Chinese cuisine

The Chinese cuisine includes various Chinese regional cuisines, some of which are pronounced very differently.

Subdivision

In principle, most of the 23 provinces in China have their own regional cuisine, which sometimes differ significantly from each other. Among the eight major regional cuisines of whose courts are widely popular china, include:

• The spicy Chuan Sichuan cuisine, be used in the happy spring onions, chilli, soy sauce and ginger
• The sharp Xiang cuisine from Hunan
• The Cantonese Yue cuisine, which is known for its balance and diversity, but also the use of unusual ingredients (such as dog meat )
• The Min - kitchen Fujian is light but tasty, with special consideration of Umami
• The North Eastern Chinese Lu cuisine is mainly for their pasta ( noodles, dumplings ( Jiaozi ), pancakes ) are known.
• The eastern Chinese kitchens Hui, Su Zhe and are very versatile and place great emphasis on the flexible choice of ingredients based on the seasonal availability

Other well-known kitchens are, inter alia:

• The Shanghai cuisine uses a lot of fish, seafood and sweet and sour sauces
• The untypical Chinese regional cuisine is the Uighur Xinjiang cuisine, cooked in Persian style of fried potatoes, meat skewers and pita bread.

The individual regional cuisines are also sometimes divided roughly according to cardinal directions: north (among Dongbei, Xinjiang, Manchu, Mongolian); West (among Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan ); South (including Canton, Guangxi, Hong Kong ) and East (including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang).

Another possibility is the division into special kitchens:

• Fangshan palace kitchen ( cuisine of the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty)
• Confucian dishes ( Kong - family)
• Tanjia courts (courts of the Tan family, sweet and salty with lots of seafood)
• Formal banquet kitchen ( delicacies of the Manchurian and Chinese cuisine)
• Vegetarian dishes ( for religious reasons )
• Medicinal dishes ( Health Food ), also known as Chinese Dietetics

Differences will continue even after the ingredients and allow the color to red cooking ( with soy sauce) and white cooking. Enjoys great popularity today, the so-called Nyonya cuisine, a fusion cuisine, which combines mainly Chinese with Malay traditions. Home she is in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Overview

Ingredients

Many ingredients and preparation methods have been adopted by other Asian cultures, some have become familiar in the West. For example, tofu, soy sauce, rice wine, green tea and the tea ceremony does not come from Japan, but were brought to Japan from China. To the realm of legends, but heard that pasta came from China to Europe: pastas were already known to the Greeks and Etruscans.

With a few exceptions among ethnic minorities in China all Chinese cuisines is one thing in common: the absence of dairy products. Reason for this is that lactose intolerance is widespread in China, as in most Asian countries.

The most popular meat is pork, followed by chicken, beef and duck. Also lamb and mutton is popular due to the influence of the Islamic minority. The consumed in some southern regions of dog and cat meat is relatively expensive and only sporadically available.

While in the north traditionally wheat is the staple food, rice is eaten mainly in the south. It also provides further spiced south sharper. It is also known preference for Cantonese cuisine, according to European standards, more unusual ingredients, such as various insects, snakes or wild animals.

Overall impression

Important is generally next to color, flavor and aroma of the consistency ( swallows' nests and shark fin soup are eaten almost exclusively due to their consistency and because they strengthen the organism to be) as well as the harmonious overall impression of a dish. A significant, but not too overrated, role is played by the five elements:

• Wood corresponds sour
• Fire corresponds bitter
• Earth corresponds sweet
• Metal corresponds to sharp
• Water meets salty

This is just a simple insight into this concept, which also pervades other areas of life, and - in addition to the division into Yin and Yang preparations and food - is the basis for various health aspects of food. Also very cold food should be shunned by this idea, as they rob the body of energy.

Yuan Mei, a famous poet during the Qing Dynasty of the 18th century, writes:

" When applying the food should be served first of all the salty, then sweet dishes. Severe food from light, dry before those in broth. There are five flavors: salty, sour, pungent, bitter and sweet, they may not be all covered with salty taste. You have to know and understand in advance, when the stomachs of the guests is sufficiently filled and adjusts fatigue. Then spicy food must be applied for excitation. Fear it, so guests could drink too much wine, so they should be encouraged by acidic or sweet sauces to also relieve fatigue. "

Kitchen Equipment

The traditional kitchen equipment within the home is a small barrel-shaped Tonherd, the wok with Messingseiher for fried food ( should not therefore be so hot ), a rounded spatula (Chan ) of metal, bamboo basket as a steamer, a large pot for the rice ( today usually an electric rice cooker ), a terracotta pot ( Shaguo ) - cheaper than metal to heat up your food and not be influenced by metallic taste (see the Swiss fondue fondue pot ) - and a large cleaver. As in European cuisine, there are a variety of cutting techniques that are possible with this a cleaver.

Everything about Chinese cooking is focused on economics, on the type of cooking and preparation to the food itself, the wok is the ideal pan to transform quickly and economically on an open fire chopped ingredients in a dish. That is its strength and its weakness, because the wok, as it is customary in Europe, has very little to do with the Asian stock. Almost no one has a sufficiently large and so hot open flame, if ever cooked at home with gas. An adequate replacement for the wok is therefore a sauté pan or a large uncoated pan.

Food culture

Food in China is primarily a communicative matter. The traditional table manners differ significantly from the European. So it is completely normal to smack and slurp or to talk with your mouth full, sometimes even burp. It is unconcerned laughed, talked loudly, and the guests or older or respected persons are cared for by hands them the best pieces, usually with their own chopsticks, which differ in the rest of the Japanese ( Chinese chopsticks are slightly longer than the Japanese and have a blunt end and a sharp-pointed ). It is also quite common to remove themselves at the table scraps of meat between the teeth with your finger while the other hand, blowing your nose is a taboo to which one visits the toilet.

In addition to the chopsticks find spoon (usually ceramic ) and the Mongolian fire pot small brass cup with a long handle use. Knife and fork as part of the eating utensil were previously not in use. In today's China, however, get more and more the standard international table manners validity, especially in the field of urban services and care. An exception is the slurping of soups, noodle dishes or liquids, which is favored by the shape of the common in Asia spoon. By simultaneous absorption of liquid and air aroma and flavor of the food come to their best advantage, similar to the wine tasting.

The ingredients are divided bite due to the traditional way of preparation by the chef. In the restaurants much emphasis is placed on looks and appearance of the food, from vegetables and fruit small works of art are often carved.

Take in the usually ordered several dishes. Rice must be ordered separately and is like the soup often served as one of the top gears.

A traditional feast, for example, from 4 starters, 6 main courses and a soup made ​​. As a last walk soup is often served because you have the idea, so that the last fill cavities in the stomach.

A surprising for many Europeans in China variant may also be that the entire food order arrives in a train on the table. It lies on the guest, and metered to order one after the other; with a thinking along the service personnel or the cook to staggered food - sequence according to Western expectations can not be expected, because there is no temporal sequence of courses according to European ideas with the Chinese food.

Regional differences

In southern China, it is enough rice last of all. Sweet desserts are eaten in traditional Chinese kitchen have a very significant role and in addition to the other dishes in the main course. This changed slowly over the last decades. In addition to green tea and beer and strong spirits are very popular, as well as drinking games. Wine, however, is less common, although the wine-growing region can look back on a long tradition. He gets along poorly with the intense flavor spices, which often dominate in relation to wine too much.

The traditional Chinese cuisine features due to its short cooking time by a healthy preparation and includes a balance of meat, vegetables and starchy foods (rice, corn ). In addition, found mainly in the cities restaurants, who specializes in the preparation of certain ingredients and dishes (see Cantonese cuisine).

In addition to some ingredients (such as tofu, soy sauce) have become more diverse Chinese cuisine international standard and as international as the pizza. This includes for example, the spring roll, dim sum, Peking duck and sweet and sour pork ( Gulao Rou ). Chop Suey is, however, not originally Chinese dish, but was invented by Chinese immigrants in California.

Manners

In China, is usually eaten at round tables and the dishes are arranged on a rotatable plate in the middle of the table. The guests of honor sit on the left and right of the host, who also takes care of the refills and the guests of honor especially good pieces of meat or fish lays on a plate.

The host is always striving to offer more food than the guests can eat. Ate the guests throughout the meal on, this would be a sign that the hosts would have mustered enough food, resulting in a loss of face for the host.

The food and alcohol is consumed in large quantities, while also drinking games are popular. Basically, the glass ( usually 0.1 l) emptied on a train. The usual toast干杯Chinese, Pinyin ganbei means Dry the glass, which is taken literally. Classical Chinese alcoholic drinks are strong liquor, beer, plum wine and rice wine. Beer production was strongly influenced by the German colony in Qingdao, where even today is the largest brewery in the country. Wine consumption is rather uncommon in China, but is richer in Chinese, also for reasons of prestige, becoming increasingly popular.