A Guide to Food in China
This essay will focus in detail on food in china, it can also be a guide for you if you wish to visit China. My contribution to the group presentation on a guide to China gave a brief description of food culture within china and the different types of food that are consumed and the ways in which people celebrate with food. This essay will only focus on food in china, I will provide academic references to show that the information I talk about is valid and accurate. I also would like to mention that I chose the topic of food in the group presentation because of my previous essay on food culture in Britain, which I enjoyed doing .
As mentioned in my group presentation, food is a very important part of Chinese culture, families will always eat at the same time in the same room around a table, and in Chinese culture they believe that eating food together as a family brings togetherness and harmony. Since china is one of the largest countries in the world and the largest country in Asia it has a lot of farmland where all the different types of food are grown. The most common types of farmland in China are Wheat farms and Grain farms; Wheat farms are more popular in South China as that part of china prefer eating Noodles and Grain farms are more popular in the North of China as they prefer eating rice. However both are a very crucial part of all Chinese cuisines .
Chinese culture believes there is a positive energies and a negative energies in the universe. "Yin" represents the negative energies and "yang" represents positive energy. There are elements that belong to both "yin" and “yang," meaning some elements of yin fall within yang and some elements of yang fall within yin. This importance of balancing forces has been a part of culture for many years. It has become a basic guideline for social, political, medical, and dietary usage. Yin is associated with cold food and yang is associated with hot food.
The Chinese believe that all foods have meanings to them, for example they believe that noodles are a symbol of longevity, eating noodles for birthday celebrations are just as important as eating a birthday cake in western culture. Since noodles do symbolize long life, it is considered very unlucky to cut them up whilst you are eating them.
Also mentioned in the group presentation, In China there are many cuisines, each province has its own style of cooking, the cuisines are Beijing cuisine, Hunan or Hubai cuisine, Shanghai cuisine, Szechwan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine and Hakka cuisine, Cantonese is the best known Chinese food in America. Canton is a city located in Guangdong Province.
What I did not mention and would like to explain now is why Cantonese food is the most popular Chinese cuisine . Since Canton is a city located in the Guangdong province many people from the Guangdong province immigrated to the US in the 1850s and continued to emigrate there throughout the years bringing the Cantonese style of cooking with them.
And over the years many Chinese people have moved to the UK especially younger people who move the UK to study at universities. Mulston (2012) of the independent believes that now that more Chinese people are moving to the UK to study it could well make Chinese food a more popular in the UK.
ListLoaf (2013) reports that the most popular takeaway in the UK is the Chinese takeaway, with chow Mein being the most popular Chinese dish. Of course the food that is served in Chinese takeaways across Britain is not an accurate representation of real traditional Chinese food, as different flavours and cooking techniques have been changed to suit western culture.
As Maniura (2012) reports in her blog Chinese food is different from Western food by the way food is prepared before it is cooked. Chinese cut the ingredients in bite size bits and then stir fry or steam the ingredients in short time while Westerners cook the ingredients in big pieces and cut the food on their plates with knives and forks.
Another difference is that Westerners tend to cook their meats in the oven whereas the Chinese like their meats steamed or stir fried. Meat is also a very important part of Chinese Culture, in China it is very uncommon to be a vegetarian due to cultural and religious beliefs . In the years 206 BC – 220 AD Chinese foods were mainly cooked in animal fat, After the Han Dynasty, vegetable oils gradually replaced animal fats as the main heat conducting medium and flavouring agent in cooking (China.org)
In Chinese culture they believe it is bad luck to not eat every section of the animal and have learnt to cook all parts of the animal. Chinese culture believes that "yi Xing bu Xing," which means by using any shape or part of the animal the same part of the human body can be replenished and strengthened. An example is crocodile meat which strengthens the bronchia, dehydrated tiger testicle increases stamina for men, while monkey brains add wisdom. These foods are considered to be delicacies and tonics. Shark fin soup or bird nest soup is often served at special occasions such as at a Chinese banquet dinner.
Also in Chinese culture, desserts are not very popular compared to Western culture. In western culture it is common to have a sweet dish (dessert) at the end of the meal, which is one of the 3 course meals in traditional western culture. In Chinese culture instead of eating dessert after a meal sweet foods are eaten while eating the main meal, for example sugar coated fruits such as apples, bananas and oranges are eaten with other savoury meals that would seen as a main course meal in western culture.
In Chinese culture many greasy foods are consumed, therefore they believe that consuming cold beverages is bad for you, so for example items such as a cold Coca Cola and Cold water are not consumed with meals, instead they drink hot tea and hot water as they believe that it is better for digestion. Custer (2010) states that Chinese people drink hot water because they were taught to by their parents, because mixing cold liquids with hot meals is bad for the stomach. He also goes on to say “Others go further into the “science” of it, alleging that cold liquids solidify fats in your stomach”. However this has not been scientifically proved on both sides of the argument and there has been no research into it.
If you are planning to visit China this guide will help you when it comes to choosing what kinds of foods you want to eat . As mentioned earlier in this essay there are many different Chinese cuisines to choose from and each have their own unique ways of cooking and preparing food, I would recommend you to try all of the cuisines that china has to offer, I also think that the food in china would have a completely different taste to the foods that are served in Chinese takeaways and restaurants in the UK.
References
The History of Chinese Food [Online] Available from: http://www.china.org.cn/english/imperial/25995.htm [Accessed 13th May 2014]
Custer, C (2010) Why do Chinese people drink Hot Water? [Online] Available from: http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2010/12/why-do-chinese-people-drink-hot-water/ [Accessed 13th May 2014]
Top 10 Favourite takeaways in the UK (2013) [Online] Available from: http://listloaf.com/2013/04/07/top-10-favourite-takeaways-in-the-uk/ [Accessed 13th June]
Maniura, M (2012) About the differences between Chinese and Western food [Online] Available from: http://internchina.com/about-the-differences-between-chinese-and-western-food/ [Accessed 13th May 2014]
Mulston (2012) The chopstick effect: Celebrate Chinese food's rich history in the Year of the Dragon [Online] Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-chopstick-effect-celebrate-chinese-foods-rich-history-in-the-year-of-the-dragon-6292143.html [Accessed 13th May 2014]