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 As another brilliant part
of the Chinese cultural heritage, the Chinese
cuisine with a longstanding tradition is regarded
as one of the world's three major culinary schools
along with French and Turkish haute cuisine. In
the long course of historical development, the
Chinese cuisine has developed a fabulous tradition
and a dazzling array of cooking techniques. Chinese
chefs are particular about their choice of ingredients
and subtle about the use of fire, with due attention
paid to the savouriness and nutritious balance
of the dishes. The difference in locality, material
availability, climate, historical condition, and
dietal habit has given rise to a myriad of local
delicacies and refreshments, which never fail
to intrigue visitors from every nook and cranny
of the world.
 Local Cuisines
It is difficult to say how many culinary schools
are there in China. One theory claims that there
are four major styles of cooking - Shandong, Sichuan,
Yangzhou, and Cantonese. Another theory puts the
number at eight, with the addition of Fukienese
cooking, which attaches utmost importance to freshness
of ingredients and delicate taste of dishes, Zhejiang
cooking, distinguished by an obsession with the
purity of flavour, Hunanese cooking, producing
dishes which are pungent in a numbing way, and
Anhui cooking, known for its richness of fiavours.
A third theory argues that Beijing and Shanghai
cuisine should be added, so that China has ten
dominant schools of cooking.
Cantonese
The Cantonese school of cooking, which came about
by incorporating the fine elements of miscellaneous
culinary styles, is known and appreciated for
its extensive range of choice of materials. Freshwater
food and seafood are its forte, but it is dishes
made of fowls and snakes that make Cantonese cuisine
so special and exotic. Major dishes include snakes
cooked with cat, stewed chicken and snake, stirfried
shrimps, eight-treasure glutinous rice with lotus
seeds, fresh mushrooms in oyster sauce, pot-cooked
soft-shelled turtle, and crisp- skin suckling
pig.
Huai'an-Yangzhou
As a crystallization of culinary styles of such
riverside cities as Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Huai'an
in the Yangtze River lower reaches, the Huai'an-Yangzhou
school of cooking is representative of all culinary
schools in Jiangsu Province. Tenderness and freshness
of materials, delicate tastes, and the fastidious
way in which the chefs prepare them, are what
make Huai'an-Yangzhou dishes so special. Dishes
made from freshwater ingredi- ents are a salient
feature of this school of cooking, which is also
known for a good assortment of disserts and pastry
exquisitely prepared in eye-pleasing colours and
adorable shapes. Major dishes are beggar's chicken,
sweet and sour mandarin fish, sliced chicken velvet,
boiled salted duck, steamed minced pork ba steamed
shad.
Sichuan
Pungency, to the degree of numbness, is a salient
feature of $ichuan dishes. As the saying goes,
"While China is an epicurean paradise, Sichuan
is the place to be for those hunting for the most
delectable and exquisite of dishes." Indeed, Sichuan
cooks select their ingredients with great care
and use a variety of seasonings for different
dishes. The resuit is a hundred dishes that are
by turns hot and spicy, fragrant in five different
ways, odd in odor, numbingly hot (using chilly
and Chinese prickly ash) and hot and sour - just
to mention a few common fiavours. Spicy pork shreds,
diced chicken with peanuts and vegetables, stewed
bear's paw, odd-flavoured chicken cubes in mixed
spices, stirfried bean curd in chili and Chinese
prickly ash, and fried carp... are some of the
renowned Sichuan dishes.
Shangdong
The Shandong school of cooking is characterized
by wide and meticulous choices of ingredients.
Full-bodied flavour of gourmet quality is of the
uttermost importance, but attention is also paid
to keeping the costs within the diner's budget.
Shandong chefs are especially skilled in producing
high-calorie and high-protein dishes; they also
have a special way of making soups, which they
also use in dishes to tempt the palate. Gastrologists
from around the world regard Shandong dishes of
sea delicacies and other seafood as culinary wonders.
Representative dishes are sea cucumber in ginger
and shallot, braised cuttlefish eggs, crab roe
with shark's fin, Dezhou roast chicken, and walnut
in creamed soup.
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Dinner Etiquette |
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Of all the food available, Chinese dishes are
perhaps the most cost-effecrive and enjoyable.
Tea
When a diner has taken his seat in a restaurant,
the first thing he is served is a cup of tea,
which is designed to activate the stomach and
whet the appetite. Besides, drinking tea during
the course of a dinner or banquet helps dissolve
the grease and digest. In different culinary styles
different teas and tea sets are used, and the
way the tea is served varies from place to place.
The gongfu tea served in a Chaozhou restaurant,
for example, is brewed with the Tieguanyin tea,
whose leaves are brownish green with a reddish
edge, and 'as heavy as iron'. When brewing the
gongfu tea, the kettle should be raised high,
so that boiled water can describe an arc before
landing in the teapot. In Sichuan restaurants,
tea is served in bowls with a lid. When the diner
has seated himself, the waiter or waitress, usually
a charming young woman or a strapping young'man,
would emerge with a brass kettle equipped with
an unusu- ally long, slim nozzle. To the amazement
of the diner and the onlooker, when the water
is being poured, it travels a three- foot distance
from the Kettle via the nozzle to the bowl, with
not a single drop spilled. When drinking tea,
make sure not to open your mouth too wide, and
never smack your lips in a noisy way. Only by
gentle sipping can the pleasure of drinking Chinese
tea sink in.
Alcoholic Drinks
As the saying goes among the Chinese, 'No banquet
is complete without liquor or wine.' Maotai, Dukang
and Erguotou are among the strongest of all Chinese
spirits. Qujiu, Fenjiu and Jiafan are liquors
of mild proofs. Beer, champagne and wine are served
generally as aperitifs.
order of courses
The Chinese are fastidious
not only about the taste and nutrition of what
they eat but also about the order in which different
dishes are served. A Chinese banquet differs from
a Western one in that soup is always the last
course to be served. As Yuan Mei, a Qing-dynasty
poet, summarized, 'Saltier dishes are served earlier
than less salty ones; dishes with rich fiavours
always herald dishes with a delicate flavour;
it is always appropriate for soup to be served
last.' All the eight major Chinese culinary schools
seem to have established the same order of
courses for banquets: cold dishes - fried dishes
- major courses - soup - disserts - sweet dishes
- fruit. |
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