased to sixteen out of a hundred.

Woks do have many different names. These include tsao, kuo, ting, tiang, and of course kuo and guo. What is special and wonderful about them, no matter what they are called, is that a very small amount of oil goes a long way, and foods can be pushed up and out of the liquid to drain away oil or another cooking liquid; and that one can steam, boil, grill, simmer, saute, deep-fry, and stir-fry in them. Most woks are made of iron, their food mixtures often slightly acidic. That makes them a good sources of that nutrient. Other Asian countries have used or adapted woks to their own culinary needs. Some make them smaller, others deeper, and many replace the two handles with others of different shape and materials.

Some people think woks are indestructible. Not so. Just ask any restaurant owner and he or she will tell you differently. Many have to replace one or more each month because they get dented, cracked, or something else happens to them.

Wok cooking is best done with a specially designed spatula made just for that purpose. Its shape is such that it can get foods parked at the sides of the wok, or toss them to the bottom and up again with ease. Other items that work well with woks are bamboo-handled wire baskets, great for taking small amounts of ingredients out of one, or large and more flat metal strainers that look akin to a flattened colander; their sizes vary.

Woks used for steaming can accommodate any number of steamer baskets topped with a bamboo steamer cover. These are better than metal steamer baskets because they do not sweat, allow steam to escape, and do not need any oil before putting food on them as foods do not stick to them. Should you not have a steamer basket, two pairs of chopsticks making a box shape, that is two in each direction, will hold a bowl or plate of food that needs steaming. Any ordinary pot cover can become a cover for that makeshift steamer basket holder and its contents. No chopsticks in your house? That is OK. Grab a can the size made for tuna fish, remove the contents and remove both top and bottom ends. Then set your bowl or plate on top of that, and your cover on that. This substitute works even in large straight-sided pots.

What cooks best in a wok? Everything! Because of its large surface area, foods cook faster and liquids in them reduce faster when used on a exceptionally hot flame. The texture and taste of any food cooked in a hot wok are sealed in. For those who have no access to gas, and therefore have no flame, hot or otherwise, try a flat-bottomed wok. However, keep in mind that cooking techniques need to change to use them. Because gas temperatures can be reduced with the turn of a handle or knob, flat-bottomed woks on electric burners need to be removed from their electric burner to quickly reduce the heat. Only use a curved wok on an electric stove IF there is a ring set outside the burner for the wok to sit on. And one other thing for safety, when tossing foods in a wok that is sitting on one of those wok rings, be sure to hold the wok handle with a pot holder in one hand to assure that the wok stays put and does not get jostled off the ring.

Wok cooking is by no means limited to stir-frying. This article has already shown that it can be used for steaming. Woks can also be used for stir-frying and deep frying. They can be used for braising and boiling and just about everything else except broiling. Do not purchase one with a Teflon or with another coating. Why not? Because most of the items used to coat pots and pans cannot withstand the heat a wok is exposed to; and many of them might and some do vaporize at those temperatures. A wok made of plain ordinary hammered steel is best. This item of cooking really is best when purchased at the low economic end.

After you buy a new wok, you need to prepare it for use. Wash it well, scrub it with steel wool, dry it well, oil it well, and heat it on a low flame for half an hour or more. Then wash it and repeat this process several times. You will have ‘seasoned’ your wok, as that is called. The better seasoned it is, the better your cooking will be. Unseasoned woks are such that foods stick to their sides. Season yours well, and you will eat well!

For now, Eat Well, Friends...

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Chopsticks, Demystified.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 20:06:00 +0000

In my preparations for hosting dinner for some amazing friends, I was looking through the kitchen cabinets for serving dishes when a thought came to me, "What will we eat with?"

Safest would, of course, be a knife and fork. However, to try and adhere to the traditional Chinese food meal that we will be having, I would definitely consider presenting chopsticks at the table. I do, though, want my guests to be able to EAT the food and not spend too much time wrestling with their food before it makes it to their mouth.

CHOPSTICKS, when used properly, are an extension of the fingers. A pair of them is a very versatile set of eating implements. Using them, one can pick up, prod, stir, squeeze, and even tear foods apart. These eating implements have had a long evolution from twigs to their current state, and they were not always the implements of choice for the Chinese. When they did come into use, they were used for serving and getting foods out of pots; they were not intended for eating. That makes sense because their original name, zhu, is a cousin or cognate for one that relates to the word for boil.

Use of early implements in China included fingers and spoons. Ladles, which are really enlarged spoons, were used more for liquids that for solid foods. It was during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) that chopsticks began lifting solid foods and taking them to the mouth. Spoons were more often used to eat noodles and fingers more often used for rice and other foods. It was not until into the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE) that chopsticks became the main eating implement for virtually all solid foods. It was then that the name kuai zi became the word for this pair of sticks.

Exactly when chopsticks were used the very first time is still a mystery. Historians believe that occurred before the Shang Dynasty, circa the 16th century. We know they were available around 1200 BC because some were found then southeast of Tali in Yunnan. This and other tomb discoveries from that period include bronze and iron artifacts that included many pairs of chopsticks made out of both of these metals. While we know they had chopsticks during that time period, we do not know if they used them daily and certainly do not know all of their purposes.

One might ask, “Were chopsticks only used for ritual purposes? Were they used only by

those ruling the country? Where they used only for specific holidays and special events? Were they used only to lift food out of one or another kind of cooking pot? And if so, was their use limited to a particular kind of food?”

What is known is that diners used them to take meats, vegetables, and other solids out of soup and stew pots. Also known is that eating with fancy chopsticks became a desirable thing to do soon after the first chopsticks were invented. A king of Zhou is said to have used ivory chopsticks. His uncle chided him and said that next he would want to drink out of jade goblets and eat rare animals and other exotica on special dishes. He probably did.

During their early use, chopsticks were not to transport rice or other grains to the mouth. Fingers remained the utensil of choice for those tasks, and did so for hundreds more years.

Today, we call chopsticks kuai zi, which translates to ‘hasten,’ ‘hurry,’ even ‘quick boys.’ Do you know that this new name is not used in the province of Fujian? There, they still use the ancient word zhu for what began in Neolithic times as the use of twig-or-tong-like tools. They became an item that defines many Asian cultures, certainly the Chinese. Seeing chopsticks, does every person know which cultures are associated with them and which with other Asian cultures? Probably not.

Chinese chopsticks are long and usually square on the top with rounded bottoms. They did range from six to ten inches in length, but now are reasonably standard at ten-and-a-quarter inches long, their rounded lower halves slightly tapered. Japanese chopsticks are close to two inches shorter and round from top to bottom. The length of Korean chopsticks ranges from ten to twelve inches in length, most made of stainless steel. Vietnamese chopsticks are more similar to Chinese ones than Japanese ones. Like both of them, most are made of bamboo.

The elite, starting in the Zhou Dynasty (1046 to 256 BCE), delighted in using chopsticks made of expensive materials. Over the years, they ate with those made of ivory, the preferred material in the Guangdong province. Also popular all over China, were chopsticks made of rosewood and sandalwood, polished bone, lacquer, and others made of amber, jade, silver, gold, even rhinoceros horn. Some of the more expensive non-metal ones were tipped in silver. Why? Because people thought silver turned black at the touch of a poison. (Silver does detect hydrogen sulfide released from rotten eggs, but it does not detect arsenic, cyanide, and quite a few other poisons.)

In earlier times, long chopsticks did remove meats and vegetables from cooking pots. That was the task of long ones that ranged from fifteen inches to two feet. Since the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), shorter ones take foods from plate or bowl to mouth. Now, everyone uses them for rice, noodles, and all foods, and using fingers is not too polite. It is also found to be impolite if one is using one’s chopsticks to take food from a common plate. Restaurants provide service utensils for that. In homes, a family member can use their own chopsticks to take a piece of food from a common plate, but they should not touch any other food. To do so, is considered thoughtless behavior.

How one eats rice correctly is an important social skill. It is correct to lift the rice bowl and place it close to the lips. Also correct is to shovel rice into the mouth with one’s own chopsticks. That requires holding the rice bowl with the left hand and the chopsticks in the right. The Chinese definitely discourage left-handedness. Just think how many would knock the chopsticks out of the hands of others when sitting around a table. In ancient times, that would not be a problem because noodles were eaten with fingers or spoons, and rice was a finger food. Today, both of these are consumed with chopsticks. Imagine how difficult that task is for left-handed people who know that the correct way to eat their noodles is to put the chopsticks in one hand and the spoon in the other. Their chopstick ends do battle with those of the rightie next to them.

Chopsticks are never used as knife and fork - that is one in each hand. And, they never are used to stab a food. That is an acceptable in Japanese style, but considered rude by Chinese standards. There are other do’s and don’ts of chopstick use. Some of these include:

· Never stick your chopsticks upright in a bowl because upright sticks resemble incense used to honor the dead.

· Never take food from someone else’s chopsticks, you get their germs with the food.

· Never use chopsticks for decor such as in one’s hair because these may look pretty, but this dishonors the food they are intended for.

· Also, do not cross your chopsticks because that can mean death or ‘the end.’ In some restaurants, chopsticks crossed at a table tell the waiter your meal has ended.

Using chopsticks correctly is a sign of good parenting. The further towards the top they are held, the more gracious and glamorous your eating style. Grasping them too tightly reduces leverage and makes eating less pretty. And, if the bottoms of both sticks are not exactly even, food can slip away and make the eater look sloppy. That is why at a Chinese table, there is lots of tapping as people even the ends of their chopsticks.

People tell fortunes with chopsticks. Those who handle theirs with three fingers are considered easy going. For young women, particularly those in Taiwan, the higher up they are held, the farther away such a woman settles when married. Holding them low on the sticks means the person is conservative; holding them higher up means a more active nature, and higher up also means such a person likes many kinds of food. If they are held with all five fingers means that person is destined for greatness; only four fingers and good omens are ahead. Hold them at the tippy-top and that person is a big risk taker. Young children who use them correctly show and tell theirs is a good brain.

There are phrases about chopsticks that also speak. Borrowing chopsticks speaks of standing in for someone else. Give expensive chopsticks and the message is that the receiver is straight and upright. And there are rules for chopsticks that speak, too. To be proper, never lick your chopsticks. Turn yours around and use the square end to serve food to someone else if no serving chopsticks appear on your table.

Eating, even with chopsticks, has always been serious business to the Chinese. Make sure you never fool around with your chopsticks. Not even with disposable ones.

Until then, Eat Well, Friends!!
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Tasty Satay!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:31:00 +0000

I am having some of my good friends over for dinner in a few weeks and I’ve been pondering over the menu. I am not going to do the “standard Chinese fare,” meaning no broccoli beef, no Mongolian chicken, no kung pao this or teriyaki that.

Let’s say that I’m definitely going to step out of my comfort zone a bit, because stir-fry ANYTHING is a piece of cake.

In perusing my refrigerator for inspiration, I realized that my wife and I eat A LOT of chicken. I found some skewers, and BINGO!!

Chicken Satay is a favorite of mine. I used to enjoy it when eating at Tong’s Thai in San Antonio, TX.

My “it’s in my head and no, I’m NOT going to write it down” recipe combines a marinade and a peanut sauce to create a perfect savory, sweet balance of flavors. Oh yes, the peanut sauce is over-the-top good. The peanut sauce alone is worth giving this recipe a try. I just hope it brings rave reviews from my friends.

Another thing I liked about this recipe is that the marinade and sauce can be made up to a couple of days ahead. With everything made ahead, it was a simple meal to pull together at the end of a busy day.

Do you know how satay sauce gets its tinge of yellow? Is it curry? Turmeric? Wrong!! The beautiful golden brown hue comes from roasted peanuts, which have to be finely ground and boiled to release their true color.

Besides changing the color of the sauce, the finely ground peanuts also enhanced the "satay" flavor. You know, the special flavor that makes a satay "a SATAY!!"

Because we don’t have a nifty barbecue grill yet, I plan to use the oven's grill function. I know, I know, no charcoal... yet. Before I am arrested for committing a crime against satay, let me say that the chicen can be very succulent even without basting. A charcoal fire imparts a wonderful smoky fragrance that, if in the wrong hands, will dry out the meat, especially when basting oils and juices keep dripping onto the charcoal. If there's a miserly amount of meat on the stick, the heat from exposed flames would be too intense, turning the satay into a chicken jerky of sorts.

Compared to some satay that looks two-dimensional because the meat is so thinly sliced, my version will of generous proportions – definitely plus size! There won’t be any drama from leaping flames, dancing sparks or furious fanning, but there will be plenty of juicy, succulent meat.

I will continue my menu prep and keep you all updated.

Until then, Eat Well, Friends!!

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Chinese Food: Evolution or Demise?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 16:26:00 +0000

Lisa and I went to have lunch a couple of days ago, and much to my surprise, she requested Chinese food. I gladly agreed to meet at Golden House Restaurant, a full service restaurant just a few minutes away from the office. To me, a visit to that restaurant reminds me of my youth, days spent in Chinatown in San Francisco, eating at the now closed Golden Dragon. I soaked in the environment of the dim sum carts being rolled around and ordered, somewhat haltingly, my regular favorites in the most American Chinese I could muster up. It was a return to the ways of dining that I truly enjoyed. Nowadays, such an opportunity is mostly lost on diners who look for the fastest, cheapest or most popular meal.

Like me, most Americans older than thirty can recall the recent metamorphosis of the Chinese restaurant business in this country. The pseudo-Chinese Chop Sueys of our youth have given way to Chinese food that is somehow more foreign. One restaurant owner I spoke with recently said of foods that used to pass: “We do not serve Chop Suey; we do not serve Egg Foo Yung; but some people still think these are Chinese food.” Thanks to the rise of the ubiquitous Panda Express, and the growing popularity of P.F. Chang, more and more traditional restaurants are losing their popularity or attraction to the new diner.

Often the dishes served these days are spicy, made with what many consider more exotic ingredients. They are altogether unlike the bland bean sprout and Chow Mein noodle dishes to which Americans were accustomed. Sichuan and other regional fare have entered Chinese restaurant menus and are, for most Americans, standard Chinese food. The evolution represents, in part, a regional shift in Chinese immigration. No longer are Chinese immigrants primarily from regions in and around Guangzhou (Canton). In addition, from 1965 to 1984, the Chinese community transformed itself from sixty-one percent American-born to sixty-three percent foreign-born, and is still changing.

My father always used to say that if a Chinese restaurant did not have any Chinese people in it, he would stay away. Now, restaurants, a crucial tourist draw in the Chinatowns where many early immigrants settled, provide visitors and Chinese clientele alike with Cantonese-style cuisine. As Chinese restaurants have increasingly attracted non-Chinese diners, and proliferated outside the boundaries of Chinatowns, menus have accommodated to the American palate and marketplace. The process of negotiation and transformation largely carried out by newer Chinese immigrant retauranteurs, entails creating and offering a product recognizably and exotically Chinese, and yet acceptable to their non-Chinese customers. Their dishes are symbolically loaded with multi-faceted connotations of ethnicity and authenticity.

When I owned and ran my own Chinese restaurant, I saw myself primarily as a businessman, and the food as a kind of mutable commodity. I developed my own pragmatic philosophy of culinary acculturation; if the customer likes Kung Pao Chicken with cashew nuts instead of peanuts, I had no objections. I would not necessarily be able to comply with such a request, however I had no cultural objections to it.

This type of culinary transformation in ethnic restaurants seems inevitable. Chinese food in the suburbs needs to be prepared and served differently to American customers if businesses are to survive. In Chinatown, where greater numbers of Chinese diners are expected, a separate Chinese-language menu is often featured, and often with ingredients not offered to non-Chinese clientele. For most Americans, snake or fish lips would be considered unacceptable food. (There has been a recent trend toward greater experimentation and a certain authentic cachet is awarded the non-Chinese diner who adventures on the Chinese side of the menu.)

In the larger social context such culinary transactions are not only unacceptable; they can create a cultural gulf between the two groups. Countless ethnic slurs invoke foreign eating habits; early Chinese immigrants were often denigrated as rat-eaters. If a menu is too intimidating, the result is a loss of business. This is true even with ordinary food items such as fish. Americans want the filet, no bones, heads, nor the sense of eating a whole animal. The Chinese, on the other hand, want to see the whole fish and do eat every part of it, especially the head.

In Chinese culture, whether Taoist, Buddhist, or Confucianist, food is inextricably entwined in almost every aspect of our life. Food marks cultural change, family events and social transactions. We do not eat simply for nourishment or pleasure. To us, foods have an intricate network of meanings, particularly medical significance. Some beliefs are shared with American culture; spinach is good for blood, carrots for the eyes. Others are more specific to the Asian culture, such as the definition of foods as hot (jeh or cold liang, or Yin or Yang. Persimmon, for instance, is not to be eaten with crab because crab is a 'cold' food. Food balancing is central to Chinese cuisine. Fundamental to this philosophy is the precept that fan (the rice or starch staple) is the center of the meal, linguistically synonymous with 'food.' Tsai (the vegetables, meat and sauce), are accompaniments. Americans tend to reverse this balance, eating in what the Chinese would refer to as banquet or festival-style dining, using the rice as a side.

Alterations in the composition of the dishes and configuration of meals are not the only accommodations restauranteurs make. When serving their foods, the manner of eating is also transformed from Chinese style to Chinese-esque American style. Individual Americans prefer individual plates while Chinese diners traditionally share from a common bowl and do not think: This is yours, this is mine; they just think this is ours!

Duck sauce and fortune cookies were among American inventions and appear on restaurant menus to appeal to American customers. Restaurant owners are finding themselves responding to an increasing array of special requests. My belief is that every dish can be modified but that some people go too far. For example, Chicken with Broccoli is a white sauce dish. I would not object if Garlic Sauce is substituted, but feel that Black Bean Sauce is inappropriate and distasteful. Some of these entreaties concern taste preferences and some respond to the intense concern with health and diet.

One recent event which dramatized the effect of culinary misapprehensions on the restaurant business was the release of a report by the 'Center for Science in the Public Interest.' It revealed putative dangers in eating Chinese food, especially sweet-and-sour and batter-fried dishes and recommended that diners eat more rice and less of the oily, salty, sweet entrees, essentially counseling Americans to eat exactly the way Chinese diners would. In appearing to demonize the cuisine instead of the behavioral choices of the consumer, the report offended many Chinese restaurant owners. There was also a marked increase in such special requests as: 'No oil, no soy sauce, no sugar, no MSG. But I want it to be tasty.' Customers want foods steamed, sauce on the side, but expect gustatory experience to be unaltered.

I have often said that I can tell from what is ordered if there is knowledge of Chinese food or not. If the order includes Sweet and Sour Chicken, I believe that the customer does not have the hang of real Chinese cuisine. If those same customers were to order traditional Chinese dishes and eat them in traditional Chinese configurations and combinations, the result would be far from unhealthy. As I have heard, many times, “Look at Chinese people, on average, they are skinny and they are healthy.”

Perhaps American audiences feel the need to modify Chinese cuisine more than foods of other, less exotically intimidating cultures. Dishes have been invented, altered, and recombined in an ongoing process of negotiation with the sometimes voracious, sometimes apprehensive dominant culture. Chinese restaurant owners continue to market a cuisine which is both highly structured and fairly adaptable, a diet which is alternatively vilified and canonized, and dishes which strive for authenticity, palatability and profitability in serving the eclectic American palate.

I am looking forward to continuing this journey with you.

Until next time, Good Eating, Friends...

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Wok Like a Chinese Guy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:55:00 +0000

If the owner or cook is Chinese, and the cuisine is steak and potatoes, is it Chinese food?

If the owner is named Pepin or Puck, can the restaurant be Chinoise?

If the cook is Latino, can you offer Wok-amole?

Everyone eats and drinks; yet only few appreciate the taste of food.

Doctrine of Man, 4.2 by Confucius

So I just finished the shopping list for Eleyna’s birthday soiree and wow, it was a longer list than we thought it would be. She decided that she wanted me to make fried rice for everybody, (which is going to end up being around 25 people) and the only way to do it well is to cook it to order, so off we are going, to the market, to act like a little piggy. I realized that my thought process around making these rice dishes was based on my restaurant style of production, as this was going to be the best way to deliver the freshest and most flavorful meal. Yeah, I will probably end up doing it restaurant style, with ordering tickets and all to make it a bit interactive… might be fun.

With that thought, have you noticed that Chinese food and Chinese thinking have a lot to do with each other? Obvious as it may seem, it often takes having to experience a different kind of food and reflect on it to make the clearest comparison In my case, the usual comparison is between

China

and

America

1. In cooking we don’t have “1 cup”, “1/4 cup”, “1 teaspoon” measurement, we say “a little salt”. Exactly how little is little, it’s all a matter of exposure (to other cooks), exchange (of experience) and experience (of your own practice). While I have often shuddered while watching cooks toss a liberal amount of salt into a pan, I have come to realize that it simply is their preference, and they, after hopefully many years of doing so, have calibrated their hand to be able to “feel” the what right amount of seasoning is. (For the sake of consistency, if ever trying to deliver the same meal on different occasions, I am a huge proponent of portion control and measurement, but to stick to the emotional attachment behind doing it the “

Chinese Way

,” even I will revert to hand seasoning. We don’t have “preheat oven to 425 degrees” either, we say “small fire”, “medium fire”, “”big fire”. Scratch your head and think what these mean. The Chinese mind is similarly conditioned to process such chaotic vagueness with ease and patience.

2. When Americans eat meat, especially here in Texas, it’s usually a huge chunk of steak or a huge rack of ribs. With vegetables, it’s salad that is made of things strictly from the green kingdom. Not us, we are omnivorous beings! We mix beef, beans, green onions (and in my case liberally applied hot pepper), all together, then stir fry them. It’s supposed to be more balanced and healthy. That’s why my weight has been so consistent for the last 17 years. When we think, we tend to see things as coming together instead of being separate entities. This has bad and good impact on the way we think. Sometimes it causes us to be more analytical thinkers, going fluidly from one thing to another with ease, but there might be risk for sloppy thinking, which I certainly do not encourage. (Such fluid thinking, when done as a child, may be misdiagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder, when in reality, a young mind is simply moving from one though process to another, in a natural order.) I think a person can be both holistic and rigorous, or remain rigid and sloppy. In science for instance, some Chinese scientists, if not trained in other methods, tend to see different things at the same time without clearly separating variables. I see this a lot when I review a Chinese journal. These authors add one thing after another into a paper the way we eat from a hot pot. Such ways of thinking can be detrimental (for instance in some quantitative studies) or beneficial (for instance in some qualitative studies), depending on the context. It is similar in medicine. Traditionally (before western medicine took the upper hand) traditional Chinese doctors would frown upon their colleagues who treat a pain in the head by examining just the head (for instance, an MRI of the head). We see the human body as an interconnected whole that is bigger than the sum of all the parts. A Chinese doctor may think, maybe that has something to do with a kidney problem. Open up and say “Aah” so I can check your kidney.

3. A typical Chinese kitchen has bowls, plates, chopsticks, knives, chopping boards, some spoons, not many more beyond that. We use chopsticks for all sorts of things, even to drink soup, if you know how (you pick up your bowl and drink from there and use chopsticks to pick up the solid stuff). Now, sadly, few people do that for fear of impressing people as being not “civilized” (to me it is more a difference in the perception of table manners. In

China

, you are considered rude if you take the “upper seat” in a table that is reserved for seniors.) American kitchens have all kinds of tools, each dedicated to its special purpose. Most of these purposes are mysterious to me. For instance, there is a long tube-like sucker which I later learned is a tool to suck away extra gravy when cooking turkey. After all these years of dining and cooking, I still don’t distinguish between a regular spoon and a soup spoon. I can recognize only half of the tools in the kitchen. Chinese folks depend less on specialized tools when we think. We now do, by learning from the west.

4. Chinese do not learn cooking by reading recipes. We mainly watch someone (mom, grandma, wife) do it and that’s how we learn. Even now, living in the

, we learn in similar ways, sharing mainly in experience-based oral tradition. For instance we have a potluck together and we exchange ideas on how to cook, say, Kung Pao Pork. (I can’t even remember the last time anyone asked me how to do it, though, as no one in the family seems brave enough to venture out and try to do it.) We do have recipes, but most of them are useless anyway, as they seem not to have the kind of precision that can help an American to learn, which is better, because otherwise most Chinese restaurants will shut down. Americans cook by reading recipes. If the recipe is lost, the cook goes nuts. This also explains the difference in the passing of expertise in

China

and in

America

. In

China

, people learn more by following experts and try to internalize the expertise through observation, practice, error and mistakes. Americans do that too, but my observation is that people are more used to reading instructions, all the way from putting together a toy to the installation of software. The standard method of training in the restaurant industry, no matter the name, is a four step process: Prepare, Present, Try-Out and Follow Up. This generalization may be equally related to individual learning styles rather than national differences. However, as someone in the cooking industry, focusing on education, I often find myself going back to my Chinese roots when I hear Americans talk about “cognitive apprenticeship” (learning from your grandma, not a recipe), “peer learning” (learning from discussions in a Chinese potluck party, whereas an American housewife would just ask “could you please give me the recipe?”), etc. While these theories seem leading edge in the

education circles, we have been doing these for thousand of years, without, of course, verbalizing them into theories.

5. When Chinese food is being cooked, salt, sugar, vinegar, and other ingredients and spices and sauces are already added in the food, so good luck getting the food to your taste. Americans tend to make their food more bland to start with, and you “season to taste.” (There is nothing that drives me more nuts than when someone will liberally douse a meal that I have cooked with hot oil, or chili sauce before even tasting the original dish. It is almost a suggestion that the food itself lacks enough flavor. However, you will never witness that kind of travesty in a Chinese home, with food cooked by a Chinese chef.) When Chinese think, we tend to be more collective in the choice of subjects, perspectives, and topics. You start from the forest and zoom in to the trees if needed. You start basically from a common “whole”. Americans seem to be more individualized in the way they approach things. Such rigid adherence to an approach makes it tough to determine which method is better.

6. As desserts go, Chinese don’t have a tradition of eating dessert. Because desserts are too sweet, often people balance it with something bitter, such as coffee. To have coffee, some have sugar, some have cream, some have vanilla, etc. Life just gets so exponentially complex from there! We just drink tea! Green leaves and hot water. That’s it. You can drink it for hours and sit there, talk about food, stock market, a book, or simply gossip about something or someone. Imagine drinking 10 cups of coffee in a row! You can easily drink 10 cups of tea without upsetting your stomach. Chinese view with caution the extreme sweetness and bitterness as shown in dessert and coffee. We value a more moderate approach to sweetness. Good things are good because there is something not so good in them to show how good the good things are (quite a mouthful). Happiness comes after we have gone through and overcome difficulties. You don’t just take sweetness in its entirety and purity such as a chocolate cake! In terms of thinking, as a general rule, we traditionally value what we call “zhong yong zhi dao” (the way of the golden balance). These are all changing now with people adopting extreme left or right positions. I like American dessert more and more, yet I am not willing to give up my green tea.

So, onward with the preparation, and good luck to me…

Until then, Good Eating, Friends…

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cooking, Martin Yan, Gordon Ramsey, Asian Stir Fry, Chino's Cafe, Chinese Food, Asian Stir Fry

For the Beginner - Chinese Food in a Teacup

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:00:00 +0000

China cuisine culture, also called Chinese food culture is an important part of China culture in the aspect of cooking and leisure. Chinese food has a long history. Chinese cuisine was largely shaped through the early periods such as Xia, Shang and Zhou periods. Peng Zu, the immortal figure of Taoism, was a famous cooking master. He was specially treated by King Yao, one of Three Kings before Three Periods due to his special talents in cooking and delicacies he presented. Peng Zu was one of the founders of China's cultural cuisine. Yi Ya was the second figure of Chinese cuisine culture. Yi Ya origianlly was a slave, and King Shang Tang prefered his dishes. During one meeting between the two, Yi Ya expressed his political opinions via cooking, and his famous words describe the relations between cooking and politics. Chinese cuisine culture is as sophisticated as the history of China. In the Qing and Han Dynasties, Palace cuisine became the excellent show of Chinese cuisine culture. In Tang and Song Dynasties, Cuisine was an important part of Chinese elitist culture. It was the must-have element of palace banquet, national rites and imperial parties, even the preconditions of the literary creations. Many famous talented figures like Su Dongpo and Yuan Mei were all the first-class gastronomists. In many famous classics of ancient China, many poems, essay amd stories are closely connected or themed with cuisine. In Hong Lou Meng, The Dream of Read Mansion vividly shows the traditional culture of cuisine in different chapters. The related party tradition and rituals embody the culture of China cuisine.

China food also has a worldwide reputation due to its wide-spread exposure from China to the other regions of the world. The most well known China provinces in different countries are primarily known by their special service of Chinese food. Some famous western foods originated from Chinese food in the process of the spread of China food. Currently, Chinese food is easily found in every corner of the world, and it has become an impressive and influential symbol of Chinese culture. Many westerners similarly say the direct impression on China is Kung Fu and Chinese Cuisine when asked about China.

Main Styles of China Cuisine

Chinese food, in general, is healthy and nutritious. Chinese people often have soy-bean milk（豆浆）, deep-fried dough sticks（You Tiao, 油条）, steamed buns（Man Tou, 馒头） or congee（粥） as breakfast.

In most of 3 star, 4 star and 5 star hotels, you will be offered with both western and Chinese breakfast for you to choose from. For lunch and dinner, rice, noodles, vegetable, meat (mainly pork, chicken, duck, beef and mutton), eggs, fish and soup are the main choices.

Food varies within China. Traditionally there are eight main streams of Chinese cuisines, which are known as Anhui Cuisine（徽菜）, Canton Cuisine（粤菜）, Fujian Cuisine（闽菜）, Hunan Cuisine（湘菜）, Jiangsu Cuisine（苏菜）, Shandong Cuisine（鲁菜）, Sichuan Cuisine（川菜） and Zhejiang Cuisine（浙菜）.

One important thing to take note of, even for people who eat a lot of Chinese food back home, is that in China most Chinese dishes are served in a boiling soup to keep the contents hot for longer, which alters the consistency and the flavor of their meals. Below are four main cuisine categories :

Cantonese Cuisine

Canton (Guangzhou) is the provincial capital of Guangdong in southern China, bordering Hong Kong and Macao, the Cantonese cuisine is actually a great combination of north and south. Originated from northern China, wonton noodle is a dish of small dumplings that shrimp and pork with vegetable wrapped in thin flour skin, and then cooked in soup with noodles.

Dim sum (literally "touch of heart") is another specialty in Guangdong Province, it is actually a kind of Chinese snacks : shrimp dumplings, wo tip (pot-sticker), siu maai (small steamed dumplings with pork inside a thin flour wrapper) and then baked or steamed buns filled with preserved meat (cha siu bau). Some Chinese restaurants there start serving dim sum as early as five in the morning.

Steamed beef balls and Chinese spare rib are delicious dim sum meat dishes, turnip cake and lotus leaf rice can be eaten in breakfast and at dinner respectively. Moreover, sweet dishes such as jin duei (a chewy dough filled with red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds and deep fried), sweet creamed buns and Malay steamed sponge cake are very attractive. There are some other Cantonese varieties such as roast suckling pig, dog meat pot and preserved pork with taros.

Beijing Cuisine

Beijing has been the nation's capital in many dynasties and is the center of politics, economy and culture, so Beijing Cuisine traditionally represents the flavor of the ancient imperial court. Due to its special stature in history, many ethnic minorities from northern China lived in the city. As a result Beijing cuisine has absorbed their specialties into local cooking technique. By this combination, Beijing cuisine becomes a specialty that is very different from other styles, it has always been loved by gourmets throughout the world. Beijing cuisine mainly consists of the cooking styles of Muslim, imperial recipes from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, seafood from the Tan family cuisine and specialties from some northern provinces.

Muslim cuisine is quite popular in Beijing, with its main ingredients of beef and mutton. The famous "Lamb Feast" uses almost all parts on a lamb that can make about a hundred kinds of recipes. Roast and stew mutton are the delicious Muslim dishes in Beijing as well. Imperial recipes of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are having great importance in Beijing cuisine, the notable dishes are fried fish pieces and yellow fish with dried meat pieces. Peking roast duck is loved by gourmets at home and abroad. The dish is prepared by crispy fat duck and chufa and served with steamed buns. Local family style noodle dishes are excellent also, because noodles are more popular than rice in Beijing.

Shanghai Cuisine

Sweet taste, rich in sauces and blending of styles are the primary elements of the Shanghai cuisine's characteristics. The cuisine is mainly derived from the rural cooking methods in neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces with a little bit influence of the Western style. The outstanding features in Shanghai cuisine are the methods of braising and stewing, with rich sauces and cured meat used also. The good taste and the beautiful color of the dish is done by controlling the cooking time and the intensity of the fire, "Shanghainese braise fish" is an excellent example of this. Shao Xing Yellow Wine is a produce in Shao Xing County in Zhejiang Province. Its aromatic taste adds much fragrance to many dishes, especially fish. Use of brown vinegar is very popular also.

Sichuan Cuisine

Sichuan cuisine has a long history and it is very famous throughout the world. The cuisine originated in ancient Ba and Shu states, and then became widely developed during the Tang and Song Dynasties. Sichuan style includes the tastes of Chengdu, Chongqing and some other places in the province. The typical characteristics of the style are hot, spicy and sour, thus giving the tastes of dishes that are very strong.

The strong chili taste is to stimulate the taste buds and appetite in hot and humid weather during summer, as well as to make people feel warmer during miserable winter in Sichuan Province. Well known Sichuan recipes are Sichuan beef and re-cooked pork, which is a dish of pork, cooked in boiled water, and then stir-fried in a very hot pan with cooking oil and sauces added last. Cold noodles mixed with peanut sauce is a favorite snack in Chengdu and Chongqing. It can be served either spicy or not. Ma-Po bean curd is very mouth-watering that is commonly eaten with rice. It is mainly made of fine bean curd cut to small pieces and cooked with slices of pork and peppers and chilies. The taste of the dishes, of course, is very hot.

Apart from these four categories, there are some specialties in the northwest, e.g. the kebab and beef noodles in Gansu Province, dumpling banquet and rou jia mo (a kind of Chinese style sandwich that looks like a hamburger) in Xi'an and Xinjiang's lamb grill.

There is so much more to tell. I get over-excited when I think about it all!!

So for now, Good Eating, Friends...

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