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Chinese Cuisines Sunny
Chinese cuisine, a crystallization of the civilization and wisdom of all Chinese nationalities, is a gem in the nation’s cultural treasury. The vastness of Chinese geography and history created the varieties of Chinese cuisine. Thus, China gains the highest reputation in the world for its culinary culture, and is known as the “three major culinary kingdoms” together with France and Turkey.
Features of Chinese Culinary Arts • The choice of raw materials and ingredients(配料): • Chinese cuisines stress the choice of raw materials and auxiliary(辅助) materials. In different seasons, there will be different ingredients and seasonings(调料). Beef, mutton, and mustard(芥末) for summer and preserved(腌制的) food and pepper for winter.
The use of seasonings • The feature of seasoning in Chinese cooking lies in the variety of condiments and the proper use of them. According to the ancient theories about seasoning, the harmonious proportion of the five tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, pungent(辛辣) and salty) could produce the best flavor.
The basic seasonings with the five flavors are as follows: • Sweet--- molasses(红糖), honey, sucrose(蔗糖), saccharin(糖精) and maltose(麦芽糖), etc. • Sour--- vinegar and ginger, lemon acid, tomato sauce, etc. • Bitter--- dried orange peel, etc. • Hot--- pepper(胡椒粉), mustard(芥末), onion, chilli(红辣椒), wild pepper(野山椒) and curry powder(咖喱粉) etc. • Salty--- salt, soy, fermented soya beans(豆腐乳), etc.
The making of cuisines • The cooking of cuisines mostly involves cutting, temperature, the cooking techniques and the protective treatment of raw materials. • Cutting--- dicing(切成小方快), shredding(切成碎片), mashing(捣碎), slicing(切成薄片), or cutting into strips(丝), pieces(片), cubes(立方块) etc. are the cutting methods often used in cooking. • The time and temperature: tender, medium( 半生熟), overdone(煮过度) or just done to a turn(刚好).
Cooking techniques: frying(炒), dry-fry(干煸), deep-frying(油炸), baking(烘焙), broiling(烤), simmering(煨), steaming(蒸), stewing(炖), decocting(熬), braising(焖), boiling(煮), quick-boiling(汆) and so on. • the protective treatments: Rolling in starch(淀粉), dipping in batter(奶油面糊) and pouring starchy(淀粉的) sauce over the dish are the protective treatments of raw materials in the process of cooking.
Unit 4 • Text A • Chinese Food
Para.1 • The importance of “fan” and “cai” in China.
Para2. • The dichotomy between “fan” and “cai” shows how the principles of balance and harmony, Yin and Yang, are applied in everyday life.
Para.3 • 1. Four schools of Chinese cuisine. • 2. Reasons. • Geographical and climatic differences, historical and cultural circumstances.
Four Major Cuisines in China • Chinese cuisine can be broken into four major regional categories: Yue Cuisine (the Cantonese Dishes), Chuan Cuisine (Sichuan Dishes), Lu Cuisine (Shandong Dishes), and Huaiyang Cuisine.
Yue Cuisine: Guangdong( Cantonese) Dishes • It composed of Cantonese, Chaozhou and Dongjing cuisine. It comes from Guangzhou and uses a great variety of vegetables prepared with a minimum amount of cooking time and an exact degree of heat so that their fresh, tender taste, as well as their vitamine, are preserved.
The main ingredients of the dishes: fresh water fish, seafood, birds, etc. • The major condiments(调味品): • oyster sauce, fruit juice, fermented soy bean sauce, fish sauce, lard, sugar and vinegar, salad oil, etc. • Cooking techniques: stir-frying, simmering, decocting(熬), stewing, or steaming, and never let the dishes overcooked. Stir-frying is the most favored method of cooking, closely followed by steaming.
The famous dishes: • Dragon Duel Tiger(龙虎斗), Steamed Bass(清蒸鲈鱼), Shark Fin Soup (鱼刺汤), Thick Soup of Snake (蛇浓汤), Crisp Spring pigeon(脆皮乳鸽), Fresh Shrimp Meat in oil(油泡鲜虾仁), and etc.
Chuan Cuisine • The heavily spicy and peppery taste, invariably a part of this cooking method, leave one with a vivid impression. Sichuan Cuisine is Characteristically sour, sweet, peppery, spicy, bitter, fragrant, and salty. • The raw materials of a Sichuan dish: • wild edible herbs, and the meat of domestic animals and birds.
The major condiments(调味品): • Pepper and Chinese prickly as are always in accompaniment, garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in the cooking process. • The cooking techniques: • Sautéing (炒), stir-frying(用旺火炒) without stewing, dry braising(焖), PAO(泡), Hui(回锅). • The famous dishes: • young chicken with hot pepper, Gongbao Chicken in chilli sauce, Mapo Bean Curd, Twice cooked Pork(回锅肉), Tea Smoked Duck(樟茶鸭), Cabbage in Boiling Water.
Lu Cuisine--- Shandong and Beijing cuisine • The Shandong Cuisine is famous for its wide selection of materials, cooking methods, and seafood. Known for its taste, aroma, color and shape. • The raw materials: • domestic animals and birds , seafood and vegetables.
The major condiments(调味品): • A small amount of oil and mild spices are used, together with the major seasonings as shallots and ginger. • The materials cooking techniques: • BAO (quick frying), LIU (quick frying with corn flour), PA ( stew braising) ,roasting and boiling, using sugar to make fruit, and crystallizing with honey.
The famous Shandong dishes---- Braised Abalone with Shells(扒鲍鱼), Fried Sea Cucumber with Fistulous Onion, and Fragrant Calamus in Milk Soup, Yellow River Carp in sweet and Sour Sauce (糖醋黄河鲤鱼), Bird’s Nest Soup(燕窝汤), Dezhou Braised Chicken (德州扒鸡) and etc..
Bejing cooking • Bejing cooking is characterized by its exquisite(精致的) selection of materials, fine cutting, and pure seasonings. It is rich, but not greasy(多脂的) (油而不腻), light, but not skimpy(无味). Skilled in preparing delicacies of every kind, there are no less than thirty-cooking methods employed. More prominent(著名特点) are: roasting, quick-fry, stir-fry(煎), sauteing(炒) with thick gravy(肉汁), and braising(炖). The best known specialities(特点) ---- Beijing roast duck.
Huaiyang Cuisine: Shanghai Cuisine and Jiangzhe Cuisine. (Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Huaian) • They are characterized by the strictness in material selection, the emphasis of cleanliness and freshness of its ingredients, as well as the fine workmanship in cutting, matching, cooking, and arranging. Lightness, freshness, sweetness, and mildness of taste are the features of these dishes, and special attention is paid to retaining the ingredient of natural juices and flavors.
The main ingredient: • seafood, fish and shrimps, vegetables. • The cooking techniques: • stewing, simmering and braising. Its carving techniques are delicate, vivid, the melon carving technique is especially well known.
The famous dishes : • Stewed Meatballs(红烧狮子头), sweet and sour Mandarin Fish(糖醋桂鱼), Beggar’s Chicken(叫花子鸡) and etc.
Medicinal food and vegetarian food according to different beliefs or demands. • Medicinal food: As old Chinese sayings such as “it is better to depend on food than on tonics for nutrients than on medicines”. Many foodstuffs not only contain nutrients needed by the body, but are also useful for preventing or curing diseases.
Chinese medicinal food, also known as dietotherapy (食物疗法) , combines foodstuffs with certain kinds of traditional medicine. Turning bitter medicine into delicious dishes, such dietotherapy can both appease(缓和) hunger and prevent or cure diseases. Under ordinary circumstances, dietotherapy can also help promote health if taken over a long period. The most common medicinal foods in the Chinese diet include lotus seed porridge, eight-treasure rice budding, three-delicacy soup.
There are many varieties of medicinal food in China. They include various dishes, soups, drinks, porridges and pastries. Dietotherapy is administered in accordance with the constitution of each individual, the nature of his ailment, the change of seasons and his preference for and reaction to different foods.
Based on the principle of syndrome differentiation followed in traditional Chinese medicine, the most fundamental aspect of medicinal food is to improve the body's resistance and strengthen its immunity function. With lifestyle improvements, progress in cooking techniques and the study of new foods that have therapeutic potential, medicinal food will play an even greater role in promoting health in China as well as the rest of the world.
Vegetarian food • It has been an important food in the Chinese culture for a long time. It has been a popular choice of food since the Song dynasty and was developed further in the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are three types of schools -- Monastery vegetarian food, court vegetarian food and folk vegetarian food. The main characteristics of this type of food is to be uniquely cooked and healthy.
The main ingredients are green leafy vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and bean curd products. Vegetable oil is usually a condiment, as it is not only delicious and nutritious, it also helps the digestion process and prevents cancer. Although lots of vegetarian dishes get the names with “meat" , "fish" like "Braised Vegetarian Meat", "Vegetarian Shrimps", they do not contain real fish, meat, chicken, just processed and cooked to look and taste like the real things.
Some well-known Sichuan dishes are described below: • guoba roupian(锅巴肉片): Guoba refers to the crispy bits of rice that get stuck to the bottom of the rice pot. Guoba is put on a hot plate in stack, and then a service person proceeds to baptize the rice with piping hot soup. The dish erupts in fireworks when the steam and sizzle has cleared, leaving the mirage on the table. Delicious! Soupy additions are meat and vegetables, which soften the rice to a crunchy texture.
zhangcha yazi (樟茶鸭子) • Sichuan Duck Smoked with Camellia and Camphor Leaves. Local ducks are soaked in glutinous rice juice mixed with salt, Chinese prickly ash, and peppers. Then the soaked ducks are removed out of the juice. They are smoked with camellia and camphor leaves until the ducks' skin become brown. The final step is to steam or deeply fry the brown ducks, which smell good and taste tender .
gongbao jiding (宫保鸡丁) • Spicy Chicken Fried with Peanuts. It is a well-known dish, which is served by almost all the local restaurants. The main ingredients consist of chicken chest meat, dry peppercorns and peanuts. A cook puts the chest meat in diced size, peppercorns and other necessary ingredients into hot oil to fry. As the dish is ready, peanuts are added. It is said that a man whose name was Ding Gongbao (丁宫保) from Guizhou province invented this dish. When he served as a governor of Sichuan Province during the Qing Dynasty, his cook often cooked the fried chicken with dry red pepper. Ding enjoyed this dish very much and he worked with his cook to further improve the quality of the dish, Finally the recipe of the dish was widely spread in Sichuan and local people named the dish after Ding Gongbao,
Mapo Doufu • Mapo refers to a lady with a pockmarked face. Doufu means bean-curd. Mapo Doufu is one of the common dishes in Sichuan, characterized by the use of many spices an liberal application of pimiento and hot red peppers. Mapo Doufu is a small square of bean curd, with garlic, minced beef, salted soybean, all prepared in a chilly sauce. It is said that a salted soybean, all prepared in a chilly sauce. It is said that a lady with a pockmarked face set up shop with her husband near a bridge in Chengdu a century ago. The lady served itinerant peddlers and boatmen with her red-hot stew bean-curd when they passed by. Gradually her customers named her bean-curd as Mapo Bean-Curd.
Snacks • Sichuan cuisine includes a number of famous snack dishes, specialties originated from xiao chi or finger food. The snack dishes cost you next to nothing. The offerings run through the whole vocabulary. A few of the more renowned snack dishes are listed here below:
laitangyuan ( 赖汤圆) Lai Rice- Dumpling • This dish was invented in 1894 by a vendor whose name was Lai Yuanxin (赖源鑫). Lai started off as a street stall vendor, and his rice dumpling had a delicate visual appeal and tasted sweet. Later, Lai set up his own shop and local people named the rice dumpling after Lai. Traditionally four dumplings are in a soup with a side dish of sesame sauce. Each dumpling has a different sweet stuffing inside and it should be dipped in the sugar sesame sauce before devouring.
Dandan mian (但但面) • It is a kind of hot-spiced noodles in soup favored with a sauce containing dried shrimp, shredded preserved vegetables, peanuts, sesame seeds, chili oil, vinegar and garlic. Dandan refers to shoulder poles. In the earliest time a noodle peddler shouldered his pole with two baskets at the either side while walking along streets. The baskets contained his noodles and sauce. He sold his noodles for the convenience of passers-by. His noodles cost almost nothing and gradually local people called it Dandan Noodle.
Fuqifeipian (夫妻肺片) Slices of Beef and Assorted Entrails of Oxen • Fuqi refers to a husband and his wife. It is said that a husband and his wife, whose name was Guo Chaohua (郭朝华) invented this dish. People named it Husband and Wife' s Slices of Beef and Assorted Entrails of Oxen. Usually Sichuan chefs slice cooked beef and some oxen entrails, and place them on a plate. Then they add numbingly spicy sauce to the beef and entrails on the plate.
Sichuan Hotpot • It is said that the hotpot originated in Chongqing city. In 1920s, there were several oxen slaughterhouses located in the northern side of the Yangtse River in Chongqing. The slaughterhouses often sold Oxen entrails in cheap price to vendors who owned stalls near the river ferry. The vendors cleaned the entrails and cut them into small pieces before putting them into pots to stew with hot pepper and other sauce. The vendors sold the stewed entrails in soup to boatmen, laborers and peddlers. It was cheap and tasty. However, the sliced oxen entrails in soup could only be eaten while it is hot.
As weather changed and wind blew from the river, the soup soon became cool and the entrails didn't taste good. Later, some boatmen set up a big wok full of hot, spiced oil. They skewed sliced entrails and eat them hot as the entrails were ready in the wok. This way of hotpot eating gradually spread far and wide in Sichuan Province, and at the present time, it has been introduced into main restaurants as an important part of Sichuan cuisine. • In Chengdu there are many sidewalk hotpot operations and exquisite hotpot restaurants. In the center of the table stands a big wok full of hot, spiced oil or hot rich soup alluring passers-by to sit down. Around the wok are placed a dozen plates of paper-thin slices of raw meat and other ingredients, and the customers pick up skewers of raw ingredients and make a do-it- yourself.
Like other Sichuan food not all of the hotpot is spicy-hot, with skewered food making your forehead drip or tongue searing. The development of the particular hotpot cuisine has been toned down for tourists with other flavorings such as sour vegetables and fish sauce, mutton soup, beer and duck flavor and hot pepper chicken soup. In winter or summer the skewered items tend to be almost the same with a variety of meat, seafood and rich vegetables.
