Chinese Food Culture

Brief Introduction

Chinese cooking uses most meats, poultry, fish and vegetables known to the Western palate but also include some exotic ingredients. Due to varying weather conditions, environment, tastes and products, there are about 56 regional styles of food in China. There are also numerous methods of cooking such as baking, boiling, braising, deep-frying, double-boiling, poaching, sauteing, scalding, shallow-frying, simmering, smoking, steaming, stir-frying, barbecuing and blanching that produce many varieties of mouth-watering dishes.

COLOR, SMELL and TASTE are the three most distinctive features for the Chinese to give the "Thumbs Up" to a dish.

Now let's have a challenge for our tongues and enjoy the wonderful Chinese culinary arts:
15 nights/16 days Chinese Culinary Tour
Beijing/Qufu/Xian/Chengdu/Guilin/Guangzhou/Shanghai

Chinese Culinary Arts
Chinese culinary arts are famous all over the world. Chinese dishes appeal to the senses through color, shape, aroma and taste. Chinese cuisine's entree normally strives for three to five colors, made up of the main ingredient, with more secondary ingredients of contrasting colors and textures; these are prepared and cooked to enhance their own qualities, with the use of appropriate condiments and garnishing, enabling to chef to present a delicious platter of fragrant delicious art.

In prepared dishes, the stronger fragrant aroma stimulates one's appetite, by using scallion, fresh ginger, root garlic or chili pepper; with the use of wine, aniseed, cinnamon, peppercorn or sesame oil. Complementary nuances are added. Soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and other seasonings may used discreetly, adding to the complex play on the taste buds.

All chefs of the Chinese kitchens, professional or in the home, strive for harmony of sight, smell, taste, texture, so that each individual dish has it's unique features highlighted, contrasted and balanced if it is a dinner of many dishes, be it 3, 6, 9 or 12. The flavors must not overpower, yet subtle enough to meet the tastes of those dining. Complex or simple dishes may be prepared quickly or much longer, but the ultimate goal is to share with the guests the play on the eaters' real and imagined visions of the dishes and its ingredients.

Once the meal is cooked, it is served all at once to the family, who eat with chopsticks and drink soup with a wide spoon. The average dinner includes a starch—rice, noodles, bread, or pancakes—a meat dish, vegetable, and soup, which serves as a beverage. For formal meals and banquets, there are many successive courses which are served in a strict traditional order. A further point is that over festive periods, with the play of word's phonetics, well meaning felicitous names of dishes have many people trying to guess what they are about to eat, thereby adding fun to eating.

Chinese food enjoys a high reputation in the world also for its sheer abundance. It is due to the diversity of the climate, products and customs that there are widely different food styles and tastes in local regions.

Eight Regional Cuisines: The diversity of geography, climate, costumes and products have led to the evolution of what are called the '”Four Flavors” and “Eight Cuisines” For local styles, Beijing cuisine combines the best features of different regional styles. Shangdong cuisine leads the Northern dishes. Shangdong cooks are good at cooking seafood. Sichuan cooks specialize in chilies and hot peppers and Sichuan dish is famous for aromatic and spicy sauces. Guangdong cooking makes use of many ingredients. They look for fresh, tender, crisp textures. Huai Yang cuisine stresses the natural flavors. Dishes are strong but not greasy, and light but delicate. Tan cuisine is both sweet and salty. There is a saying that "southerners have a sweet tooth, and northerners crave salt", but Tan dishes manage to satisfy both.

But as catering is a living art sub-classifications continue to increase. For example in each field of cuisine, adept chefs can utilize something as simple as a melon to create dozens of dishes with dozens of flavors. Meanwhile, local specialties and snacks with their origins steeped in the mists of time are also an important progeny and indicate a profound philosophy and taste. As well as the cuisine of the majority Han people, the many minorities have their own fantastic traditions and appeal.

Chinese Medicinal Cuisine: Good cuisine has the effect of prolonging life, sustaining the constitution and promoting energy and in this respect bears some relationship to Chinese medicine.

Minority Cuisine: It also has their own flavor and appeal in our ethnic groups, which is quite distinctive.

Snacks: there are also unique snacks in each city of China

Chinese Food Culture
Just as the ingredients of each dish and presentation is important, table manners and courtesy among diners are very much part of the Chinese cultural tradition. Only by combining excellent food with good manners can the high art of Chinese cuisine be truly enjoyed to the full.

Table Manners
The main difference between Chinese and western eating habits is that unlike the West, where everyone has their own plate of food, in China the dishes are placed on the table and everybody shares. If you are being treated by a Chinese host, be prepared for a ton of food. Chinese are very proud of their culture of cuisine and will do their best to show their hospitality.

And sometimes the Chinese host uses their chopsticks to put food in your bowl or plate. This is a sign of politeness. The appropriate thing to do would be to eat the whatever-it-is and say how yummy it is. If you feel uncomfortable with this, you can just say a polite thank you and leave the food there.

Eating No-no's
Don't stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl. Instead, lay them on your dish. The reason for this is that when somebody dies, the shrine to them contains a bowl of sand or rice with two sticks of incense stuck upright in it. So if you stick your chopsticks in the rice bowl, it looks like this shrine and is equivalent to wishing death upon a person at the table!

Make sure the spout of the teapot is not facing anyone. It is impolite to set the teapot down where the spout is facing towards somebody. The spout should always be directed to where nobody is sitting, usually just outward from the table.

Don't tap on your bowl with your chopsticks. Beggars tap on their bowls, so this is not polite. Also, when the food is coming too slow in a restaurant, people will tap their bowls. If you are in someone's home, it is like insulting the cook.

Drinking
Gan Bei! (Cheers! “Gan Bei” literally means “dry [the] glass”) Besides beer, the official Chinese alcoholic beverage is Bai Jiu (samshu), high-proof Chinese liquor made from assorted grains. There are varying degrees of Bai Jiu. The Beijing favorite is called Er Guo Tou, which is a whopping 56% alcohol. More expensive are Maotai and Wuliangye.

Some of Chinese dishes’ names are very interesting, if you want to know more about them, press it: How Chinese Dishes Were Named.

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Chinese Culinary TripsEight Regional CuisinesChinese Medicinal CuisineMinority CuisineSnacksChinese Food CultureHow Chinese Dishes Were NamedHow to Book

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