Chinese Cuisine
From ChinaTravelGuide
China, with over 5000 years' of culinary history, employs an immense variety of ingredients, flavors, preparation and cooking techniques in its cuisine. Geography, climate, agriculture, and culture vary greatly from region to region, giving rise to the different styles of food.
Chinese cuisine is classified into four schools (the north, south, east, and west), which are further divided into eight main regional cuisines (Anhui (安徽), Guangdong (Canton) (广东), Fujian (福建), Hunan (湖南), Jiangsu (江苏), Shandong (山东), Sichuan (Szechuan) (四川), and Zhejiang (浙江)). There are also featured Buddhist and Muslim sub-cuisines within the greater Chinese cuisine. This often presents travelers in China with a happy problem: what to try next?
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[edit] The South (南方菜)
South China (华南) (Guangdong, Hainan) is in the tropical and subtropical zones, with rivers, lakes, and a higher rainfall. Because of the rich resources brought by these climate and landscape factors, Southern Chinese food is characterized by the staggering variety of the ingredients used, and is widely regarded as the country’s best. In addition to produce, meats and seafood, Cantonese cuisine (粤菜) is known for its sometime use of ‘exotic’ ingredients. A famous proverb illustrates the variety of Cantonese food: "anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to Heaven is edible." However, these exotic foods are not eaten that often. Guangdong food are often exaggerated and magnified by these sayings often due to the lack of understanding in foreign culinary traditions in the Western world.
Guangdong (广东) cuisine stresses freshness of ingredients and correct cooking method. Ingredients are usually prepared with a light touch, just enough cooking and seasoning to keep the original color of the material and the natural flavors of the foods. There are countless Cantonese cooking methods, steaming, stir-frying, shallow frying, double boiling, braising and deep-frying are the most popular cooking methods. The traditional Guangdong cuisine emphasizes seafood, especially various kinds of steamed fish and shellfish. Pork and duck in whole are glazed with mixtures of soy sauce, peanut oil, ginger, onion, sugar, wine, and roasted to a beautiful reddish gold. Dishes are almost always served with freshly steam rice, since rice is the staple crop of South China.
Most Chinese restaurant in western countries serve the Cantonese food, or its derivatives (partly because of the large emigration from this region in the early days). Guangdong cuisine has been heavily influenced by foreign cooking cultures.
[edit] The East (江浙菜)
Eastern Chinese cuisine, found in the region of Jiangsu (江苏), Zhejiang (浙江), Shanghai (上海) and the surrounding provinces, is one of the lesser-known types of Chinese food, generally characterized as 'sweet and oily'.
Not surprisingly, Seafood and freshwater fish predominates in Eastern Chinese cuisine, as the nearby ocean, Yangtze River, numerous lakes and river tributaries provide abundant fish, shrimp, and shellfish to this region. Steaming, stewing, braising and frying are the most common forms of Eastern Chinese cooking. This school uses sugar, vinegars and wines to provide sweet tastes and create subtlety of flavor.
"Shanghainese" cuisine is known for its hodgepodge and diversity in China. The hundreds of different regional and village recipes were brought into the dominant port city of Shanghai. Shanghai cuisine also incorporates some foreign influence because of European presence in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are Shanghai-style zakuski (Russian cold appetizers), French-style cakes and pastries. A Shanghainese menu can be an embarrassment of riches, as it often contains Sichuan, Guangdong, and Northern China dishes. Shanghai Sautéed Crabs with Sour Sauce (醋溜蟹) and Stewed meat ball(狮子头), Suzhou's Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish (松鼠鳜鱼) and succulent Chinese ham in honey sauce (走油蹄髈), Nanjing's pressed duck (南京板鸭), Wuxi's sweet-and-sour pork spare ribs (无锡酱排骨), Hangzhou's quick-fried shredded eel (五香脆鳝) or Beggar's Chicken (叫花鸡), ... the list is endless.
[edit] The West (川菜, 湘菜)
Sichuan (四川) (Szechuan) and Hunan (湖南) cuisines are the most famous in China's western regional school of cooking, which are primarily known for their hot and spicy dishes. Many Chinese Szechuan and Hunan restaurants overseas serve some version of Sichuan and Hunan food, but they are really just a pale comparison to the authentic things. Red chili are used in many dishes, often rivaling that of Mexican or Thai preparations.
The reason for this emphasis on spice may derive from the region's hot, humid climate as well as its hundreds of years' independent culture from other parts of China. The climate also contributes to the necessity of sophisticated food-preservation techniques which include pickling, salting, drying and smoking. However, there is more to the Szechuan and Hunan food than spice and sauces rich and strong in flavor. There is a large portion of recipes that use little or no spice at all, such as "Tea Smoked Duck" (五香樟茶鸭).
The spices and ingredients used in China's western food include a variety of chili peppers, peppercorns over various types, and Sichuan peppers, also known as flower pepper or mountain pepper. In addition to the warm flavor, Sichuan peppers' numbing effect, called ma la in Chinese, makes the tongue and mouth numb and tingly. Hunan dishes are more often made with fresh chili peppers, including the seeds and membranes, while Szechuan recipes frequently call for Chile bean paste. Chili peppers are a traditional part of the Chinese five spice powder – sweet, sour, pungent, salty and bitter.
Meats in are primarily pork, beef, and poultry. Beef is more common in Szechuan cuisine than it is in other Chinese cuisines, perhaps due to the widespread availability of oxen in the region. Poultry and meat dishes are very popular in Hunan Cuisine. Fresh water food are also popular in Hunanese food as Hunan's lakes provide an abundance of fish and shellfish.
Typical Szechuan and Hunan dishes include the well-known Kong Pao Chicken (宫爆鸡丁), Couple's Beef, Chengdu Chicken, Twice cooked pork, Fish-Flavored Pork Strips, Tea Smoked Duck, Szechuan hotpot, Ma Po Tofu, Dong'an Chicken, Crispy Duck, Orange Beef.
[edit] The North (北方菜)
The north ( North China (华北), Northeast China (东北) and Northwest China (西北)) is famous for such grain-based foods as noodles, pancakes, dumplings, steamed breads, and stuffed buns, while China's East, West and South consume rice more often. Baozi and jiaozi (dumplings filled with meat or vegetables) are made with a variety of fillings seasoned with sesame oil and white pepper (Preparing and eating Jiaozi together is a tradition in many northern Chinese homes to enjoy the family reunion and celebrate the Chinese New Year). The popularity of noodles in Northern China can rival that of Italian pasta.
Mutton and pork are meats of choice for northern dishes. Mutton is a Mongolian and Muslim tradition,and particular popular in the Muslim northwest. Thinly sliced mutton and pork are often used as hot pot dishes, together with mushrooms, bean sprouts, leafy vegetables, egg dumplings, and seafood.
Seasonings in Northern food are strong with the use of vinegar, garlic, scallions, leeks, and salt. Northern dishes can be oily with somewhat liberal use of salt, oil, and sometimes animal fat to add calories to the diet in the north’s bitterly cold and dry winter. Northern foods are usually steamed, boiled, braised, roasted, glazed, or fried, with boiling the most popular, and steaming the next most common method.
Among the famous Northern Chinese food are Beijing's Peking Duck (北京烤鸭) (glazed and roasted duck thinly sliced and wrapped in pancakes together with scallions), Mutton Hot pot (涮羊肉), Tianjin's Fried Twist of Eighteenth Street (a deep-fried wheat bread served as a snack), and Tianjin's Goubuli Bread Dumplings (steamed bun stuffed with spicy meat fillings).
