Chinese Food

Chinese food culture

Chinese food from Beijing to Shanghai

Chinese food is, as always seen with our eyes, a huge, complicated, and different concept, but almost always delicious. China is also when we talk food, and we do, a refined and deeply diversified cuisine due to the country’s long cultural history and size. Some of the absolute best food I have had has been in China. There are 4 main styles in Chinese food. Will we come back to.

And at the bottom, there are several links to travel items from China.

Buffet of Assorted of Chinese Food Dishes

Go straight to Chinese food and dishes

hotpot china

Hot Pot

Hotpot is a Chinese cooking method, prepared with a simmering pot of soup stock at the dining table, containing a variety of East Asian foods and ingredients. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, tofu, and seafood. The cooked food is typically eaten with a dipping sauce. Bon appetite!

Peking Duck

Beggars`s Chicken

Much more to come

Chinese food is also haute cuisine. The best of the best

In China, religion, philosophy and culinary culture intertwine; certain dishes are regular symbolic greetings to the guest of honor. Already around 500 BC. cooking and serving food played a central role in the rituals of the court. Under this attention, China has been able to develop a haute cuisine just like France under the dictatorship. The unfolding of art is characterized by great natural differences. The widespread lack of fuel is behind the development of quick cooking and frying, eg in woks, of food items cut into small pieces, a prerequisite for the use of chopsticks. Everything has its explanation, also that Danish spring rolls are good everyday food, but do not fully qualify.

Is Chinese food & cuisine the most varied in the world?

Chinese food is probably close to the world’s most varied, when all regions are considered together. It has been necessary to utilize everything edible, and the absence of religious or ethical restrictions has opened up the use of raw materials that we would perceive as inedible. The Chinese cook porridge from flying oats, make soup from thistles, shark fins and swallow nests, sea urchins and jellyfish, stewed cats, fried dogs and roasted snakes.

The basic food is rice in southern China, but not in the north

The basic food is in the south rice, which is used boiled, less frequently fried, as noodles and as flour for buns and pasta. The Nordic crops are soy and wheat, which are used for unleavened bread, porridge and steamed buns. Fish is important everywhere, in the interior of the country mostly in dried form. Pigs, chickens and ducks are the sources of meat; beef is rare, except in the northernmost regions. Milk and cheese are irrelevant.

Vegetables and mushrooms are widely used in China

Vegetables and mushrooms are used far more than in Europe. Bamboo shoots, bok choy (leaf cabbage), bean sprouts, spring onions, Chinese cabbage and radishes, fresh coriander, lotus root, sugar peas and water chestnuts are now used with us, but the Chinese have long ago adopted our vegetables and fruits. The green is included in the dishes as equivalent to meat or fish, which is an expression of the age-old yin-yang rules of harmony achieved by balancing contrasts.

The four major kitchens in China

Traditionally, China’s provincial kitchens are described together in four major regional schools. The North Kitchen (Beijing), the Eastern Kitchen (called Zhejiang-Jiangsu-Fujian or Shanghai), the South Kitchen (Guangdong) and the Central or West Kitchen (Sichuan).

Beijing food. North

The proximity to Mongolia characterizes the Northern Kitchen with a lot of mutton and beef, perhaps cooked in the chimney-shaped fire pot (“steamboat”). Famous is Peking duck.

Shanghai food. East

The eastern kitchen is home to coastal provinces, so a wealth of dishes with fish, crustaceans, mussels and snails can be seen. The dishes from this region are often spiced with a mixture of vinegar-sugar, wine-honey and soy in different strengths. Soy and the sour-sweet taste are also popular in Sydkøkkenet.

Cantonese food. Guangdong. South

Cantonese, southern, cuisine is better known in the West than the other schools, due to the early emigration from these regions. It is varied and uses fruits and nuts along with vegetables in dishes that mix meat with seafood. Spring rolls and the stuffed, steamed or fried rice flour buns, dim sum used as appetizers are Cantonese.

Sichuan food. West

Sichuan cuisine is characterized by strong seasoning with chili and Sichuan pepper (brown pepper). Fried duck, which is smoked with camphor and tea, is a kind of national dish.

At the Chinese meal, rice is served from the beginning. Three to four dishes are presented at the same time, and the diners supply themselves in random order; then a soup is served. The rice bowl is refilled, but no one supplies themselves, as this would show that one was not full.