Chinese Cuisine

Fashion is in Europe, living is in America, but eating is in China. This saying has obviously reflected to the famous Chinese food.
When being asked of China, excepting for its beautiful views, foreigners always have deep memories of Chinese food. They often have the feeling First taste, never forget.
Chinese cuisine is a bright branch in the treasure-house of Chinese history. It also plays an important role in the field of world cuisine. Like music, dance, painting and drama, Chinese regard eating as an art which is a comprehensive one combining seeing, smelling, touching, tasting and even hearing. It is never exaggeration to say that Chinese cuisine is dainty in its styles, esthetics, atmosphere, and effects. Thus eating is not only to taste the flavor of food, but also to enjoy the whole course of eating.


Topic about Chinese Cuisine:
History and culture of Chinese Cuisine
Eight Cuisines
Chinese medicinal cuisine
Ethnic Chinese cooking

History and culture of Chinese Cuisine
China is a country with s more than 5000 years history, thus its cuisine culture is deep rooted in the long history. Just as the taste and smell of each dish and presentation is important, table manners and courtesy among diners are also essential part of the Chinese cultural tradition. Chinese not only enjoy eating but also believe eating good food can bring harmony and closeness to relationships of family members. Only by combining the excellent food with good manners can the high art of Chinese cuisine be fully enjoyed.
There are some taboos when using chopsticks, like do not take too much once, or return your food to the plate, try to avoid collisions of chopsticks with those of your neighbors, do not drum or tap bowl and plates with chopsticks as Chinese people believe that is the humble behavior of beggars, avoid sucking the end of a chopstick or keeping it in mouth for a long time and also never point at someone with chopstick, etc.
The rules above are from the traditional Chinese families, now when foreigners using a chopstick that just means,¡± when in Rome, do as the Romans do¡±. No one would think the wrong use of the chopstick being bad manners. So do not care about too much manners, just enjoy your food!

Eight Cuisines
Different local regions are various in foods styles and taste due to the geography, climate, local product and eating habit etc. The recognized saying is Chinese cuisine involves eight branches. They are cuisines of Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jinagsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Anhui. The dishes have their own typical characteristics. Certainly, there are many other local cuisines that are also famous, such as Beijing Cuisine and Shanghai Cuisine.


Chinese medicinal cuisine
Yin and Yang principles are Chinese traditional beliefs and have also been incorporated in the food. So in Chinese medicinal cuisine, most foods are classified into the yin and yang qualities. Chinese believe that when the yin forces and yang forces in the body are not in balance, disease appears. Therefore, in Chinese medicine food cooking, besides of the color, smell and taste, what is more important is whether the food is helpful for one¡¯s health. Usually slow cooking methods as stewing, braising and simmering are applied in order to extract more herbal juice.
On the basis of Chinese traditional herbalism, it combines strictly processed Chinese traditional medicine and traditional culinary materials together, while cooking delicious food, functioning as a healer and restoring health. In China, some people believe that food tonic is much better than medicine tonic in building up one's health. Medicine food has a various materials that good for people¡¯s health after strictly processing. However individuals of different physical status have to select different herbs. Since it has herbs inside, it is better to have it after doctors¡¯ permission.

Typical medicine cuisine:
-Baby Pigeon Stewed with Gouqi (Medlar) and Huangqi (Membranous Milk Vetch);
-Pork Simmered with Lotus Seed and lily;
-Pig's Kidney Stewed with Eucommia Bark.


Ethnic Chinese cooking
Ethnic Chinese cooking does not involve a lot of deep fried cooking. The reason most of the Chinese restaurants in foreign countries have deep-fried dishes such as sweet and sour pork, almond fried Chicken, and deep-fried shrimp is to promote business and to please the western tastes. This may be why there are more overweight and high blood pressure concerns by westerners than those by Chinese.