Simple Introduction to Chinese Cuisine

 

 

 

Plin's recipes is a place that you can learn some traditional Chinese food. I come from an inland province of China, both my family and I almost cook every day. Today, I will introduce some basic information of main cooking style and some table manners. So I will start cooking next week.

Unlike the United States is famous for fast food, eating is the essential part to Chinese people, which means they treat it seriously. There are eight basic major components in Chinese cuisine, which represents eight provinces, Guangdong, Sichuan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Hunan, Anhui.

There are dozens of taste even in the same province. So, it will be extremely difficult to try every taste in the country. What we can learn is some basic and apparent difference, like people in the north of China prefers flour than rice. And people from south central, like Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangxi, are crazy about the spicy taste.

Guang’dong, a coastal province next to Hong Kong, is famous for seafood. Their cuisine will be fishy taste and will be sweeter than other parts of the country. That’s why there are thousands of Chinese restaurants serving sweet cuisine.

On the one hand, most western countries prefer to take sweet rather than spicy, on the other hand, people from Guangdong is the first Chinese people who ship to western countries, so the majority of Chinese-American is from Guangdong.

As for eating schedule, people will eat breakfast around 7 to the 8’o clock, and the breakfast usually will be something not only can add strength but also can be good to the stomach. Rice-noodle soup, soybean milk, porridge, etc. is a common choice.

Lunch and dinner have many similarities, for example, in the south area, people eat rice with a fired dish and end with a soup, while wheaten food usually takes place in the rice. After dinner, extra late snacks will be served after 9 p.m.

It may be a quiet little store like izakaya in Japan, locating the neighborhood nearby, or the systematic night market to supply kinds of hot food or cold dessert. The night market is giving a relaxation to people who just after work or after school, is a way to solidify emotional bind.