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Chinese Cuisine

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To fully appreciate the tradition and history in which Chinese cuisine is steeped, we thought it might be useful to tell you a bit more about it.

China has one of the oldest and most varied cooking traditions in the world. During the rule of emperors, banquets and tea-drinking ceremonies developed into fine arts, and to this day delicious food and drink are a national obsession in China. Cooking styles vary enormously across the country. Each region, town, and ethnic group has its own dishes and customs at mealtimes. Almost any event is an excuse for a noisy feast, and food plays an important part at every festival, family gathering, and business meeting.
 
Everyday Diet
Rice and noodles form the basic diet in much of China. At meals everyone has a simple bowl of rice or noodles and adds meat or vegetables to it from various dishes on the table. Soy sauce, made from soya beans and roasted wheat grains, is a common ingredient in Chinese home-style cooking, used to provide a savoury taste.
 
Festive Treat
Rice dumplings called zongzi are eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival to remember Qu Yuan, an ancient poet. He drowned himself in a river as a protest against corrupt government officials. Local people who knew Qu Yuan was a good man threw rice dumplings into the river so that the fish would nibble them instead.
 
Sichuan Flavours
The province of Sichuan in south-west China is famous for its fiery food based on chillies and spicy sauces. Many dishes use Sichuan peppercorns - dried lemon-scented flowerbuds that make your mouth tingle.
 
Shark fin soup
Shark fin soup is an expensive delicacy served at banquets such as weddings or business lunches. Millions of sharks are caught every year to make this dish and several species of shark are endangered as a result. Conservation organizations want restaurants to stop selling shark fin soup altogether. Other unusual Chinese dishes include shredded jellyfish, sea slug, chicken's feet, and bird's nest soup.
 
Chongqing Hotpot
This hearty meal is the speciality of Chongqing, an industrial city on the Yangtze River in central China. Diners gather round a charcoal or gas burner on which there is a steaming pot of chilli soup. They choose a selection of sliced raw meats and vegetables and cook them in the pot at the table. When the food is cooked, they lift a piece out of the rich broth using chopsticks, splash it with some dipping sauce, and add extra flavourings such as garlic or sesame - then it is ready to eat.
 
Cantonese cooking
China's southern style of cooking, known as Cantonese, centres on and around the cities of Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Typical dishes include sweet and sour pork, steamed fish, stir-fried squid or beef in black bean sauce, and dim sum. Cantonese food dominates the menus of Chinatowns worldwide.
 
Food for sharing
Peking Duck is a classic dish from Beijing that became popular in the 1860s. A large plate of crispy roast duck is placed in the middle of the table, and diners help themselves to slices of the meat, which they dip in sauce and roll up in thin pancakes to eat. Many Chinese dishes are served in large portions like this. People make several different dishes for sharing with family and friends.

Content courtesy of Dorling Kindersley