CHINESE PRACTICES

GOOD DAY! , I WOULD LIKE TO START OUR CLASS WITH THE COMMON TERMS
NEEDED FOR CHINESE CUISINE.

Bok choy ("pak choi"- a Chinese vegetable with white stems and dark green leaves - Chop up some
bok choy and fry it in a wok.

Chop suey - a Chinese-style dish of meat, eggs and vegetables in a thick sauce.

Dumpling - a small ball of dough and other ingredients that's boiled, fried or baked.

Hot pot - a Chinese dish in which one or more soups are cooked in a special pot at the table - the hot pot
with sliced meats, vegetables, mushrooms and dumplings.

Crispness – (especially of food) hard but easily breakable; brittle: crisp toast (especially of food) firm and
fresh; not soft or wilted: a crisp leaf of lettuce.

Stir fried dishes - to cook (food) quickly by cutting into small pieces and stirring constantly in a
lightly oiled wok or frying pan over high heat: a common method of Chinese cookery.

Hot pots – a flavored broth with mutton or beef, vegetables cooked with potatoes in a covered pot.

Flavors – the distinctive taste of something as it is experienced in the mouth.

Condiment - refers is a spice, sauce, or preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to
impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish.

A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separately from
the food and is added to taste by the diner.

Authentic - refers to the traditional way of cooking a dish, if you make a recipe "authentic" then it's
cooked the traditional way as you would find it in it's original form.
For our lesson proper, let us start our discussion with the
few Chinese practices and their foods.

I – CHINESE PRACTICES AND FOODS

China is a country with so many beliefs and practices, and food has played an important
role in the development of Chinese culture. Every year part of their practices, many traditional
festivals and events are celebrated with special foods. Some of these foods have particular
meanings, such as good luck, best wishes, unity, and commemoration.

Dating back at least 2,000 years, the symbolism of foods in China comes from
superstitions or traditional beliefs in eating to invoke/celebrate blessing. A meaning or
"power" is associated with foods through food name pronunciation, food shape, colors,
food history/legends, and so on.

Here are some of the several festival and special occasion foods as examples.
Chinese New Year.

Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) is the most important traditional festival in China, when
Chinese people especially emphasize wishes for happiness and blessing. So New Year
foods usually symbolize good luck and best wishes.

 Year cake (niángāo /nyen-gao/) means 'increasing prosperity'

because the name sounds the same as 'year high' or 'yearly increase'
(nián gāo).
 Dumplings mean 'wealth', due to their traditional gold/silver
ingot shape.
 Candy symbolizes wishes for a rich and sweet life, because of
the sweet taste.

To learn more about this topic, click this link.

https://www.chinahighlights.com/t
ravelguide/chinese-food/dining- culture.htm
REGIONAL COOKING STYLES

Food styles vary within China. People of different regions have developed different styles of
cuisine based on available resources, climate, geography, practices, cooking techniques and
lifestyles. The four main schools of Chinese cuisine are the following:
1. Eastern Chinese cuisine, found in the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou as well as the
surrounding provinces, is primarily a cuisine of sweetness. This school uses sugar, wines,
and vinegars to provide sweet tastes and create subtlety of flavor.

2. Sichuan Cuisine is tongue-burning spicy because of its lavish use of chili, pepper, spices and
prickly ash on meats and vegetables, making every dish – including soups, stews and hot
pots – burning hot. Hairy crab is a highly sought after local delicacy in Shanghai, as it can be
found in lakes within the western region.

3. Guangdong Cuisine or Yue Cuisine, also known as Cantonese cuisine, originates from
Guangdong Province in South China. Yue Cuisine is especially skillful in techniques of stir-
frying, frying, stewing and braising. The tastes feature pure delicacy, freshness, tenderness,
and crispness.

4. Shandong Cuisine, representing the mainstream cuisine in North China, are relatively salty
and simple, with an emphasis on the aroma, crispness, tenderness and freshness of the
dishes. The cuisine relies primarily on hearty dishes of meaty and starchy foods. Most of the
ingredients are based on the region's agricultural products, which are limited due to the
cold and dry weather. Wheat is the staple crop and the abundance of wheat-flour products
in the form of noodles, dumplings, steamed buns, stuffed buns, and pancakes. Rice is also
eaten in the north, but is definitely secondary to wheat.

Also, I would like to present to you some of the Examples of the Selected Chinese Regional
Dishes. Have you experience dining in any Chinese Restaurants? What food you already tried?
So with these, you can now choose what food would like to taste and experience the real
Chinese dishes available on your nearest commercial food establishment /chain.

The secret of whether a hotpot is good or not lies in the

broth, in which all the meat slices and vegetables are
cooked. Normally you get to choose your own broth
flavor, such as mushroom, tomato, original, or spicy. But
still, the flavor can be different according to the sauce you
choose to go with the meat.
Sichuan Pork, actually, poached spicy slices of pork is a
famous Sichuan cuisine dish. Rather than cooking pork
by stir-frying or deep-frying, which consumes lots of oil
and can very easily overcook the pork, it is boiled in
water with a coating made from egg-white and starch to
preserve its freshness and tenderness. The meaty broth
is typical Sichuan cuisine, featuring a peppery and spicy
taste.

Dimsum
In a typical dim sum restaurant, bite-sized portions of
delicate foods are placed in small bamboo baskets, and
pushed around in a cart by the server to each table, so
diners can grab what they want to eat without ever
leaving the table or placing an order.

Braised pork balls in gravy are also known as “Chinese

meatballs”. If you like meatballs and spaghetti, you’ll
probably appreciate Chinese meatballs as well. The
super-smooth and flavory gravy is almost like a “drug
sauce” keeping your taste buds wanting more and more.

Lanzhou Noodles In China, if you want the best

noodles, you go straight to Lanzhou. Two of the most
famous noodle dishes in Lanzhou are (lā miàn) and (niú
ròu miàn). The character (lā), means to pull or stretch.
The noodles in Lanzhou lamian are stretched hundreds
of times by hand, giving it that springy and chewy
texture.